Major Update on the Way

For those of you still ardently visiting the blog, I just wanted to let you know that you can expect a few major updates beginning sometime next week. I am currently on vacation and using the free wireless internet provided in what seems like nearly every hotel these days.

I went from Brainerd to Bismarck, ND yesterday and from Bismarck to Dickinson, ND today. Along the way, I’ve gotten some AMAZING photos that I wish to share as quickly as I can when I get back home next Monday. Places I will be visiting later on this week include eastern Montana, eastern Wyoming, and the sand hills of Nebraska.

As a preview of what I’ve seen, go to http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=151526. I was on scene of this serious derailment some 20 miles east of Bismarck a little less than 2 hours after it happened and before any heavy machinery could be brought in to begin the grueling process of cleaning up. The story behind this is that a 110 car soybean train originating in Breckenridge, MN derailed 20 cars while going around a curve immediately west of McKenzie. The train was traveling between 50 and 60 mph at the time. Extremely hot temperatures are the likely culprit, since the high on Sunday in Bismarck was 106°F and the temperature in McKenzie at the time I took the photo was 107°F.