A Blooming Start
After a few months of waiting and a reschedule due to weather, finally, I had the opportunity to venture northwards out of my home state towards the fabled iron range with a good friend of mine. The 8-9ish hour drive was uneventful, except when we came across the town of Bloomer, Wisconsin. Of course, the name immediately conjured up images of Chinese Red GP10s and grain elevators, but when we decided to make a quick stop there just for the hell of it, we got more than we bargained for.

The GMTX 134, ex-UP, caught our attention quickly, as did the local architecture and trackage. When we pulled up and saw them start up the SW1500, we knew we had to take a few minutes to wait. Before terribly long, we learned that they were waiting to move after another train came by. Well, who were we to say no to that?

As it turns out, Bloomer is home to the Wisconsin Northern Railroad. The Progressive Rail-owned shortline moves a massive volume of sand, which is what we discovered once the headlights in the distance got near enough for us to view the blue and white locomotives.

PGR 41/42/43 were the power on the southbound sand train. The 41 and 43 are ex-UP SD45s, rebuilt into SD40M-2s, while the 42 is in fact a former Reserve Mining SD38-2. The train passed and we saw our little SW1500 move, then we were off. A very pleasant surprise to a very wild, and very good, excursion to the north.
trains railroad railroadphotography railways wisconsin wisconsinnorthern sd45 sw1500 bloomer emd snow winter pgr41 progressiverail sd40m2 grainelevator