Layout Railfanning: Grain Trains on Marias Pass

There's no rhyme, reason, or narrative to this video. Sometimes it's fun to just record videos of trains operating across the layout with no intention of content-making. But rather than let those recordings waste away on my computer, I thought it would be appreciated if I shared them with you. Specifically, I thought you might enjoy compilations of railfanning-style clips that highlight specific trains, so in this video, you'll see grain trains running through numerous scenes and in various power configurations. The dates listed in the video are the actual recording dates.

The grain train I model for operations is intended to represent a real train that gets handed off from the CPKC to BNSF at Sweetgrass, MT and heads to Modesto, CA. These Sweetgrass grain trains are often solid consists of light gray Cargill (CGOX) and other leased cars, and while my representation has significantly more BNSF equipment mixed in, I enjoy the precedent that the prototypical routing provides for including CP and KCS power in the consist.

One thing you might notice in this video is how "operating convention" has varied over the span of a few short months. Behind closed doors, I'm often experimenting with operating practices, particularly surrounding the helper ops. This operational evolution is evidenced by the manned helpers being used both on empty trains climbing the grade and loaded trains descending the grade.

Hope you enjoy!