I remember this chase very well! The 942 Spencer Local would come into Mason City sometimes on Tuesdays and Thursdays because they didn't connect with 940 in Spencer. That meant somedays there would be a westbound or an eastbound between Mason City and Spencer, which normally was a night time run. On this day the I seen they were going to move an empty bean train out to Spencer for loading. So I called a few friends and gave them a heads up that this daylight move could be with a pair of SD9's they had at Mason. The IMRL had been taken over on July 31, 2002, so these IMRL units were slowly being fazed out, so this was a great opportunity.
Well the day came and west we went around noon time with a kick ass train and good weather. Things went well until the train got west of Algona. The railroad crosses the East Fork of the Des Moines River, and there good grade westbound to Hobarton. Well they stalled, power issues. They had no luck and looked like the chase was done for awhile. Pissed, I walked down and put another set of eyes and ideas in the loop. I was thinking as a walked in that this was a great chase, plus got friends to come with me, this couldn't come to an end here! Well we ended up pulling the jumper cable and having me run the 2nd unit to get up the hill while the engineer ran the 1st unit.
We ended up poking along enough to make it up the hill. Once the hill was made we took time for a photo opportunity here at Hobarton. Then we got things put back together. Once that was all done, west again we went and the chase continued with no issues. These SD9's wouldn't last too long in the IC&E days. Oh the good times back in the then!
Looks like the 610 now resides in Creston, IA, for DeBruce Grain.
