'City of Bloomer' and a Golden West Service box car sit in the Northern Rail & Transload yard.

WN job L2 rolls north past the mothballed Chippewa Sand Company facility in New Auburn. All of the assets here were put up for auction in May. While some of the other sand plants on the line have ... (more)

Former MN&S SD39 #40 leads L1 southbound, north of New Auburn. They've just picked up a cut of loads at the Piranha Proppant Plant.

WN train L2 arrives New Auburn with PGR 40 and 41. They'll work the large Superior Silica Sands Plant here.

WN train L1 passes Chippewa Sand Company in New Auburn.

WN train L1 heads north with 61 sand empties.

A quiet Sunday afternoon at Northern Industrial Sands finds a couple of SD40M-2's sandwiching PGR 42 SD38-2 (ex-Reserve Mining 1242) on a train tied down for the weekend along with Wisconsin North... (more)

The 3069 (an ex SD40 rebuilt to -2 standards) and sister CITX 2811 (an ex UP SD45 also rebuilt to SD40-2) working the Superior Silica Sands facility, one of half a dozen fracking sand facilities l... (more)

Long removed from its days hauling ore in northeastern Minnesota, former Reserve Mining 1242 spots empty hoppers under the sand load-out at New Auburn.

Hooping up the tea. With true shortline charm, the engineer on L3 prepares to snare his sweet tea from a switch broom. It might not be a train order, but the classic pose is priceless.

A former Reserve Mining SD38-2 assists a leased switcher as they spot cars for sand loading.

One of the best looking paint schemes in Wisconsin. Back before the fracking sand explosion Wisconsin Northern used their pair of painted GP15-1s together to serve the few customers along their li... (more)

A leased EMD switcher rests on a quiet weekend as a pair of UP road units sit clear of the Wisconsin Northern mainline.

Progressive Rail's former Soo Line (Minneapolis Northfield & Southern) SD39 fills in at Chieftian Sand slowly positioning covered hoppers for loading of fracking sand. Business must be good as it ... (more)

Wisconsin Northern Railway builds a train of frac sand while working at New Auburn, Wisconsin the day after Christmas, 2013. Steve Smedley