Davenport, North Dakota.

This week, North Dakotans went back in time to an earlier era when steam was king. An organization dedicated to railroad preservation out of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota brought one of their prize historic trains to help a regional freight railroad celebrate their 30th Anniversary. Last week, Engine number 261 and a collection of historic railroad cars traveled excursion routes in southeastern North Dakota, offering seats to passengers for the trips. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t find out about the excursions until long after all the tickets were sold out. That didn’t stop me from visiting the small town of Davenport to take a look at the gleaming engine and beautifully restored cars. Davenport is only about a 30-minute ride by car, and its 262 residents coincidentally happen to be celebrating Davenport Days, their annual historic community celebration. When we arrived, we were greeted by a yellow-vested attendant who helped sort out those who needed parking for the excursion and those who, like us, were just visiting the community. He pointed us to parking which happened to be in the shadow of 261, which was already generating smoke from the coal-fired boiler. Even though we didn’t have tickets to ride, they were offering tours of the engine cab. In a future Journeys, I will feature a more detailed photo story about engine 261 and its heritage.

About the photo: This image was captured with my S7 cell phone and tweaked with the editing software on the phone. The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple. The image must be captured on a mobile device.

John Steiner