I grew up in rural Minnesota near Mora which the Great Northern Railway had a rail line linking their shops in St. Cloud, MN and the junction near Brook Park.  Loved to be around trains as far back as I can remember and it was a genuine thrill to see them stop outside of town to switch center-flow hoppers at the co-op, or drop off a work train or a flat car with a big transformer on the siding by the depot.  I have a decent cassette recording of one of the first BN trains to go through town I made while standing at the depot, wish I had a camera, so no pics but I cherish the audio recording...I was probably the only geek in town to make such a recording.