ST. PAUL, Minn. – The organizers of Train Day to be held at Union Depot in St. Paul next month will offer a night photo session to be held at two locations on the evening of May 4. Union Depot Train Day will be held May 5 at the former St. Paul Union Depot and features railroad equipment, vintage buses, model railroads, nonprofit and government agencies that deal with railroads, and vendors selling railroad souvenirs and merchandise.

The night photo session will begin at 8 p.m. May 4 at Union Depot. It will feature Minnesota Transportation Museum’s Soo Line GP7 locomotive No. 559 in its classic maroon-and-gold colors. This locomotive has been stored for several years but is now being returned to service. Also on hand will be Burlington Northern SD9 No. 6234. Both these locomotives are new to Train Day this year. Other subjects that can be photographed will include a Twin Cities & Western diesel and two open platform business cars: Great Northern Railway A-11 and Friends of the 261 former Milwaukee Road car Milwaukee.

Participants will then drive to the Minnesota Transportation Museum’s Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul, where Great Northern SDP40 No. 325 will be posed for photographs on the roundhouse turntable. The engine is still painted in Burlington Northern Cascade green colors, and will be restored to its BN 6399 number for the photo shoot. This will be one of the last times the locomotive will be able to be photographed in its green colors, as plans are to repaint the engine in Great Northern Railway Big Sky Blue in 2019.

Photographer and long-time Trains Magazine contributor Steve Smedley using AlienBees flash lighting will conduct the night photo session.

Tickets for the photo shoot are $25. Tickets are also available for the Laker Rail multimedia railroad photo program May 5 at Union Depot for $25. A combination ticket to both events is available for $40.

For more information, or to order tickets, go to www.lakerrail.com.