| UP 7308 at the front of a triple-header ore train holding up just in front of an at-grade crossing... amazingly enough, the friendly nature of the local engineers and rail crews continue - he popped his ditch lights on, not just potentially for the photograph, but to sound the crossing bells for a brief burst, then shut down - they were getting ready to pull out and were offering to let us get through before the gates dropped - because hed be accelerating from a dead stop, it would take the consist a while to get across (he couldnt know we were trying to get caught behind the gates). I just found the friendly nature really refreshing... odd, but refreshing, considering how people around the rails are viewed with such suspicion, distrust, and unhappiness for the most part up north (sure, there are the handful of neat, happy to wave (yet again, for them, Im sure!) at someone watching the train, but for the most part, more joy about trains down South than in the Northwest. |