It never fails. There I was standing inside a building no more than 50 feet away from the railroad tracks when the sound of a freight train breaks the evening silence.
I wait patiently, looking out the window in anticipation. Lo and behold, here comes the mixed with a Southern Pacific engine among the motive power. Figures, I don’t have my camera handy (Actually, my camera was out in my car).
OK, so it’s only one train. And besides, it’s not like I’ve never seen a Southern Pacific locomotive in action.
Fifteen minutes passed and the sound of another freight train resonates across the landscape. “It’ll just be some run of the mill CSX engines pulling this freight,” I think to my self.
Wait a minute; there goes a Montana Rail Link locomotive. How is this possible?
And so it goes with railfanning. Whenever you are ill prepared, that rare locomotive will come speeding down the tracks. But that’s just the way life alongside the rails goes. At the end of the day, it should be about enjoying trains, even if you can’t capture that perfect picture on film (or a flash card, as the case may be).
I know I’ll be back tomorrow, and even if it is just a routine pair of CSX locomotives, I’ll be snapping a few (dozen) pictures.
