So I’m not much of a cook, but every now and again I can cook up a decent recipe. This one turned out to be one of my favorites this thanksgiving.
Take one large helping of knowledge of a good consist headed your way. Add in a good serving of sunshine. Mix in some locations that suit the sunlight direction. Stir in a dash of expeditous velocity in your favorite flavor of chase vehicle (careful not to over-do this one!). Mix well and bake for a bit, and your results should turn out something like this:
I had to go to my Grandpa and Grandma’s house, otherwise I would have chased this bugger all the way into Iowa. The sunlight was behind me, but I’m more than satisfied with the results. Many many thanks to my spy that let me know this bugger was headed my way! Hope you all had as great a thanksgiving as I did!
I’m sure this recipe made you hungry for more! You exercised remarkable restraint.
Pat likes the reflection you caught in the puddle at DeKalb. You got your first shot along one of my favorite stretches of 38–you can often see the whole train there, especially now that the corn’s been harvested.
That train (MPRCB) left Proviso this morning with both of the CNW Dash 9s–I still haven’t heard what happened to the 8701, but I suspect that it will make it back to the ramp with some sort of problem that prevented it from going out that far.
You missed a couple of other dishes that headed out that way. Earlier, the train of enpty reefers from Rotterdam went through with the three SD70Ms that had brought it east. About two hours later MPRPB had a new Ferromex GEVO in the consist. I could see the smoke, so I knew it was on line.
I saw the MPRPB just as I was crossing the Randall bridge over the tracks. Are you sure it was smoking, though? I think it might have been some dirt and grime coming off the VERY VERY dirty Tunnel Motor that it was following! [(-D][(-D][(-D]
I hear that several of the heritage units are in Council Bluffs right now, but it’s a bit too dark to go out and try to see them. Perhaps tomorrow morning I can run down and see if any of them are still around.
Yeah, I think I did hear her running when she went under the bridge. I just couldn’t believe that the shiny new unit was put next to the old grimy one! Still, it was kind of cool. I think the tunnel motor was an unpatched Espee unit. If it was patched, it was so dirty that the patch didn’t even show through at all!
The timing sounds about right for Rochelle. I quit chasing at Dekalb, and the EXIF data on the shot says that I took the last shot at 11:29:30 AM. She was moving through at a decent clip by that time (50 mph-ish, give or take a bit).
Willy, thanks for the kind words. Hope you have some luck finding all the neat stuff out there right now!
Just you wait…your time will come! She’s just giving you plenty of rope because someday she’ll yank really hard on said rope…which is, interestingly enough, tied around your neck (or another body parts). NEVER underestimate the diabolical nature of women…
