I was watching the Charles Smiley Extreem SP tonight and the music set the tone for my post. In my dreams and my thoughts while at the tracks I often wonder what all those people driving by some yelling insanely stupid comments, some just watching us rather than the train as the gates go down and the train passes by? What must go through there mind , what must they be wondering what we are doing standing there for hours in wind, snow, rain risking personel safety and law enforcment, rude rail road officials sometimes but most times not. What they must think of us. Then all that passes through my mind as the steel wheels roll by and the diesel motors purrrrrr and the great clouds of my smoke start to drift gently down upon us. O that smell I love it so, sometimes I can hardly stand the wait. That big train just sitting there all red, then just when I give up and the cold hits the signal go’s green and the call is made. Another new train passing by as the wind blows through my soul. How mnay of us grew up in a rail road family only to forget that great feeling of the cab ride that can never be again. We miss the 70’s and the 80’s but still I stand in all of every EMD and GE that rolls by and those long long CN trains and those great crews. The fast NS and the slow but heavy CSX cast a smile upon my collective soul. For everyday at the tracks is a gift for each and everyone of us. How many of my gym buddies and my dad and two uncles RR commrads speak of old only to wish they could throttle up again. Some days I sit with them and they just steer off in the distance, so do I when I am not track side…For God has Blessed all of us in this life a life of both wonders and questions.
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