We had to meet our BNSF pilot at Coolidge, Kansas, the last town on Highway 50 before you enter Colorado. The landscape is a lonely-looking vastness filled with irrigated corn and rangeland and nary a house or tree to be found. It's actually quite fascinating.
Our meet time was 0730 so we arrived a little early, just in time for the sunrise. It was amazingly still out and the fog hovering over the ground was a bit eerie. I knew Amtrak's Southwest Chief had a station stop at Garden City, about 67 miles to the east, around 0645, so I figured we would see them blast by us. Sure enough just after 0730 I could hear the distinct sound of a 5-chime horn and the chug-chugging of a four-stroke General Electric diesel engine. The light was magnificent so I snapped a coming and going shot of the train.
The stillness of Coolidge was briefly broken as the train roared through town, though way below the 79 mph speed limit. This portion of the La Junta Subdivision still has jointed rail and it was nice to hear the clickty-clack of the railroad track as they used to say (compared to the continuous welded rail, which is more of a constant scream). You could follow the red marker lights at the end of the train for several miles before it disappeared into Colorado on its way to Los Angeles. Indeed it was one of the better mornings on this job!
1 comment:
i like both pictures. but i definitely like the coming pic better. more colors and stuff. and i like the way the lights just pop out. yeah. that's my expert photographer eye speaking there. haha.
overall, it sounds like things are looking up. probably because you can FINALLY see the light at the end of the tunnel. you're almost done! and that always makes even the worst of times bearable.
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