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Beyond the Rutland
Rails
Now operated under the Vermont Rail System banner, you’ll see the early operations of the Vermont Railway, Clarendon & Pittford, and the Green Mountain Railroad! From the marble quarry pits to piggyback trailers, from steam excursions to heavy freight!
It took over two years of waiting before finally getting a good photograph of a BNSF 118 car unit tank car train. This one was captured on April 19, 2014, south of Castle Rock, Colo., on the BNSF/UP Joint Line. Sometimes it takes more than one attempt to capture the image you want; in this case, it was a location that shows a long, unbroken chain of tank cars. GREG MONROE
Waiting For a Train
SITTING IN MY TRUCK BESIDE THE TRACKS recently, I was thinking, “Here I am again, waiting on a train.” This reminded me of the hit song “Waiting For a Train” from the Great Depression era by the “Singing Brakeman,” Jimmie Rodgers. “All around the water tank, waiting for a train. A thou- sand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain... Just waiting for a train.” The song was written from Jimmie’s experiences car- rying water to track gangs on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad in the early 1900s in Missis- sippi where he learned to play guitar and heard railroad experiences from railroaders and hobos; he later worked for the New Or- leans & Northwestern as a brakeman, then as a Southern Pacific switch man in Ari- zona. (The song has also been recorded by Johnny Cash, Arlo Guthrie, Hank Snow and others, and as a musical stage perform- ance. The 1982 Clint Eastwood movie Honkytonk Man with Marty Robbins is about a country singer in the depression who, like Rodgers, dies of tuberculosis after failing to complete a recording session. It was based in part on Jimmie Rodger’s life, although neither Clint nor Marty sings “Waiting for a Train” in the movie.) “Waiting” in the song refers to hobos
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waiting for a train to hop to get to the next town, but as railfans we, too, do a fair share of “waiting for a train.” On occasion I have waited around the water tank when photo- graphing steam trains, but have never slept in the rain while railfanning (al- though I have dozed in my truck while sit- ting out a rain shower between trains). Waiting to photograph a train may not be a big deal if you are trackside on a busy line where there is never a wait of longer than a few minutes to a half hour between trains.
Less busy lines can at times be somewhat like the experiences of a police officer, with long periods of boredom interspersed with brief periods of fast activity. Colorado’s Joint Line (more on that below) can be that way. On a little used branch line, you may have to devote several hours waiting for the one or two short local jobs that may or may not be running that particular day. Even if planning on a chase, we often have to wait at that first location. Waiting by the tracks can also drag into
weeks, even months, or even years. One of my favorite activities is to go trackside sim- ply to relax and wait on trains. My usual railroad of choice for these day long forays is either the Union Pacific’s Moffat Line west of Denver, or the BNSF/UP Joint Line south of Denver into Palmer Lake., Colo. The Joint Line is my most frequent choice, being close to my home with lots of trains (albeit usually running in bunches with long waits in be- tween). As I have photographed this area numerous times over the years, I usually look for a new way to create a dramatic rail- road photo at a given location while using the periods of low activity between trains to relax and catch up on my reading with the latest railroad, photography or hobby maga- zines and books. I also enjoy an occasional nap while waiting, raining or not. Another pleasure on these trips is to gorge myself on way too many doughnuts. Otherwise, I usu- ally do not pack a lunch, preferring to “live off the land” with one of the five basic food groups (Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy’s or Arby’s). I think of that as anoth- er pleasure of waiting for a train. On my Joint Line trips, I would often see
a unit tank car train, usually one going each way. I became fascinated with the sight of
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