Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A railway story

 

While I was in Oklahoma there was a bit of a problem. Dad and Suzy have this habit of taking naps in the middle of the day... a habit which I have not yet formed. So one day while they snoozed I decided to go for a walk. A few miles from their house is a railroad, so I meandered my way over there and walked along the tracks for a bit.

 

Of course I played in the little creeks that it crossed over:

 

 

And found all sorts of things I have never seen before. Like a mechanical switchman, which decides which track the train rides on:

 

As I was putzing around, and seemingly out of nowhere, a train decided to go about its business of riding the rails. I always thought people who got hit by trains must be pretty stupid, because trains are loud, right? Well this train was stealthy like ninja. So it about scared the crap out of me:

 

This was a cargo train, that took it's everlovin' time to go by. About a full 15 minutes. All I could do was watch the tracks flex up and down as the cars whizzed by on their way to some distant supply station:

 

Eventually the tail end of the train came into view and I could make my way back home to the now-awake folks.

2 comments:

Daly said...

Great pics as usual. That was a close call (not getting hit by a train). I had also wondered how people managed to do it and not hear it coming.

TomboCheck said...

Daly - I can admit that I was a little wrapped up in taking pictures, so the train had an easier time of sneaking up on me. :)