My kids get horns and waves everytime. I doffed my cap to an engineer coming through Glenwood Springs one night last month while I was on the pedestrian bridge and got a double honk. Great memory. :teeth:
This one cracked me up. It was taken last October at the Moffat Tunnel East Portal. I didn't even know the guy (Conductor?) waved until I downloaded the photos onto my PC the next day. Sorry it's so small - I was using a new camera with resolution set too high.
On a trip down to the B&O west end a few years ago, we talked to a crew of a coal drag going up the hill at M&K junction while they waited for a local to pass them. They lemented the lack of A/C in there units (It was near 98 that afternoon). The conductor was an old Chessie guy, he said the limited slip on the new GE's is a world of difference from the EMD's he started on. As they throttled up they tossed us addresses to send them pictures. That was pretty neat.
The train crews around here seem to be real friendly. If they see me there with a camera, I will usually get a wave and a long honk from the horn. Probally 80-90 percent of the time. The other times, the guys have their work to do.
I always wave or blow the horn whenever someone waves at me. It seems that it was always the custom in the steam days. Every steam photo I've found has the crew waving. Personally, I enjoy seeing someone wave and I'm never too tired to simply wave back. Most of the time it is our only connection to the outside world for those 12 hours or more and it doesn't go unappreciated.
