I was all excited about everything opening up as case rates go down... But then the trees started fornication and I'm allergic to all of that so I'm back to hiding in my house.
I can get behind the allergy problem, but fortunately it doesn't bother me to the extent that it did when I was younger. I've got another Huron and Eastern shot this week. In the fall of 2019, I caught 3038 in fresh Genesee and Wyoming orange and cream leading the ever scruffy looking 2028 into Brown City, MI on the point of a string of covered hoppers.
Back in September of 1975, a much younger yours truly checking out a CP air crane at Exporail: One of the long line of steam locos waiting for restoration stands in the background. Lurking in the foreground shadows is my Mom. Dad's behind the camera.
Last night just after sunset, this set is waiting for the call to head for Beach, ND, and they are still here this morning.....
*ACHOO!!* Right there with ya'. Everything here in Western Washington is covered in pollen, including my truck!
It's not everyday you see an active SD50 still wearing its original number, but in Minot, ND of all places, here you are. We're at the CP yard office "roundhouse track." Historical note: there never was a roundhouse on the Soo or CP in Minot, just a small (2-stall) engine house and a wye. CSX 8619 was built in January 1985 as Seaboard System 8619, rebuilt in 2009 to 3000-hp and dash-3 specs. To see what she looked like in SBD paint, here's a Donald Albertson photo: www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1751922 On another side note, the SBD SD50s were tested on my favorite railroad, the D&RGW, in early 1984. Since SD40T-2s were off the catalog by 1984, the Rio Grande tacked 17 SD50s of their own on a SBD order, hence the similar long-hood mounted bell (on the engineers' side) was a common D&RGW SD50 spotting feature. You can see the SBD SD50s testing at Crescent, Colorado in the snow in this excellent Bob Todten photo: https://flic.kr/p/XaWCx2
