At four minutes to five, this afternoon (5-3-14), the first loaded B&LE coal train to run north through here in many years had just cleared Saint Glory Road crossing on the K-O Line, as a southbound thunderstorm trails off into the distance. Steaming northbound in the grass, abeam of the third unit in the locomotive consist, is Preston (who turned 13 on Thursday) in his favorite orange t-shirt. He had just recorded a coming-and-going series on his cell camera that he was anxious to share with me. The train won the race, but he didn't mind.
At that very moment, I was cursing the slight delay of the shutter on my DROID and the fact that in my hasty effort to block neither my son nor the power on the train with the satellite dish visible in this neighbor's yard...I had managed to back up too far and get #910 with a tree shadow slapped across its nose.
Still, it was nice to again see coal heaped in hopper cars high enough for it to peek over the top chords of the sides. The normal daily routine of iron ore loads southbound and empties north these past few years all look the same (nobody heaps dense ore...and then moves an intact railcar). This new coal contract from Duquesne Wharf on the Monongahela north up to Conneaut Harbor is a nice departure from that 'same-old-same-old.'
