Great stories, best thread on the pure love of railroading posted here, in months. Keep it up.

The view of Vandenburg Titan rockets test fired at sunset rising over the Beaumont pass from the Salton Sea... Being "scrafed" by the Navy flying a wild weasel fifty feet over the train, at just under the speed of sound, east of Glamis.... Watching the "fireworks" at night from the Navy bombing the Chocolate Mountains.... Switching the tomatoes on a 110 degree night with "Cowboy" Bennett in Calexico...... switching cars as almost a form of art, like a perfect ballet?

On the Harbor Belt, stuck in the middle of the Henry Ford drawbridge at Terminal Island, with a junky UP SW-7, after a long night switching tuna, borax, and the proler works. An engine with no wheel slip, and leaking oil, throwing up sparks from the spinning wheels as we came to a stall on our third run at the bridge with too much tonnage in tuna, while all the weekend pleasure boats below hooted their boat whistle's at us for the great show we were putting on.

The solitude, the strange hours, weird places, the beautiful scenery, the thrill of that vibration and power. It's why it gets in your blood and stays......

Keep these coming, these are all great!