This afternoon I saw a pair BNSF SD40-2s (7037 and 7018, in Cascade Green paint) leading NIWX 8924 (SD-45) and a string of over 30 covered hoppers westbound through Davenport. I've never seen SD40-2s out here before, so I grabbed my camera and headed out to Rocklyn to meet the train at the crossing.

MRL 375 (SD-45) was parked out there on the siding with a small black flag flying over the engineer's window. Just west of it were a handful of covered hoppers.

Now here's the real interesting thing: I watched a guy drive up in a red pick-up truck and jump out to meet the train. The train stopped and he climbed aboard the front step and rode the train through the crossing. After most of the train had passed, it stopped and cut off the last third of the cars and left them blocking the crossing. I thought they were going to pull the 5 or 6 cars off the siding, but they didn't. The train pulled ahead a few hundred feet, stopped, and then backed up and re-coupled to the cars they had just cut off. Once the air was pumped up, off they went onto the west. The aforementioned man jumped back into his truck and off he went too. It all left me scratching my head. . .