Breaking Free

 If you test the waters make sure you know how to swim~ Unknown 

    

                Good Evening fellow railfans and fellow hams, about a week ago I spent several days on quarantine and wound up staying out in my radio room (which I will say was a adventure). After going back to work I wound up having to go to another doctors appointment and wound up leaving work early. After my appointment I decided I needed a break from work, and just wanted to go get out in the open air. On my way back from the doctors appointment I was talking to one of my buddies Jim on the repeater and decided to swing by and grab a shot of the local stone train to get my train fix started. 

                After getting the shot of the stone train I decided to go sit at my old stomping ground. As I pulled up I finished my QSO with Jim and called out that I was trackside mobile listening. A few minutes later another ham came back to me by the name of Gene and we struck up a conversation about being trackside. While we were conversing about trains I found out he was a railfan from and adjacent town and he used to come to Akron to railfan before all of the construction got underway. Of course I had the scanner turned down when the train below rounded the curve.  

Q331  as it rounded the bend 

                I quickly hurried up and hopped off the radio and made a mad dash to get the picture as I knew daylight was fading in the concrete valley of the building surrounding me and the tracks. While I was out another railfan, Fred showed up and I talked with him briefly and he knew Gene and told me to pass along a hello from him. Once back in the van I resumed my conversation with Gene and passed along Fred's message. I was given a heads up that a eastbound was heading up my way so I decided to go sit  down at my usual spot in the field about a half a mile from my previous spot and wait on the K183. 

Q369 with double stacks up front

                While I was waiting on the K183 and talking with Gene I heard the Q369 clearing a few signals West of my location. Could it be that I would possibly get 4 trains in a hour and a half's time? It sure looked that way. Of course the sun would go away and the rain clouds started moving in of course, but I wasn't going to let that discourage me. I stepped out the car when i seen him approach and grabbed this picture as he rolled by. As I got back in the car to finish my QSO with Gene I heard the K183 heading up single main toward me and I decided it was time to sign and wait for the K183 as I was getting hungry and ran out of coffee to drink. 

K183 the final train I would see

    As I sat and listened to Gene and another ham talk about what trackside mobile was and the K183 as it approached I began to relax and savor the last few minutes trackside as I knew It would be a while before I would get a chance to do this again. Shortly after this moment the K183 rolled passed and I decided to stand outside an watch it roll by with the gentle breeze blowing across my face and the sound of a train rolling by it was the perfect ending to a type of day which I don't get to enjoy much with my job and other obligations. One day soon I hope to be able to enjoy more time trackside making QSO's but until then I have to settle for the memories of this day to keep me moving forward.  I thank you for being able to share this story with you and remember God is still in control, take care, stay safe and 73 from trackside