Loggin' Country - Northern Pacific

Day 114: Invariably, I pick a rainy day to visit the train shop (workshop, not gift shop) and wind up wiping the lens between each shot, cursing when it gets speckled again before I can re-frame. So why don't I wait for a sunny day? Because there's just something about the sheen of rain on once-glossy paint which gives it a uniquely rustic look and an appeal I can't resist.

I am not a train buff by any means, but the old engines and railroad cars and cabooses at the shop are a goldmine of photo opportunities. Today, there were a dozen or more which were not there two weeks ago. How do they bring them in? I never see them being pulled along the tracks.

The Northern Pacific shown here particularly caught my interest as I pulled into the yards. My dad liked trains. He had a model train set (HO gauge) with a Great Northern engine which could have been this one's offspring, racing around beneath chairs and in between table legs much to the amusement of a little girl who doted on her daddy, even moreso on the occasions when he played with trains.

For many people, trains typify a bygone generation of hard-working men, staunch in spirit, tough as the machinery of their trades. For me, they recall a gentle man and winter evenings in front of the fireplace. Today, the Northern Pacific is right on time, pulling into East Nostalgia Station.