| One of my perverse pleasures in this hobby is pacing alongside a train at speed. Watching the lead locomotives bounce and sway with prime movers burbling, dynamics and traction motors whining with bearing caps on dancing trucks spinning like mad. In this view here at Phillip, MS, the road and rail dove tail one another before coming in for close paralleling and ahead lies nothing less than 10 miles of mostly unobstructed chasing in hand to hand combat with one another. No stop signs, to red lights, no speed traps or school buses. Just the sweet music of GE’s and EMD’s doing their dance as the engineer lets the ladies stretch their legs. It’s literal romance. A dance not to be missed. In this view I draw in on CN Q-194’s flank as it heads south down CN’s Yazoo Sun while I close in alongside MS County Rd 518. Ahead are smooth 60mph running for the CN crew while I’ll be bounced along in my seat on the 518 but so worth it again to experience. |