Years ago, my Grandfather was employed as a motorman for the Pacific Electric Railway. He operated the famous Red Car (as seen in the semi-cartoon Roger Rabbit). Later in his career he operated an electric tender in the rail yards at the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors. His job was to move rail cars to and from the piers for loading and unloading the ships in the harbor berths.
One time, he smuggled me and my brothers on the tender for a ride up and down the tracks of the harbor. As we passed the ‘control tower’ he would instruct us to ‘get down ’til we’re past the tower.’ Trains and railroads have been a fixation of mine ever since those times.
Yesterday, we were in the harbor area and Damsel took this shot of a couple of Union Pacific locomotives as they headed along an elevated track toward the Los Angeles side of the harbor. I like that they have the U.S. Flag on some of their engines.
Click on the image to view full-sized.
My grandpa was a conductor on the Long Island RR for 40 years. We had a cross country train ride when I was very young, can hardly remember any of it now.
Damsel and I had a nice rail ride in Alaska from Anchorage to Denali and then on to Fairbanks. It was great!