Saturday was a sunny day in Wisconsin. In the almost 12 years that I’ve lived here, this was the mildest winter of all. 95 percent of the snow has melted at my house, and Sunday set a record temperature, 61 degrees.
I made no attempt to rise early Saturday, but even taking my time, I was ready to go by 8:30, and decided to do a little train watching before a couple of hours at the office, where I finished writing an 8-page feature story on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic for our 100-page special magazine, Colorado Railroads, due out in April. In the field, at the first crossing I came to, two fans were waiting on a Canadian National northbound. I decided to have fun with them, so I rolled down the window and yelled “foamers!” and being one I joined them. The northbound had some interesting power so I followed it north (more about this in tomorrow’s blog post), and, of course, there was another fan waiting on the train there.
I went to work and planned to hit Panera for lunch, but on the way, I noticed the CN dispatcher had set up a meet at Duplainville, so I swing by for a look. Two vehicles were sitting on a side road near the diamonds with the Canadian Pacific. My friend Nick Brown, a hearty Wisconsinite in shorts, was photographing the action. Soon, a car pulled up and two people got out to watch the show. Then a van with a family of four stopped and joined the congregation. We all stood in the middle of piles of melting snow to take pictures and wave at the train. The train crews at Dupy really had an audience on this beautiful day.
Yes, I said to myself as I finally drove to lunch it is springtime for railfans in Wisconsin. Of course, today the forecast for tonight is, you guessed it, snow.
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