It's spring, sir!

I was running some errands on Sunday and came to a startling discovery and my local shopping mall: The massive piles of parking lot snow were gone. That, folks, is a sure sign that spring has arrived in the Midwest.

This fact should not have been a surprise to me. Saturday morning, for the first time in 2016, I set off on foot in the pursuit of trains, capturing this photo of a southbound Canadian National freight in my Waukesha neighborhood. No, it's not an overly dramatic photograph, and I have plenty others that look similar, but it certainly marks the changing of the seasons for me.

And I'm looking forward to the new seasons, as I always do. (Yes, way back in October and November I actually looked forward to winter's pending arrival, too.)

It's time for lawn chairs, coolers, cameras, and radio scanners. For many, it's a time to get out and rediscover railroading after the long winter slumber. (Readers in Southern California don't fully grasp this concept.)

So what are YOU looking forward to most this new railfan year? A new camera? Seeing a new locomotive model for the first time? An epic road trip on the horizon? Or just opening the windows and hearing a distant train rumble by? Tell us about it! I hope to, starting with this post, cover more railfan topics on the Trains Magazine staff blog. So let's hear what you're interested in!

I'm reminded of scene from the perennial favorite of television for almost 40 years now: M*A*S*H. Major Frank Burns asks the Army's favorite cross-dresser, Cpl. Maxwell Klinger (played by Toledo's favorite native son Jamie Farr, no less), "How dare you wear that hat while in uniform?"

Klinger's apt response was this: "It's spring, sir!"

And so it is.