Western Railroad Discussion > Broken wings in your face!

After a very productive day of fanning yesterday (26th) I had grand plans to just kick back and work on post-processing and filing the 300+ images I had gathered. But my faithful consigliere ‘mg8711’ texted me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He had learned through the semi-local grapevine about a CSX unit pointing an eastbound manifest already out of Abilene, KS. And this train would be coming across the KP through our home town of Manhattan. While we were camped out at the Stagg Hill Golf Course crossing west of town he got news of a second train coming our way. This was an autorack train, albeit with regular UP power. We chased the CSX-led train to Bailey Rd crossing just short of Rossville, KS, then dropped back and picked up the autorack train at St Marys.

But even the best-laid railfanning plans can be thwarted by the sinister Mr Cloud. As a result here’s a sort of in-your-face, dark & angry tele-boomer shot. But when you look a little closer another visible affliction becomes evident. The perfect symmetry of Uncle Pete’s classic wing-shrouded shield is broken by that solid yellow door. An obvious replacement from some past predicament. Mr Richard Page of the American pop band Mr Mister sang it back in 1985*:

“Take these broken wings and learn to fly again. I think tonight
we can take what was wrong (and) make it right”

1. UP 4679 leads an autorack train over the east siding switch at St Marys, KS on August 27, 2016.

Thanks for the offer!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*(ever-so-slightly) paraphrased lyrics from the tune “Broken Wings”, which entered Billboard’s Top 40 in October of 1985 for a 15 week ride, 2 of those weeks @ #1…



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/16 00:10 by santafe199.

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