Railroaders' Nostalgia > Blue heelers holiday

For trains that run on a branch line, the passing of the train through a town can be a highlight for the inhabitants. I can remember running at night on a branch and passing a ranch house where they would always flash their yard light as we passed to say hello, and we would blow the whistle in response.
There was one small station, called Aurora, where the train coming through was clearly a big event for one four legged resident. In the daylight hours, whenever we approached the main crossing in the station, there in the middle of the crossing was a dog, almost certainly a blue heeler, barking and prancing in circles at our approach. Then just as we got to the crossing he would dart right in front of the engine(we are going almost 40mph) from left to right and then run as fast as he could to keep up with us running on a field on the west side of the tracks. He always made it in his death defying sprint across the front of us, which I am sure was pure fun for him, and angst for us, and something we still looked forward to anyway just to see him have a blast.

This reminds me of a dog that lived next to SP's tracks between San Gabriel and El Monte southern California. Every time a train would pass Fido would run to the fence along
the right of way and turn ever closer, tightening circles, round and round and round as if he were trying to catch his own tail and creating quite a dust-devil in his own yard.
This would go on from the time we could first see him until we would go out of sight. I'm sure his owner was not amused at these antics and wished the railroad would just go away.

One day I was firing for Howard Phillips, a humorous individual with a streak of dry wit. After we passed the location of the doggy show, Howard asked if I knew what
breed the animal was? Having no idea as to the pedigree of the mutt I could only shrug my shoulders whereupon Howard answered his own question; "Why, that's easy; he a Spinner".
I could only laugh and agree.

Charlie

cewherry Wrote: > ...  ever closer, tightening circles, round and round and round as if ...

Back in my real live mailman vs canine days with the UP Postal Service ('74 ~ '78) I remember a dog just like the one you described here. I was carrying a walking route, had just looped a block and was walking around the end of that city block to loop the other side. I was walking a bit of a stretch between the 2 sides, waking along a large, fenced-in yard at the end of the block. There was this medium sized, just plain ol' mutt in that yard. He (I think) looked like a cross between 3 or 4 different dogs + whatever else happened to be in the woodpile at the time! And this dog was completely psycho, doing that spin thing just like you said! And exactly on every spin he would let out a  bark right as he was facing me. I stopped to watch and the spin/bark got faster! I remember thinking I was glad he was behind a fence. When I started to walk on up the sidewalk the dog just spun/barked right along with me. When I stopped he stopped too, except the spin/bark thing kept going. Just like a little pink bunny. It was absolutely hysterical. I never saw any dog like that before or since...

Lance/199