bnsf-locomotive.jpgNowadays it’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe but just up Railroad Street from where the Better Half snapped this photo stands an old A.T.& S.F. Steam Engine that originally ran along these tracks years ago. I like the railroads because it’s in my blood, I guess. My Granddad was an engineer on the Pacific Electric Railway and I grew up sneaking rides in his rail yard engine in Long Beach Harbor where he was working when I was a post-WW2 kid. My two brothers were there too, but I’m the only one with the built-in railroad interest.

This was beautiful - we can hear the train blasting their horns from our hotel room and it was just a matter of time before the crossing gates would lower during one of our trips to town and we could see one of these beauties roll by. As the train passed, we noticed that the load mostly seemed to be of USA origins, not the usual Yang Ming and other Chinese shipboard carriers we see in on the trains in So Cal.