Snowy 75i by aloneinbigrapids, on FlickrI’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I’m just getting around to shooting photos of trains in 2025, and we’re pretty much already a full month in…but as the de-facto chairman of the rat pack, Frank Sinatra, once said “That’s life, and I can’t deny it”. Maybe the snow will get me out more, it’s just a matter of getting motivated enough to go out and shoot. Said motivation has been hard to come by since Katie passed, however.
Anyway, enough of me dumping my feelings. I managed to shoot two trains today in Bloomfield Hills (tomorrow’s post is the train I was out for). This one however being the first of them. A container-less Q116, rippin’ down the hill in Bloomfield Hills as they were heading south toward Flat Rock. This was also my first time shooting an SD75i in a number series higher than the 5770 series. These engines are going to start getting hard to come by in the future, per my sources at CN, and no, it’s not due to the IACC rebuild program.
I’ve spent so much time out of state and/or at other spots in Michigan that I’ve kinda forgotten about the place that sparked my obsession about trains, that being the crossing at Opdyke Road in Bloomfield Hills, and needing to find something to cheer me up in one of my depressive mood swings, going back to my OG happy place was right up the pike.
Monday Mornin’ Rail by aloneinbigrapids, on FlickrThis post is a bit symbolic and a bit emotional, bear with me
After shooting the 116 in Bloomfield Hills (yesterday’s post), I stuck around for the reason why I was out, yesterday’s E251 had a pair of Ex Illinois Central SD70’s up front, one being in CN paint and the other being in IC’s “deathstar” livery.
This was sort of a redemption catch for me, I had shot the pair (deathstar leading) when they came down south on 116 the day before, only for my photos to get corrupted while transferring them over to my PC. Things were looking bleak in my head after that.
I decided, screw it, let’s try it again on 251 the next day even with me knowing darn well that the deathstar was gonna trail and that there wasn’t gonna be any sun. These SD70’s aren’t up here often, you take what you get.
I went out, got the 116 from yesterday’s post, got this 251, then went home and had a bomb dropped on me later that evening right after I had posted the 116 photo. My grandma had passed away while I was gone. She had been dealing with a lot of health problems and the final four years of her life proved to be extremely painful for her. At least she’s up there no longer in pain.
The stars, for better or for worse, aligned on this one. Her favorite song was The City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie. She and I would frequently get into arguments where I tried proving my case that the Willie Nelson version was better. She disagreed but we all got a good laugh doing it.
If you’ve never heard of the song The City Of New Orleans, Arlo or Willie or whomevers version you’re listening to (hell, I think even Jerry Reed did a version of it) is talking about the famous Illinois Central train called “The City of New Orleans” that ran between Chicago and, you guessed it, New Orleans.
It’s been a very hard 12 hours since she passed, this post is kinda the only good thing giving me some sort of motivation to do…something.
