boxcars, vacation, and the holy grail

It's good to see that the boxcar has survived into the 21st century... without them, we'd be doomed to a life of watching look-alike unit coal and double stack trains. Luckily, we still have boxcars and other "loose car" freight traffic to add variety to the mix. My bike rides to Roanoke often turn up an interesting sighting or two... see below for a few offerings from Wednesday's bike ride:

three flavors of CN-family auto parts boxes - Roanoke, TX 10/4/06


a patriotic message on this Wisconsin Southern car

Is this a reference to Fiona, or Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter?

Lest we omit coverage of the FRONT ends of trains, here's another shot from Sunday:

BNSF empty rock train, crossing the Trinity River on the TRE line
east of downtown Ft. Worth. 10/1/06

Whiskey on vacation

Break out the Hawaiian shirts and dust off the Jimmy Buffett "Margaritaville" cd... Whiskey is headed to the Texas coast! Should have some interesting stories and photos to share with y'all in a few days...

Whiskey's World Series of Pop Culture

I hate leaving things unfinished, so here's the correct answer to trivia question # 5: "Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail", IMHO, one of the funniest movies of all time. You can have your "Meaning of Life" and your "Life of Brian", but for my money, "The Holy Grail" is as good as it gets! I used to work with a certain El Paso conductor who, when I called him for his train's location, would respond, "Oh just a minute, DS... Joe and I got to arguing about the air speed velocity of a laden swallow and lost track of where we are" -- definitely a surreal radio transmission to hear coming from the middle of the New Mexico desert. I offered up the only appropriate response I could think of: "What do you mean -- an African swallow or a European swallow?" I always wondered if he had ever dropped that line on someone who wasn't a Monty Python fan, and what their reaction might have been.

Until next time... take care of yourselves, and each other.

WSC

np: the Gourds - Stadium Blitzer