Dec.27,1997 was not your typical railfan day in Tampa,Fl.It was cloudy
and raining,as a matter of fact it had been raining for more than two
days.Just one week prior to that it had rained for five days.Needless to
say the rivers were over flowing and areas were underwater that had not
been, in over a hundred years.A record amount of rain was recorded at
over sixteen inches for the month.
My friend Stanley
Jackowski and I were planing to go to a model train show that day
and catch some trains later .Part of those plans were changed when I
heard the dispatcher saying that a tree had fallen across the
tracks,about a mile from my house.I wanted to record a TYPICAL day, so
off we go to get a picture.Once that was done we learned that train 441
was waiting in the siding at Cherry[about five miles east] for the tree
to be removed.Wanting to record more TYPICAL railroading we went to get
it on film[K25!] After wading around in ankle deep water to reach a good
photo location we got a couple of shots and then headed to the train
show.
We had spent so much time at the train show that Stanley had to
leave[something about the better half?]
Later that evening ,I went out to the north end of our local CSX yard
to do some night shots.Caught a GE44CW on an outbound train from an
overpass right over the cab,I hope these will come out OK, because I
would like to have something to show for a TYPICAL Florida day.
As I write this on Monday,the 29th the weather is still bad.We are
hoping for a rapid clearing{the weatherman said it would]We are heading
out at "o dark thirty"in the morning to Arcaida,Fl.The Seminole Gulf
will be handing off the RB&BB train to CSX for the trip to Orlando.
Joseph L.Oates
-> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
-> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs
