Trains

This is one of the roads to our farm. Once in a while we have to wait for a train to go past - sometimes up to 150 rail cars.

Sometimes we are lucky to get to this point and the train has just past, so we don't have to wait.

Other times, the train is headed toward you, so you have to figure out if you have time to safely cross, or stop and wait. Take a look at the track. Do you notice that all the wooden rail ties are gone, and have been replaced by concrete ties? It happened during the past few months. Where did all the wooden ones go?

There are tons of them stacked every so many miles along the rail road tracks. I guess they will eventually be loaded up and hauled away and possibly be sold to Home Depot as landscaping products. What are other ways we could recycle these things?

We frequently get trains pulling coal cars like this one. Always coming from the west and going east to a power plant to generate electricity. We live just far enough away from the train tracks that we aren't bothered by the noise of train traffic. I actually kind of like having the trains fairly close. In my mind it helps connect me and my rural farm with the rest of the Nation.