Three Frogs?

I was told once that these rail switches are called "frogs". If there are any railroad enthusiasts reading this, I would love to hear an explanation for how they came to have this name (or if I'm completely wrong about this).

This photo was taken from a pedestrian overpass in downtown Wenatchee.

Tag!

This is one of the more ambitious tags I've seen on a railroad car. 

I was at a tank car loading facility recently when a railroad employee began cleaning graffiti off the car identification numbers.  He would spray something over the area that needed to be cleaned up and wait several minutes before coming over and scrubbing off the graffiti. The paint rubbed off almost effortlessly, so whatever solvent he used must have been powerful:  I was about twenty feet away and it was making me light headed.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel...

...I think it's called Spring.

Life Tanka

do not slide your hand
into your pocket for warmth
put your hand in mine
I'll hold it while the wind blows
and at the end when it's still


Written for One Stop Poetry Form Monday, which focused today on the tanka, a Japanese love poem with lots of rules! Hopefully I followed them all without losing the spirit of the poem. It was a fun challenge, anyway: 5 lines of 5/7/5/7/7 syllables with a season word, no punctuation, and a twist-- the first three lines must stand on their own as a mini-poem, and the last three lines as well (so the middle line is used in both). Phew! If you want to read more about the ancient form of tanka as well as other entries, click here.

Marine Park at Dusk

A steady stream of silhouettes
parade up and down the railroad tracks--
color leaching away as the sun sets
turning reds and blues and greens to black.

Light Rail

Here in Bellingham we tend to get pretty excited any time development claims a new piece of land so it's easy to forget that the process goes both ways. I always find it fascinating to watch developed areas return to nature. Here, in front of a brand new industrial park, Squalicum Creek takes back a little piece of creek bed in exchange.

Theme Day: Wood

This ancient remnant of railroad trestle through Whatcom Falls Park is all that remains to remind us that trains ever ran through town. This Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific track, built in 1916, used to connect Larson's Mill to Bellingham Bay. The only current train route is around the edge of the bay.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants