Live from Boise

20Oct/060

Dad and Son Along the Tracks

Sometime much earlier this year, I believe I took Tyler out to the tracks for an afternoon or two. He was still much more of a peanut, barely babbling, and not all that interested in the outside world. He did have fun digging through the glove box and center console, and turning the Tahoe inside out...some things never change.

Flash forward past the summer, and into fall in Idaho. Tyler is not a lot bigger physically, but his motor skills, yapping ability, and all around development has grown exponentially over the summer. With Tyler's favorite movie a toss-up between Monsters, Inc and Thomas and the Magic Railroad, I figured it was time to get him out to see the real thing before he starts thinking ten car trains with 'trucks' are cool. You need to start these kids out right these days. Additionally, my buddy Aaron had sent across some pictures of his clan, including Chip, his mini-me, around 9-10 months Tyler's younger, poking around the Smokey Mountains back in September, and I was hooked. I had to get Tyler out and about.

So, Friday night, September 29th, I packed up the necessities. Of course, I had the camera gear, scanner and such. I threw in a few movies to occupy Tyler in case boredom overcame him, and we had a small cooler full of Father/Son treats. We did not get out of the house that early, but we were able to a diaper changed, dressed, some OJ, and were rolling down the highway by 07:45. With the daylight rapidly decreasing this time of the year, and living on the west end of the Mountain time zone, the sun had barely started to come out as we were rolling past the east end of town, on our way toward Glenns Ferry.

We dropped off the Interstate at Mountain Home, and dawdled our way through down, and out the west side of town following the tracks. The rails were quiet, as was the scanner, but Tyler was having a good time between his Thomas' movie, and all the sugar beet trucks rolling down the highway. Of late, he has taken to calling out anything larger than my pickup while he is in the bar. Rest assured, not a single bus, semi, dump-truck, cement truck, or other large motorized vehicle gets past his view. A few miles of "Dadda dadda Tchrukkkkk" with a very very faint "rrr" sound in there begins one of those parenting patience quests.

We rolled down Medbury Hill, and continued heading east, looking for signs of life along the rails. As we pasted through Hammett, and crossed over the tracks, going to the north side via a bridge east of Hammett, the scanner crackled. The detector at MP379ish sounded, alerting us to something on track 2. 90-95% of the time, this means eastbound, so we continued pushing east, and caught the tail-end of an eastbound stack train rolling over the OS at the west end of Glenns Ferry.

Tyler was content in the back, so we moved along, passing the head-end of the stack train just a mile east of Glenns Ferry on the old highway. The tracks wind around a few bends in the river here, so it is a good chance to make some time up, and we easily got ahead of the stack train, heading to a spot east of King Hill to setup for a shot. This is a pretty neat spot...first, the photo is not too bad. Additionally, eastbounds are wound-up for the run up King Hill. Add in a little bit of a canyon effect, and you get the sounds of the rails echoing around for a nice experience. Unfortunately, Tyler had no desire.

As I setup the tripods, Tyler was quite involved with some activity in the back seat, and did not want to get out. I figured he had to get out and check things out, wagering a little bit of fussiness would be worth it. Within a few minutes, we had the eastbound in sight, and Tyler's moans and whines turned into a quiet stare.

UP5391 came roaring by our location. Tyler's complaints quickly turned into glee, as he let me know a few times that we had a train going past. With this guy having a good set of power online, we quickly packed up, and bogeyed on up to Ticeska.

Ticeska is where it goes back to a single track railroad at the summit of the eastbound grade, with a seldom used road crossing for access to the Snake River. We setup our gear as we watched the eastbound climb upgrade toward us, and nabbed him at 09:44.

As we were arriving at Ticeska, we heard on the scanner that two westbounds were on their way, and would meet the eastbound stack train. I noticed the first westbound zipping toward after about 3/4 of the eastbound had passed, and turned Tyler's attention toward the east for the approaching westbound on track 1. Tyler was having a good time waving at the containers, and telling me they were "boxes dadda". The westbound came hollering past, and we were able to have an un-obstructed view of the last half of the train as the eastbound cleared the crossing. It was quite amusing as the tail end of the westbound neared, Tyler was saying, "boose, boose". His mother has been doing a good job teaching him steam engine, boxcar, and caboose with his Thomas the Tank items, and to my amazement, he knew that a caboose should bring up the rear. How to explain to dear Tyler that he was born about 18-20 years too late for that sort of thing.

Another westbound passed by about ten minutes later, and the eastbound was quick to start pulling, leaving the rails quiet for a little bit. Tyler was not at bay though, as he enjoyed being out in the open with day, and stirring up all sorts of trouble.

Things were quiet for sometime, but around 10:40ish, we had another eastbound pass by. Tyler was getting things down, and started his wave to the crew a good two minutes before they reached the crossing. You would think he would get tired, but no, that wave keeps going until the last car has passed, and he has closed things out with a "bye bye trraaaeeennn."

After the train cleared, Tyler was quite intent on seeing another train. As I was monkeying with the camera gear, he climbed into the driver seat and let me know that he wanted to see another train. He also informed me that the "tracks" were "there dadda." Helpful child.

We decided we would roll back west a little bit, and head back into Glenns Ferry (ok, I decided). I was not quite sure how much juice Tyler would have, and thought we might pull up between the tracks and the river in case he became too bored. Well, a few minutes after arriving at the west end of town, a westbound came rolling by as we gawked and waved. Ten minutes later, the Gooding local came west with a trio of SD40-2's rumbling along the river past the Tahoe. After the local cleared, we heard the scanner trip on track two, so we setup the camera for the oncoming eastbound.

It was just a pair of helpers coming back to town after shoving one of the earlier westbounds, but they drifted by slow enough for Tyler to crack a wry smile as he was waving and received a friendly wave from the engineer.

We hopped back in the Tahoe, and wandered between reading a model railroader, climbing around, to eating some string cheese. I was considering packing it up and calling it a day when the scanner crackled again, meaning another eastbound was a minute or two away. This time, I tried to see how Tyler would do standing next to me, instead of me holding him in his arms, but the situation was still a little too much, and he insisted on hanging off the left side of my body as UP4058 rolled by with autoracks.

After the train passed, I let Tyler down as I started to pack-up the gear. He caught his second wind, and was into anything and everything. Rocks, dirt, bugs on the ground to his toys and balls inside the Tahoe were all fair game. We spent another thirty minutes hanging between the back of the Tahoe and walking around the car.

The above photo was taken a couple seconds after the last rack cleared the OS at CPP376, and we were moseying back to the Tahoe. Tyler stopped, watching the eastbound round the bend into Glenns Ferry proper, and through his pacifier, you could here "Where go dadda?" That, folks, is my boy !

When we finished up playing, I popped on the Thomas movie, and about forty-three seconds later, Tyler was zonked for the remainder of the journey home. When we arrived, Ralph greeted us (loudly), so Tyler woke up as I was carrying him inside. So, Flossie made us some lunch, and he scarffed down several chicken nuggets before nap time. Nap time was a little shorter than normal, but all in all, Tyler did pretty well. I hated to break-up the rest period between driving home and trying to get him in the crib, but what can you do.

Stay tuned for more adventures of Tyler and Dad...trackside in Idaho.