Sometimes it takes YEARS to realize just how good or how rare a photo you shoot is. Case in point: In early summer 1985, I chased the Chrysler train Eastward out of Belvidere. It had an oddball unit, the CNW 6500, which I knew was the prototype of the supposed SD45 rebuild program and one-of-a-kind numbers. I had never seen it before, so I had chased and shot the train since Belvidere Yard at several locations. At 10MPH, it wasnt a hard thing when you have what I chased it with. At Green Giant, I would usually go to the far East end of the lot and just watch the train go by....this time, I Parked the NEW Green Charger to get that portrait I had longed to get over the years, WHile the lead SD40-2 didnt co-operate, the 6500 DID in two poses! Well, I wanted the SD40-2 so away these got filed. Fast-forward to 3 years ago....these photos were found and re-examined. OMG how time had changed things! I STILL have the Charger....but shes no where NEAR as pretty....the CNW 6500 long ago left us, as did the CNW herself. Time and Age have played its awful game. As I sat there realizing what I DID NOT way back then, my Mother and Wife were listening....and to my surprise, they had a surprise Birthday party for me at a local pub...but the biggest surprise was the cake.....they had made a BIG Sheetcake with this image on it. What a beautiful bittersweet moment! Needless to say, I was in tears! But thats not the end of it....late last year the wife and I went to a train show. I seen an Athearn HO scale box that said CNW 6500. I pulled it out....and there she was...PERFECT model. Yep I was all choked up again....for many reasons.....but needless to say, it came home with me...not just to have another model train...but now I have the best of BOTH worlds....aint it funny how a picture taken almost 30 years ago can ilicit such emotion??
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 09:15:47 +0000
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