July 10, 2008 I've found out over my 50+ years that luck can run from the very good to the very bad and all points in-between; it also tends to run in streaks that can vary in length. I would like to share a two day streak of what I considered some very good luck. To begin the story I need to set the table a little bit.

I have been in the proverbial black hole of railfanning for the past 8 or 9 months. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been trackside in that span of time. As a matter of fact I could be missing a few fingers and still count on one hand the number of times trackside. The reasons (all valid and good) are not as important as the fact that I miss that part of my life. Because of the fact that I've missed it so much, whenever I travel around the Metro (or anywhere for that matter) I try to drive along roads where I know I can get a glimpse of the tracks and perhaps a train.

My journey started out in St. Paul from the Hospital where I work and my destination was a clinic over by Como and 280. I first crossed over the BNSF Midway sub with not a train in sight, shrugging my shoulders in mild disgust; I continued along Como Ave. Coming up to the BNSF St. Paul Sub crossing on Como Ave, I was muttering to some unknown person that it would be great if the crossing arms would drop and I could see a train. To my utter surprise they did just that and I was the 1st car in line.

Heading west was a BNSF Stacker train moving at an incredibly slow speed, which didn't bother me in the least - as I had a chance to view it that much longer. Looking to my right I eventually saw the tail end coming into view, I was reaching over to start the engine (one must save gas you know) when a rumble to my left made me turn and once again to my surprise was an eastbound BNSF stacker train. The tail end of the westbounder and the engine of the eastbounder crossed Como Ave at the same moment leaving the crossing arms down for another long slow moving train. Now hold onto your cabooses for this part: Just as this eastbounder cleared the road, another west bound CP train came rumbling up the hill and the crossing arms remained down.

Three trains without the crossing arms going up, simply amazing and I enjoyed every minute of it. The same could not be said for the mile long pile of traffic behind me, but I didn't care, I just had a front row seat for three straight trains.

Moving on to the clinic for my presentation I was in high spirits and feeling very lucky. After I was done I headed back the same way I had come over thinking to myself, "What are the odds that I would catch another train at Como Ave?" You guessed it, first in line for another westbound BNSF. I went home from work that day feeling better then I had in a long time. I mentioned 2 days of good luck so you know what's coming next.

Thursday, July 3rd, the wife and I are heading up to Duluth for the weekend. We needed to take care of some business in Cambridge so I had the opportunity to follow the Hinckley Sub north. To make the story a little shorter I can tell you that we were first in line at the crossings in Cambridge, Braham and Sandstone for 3 more trains.

First in line at a crossing 7 times in two days, it almost seemed like the Tahoe was tripping the crossing arms and a train just happened to be there. While the engines were nothing spectacular and I didn't have my camera, I still felt very lucky to have seen, heard and felt that which I have been missing these last long months.

Being lucky is sometimes better then being good.

Thanks for reading.