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Railfan. Foamer. AC4400. SD40 and a host of others… Four years ago I had never even heard these terms, they weren’t part of any vocabulary I was associated with, or so I thought.
Growing up in St. Paul, MN, there was ample opportunity to walk the rails that ran through much of the area in the early 60s. My memories of talking to "George," the guy in the caboose that stopped nightly in Maplewood, are vivid to this day. I clearly recall the pennies we put on the tracks and then waited for the train to arrive.
My history with the rail goes back even further then my memory will allow me to recall. My Mom and Dad tell the story of camping in Wisconsin Dells. The tracks ran through a valley and when I would hear the horn I would grab my little camp chair and run to the top of the ridge to watch the train go by. I was 4 years old. That would have been 1959; they must have been steam locomotives. Hard as I’ve tried, I have no memory, only my parent’s story.
My grandfather lived on Minnehaha Avenue just east of Dale St. The shops of the Great Northern were right across the street. I remember sitting on his front porch during our weekly visits watching all the action. It never occurred to me that I should take a picture or that these shops and most of the rail I walked as a kid would be gone. I never would have dreamed that a caboose would no longer be part of a train. Thank goodness that the foamers of the day did take the time to snap off a few pics.
So I have been a foamer at heart for many years, I just never knew it until 4 years ago when I discovered I could take a picture and post it for others to see. Since then, I have been snapping photos of everything and anything that has to do with railroading. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to document what I see today as it might be gone tomorrow. Perhaps a foamer of 2050 will say, "Boy, I’m glad those guys back in '06 took pics of that ACe, there aren’t any left now."
Thanks to this site, the opportunity to not only document with pictures exists, but also to "blog" or to tell a story. I look foreword to telling some stories, I hope you will enjoy them.