"Sucker Hole King"

Perhaps one of the greatest victories in railfanning is a well-timed hole in an otherwise cloudy sky revealing the sunshine.

 

Flurries were flying most of the day when an 86-car St Cloud local came out of Northtown.

As you can tell, the sucker hole lined up perfectly with the train's arrival. I wasn't originally going to set up in downtown Big Lake, but when I saw a hole in the clouds, I just had hope and went for it, so glad I did.

 

Leading the local on this day is BNSF 2240, a GP38-2R. What's fascinating about this unit is when it was repainted in the late 2000s to its current paint, the headlight was moved from the cab to the nose. Yet within the last couple of years, that was reversed when PTC was installed.

 

High-headlights are a weird fetish of mine when it comes to older BNSF power these days, I like it. In fact, the geep being a cab-mounted headlight is why I went out for it.

 

Anyway, another victory thanks to the sucker-hole magic I apparently possess. They call me sucker-hole king now, not sure I'd go that far, but I have been really blessed with good luck lately.

 

L-TWI8121-21I

BNSF 2240 - GP38-2R

BNSF 2649 - GP39-3

Done