Dawn Chorus…

5am the alarm roused me from a disturbed sleep, restless these last few days I’ve found myself filled with melancholy that my planned trip to Claremont may well be the last chance to capture the plucky 44 tonners on street running in New England…

I wasn’t sure the Rabbit would start, poor thing. These cold New England winters have taken their toll on her German reliability. On the third attempt she thankfully spluttered to life and I made my way along quiet roads to the old Co-op mill on Prince Street, hoping I’d catch the crew before their trip with another load of waste paper for pulping at Coy.

Coffee starved, bleary eyed I heard it before I saw it, the distinctive thrashing of its Caterpillar power giving the un-initiated the impression it was hauling thirty box cars, no, just one heavy mother of a CN 40ft-er. I scrambled out the car, and thankfully the crew stopped to discuss something, time enough to haul that decrepit old tripod of mine out the trunk and setup this shot. In these days before digital it was all a hope and a prayer with my old Olympus, no time for concern, a quick light check and ‘click’, set the 10 second delay. As I look back on this old slide I still feel the same melancholy as I did that morning, yet remember the warm feeling as the day dawned, the chorus of the 44tonner and the draw of a hot coffee and breakfast to follow at Jane’s downtown. 

Today’s fiction was brought to you from the sofa in North Wales, where my passion for shortlines, trains and nostalgia for a simpler time sometimes create these wonderful blends of model-making and fiction. Where the models themselves go beyond to become art, through my words and your reading of them. Have a great weekend, until next time more soon…

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