This is a story about a U.S. Mail truck. The same kind you see going up and down neighborhood streets, or parked behind the local post office branch in your town or neighborhood. Nothing unusual about that. The other is a full size red fire truck. The same kind you see at your local fire station and a historic Zephyr east bound (6) and west bound (5) from California to Lake Michigan. and the Windy City.
About a month ago, when all the nesting hawks, ospreys, owls and eagles had fledged their nest, most of the web cams were turned off for the balance of the year. The experts say that it only takes 30 days of doing something routinely before it becomes a habit. And, yes, after the birds were gone from the nest, it was more difficult to find a good web cam to watch. The resorts are rather dumb. The airports pan to much and don't focus on the action stuff. The scenic sites are no where near as good as a good IMAX movie so those are out. Then, I'm thinking, my like for watching trains is still active. Why not look for live web cams of trains coming and going. It didn't take long before I had found a link to some pretty neat train cams. Freight trains are good because they are made up of all kinds of cars. Then, there are coal trains that are hopper car after hopper car after hopper car for more than a mile. At least watching a container train you get variety. Twenty-footers, forty footers, red ones, blues ones, green ones, white ones, rusty ones and once in a while a slip deck that is all open on the bottom except where the container sits on rockers.Those are unusual and can be rather interesting.
But, the best part was that an Amtrak came through twice a day. It runs from Emeryville, California to Chicago. It's known east bound as the California Zephyr No. 6 and its known west bound as the California Zephyr No. 5. The little thing to remember here is that I have actually ridden this train. It was a delight years ago and I have a deep yearning to do it again. However, there is not an arrive time but there is a departure time. The reason for that is that Amtrak shares the Union Pacific tracks through the mountains to Denver and shares the tracks with Burlington Northern Santa Fe from Denver to Chicago. And where that happens, one must remember that freight revenue over passengers is always Trump (nothing to do with the elections, thank goodness). However, being a good student of transportation, it didn't take long to get the system down to where you could be more accurate than the station boards.
The west bound is always able to make up 7 minutes, so if the station
boards say that the train is running 32 minutes late, he will actually
only be twenty-five minutes late. You also learn that it takes on that
section of track 1 hour to go from point A to point B. So when you do
the calculations--which my train friends call "railroading", you can
actually plan, go put away the dishes or start dinner or load the
dishwasher and not miss seeing the cool blue and gray engines pulling
the 9 cars, sometimes, even twelve or thirteen. The eighth car is always
the dining car. One of the coolest cars on the train. Amtrak does carry certified chefs on board that actually prepare the meals. The week before
Labor Day, he was pulling 12 cars. Even had a club car one day and a
scenic vista car one day. He also had an old private Pullman car, which
is the way to travel for sure. Those cars are fantastic and private. They
are of the vintage of presidential campaign cars where you see the
bunting on the back deck and the candidate waving to the crowds! A
rather romantic version of a time gone by and most unfortunate it only survives sporadically. At one time, you could have the railroad pull your car anywhere for a dollar a mile. Still cheaper today than a private jet, flight crew, but certainly more laid back and enjoyable than a jet. That's for sure.
So, in this little town seen via web cam, there are two gas stations on a very wide and well planned out street corner just up from the rail station. The stations face the cross streets with their "C" store operations and their pumps in this beehive California town. The town is up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and is a typical vacation spot for camping, skiing, boating, hiking, back-packing, hotel and restaurant fans along with daily local activities.
So, a couple of days ago, this mail truck pulled into the one station that is more for the townies than the other one. The other: a name brand station and people off the interstate. Travelers can use their brand credit cards there. But, generally, the business is pretty equal but weighted to the local station 3:2. It's judged by the number of fill ups ordered up by the station more than anything else. I was a bit shocked to see a mail truck getting gas at a local gas station but when you think about where this is, it probably make more sense than maintaining a tank and dispensing facility at the post office. Plus, maybe you don't want that around the trucks or what ever.
Two days after seeing the first mail truck come in to get gas, a second mail truck came in to the station across the street. Being struck as funny, I said out loud, "Oh, look at that, an equal opportunity gas pumper!" Two days later, the mail truck was in at the local station again.
Today, while getting gas at my Kroger gas station, I was pulling in to my regular side that had no one at either pumps, but the middle and far right pumps were full. So, not being a total jerk, I pulled up allowing someone to come in behind me normally instead of having to jockey around to get to the empty pump. As I was getting out of the car, this big red fire truck pulled in and was going around the station. Not to worry. He must be doing an inspection or something I though, until he pulled up right behind me. In my many decades of filling up my car, I have never had a fire truck pull up behind me, get out of the truck and do the same routine that I'm doing. The fireman walked up to the door of his truck after beginning his fill up. I said to the fireman, that," I had seen on a web cam that I watch trains on, a mail truck get gas at one station and then go across the street the next time to the other station and get gas and I had called him an equal opportunity gas pumper. When I saw you pull in it reminded me of that! I had to chuckle." He acknowledged the humor.
Upon leaving the station the thought occurred to me that no one is going to believe me that I had just gassed up at Kroger's next to a full size fire pumper. So I went back to get a shot. As I was driving on to the lake to see if the pelicans had arrived ( and they had) another thought occurred to me that they shop at Kroger's and like anyone else, get fuel points too. I wondered if they do, indeed, get full points for diesel. So, long story shot, I have seen another equal opportunity pumper for real and this one really was a pumper.
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| Equal Opportunity Fuel Points! |
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| The Pelicans have returned and greeted by the turtles |
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| 100 cars of this is rather boring. Seeing 8 engines pull a mile long train over the mountains wasn't. |
24/09/2016:edited for clarity
