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[Bill_Anderson]

I don't know what the temperature was in Edmonds today, but it was warm. I got up too late for a long ride, so rode down to the off leash dog park on the south end of the Edmonds waterfront to watch my friend Bob, who owns a fastest color 748, take his two Great Danes for a romp. One of Bob's friends arrived later with two Great Danes of his own. That is a lot of canine on the move.

After Bob left, I rode the Duc to my favorite train watching spot on Sunset Ave. above the tracks. I was stopped at a street crossing for the arriving Empire Builder. While waiting for it to pass, a white haired guy on the sidewalk was looking at the Duc and gave me the thumbs up. I think he continued to stand there just to hear the Duc as I pulled away once the crossing gates came up.

I got to my spot on Sunset Ave. as the Empire Builder left town. A southbound freight was parked at the end of the double track mainline waiting for the northbound afternoon passenger fleet to clear the single track through Edmonds.

After the Empire Builder and a second commuter train rolled through, the
engineer of the waiting freight got out of the cab to watch a northbound freight roll by. After the freight passed, he climbed up the bank, walked over to me, and said, "Aren't you Bill Anderson?"

Needless to say, that took me by surprise. I assumed he knew me from one of the online railfan groups that I belong to. He introduced himself and said that he knew me through a local Ducati online group. He rides a 999 and his brother, who is also a train engineer, rides an ST4s. As we talked, I realized that had I met him and his brother on a ride two years ago.

Posted below is a photo of his train and the one he was inspecting before he came up to talk to me. Because of the low light, you can just see him trackside when you enlarge the photo. Our meeting was a very unusual coalescing of my two favorite hobbies.