25°50'29.4"N 80°11'47.6"W
Fright trains hold a specific place in my psyche. Even though I really didn’t like the book, “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, I romanticized about seeing the country by freight train. During 2006 when I was living in Alaska and laid off from Noritsu, I tried applying to the railroad. With 20/20 hindsight, thankfully, that didn’t work out. While I would have loved to have remained living in AIaska, I fully understood that it would be a terrible way to see the country; but I connect with the idea of traveling across the country and being On The Road. Much of my early photography, including my senior exhibition for undergrad graduation, focused on my travels, On The Road, with Roxy, my 1977 Corvette. Through the years there have been many memories of trains, but two really stood out when I shot and edited this image.
When I was in high school, a friend was killed late one night while driving on a country road when she ran into the broadside of a freight train that was traveling at high speed. There were no crossing lights at the intersection. It was a dark night. It was moonless night. And based on the lack of skid marks, she never knew what she hit. Even worse, her toddler was in the car with her. In an ironic twist, I found out about the accident the next evening when I arrived at the home of a date. I learned not only of the death of my friend, but that she was a mutual friend of my date.
For many years, my wife and I have lived in a townhouse about 40 yards from train tracks that have freight and commuter trains rolling back and forth most of the day and evening. For the most part, we rarely hear the trains go past. But, the trains have been a constant source of entertainment for our sons. Each of them, between 18 months and 3 years old, have run to the door screaming that “Freighty” is going past! Not until I I take them out and let them watch the train cars rubble by from my shoulders - counting the cars, naming the colors until the last car passes - would they stop shouting. Of course, I never let on that I loved doing that with them. If I had, they would have quickly forgotten about the trains and wanted to watch Blippi instead!