The Railroad Grind

This morning, while I was in my bathrobe in the kitchen setting up a cup of coffee to brew, I heard an unusual rumbling from the general direction of the railroad. Looking out the kitchen window, at first I though the rail yard was on fire! However, I quickly realized that it was a rail-grinding train rumbling through slowly east resurfacing the rails. I ran to get my phone and even went out onto the front porch in my bathrobe and slippers (brr!), but I couldn't get my phone unlocked and into video mode fast enough to record the passing sparklers before they were hidden behind the cars spotted in the rail yard. In the pre-dawn twilight, it would have looked great on video.

A bit later that morning, I did get footage of the rail grinder, but it was much less spectacular.

( Heading for the Barn )

Railroads grind the rails periodically to resurface them and remove minor imperfections, allowing trains to run more smoothly. The rail grinding train includes water cars spraying down the tracks so they don't set things on fire.