A long day... CN 451 with 2642 and BCOL 4513 (plus the local geep dead-in-tow returning to Huntsville) passes a sign with some rather obvious advise as the snow starts up once more. The sign historically had one of those fire safety rating indicators that looked like a speedometer (or a pie chart) with a manually set arrow. For the past few years the arrow always pointed to "moderate" through snow, floods, or droughts with forest fires burning less than a dozen miles away, so I suppose this one is an improvement! Look closely at the somewhat mangled handrails on the front of 2642, they smucked a downed tree 25 or so miles back, just after calling in that they were running low on hours. They were instructed to yard the train at Huntsville but they first had to set out a long string of cars at Martins as the train was too long to all fit on the single available track at Huntsville. Here they have just left Martins after completing the drop. After setting out the regular Huntsville loads (plus the geep, 4132) and tying their train down in the Huntsville Yard they were cabbed to the local EconoLodge with instructions that they weren't allowed to get the train back underway before 18:00 hrs. Had this been a week day they would probably have had a relief crew waiting for them when they got to town.
