A smell of creosote from stacks of fresh ties mixes in with hot, humid air of a late spring day at Brookfield, Wisconsin. Bells start ringing and gates drop as another train approaches on now Soo Line’s main line. Horns blazing, train 203 slams across the grade crossing, with defiant Milwaukee Road SD40-2 No. 174 leading the way. The hot auto parts train bound for the Twin Cities bellows by with a swirl of hot diesel exhaust and flying dust. Tall boxcars and flatcars loaded with auto frames quickly follow, clattering by on the jointed rail of the westbound main. As the last car clears, bells are heard again, with gates slowly rising. Motorcycles cross the tracks roaring up the hill on Brookfield Road, and a quiet returns to the hot, humid day of June 7, 1987.
