Sorry, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I wanted to make this post because I've recently become a glass insulator collector, and eventually I realized that I might be able to lend some food-for-thought here. See, most people just have simple poles without wires if they even bother with the poles, and they all look identical, full racks of insulators, maybe not even colored like insulators. I saw a article in a MRR magazine by Pelle Søeborg on trackside telegraph poles.

I was walking to the library with Christine. We have to cross the BNSF tracks through Longmont, CO, to get there. I wanted to record a train at a grade crossing as a ringtone for my phone. Well, today there was a train approaching as we crossed the tracks. So I got out my phone and used the video to capture the sounds. I wasn't really looking at the train as it approached. I didn't see what it was until I was recording, The video is not the best because I really wasn't thinking "video" when I started. It was an interesting very short train. 

I'm on a BCRY MOW car kick lately, as I'd like to have some models of rolling stock that the shortline actually owns.  It began with the cut down gons which I've just started, and now I'm tackling ballast hoppers.  As anyone familiar with N knows, there are basically two RTR ballast hoppers available; the beautifully done Atlas 70-ton Hart hopper and the generic Walthers hopper with crude 70s-era tooling.  This ended up being a rather tough decision...