Gas Stop On The Hi-Line - Shelby, Montana

"Go back to sleep. The hour is small.

     A freight train between stations

Shook you out of sleep with all

        Its lonely ululations....

The hour is small. Resume your rest. 

        Tomorrow will be kinder. 

Here comes a freight train nosing west, 

        Pulling the dawn behind her."

- From Lullaby Near the Railroad Tracks by A. E. Stallings

Read the full text of this lovely train poem here.

Super-Size Me - Missoula, Montana

"Last month at church, she had embarrassed herself half to death. 
The correct quote was, "I am a vessel for God's love, " but she had read out loud in front of the entire congregation, " I am a weasel for God's love." 
Earle had said that no one had noticed, but of course, they had." 

- Fannie Flagg, in The All-Girl's Filling Station's Last Reunion

 

Truth be told, I've been hoarding this quote for about a year, awaiting just the right "vessel" photo pairing.  Finally, I decided these tanker cars are a fitting match; not just because I'm tired of waiting and I love the train lines from this overpass view, but also because it's entirely fitting to aspire to be an industrial-sized transporter of God's love.(Right?!)

Perhaps a little stretch - "I'm a tanker car for Jesus" evokes a slightly different charm than "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam"... but it works - particularly for Thomas the Train fans!  
Just keep it on the rails and away from incendiary situations.

Restless For - Missoula, Montana

"The restlessness and the longing, like the longing that is in the whistle of a faraway train. Except that the longing isn't really in the whistle—it is in you."

-Meindert DeJong, The Little Cow and the Turtle

Pending Motion - Missoula, Montana

"So when I watch trains, it makes me think about how much movement there is in the world. How every train has dozens of cars and every car has hundreds of parts, and all those parts and cars work day after day. 

And then there are all these other motions. People are born and die. Seasons change. Rivers flow to the sea. Earth circles the sun and the moon circles Earth. Everything whirring and spinning toward something. 

And I get to be part of it for a little while, the way I get to watch a train for a minute or two, and then it's gone."

-Jeff Zentner, The Serpent King

(Mostly) Red Rungs - Missoula, Montana

"Every author really wants to have letters printed in the papers. Unable to make the grade, he drops down a rung of the ladder and writes novels."

- P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975)

Springy - Missoula, Montana

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.” - Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

Saturday Railyard - Missoula, Montana

"As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were." - Paul Johnson

Unintended Canvas - Missoula, Montana

Fences stand with great intent - 
to keep in, 
to keep out, 
to keep safe,
to shield...

And despite focused planning, they may stand, too,
as an unintended canvas 
for those who subscribe to these words from a renowned ponderer: 
“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”  - Henry David Thoreau

Looking Forward, Livingston, Montana

The Train of Life
by Marv Hardin

"Some folks ride the train of life,
looking out the rear,
Watching miles of life roll by,
and marking every year.

They sit in sad remembrance,
of wasted days gone by,
And curse their life for what it was,
and hang their head and cry.

But I don't concern myself with that,
I took a different bent,
I look forward to what life holds,
and not what has been spent.

So strap me to the engine,
as securely as i can be,
I want to be out on the front,
to see what I can see.

I want to feel the winds of change,
blowing in my face..."

There’s more to this though-provoker; read the rest here.

Classic Montana Downtown, Livingston, Montana

The crisp grandeur of Livingston’s
mountain air invigorated me, body and soul, and the rounded rumble of her passing trains lulled me to sleep each night.

Perspective Switch, Missoula, Montana

As I typed the title of today's post, thoughts began to swirl: convergence, change, New Year perspectives, switching to a new track, derailing old habits - you see where this could go, I'm sure. But, lucky for you, my lunch hour is drawing to a close too swiftly for any cohesive confluence of thought to make it to this page, so you'll have to apply the above dribble of pump-primer to your own brain.

Heading Home for Christmas

Yes, the title's a little nostalgic, & you're prob'ly humming along with Bing Crosby by now.... railroad tracks heading off to whatever waits around the bend have been known to bring on a fit of wistfulness.