The 7 PM freight just rolled through. So it should be safe enough to walk out there…

The 7 PM freight just rolled through. So it should be safe enough to walk out there…
Nicollet Island, in the Mississippi in the middle of Minneapolis, has a lot of history and there’s been a railroad bridge across it since 1867. It’s changed over those 150 years: steel girders in 1893, rebuilt in 1926, modified a couple of times since, but still in use.
A few years ago I spent some time in Prague without much to do for most of the day. The core of the city is beautiful and modern, but as you get to the outskirts, things are a bit grittier. And that’s where my hotel was: miles from downtown, next to a big rail yard. A rumbling train came by every 40 minutes, all night long, past my open window. One day I walked down the road from the hotel, past a lot of rails and great big mechanical stuff, and happened onto a colorful sight.
Continue reading “A Train to Nowhere”