Ever since I was a tiny girl, I've been fascinated by trains. It probably has something to do with spending the first few years of my life in Sierra Blanca, Texas. This was a town with one reason to live, the round house for the train engines. We lived on the block of houses right along the track.

It might also have something to do with the game my mother played when we travelled - Catch the Train. Of course, in those days (okay, the 1950s), it was difficult to do with a new car, and ours was anything but new. We almost never could keep up with the train, let alone pass it. However, after all these years, I'm always on the lookout for a train to catch.

Driving from Benson to Tucson, I spotted this one. In our Dodge Ram V10, it was no trouble to catch it, pass it, stop in Tucson for lunch at McDonald's, and catch it again. So I took a series of pictures. Catching a good picture is now the game. Mama would have loved playing!

Yes, all four of the first pictures are of the same train.
The front half was mostly white cars, and the back half was mostly colors.







I'm always interested in strange effects. I was focusing on the train. It and the mountain are in focus. The tree, which happened to get in the way, is not. Yet, I liked the way the train looked, through the tree.



I knew you wanted a good shot of the mountain of the valley of the train.



In Spanish, Ranchito means little ranch. Go figure. Here is one.

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