there is a train on the bike path

yes... it is true
there are times when on the Mount Vernon trail there can be a train on the Bike Path...
well... really just bisecting the bike path.... not riding on the bike path calling out "on your left"

the train obstructed me just the same
parked bi-secting the bike path just south of Old Town

no... I am not complaining
in fact... I did not mind it
actually... I enjoyed it
the train fascinates me

it is amazing to get that close to the engine
it was stopped with the engine off
things fired up after I had the time to snap one or two shots
not thinking that there was much time I failed to really compose the shot

snapped some shots just the same

for a second I considered putting a few coins on the track just like I did on the tracks that ran through downtown Bethesda when I was a kid

oh yea... that is one of those things that old guys say... telling the whipper snappers about how it was
when I was a kid
telling them how I rode my bicycle on the rail road ties... not the rail... but bumping over the ties on the tracks where trains once ran and now the Capital Crescent Trail stands
we didn't have no paved trail!

yes... a train ran through downtown Bethesda on those tracks... going through the tunnel... the tunnel that makes the Air Rights building the Air Rights building

I put more than pennies on those tracks...
as a fourth grade kid in the 70's there was a little more Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn left in the world
this guy Tony Morgan and I would walk the tracks... break bottles... and even hop the train
yes... we hoped the train... we could have died for sure

yes... the train came to a near stop in downtown Bethesda
but the train picked up speed by the time it crossed over Massachusetts Avenue!

not wanting to spend any more time in Old Town Alexandria I snapped my shots and then crossed over the tracks in front of the train
wondering when it was going to move
it started up and then stopped and I kept rolling

very cool to see it start up and move
it shakes the earth
even at low speed it shook the earth around it