“Lions at Lyons” ~ Its roar can be heard many minutes before coming into sight: pounding, literally slogging up the grade just west of Spokane Washington on the old Great Northern Railway mainline, a long and loaded Emerald City bound BNSF Railway double-stack hits the curve with all its might at the east end of Lyons, milepost 1489.8, (miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul, the historic headquarters of James Jerome Hill’s - aka the “Empire Builder” - Great Northern Railway) but not before ducking under the old but faithful humpbacked wood bridge - just outside the frame - that lifts Euclid Road up and over the three General Electric and one Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives-in-charge as they expend every ounce of their combined continuous tractive effort of 472,000 pounds and 17,500 horsepower upon the ribbon rail and concrete ties (aka sleepers) betrayed by the exhaust heat waves that distort the train. One can only wonder what the one-eyed visionary Hill would think of how his “Empire” has grown and prospered under the contemporary visionary and modern-day empire builder, Warren Buffett. ▪ Locomotive details: BNSF 5270 C44-9W, BNSF 3810 ET44C4, BNSF 9105 SD70Ace, and BNSF 4130 C44-9W ▪ GPS details: 47.686874,-117.571324
