Soo Line 1003, Crane Foundation, and Department Picnic

 

This morning Travalon and I got going relatively early to go see the Soo Line 1003 steam engine. It was going from Horicon to Burnett, and we found a good place on Swan Road where the tracks crossed to watch it go by. We knew it was a good place because all the rail fans were gathered there with scanners and cameras. To our surprise, it went by backwards, and it didn't do a really convincing whistle while crossing the tracks, just a cute little toot for the benefit of the kids. Here is a video:

We didn't try to follow it to Burnett, or wait while it picked up coal for its journey back to Horicon, because we went to the Crane Foundation member appreciation event. On the way we stopped in Portage and saw two trains going in opposite directions in the rail yard. At the Crane Foundation, we got to talk to a vet, and I was curious how she got a specialty in avian medicine, so she told us how she started by working with flamingos at a reserve in South Africa. She said flamingos are "less stabby, but more smelly" than cranes - she said they smell like fish and shrimp. I asked if the half-sandhill, half-whooping crane was still there, and she brightened. "Whoopsie? Yes, he's still doing well!" She said his mate is a sandhill crane that was raised by whooping cranes, so that she is attracted to taller, whiter cranes than her own species, but Whoopsie is infertile so they never had chicks. He is a tall, white crane like a whooping crane, but with light silver gray on his back. Another interesting thing the vet said is that she treats a lot of cases of arthritis, because cranes in captivity can live to be fifty, so they get old age diseases.

Here are some photos of cranes at the Foundation. First is a black crowned crane. He apparently wasn't too nice to his mate, so they were separated, but they were calling to each other.

I can't remember the names of the next few cranes.

Here are the whooping cranes. It was very zen to watch them walk around in the water.

And Travalon's favorite, the Siberian cranes. He says they look like the wisest cranes.

Speaking of cranes, I forgot to mention this yesterday, but right after work I took a rosary walk, and just as I started out, the neighborhood pair of sandhill cranes flew in, noisily calling to each other. One landed inside the construction zone where Mariner's Inn used to be, which is surrounded by a fence, and one landed outside the fence. Then they stood there yelling at each other, so that it really looked like they were saying, "Get out of there!" "No, you come in here!" "No, YOU come out HERE!" Who can understand cranes? They're not stupid, but they're not really all that smart either.

Our last stop of the day was my department picnic. I was not excited to go, especially since someone had a spare ticket to APT tonight, and I haven't been all summer, but my sort-of boss really wanted me there. He even picked this date because I was busy the last two Saturdays. Usually Travalon and I go and everyone ignores us, but this time my sort-of boss and the chair and a professor sat and talked to us. When the chair saw my "Train Nerd" bag, he had to take a photo for his husband, who is a professional advocate for rail travel. If he ever shares this photo with me (and I'll note that I was also wearing a train hat), I can share it on this blog.

Here are screenshots of the train Travalon saw in Rio, which is the other side of one of the trains he saw in the Portage rail yard on Thursday. He wasn't expecting to see it, so he didn't have time to grab his good camera or think to turn his phone horizontally, but at least this time the vertical images don't have black patches on either side.

This is only the first half of the train. It was a very long train! Tune in tomorrow for the second half.

Famous Hat