The Sucker Hole

We've all heard about the proverbial "sucker hole" from time to time. It's a railfan tradition, kind of the opposite of getting "mullered". Heck, I've even been lucky enough to experience a sucker hole or three over the last 5 or so years of railfan photography.

Here's a picture of one, from last Sunday when Mrs. L4T, the (not so) young son, and myself headed over to Brainerd. You'll love this first part-I was crossing the tracks in Wadena, and sure enough, saw a headlight approaching from the west. The sun wasn't all the way around yet, so a photo from Oink Joint Road seemed in order. This first one is a long distance attempt, only posted to share the situation with the sun as the train approached:


Nervous glances at the sky and the train ensued as he came nearer. Just as hope was to expire, the sun broke through for a bit, resulting in some light on the head of the train, as seen here:


Which was great. The thing that made this series of photos, though, was the return of the clouds, even before the engine reached the crossing. I kept shooting and got this, again under cloudy skies.


This seemed to be one of those rare times when some combination of finger crossing, prayer, and hope came together with the actual power to move clouds, for a minute at least. It doesn't get much better than that!