Pesky traffic lights
On Wednesday evening, I was stuck working late, and I got out of work about 25 minutes before the northbound Coast Starlate was scheduled to arrive in Portland. I thought that if I hurried I could get to Powell and Milwaukie early enough to walk north to the SP Yellow Menace mainline and get a picture of the train as it crossed 11th and 12th streets. It was still rush hour, so the bus took just a little less than forever to creep across the Ross Island bridge, but when it dropped me off at Powell and Milwaukie my watch said there was still about 15 minutes until the train was supposed to arrive at Union Station (2 miles and 10 minutes north, so I had maybe five minutes to get down to the crossing.)
But the light was against me. On Powell, during rush hour, with what seems like a 3-minute cycle. I pushed the "walk, please" button and waited impatiently for the light to change. Then I looked east towards the Powell bridge and saw #14 sweep across it. The light was still red, so my plans for getting a closer picture evaporated with a *toooooot* *tooooot* *toot* *tooooot* as the train whooshed by, three blocks away.
Oh, drat.