Some Girls They Like Fried Green Tomatoes

Really? Fifteen years ago Kings' food was good. Not great, but good. Five years ago, it was kind of mediocre. These days it roils my stomach, and it all has the same aftertaste, which tastes like failure. I have no idea why my grandfather likes the place so much.

But this?

This is a new low. Is Kings' marketing department just whatever second-grade class is nearest? Is this an April Fools' prank that got lost in the shuffle until now? Why, oh why, does the placard say "Money Back Guaranteed" at the bottom? What a terrible restaurant. 

Running Blue, Going So Fast, What'll I Do?

I had a stroke of luck on Sunday. While my grandfather and I were at breakfast that morning, I checked the Heritage Units website to see if anything interesting was in the area. It turned out that we'd missed the Interstate unit while we were eating; but the site also revealed that the Conrail unit was on its way west at the point of an intermodal train!

Before anything else, I happened to catch this intermodal train eastbound.

The trailing units were of note; a shiny, freshly rebuilt SD60E and an uncommon standard-cab C44-9. The standard-cab Dash-9s will likely be getting rare soon, as Norfolk Southern will use them as the basis for DC-to-AC rebuilds, including new wide cabs. I also made a couple new friends - Phil (pictured) and Victoria. They live downtown. I'm a bit jealous.

Then a couple of autorack trains came by.

Strangely, my best shot of this one was a going-away shot.

I actually ended up waiting about an hour and a half for the Conrail unit to arrive, and here she is! I'd seen her previously with NKP 765 and the Pennsy unit on that horseshoe curve excursion a few years back, but seeing her on the road and on the point was a perfect catch.

I don't know why, but seeing the Heritage units start to get a little weathered, a little dusty makes seeing them more interesting. And after all, NS didn't buy them just for show - they're stock locomotives just like their more drab cousins and NS is gonna work them just as hard!