Riding the rails

Austin and I are sitting in the lower level of Union Pacific Railroad observation car, waiting to get underway a full hour after the announced departure time.
It's a free ride for the public, so I guess I can't complain.
The trip is meant to dramatize the problem of morons getting killed at railroad crossings.
Maria is here for the paper, so she's riding in the engine with her camera.

Later...

The trip was a short jaunt, just a few miles up the tracks to Brookland and back.
During the pause at Brookland, the organizers let those of us on the lower deck of the 1950s vintage observation car Columbine trade places with the folks who had stampeded ahead of us to the upper deck on the outward-bound trip.
There were about 150 of us aboard for the first trip of the day and an equal number of riders was waiting to ride by the time we got back to the station.