She is a flash of color stepping out to a La Grange two-stroke rhythm as she glides along on silvered trucks through a hot Texas summerscape, sun glinting off her flanks, the reds of Deramus and Barriger III patterned in broad diagonals reminiscent of the John Deere paradigm that has long since shifted to memory and Armor yellow.
Her herald, proudly worn as a Coat-of-Arms, signifies her heritage as Granger Road Royalty; a scrappy Scarlet O’Hara of the Southwest whose corporate identity outlasted that of the legendary yet decayed Rock Island by eight years, and under the umbrella of the Union Pacific was spared the piecemeal quartering that was to be the fate of the aforementioned Route of the Rockets.
In true Southern Belle fashion, Miss Katy married well, and here at Milepost 201 on the Austin Subdivision she is resplendent in all her finery as she strolls northward through Kyle, Texas at 5:27 of a bright and wickedly hot August 6th, 2019.
She’s got double-stacks for Illinois at her heels, a cortège of sorts quite befitting of her elevated status.
But there will be no dawdling along the way.
Rick Malo©2019