I launched Sancho the drone from the shore of Wasilla Lake at 6:50 AM to seek out a decent angle and altitude to photograph the morning freight train from. I had only managed to get in about three sips of coffee after about four hours of sleep and felt sleep deprived. I heard the whistle blow. “How nice it would be,” I thought, “to lie in bed in one of those condos down below and to hear the soothing sound of the whistle, the clickety clakety lullaby of steel wheels on steel tracks and to fall sweetly back to sleep.   At least that’s how it had been for me as a kid, when my family lived less than two blocks away from the railroad track in Missoula, Montana. I loved to hear those soothing train sounds as I lay in bed at night, waiting for sleep. Maybe that’s why I’ve undertaken this crazy project. Knik Arm and Cook Inlet in background. Wasilla, 7/18/20 Photograph courtesy of Bill Hess