Introducing Orange Julius, HawkinsRails' latest chase vehicle. Unknowing friends assumed the color must be for a Southeastern Conference football team. Nope. Someone else dubbed it the "Great Pumkin." Maybe. Linus is a hero of mine. "Orange Crush" was a potential. I joked it could double as the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard. Hello Daisy! But the truth is that my Ella chose the color, and I'm glad she did. A Facebook pal dubbed it "Orange Julius," and the nomenclature has stuck for sure. OJ has quickly become our favorite chase ride thus far.

It quickly occurred to me that OJ is about as close as I can get to an Illinois Central Gulf "Paducah" orange, a happy parallel to the color scheme of HawkinsRails.net. My fondness for orange (with gray and white) is a nod to the colors of my boyhood railfanning on the Shoreline Branch of the Illinois Central Gulf in southeastern Louisiana. And lately, maybe the color choice is a stroke of the similar hue of Genesee & Wyoming's shortline schemes, since I seem to be tracking a lot of their lines lately here in central Georgia. Regardless of the meaning of the skintone, Orange Julius is my new vehicle for all things HawkinsRails: chasing shortline movements to the next grade crossing, exploring dirt roads to find yet another abandoned right-of-way, or making cross-country relocation sprints toward the next location shot. Whatever the line, Orange Julius is on the move for the second decade of this website. Say hello at a grade crossing near you!