When you first walk onto the tracks, at the site where they cross the street, it's just a single set of tracks. As you continue to walk, it quickly splits and becomes two tracks, and one of those tracks splits and splits again so that it becomes three, and the first track meets up with a track coming out of the marine terminal on the left, and then more tracks from other industrial sites join in, and by the time you reach the big curve the one set of tracks has become ten.
Soon there are trees that separate an abandoned and overgrown section of tracks. The rustling movement of the brush on the tracks sounds like small animals moving about, and it is spooky and mysterious and wonderful.
It's quiet on the main lines, the only noise the sound of gravel crunching underfoot, and the distant sound of traffic on the highway. The gleam from the rails suggests the possibility of an oncoming train, so it's best to stay attentive and alert.
One night on tracks near my home, I was busy with tripod and camera when the lights on two locomotives parked down aways flashed on. In a few minutes they were joined by what looked like security vehicles with much brighter lights. It seemed they were telling me with their lights to get off the tracks.
All the lights lit up a line of freight cars sitting in darkness.
And this was too good to just walk away from, so I took several more shots before leaving.
I sat in my car for several minutes, and then walked back to the tracks. The lights on the locomotives were off, and the security vehicles were gone.