KALAMAZOO, MI - When a freight train stopped on the tracks during rush hour in downtown Kalamazoo Thursday morning, one man knew just what to do to turn drivers' frowns upside down.

Phil Qualls, manager at Ferguson Plumbing Supplies, 409 E Kalamazoo Ave, began serving up coffee to drivers stuck waiting.

Matt Landon from DL Divers, who happened to be in the store as a customer, stepped outside to capture the gesture in photos he submitted to the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Qualls said the train passes his store every morning, and today it stopped on the tracks. "It seemed like it was going to be one of those days. I thought about how I'd feel if I was waiting, especially if I was a worker who had maybe been late for work before and was maybe going to get written up" if late again, he said.

Hoping to lighten the atmosphere, he decided he would walk up and down the line of cars, offering coffee.

Qualls brewed a couple of pots, and assembled cups, stir sticks, cream and sugar on a makeshift tray he fashioned from the top of a cardboard carton.

"I only had two hands," he said.

He distributed cups to 15-20 drivers, he said. By the time he came back to fetch another pot, the train had started moving again.

Landon said the action provided "a little relief for those stopped by the 7 a.m. train."

That was his whole intent, Qualls said -- to make someone's day a little better in a situation that can get so frustrating.

"Pass it on, do something nice," Qualls figured.

Shasta Duffey, vice president of marketing and sales for Grand Elk Railroad, which is headquartered in Kalamazoo, said the 150-car train was headed south to Elkhart this morning around 7 a.m. when it began to register a problem with its air brakes.

"Federal law requires a proper amount of air to occupy a train for braking from the head end to the rear of the train," Duffey explained, so there was no choice but to stop the train and fix the problem by recharging the air.

Duffey said the company's goal is always to move trains as quickly as possible to keep traffic moving.

"However, safety will always prevail," she said.

The delay lasted about 25 minutes, according to Duffey and to Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, which received a single call about the tie-up, Lt Scott Boling said.

Rosemary Parker is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette and MLive.com. Contact her at rparker3@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter@rosemaryreal.