It was just about time for breakfast and he knew Mom would be shouting at him to come in for his usual bowl of corn flakes any moment now, but he was busy waiting for the train to pass by outside his house.
The same train came by every day about this time on its way to the sawmill a few miles further up the tracks. He liked to watch and wave to the engineer who would say hello with a short and quick double blast of the horn and give him a wave out the window. The engineer and the boy had never actually met but they both felt a certain connection when they saw each other.
However, there was something very different this morning. Normally the train would move past him at a slow rate of speed, but today it was racing by at twice its normal speed. And, the engineer hadn’t waved or tooted the horn like he always did every morning. Yes, something was wrong and even though he was just a boy, he had a bad feeling that it was about to get worse.
The huge train started to round the final bend in the tracks before entering town. Normally he could watch the cars pass slowly by as the wheels put out their normal click-clack-click-clack rhythm, but today those steel wheels were really loud, so loud in fact they were screeching out a metal on metal shrill that if you heard it you would might think the train was about to run off the tracks at any minute.
Because of the long bend in the track, he couldn’t see what was happening further up ahead, but he knew something wasn’t right, in fact, something terrible. Then he heard that noise way ahead. A noise that once you’ve heard it, you’d never forget it…..
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William Henderson loved trains. He always did, and after years of applying, he was finally hired as a trainee for the largest railroad in the state. This was his fourth week of training where he would work toward achieving his dream of becoming an engineer, crisscrossing the country. He’d never even been out of the county, let alone the state, and now he was about to take the first steps toward seeing all the places he had only seen in pictures of old National Geographic magazines at the barbershop. William, or Bill to his friends, was drawn to the beautiful color pictures of mountains, the plains and the coasts. He could hardly wait, but he had to wait because the company wasn’t about to put him in charge of a half-mile long train pulling millions of dollars worth of cargo like iron ore, wood, and tankers full of diesel fuel.
No, he would get his chance to be an engineer, just not for some time and only after serving two years as a conductor first and then another two years of extensive training in an Engineer in Training Program and ultimately certification as an Engineer. All that was okay with him, because he was well aware of the responsibilities he would have to accept and be prepared to respond to any and all eventualities should a situation or God forbid, an emergency arise.
During his first couple of weeks on the job, William spent most of it inside a classroom in the company training center with the main focus centered around safety procedures and gaining an understanding of the limits of a freight train including the train’s weight, speed and stopping distance. He had to study and became familiar with the various signs and signals on the sides of the track during all trips. Signs that let the crew know about speed limits, track issues ahead and a whole host of other signals designed to maintain safety at all times. He was surprised to learn that there are signs that tell the engineer when to use the horn when approaching a crossing and even how many times to blow it.
One fascinating fact was that a typical freight train traveling at 55 miles an hour, takes at least a mile to stop under emergency braking conditions.
Another exercise was learning how to “walk the train“ as they called it, to perform a visual inspection of the wheels, air hoses, external lights and of course, those large metal couplings between each car that held the massive chain of cars together.
Normally he would be in the training center again today, but his instructor had called in sick and rather than send him home, the head of the training department decided to have all the trainees do ride-alongs for the day. Each student was assigned to a different train. William was sent over to a train making a run to a small town 120 miles away to deliver a shipment of logs to a sawmill and return with 70 cars full of finished wood products by the end of the day. This would give him his first real exposure to the “business” end of the train.
William made his way over to the yard and headed to engine 2271 to meet senior engineer Mike Randell. Mike was a lifer having worked for the company for 45 years. He was a big man, a very big man, weighing in at close to 325 pounds and had a reputation as a voracious eater especially when it came to meatball sub sandwiches smothered in cheese. His fellow engineers called those things widow makers.
Mike worked his way through the ranks as they say, and eventually was promoted to senior engineer. If William hoped to learn anything today, he couldn’t ask for a better man to learn from than Big Mike.
After Mike briefed William on all the safety checklists for today’s run, he told him that his job for today was to watch everything he was doing, and listen to everything he said. He finished off his speech with the same line he gave to all new recruits, “No you will not be driving the train today kid!” Mike called anyone under the age of fifty, kid. Just watch me and listen up!”
Just being inside the engineer’s cab of this massive beast was thrilling enough and something William had dreamt about for as long as he could remember.
Slowly the massive engine snaked its way backward through the yard to meet up with the string of cars. When two cars couple together, there is a very distinctive clunking sound. Something that all railway enthusiasts consider music to their ears.
Once all the safety checks had been completed, the huge locomotive began pulling forward. They were on their way.
Today’s run would take them eastward through villages and small towns that were just coming alive as the morning sun peeked over the horizon. It was looking like a nice day ahead, full of sunshine. Slowly Mike eased the power throttle ahead one notch at a time until they were up to the allowable speed for the open parts of the run, but notching back each time they approached a populated area, or when directed by the speed control signals they passed. William made a mental note of Mike’s every move.
The scenery raced past them as William glanced out the window next to Mike, as he caught glances of fields, rivers and farmland. This was everything he expected the trip to be and so much more. They were now operating in a maximum speed zone traveling at 55 miles an hour. William was in seventh heaven watching the countryside disappear behind him, taking his eye off Mike for only a very brief moment each time.
Looking across the cab, he noticed Mike wasn’t moving like he normally would be. He was just staring ahead as though he were in a trance. William called out “Hey Mike, you okay?” There was no reply.
Again, he repeated, Mike, are you okay?” Again, no response.
William had received some very basic medical training, enough to know this was serious, he knew he had to do something to help Mike who was no longer in control of this 15,000 ton machine that was speeding down the tracks without a functioning engineer in charge.
Briefly shifting his focus between Mike and the window beside him he saw
the first speed reduction sign letting the engineer know they were approaching a populated area and to be preparing to slow the train down to 20 mph. Problem was, William was now the engineer!
He called out to Mike once again as he grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him as hard as he could. Still no response.
Glancing out the front window as he tried to get Mike to respond, he saw the first rail crossing sign, indicating that it was just over half a mile before they were on top of the crossing and they were going way too fast.
The first thing William reached for was to pull down the cord to blast the train’s air horns warning anyone attempting to cross the track ahead that they were approaching. He sounded out two long blasts followed by one short and finally a final long blast. If he could at least warn anyone nearby that they were traveling towards the crossing and not to attempt to cross over the tracks. They were running way too fast, but if all vehicles stayed clear of tracks they would be fine, the train would race past the crossing without any type of collision and then he could focus on stopping the train once it was safe to do so.
The best he could hope for was to pass through this crossing without incident, but by now at the speed they were moving meant they would be at the crossing in less than 30 seconds.
Suddenly with his eyes glued on the track ahead, he was caught by a flash of color that hit him like a bolt of lightning. The flash was yellow. A very distinctive shade of yellow. Not ordinary traffic light yellow, or lemon yellow, it was the most frightening yellow one could ever imagine in this circumstance – school bus yellow!
Even though they were still a quarter mile from the crossing, William was horrified to see that a school bus was stopped on the tracks, directly in their path. Grabbing the cord he kept blasting the horn over and over again, hoping the bus would start to move. It did not!
They would be right on top of the bus in seconds and there was no way he could stop the train in time.
The horror of what was about to come was overwhelming but then he noticed the back door of the bus swing open and saw what looked like little children jumping out and running. He prayed desperately that everyone would get off the bus before they hit, but he knew that even if they did escape, they would never get far enough away from the tracks to avoid being killed when his train plowed through the bus scattering metal and glass in all directions for hundreds of yards.
With only a couple of seconds before impact, William closed his eyes to avoid the carnage that was going to unfold right in front of him. All he could think of were those little children on the bus who would never go home again.
….. “Billy!”
A bit louder this time, “BILLY!”
The sound of his name shocked him.
“BILLY, it’s time for breakfast…..”
“Ah Mommmmm, Five more minutes okay”
“Come on Billy, that’s enough trains for today. Turn off your train set and come to the table…NOW!”
Moments later, “WILLIAM HAROLD HENDERSON, I’M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU AGAIN. GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW. YOU HAVE TO GET DRESSED FOR SCHOOL AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO MISS THE SCHOOL BUS AGAIN!”
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Each of us has been endowed with the gift of imagination giving us the power to generate ideas, solve problems, and in the case of young William here, travel to another time, place and circumstance.
Most of us lose our ability to imagine like we did when we were children. Imagination is like a small boat floating on the still sea of wonderment. If we forget to use it, it will simply drift away in the current of time, never to return.
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Copyright 2024 Kenneth Lane Smith
All Rights Reserved
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