It‘s a warm California night. The date is May 11, 1989. We are in Mojave Yard, getting ready to pick up our train of Trona at Fleta Yard. It’s 9:00 PM, on the dot. Of our three man crew, we have Everett Crown as our conductor, Allan Riess as our brakeman, and me, Frank Holland as the engineer. We quickly board our lead locomotive, 7551, a “Kodachrome” engine. As I turn the switch to start the prime mover, I discover that our lead locomotive will not start. “Dispatch, this is 7551 East,” I radioed. “Yes 7551 East?” the dispatcher radioed back, “What do you need?” I radioed back, “May we borrow another locomotive? Our lead locomotive is dead and we need another unit.” “10-4 7551 East, you may borrow another unit,” radioed the dispatcher. …show more content…
We soon attach SP 8278, a “tunnel motor” to the front of our lash-up, ahead of the dead 7551. We depart Mojave at 12:15 AM on the dot, to travel to Fleta, where our 69 Trona hoppers were loaded and waiting. On the way we stay mostly quiet, except for the occasional radio chatter, helper requests and such. We soon arrive at Fleta and we see our Trona laiden hoppers. We pull beside our train, but then we realize that we’re on the wrong end of the train and facing the wrong way. After we turn and run around the train, we couple up and wait to depart. While we’re waiting, there’s a crew change in the dispatcher’s office. The new dispatcher correctly calculates our train weight to be 8900 tons. This was more than we expected and could handle..... We soon depart Fleta and head to Palmdale. At Palmdale we pick up our two engine helper set. After we coupled up the helper sets we set off for the summit of Cajon
Moreover, the trip in the train gives an example of the loss of the humanity. In the train, a
“I envied the people in the train because they seemed to be going somewhere” (Lesley,7).
Reinhardt, Richard. Workin' on the Railroad; Reminiscences from the Age of Steam. Palo Alto, CA: American West Pub., 1970. Print.
Pette, Jack, and Roger Hensley. "19th Century Trains ." Angel Fire . Art Today , 2001. Web. 28 Feb.
Even as Bayard is faced with the idea of war, he recalls of himself and Ringo that, “What counted was, what one of us had done or seen that the other had not, and ever since that Christmas I had been ahead of Ringo because I had seen a railroad, a locomotive” (81). In the midst of an already chaotic situation, the childlike fascination with the locomotive is a bit illogical.
Crichton, Michael. The Great Train Robbery. First Ballantine Books ed. N.p.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. Print.
It’s 11:00 p.m. on a Tuesday when three young men, barely high school age, slip through a chain-link fence and into a New York City trainyard. Each carries a duffel bag, from which can be heard the rattling and clanking of spray cans. Six hours later, they re-emerge, their hands stained with paint and their bags almost empty. What have they done?
Some of the captain?s crew began to regret their situation and even the captain had some anxious thoughts. They realized that it could be a dead end. They were uncertain where to go and of their situation. Suddenly, they noticed something was passing by them at a distance of half a mile. ? We perceived a low carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, passing towards the north.?
train to arrive. Below the surface however the dialogue between the two describes the denial and
witness to the murder of this man. You can't believe what he said. The train
Two Trains Running, set in 1969, is August Wilson's most contemporary play to date. Like most of his plays, it unfolds in a single location--a diner in Pittsburgh. Memphis, the diner's owner, is struggling to get a fair price from the city which is buying up the entire eighborhood for purposes of urban renewal. Memphis' observation that the neighborhood has been emptied of its commercial and human activities gives an ironic and grim spin to urban renewal in particular and the progress of African Americans general.
As I waited for the 6 train, I walked to the spot to get on, calculated purposefully to the exit of my final destination stop. To ignore the homeless people in the way of where I am going, I turn my music louder, look down, and walk faster. Once I arrived at the stop, I grounded my feet at where I presumed the train doors would open so I will be the first to get on. As usual, I was the first to step onto the train. I went in slowly, snooping for a seat. As I looked down the row of people, like stalks of corn, I was pushed. Shoved into the train by hands clinging onto my shirt, I looked back in disgust. An old lady, arms still stretched from pushing me, looked back and mouthed, “Thank you.” Furious, I thought, did she really just thank me
As I “move my body with the rhythm of the train – from side to side and forward”, I remember my feet should be “spread about 30 inches apart”, and that I should “wobble from side to side” as I move forward.
From the dawn of time, man has followed his urge to travel; sometimes neglecting the enjoyment of the journey in pursuit of the destination. Although two of the favorable means of passenger transportation - the plane and the train - accomplish the task of arriving at a destination, there are distinct differences in their capacity for comfort, time, scenic value, and safety.
He starts off wanting to know all about this train he keeps hearing. He says, "I read in the papers about the Freedom Train. I heard on the radio about the Freedom Train." He wants to know everything he can about this train. Its almost as if everybody knows there is such thing as a train, but its almost as if no one knows what the train is.