Train Wreck

Well, just a small one. We were riding the steam train in Tilden and saw that these guys were out riding around on their own tiny trains, so we went to watch. Tiger was utterly fascinated, and I was pretty interested myself. The best one was a long combined passenger/freight with this one flatcar in the middle carrying John Deere tractors. Most cool.

There's a junction just to the left of the spectator area, and the drivers were stopping and switching it, taking one track or the other, all working smoothly. Then one guy driving an engine with one passenger car rode through and derailed. It made an awful noise, but no one was hurt or even very shaken up. We moved down the rail to better spectate. A host of train-hobbyist dudes gathered to help. ("Look what good helpers they are, Tiger!") The train-hobbyist dudes tried to muscle the engine back on the track. As it weighed about 600 pounds, that didn't work very well. Then a senior train-hobbyist dude appeared with a block of wood and a crowbar. He levered the engine back into place pretty much single-handed while the other guys steadied it on to the rails. Problem solved! We applauded. The driver started up his engine again and drove on. We applauded some more, and he wished us a happy new year.


Today's earrings: lobsters, leaves

Bedtime reading: Good Omens, Pratchett & Gaiman