Steam & Excursion > Thanksgiving 23 years ago

I got home from my friend's after going out for Thanksgiving dinner and this thought came to me that it was 23 years ago on Thanksgiving Day that we were in Huntington, WV. We had completed the CSX Anniversary Santa Train to Kingsport and back. That Thanksgiving morning Steve, Lynn and I had switched out the CSX business cars while Mary, Larry and Harold worked in the Cheyenne preparing a turkey dinner for the entire crew. (Larry was  a pretty awesome chef and Harold made a great Steward). We had renumbered the Challenger from Clinchfield 676 back to UP 3985. Dinner was great.

After dinner Lynn decided to decorate the platform of the business car for Christmas for our trip back to Cheyenne. We laced garland around the chrome handrails and Lynn hung a wreath on the rear platform gate. Then Lynn hung the Christmas lights all around the back platform while I watched from a seat at the desk inside. He plugged them in and stood back to observe his work when the lights went out. So he fiddled with a plug and the lights came on and once again he stepped back to revel in his accomplishment when the lights went out again. Another attempt at adjusting the plugs in the outlets and the lights came back on.

It was at that time Steve came back in the office section of the business car where I was seated and asked me what the heck I was doing. I said watch and I flipped a switch by the desk and the Christmas lights went out. Lynn was getting mad outside and Steve and I were laughing at my escapades. I flipped the switch and the lights came back on and I decided we had had enough fun.

It was a memorable Thanksgiving Day with good food, good friends and great enterainment.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Great story Bob.  Happy Thanksgiving to you.

Martin

You see, that's what I enjoyed about being around you guys.   You were like a family and tried to enjoy yourselves.  I can just hear Nasty out there cussing.
I remember Steve telling me about one of the guys getting a new truck and wanted everybody to take a ride in it.   Somebody had snuck out and put a bunch of big wire ties around the drive shaft.   That must have been a hoot.
I miss that and I know the guys do too.

Great story.  It doesn't even video or stills.  It's just a great mental picture of life on the railroad.

Thanks for sharing the story.

I know it's a bit off topic, but the lights going on and off kind of reminded me of what someone I once knew did in a college classroom. He was sitting in the very back row of a bible class taught by an atheist professor and was leaning back on his chair next to a light switch. (This was a major public university in California and not a bible college. I suppose it was more of a history or literature class rather than theology. And the prof made a point of telling the students that she was an atheist.) Anyway, it just so happened that he leaned back and accidentally flipped the switch just as she said the word "God" the first time in her lecture. The lights blinked. Well, then he did it every time the prof said "God" and by about the 3rd time that atheist was getting spooked and wondered what the heck was going on!

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/15 18:12 by wabash2800.