Train passengers asked to get out and push | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Train passengers asked to get out and push | Oddly Enough | Reuters: "Train passengers asked to get out and push"


This reminds me of a train trip I took in 1994. The trains locomotive failed and we where stranded outside of a small town in Georgia called, if I remember right, Mound. The towns mayor and citizens greeted us with open arms by opening city hall (it was a Sunday) and the womans auxiliary showed up with tons of food, apple pies, cakes , lasagna etc... it was great. They even allowed us to use the phones to call family to let them know we where all right but would be late, very late. After several hours Amtrak came up with two plans to get us to our destination (New Orleans) the first was to wait several more hours for buses to show up and drive us the rest of the way. The second plan was for those adventurous souls who would not mine riding on a train with no electricity. A freight engine had been brought in to bring the train to New Orleans but because the fright engine and the passenger cars use different electrical systems there would be no power. The temperature was a humid ninety plus and there would be no AC or food! So after a quick run to the local store for food and beverages ;) a few hearty souls headed out on the crippled train, myself included. It was dark, hot and very weird. The only light came from back up batteries between the car sections, so of course this is where we all congregated. It turned out to be the best part of my trip. I met a ton of people and we had a party, the beer eerr, I mean beverages where drank fast so that they would not get too warm, food was shared and memories where made. To the cute blond from Sweden, sorry I did not find you in LA a week latter and too the middle aged man from Dallas who bewildered all of us with is ventriloquism, you made our night.

On a side note I just found out that one of my most favorite/ridiculed authors is very ill and has been for a while. For any who do not know Robert Jordan the author of the endless tomes call the Wheel of Time series is suffering from Amyloidosis. My good wishes and prayers go out to you and your family, good luck.