The Rabbit Hole

It always amazes me how I can get sucked down the rabbit hole at the railroad.

I went over yesterday, innocently enough, to cut and paint a piece of metal for a project I'm working on. I didn't expect to spend more than an hour or so at the railroad.

I ended up spending the entire day.

I went over about nine in the morning, cut the metal and primed it.

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I got talking to Dale, who asked if I would pump some used boiler treatment from a five gallon bucket into sealed gallon containers for disposal while I was waiting.

I did that, and then did the same for used hydraulic oil.

By then, the prime coat was dry enough for a finish coat.

While I was waiting for that to dry, I went into Dave's office to check a detail about our website, something I'd e-mailed him about and hadn't yet gotten an answer.

Dave, as Dave will do, proceeded to tell me how overwhelmed he was, having just made a checklist of 70 things that needed to be done, telling me in great detail all his worries about breakfast on September 26, when the railroad has its annual meeting.

Dave, like most of us when we think the world is falling down around us, tends to grab onto a minor detail, far enough into the future that nothing can be done about it, and obsess.

Listening to Dave's litany, I heard an item that I could do something about, taking the rotten decking off the trailer we will be using for Wo Zha Wha Festival in the middle of September. John and I had moved the trailer out from behind a building Sunday afternoon, so I knew where it was and had an idea about what would be needed to do the job.

I got the decking off in an hour or so, added a second coat of paint to the metal I was working on, and wandered over to visit with Dale, Gary and Bob, who were sitting at one of the picnic tables.

Bob asked if I could conduct the 1:00 train to give Bruce a break for lunch. I said I could, and when the train pulled in, relieved Bruce.

I was worried about the weather -- I could see dark clouds to our north and hear the rumble of thunder -- so I stopped by the Ticket Office to check the computer. We had a thin band of yellow and red about ten miles to the north, and it bore watching.

I looked at the sky about five minutes before the train was due to depart, and I didn't like what I saw. I checked with Michael, who told me that it looked like the storm would hit us in the next ten minutes, and talked to Dave, who took a look and decided that we should hold the train until the storm was past.

I told folks that we were going to delay the train, and why, and rescheduled the train for 1:30, adjusting the rest of the afternoon's schedule. I shepherded the passengers into the Iron Horse, where Bob and Kay gave them something to eat and kept them warm and dry.

Reed and I put the train in the Sandberg barn, and the storm came with a fury, dumping buckets of water on us.

I checked with Michael every so often, and he said that it looked like the storm would be past on schedule at 1:30, so Reed and I waited until it looked like it was clearing up and then moved the train back down to the station.

A bit too soon. As it turned out, the storm kept popping up little cells, right on top of us, as soon as the previous cell passed on.

At 1:50 I sent Bruce, dressed in an enormous Florida raincoat, out on the scooter to do the safety check. We always check the tracks after any kind of storm, just to make sure that nothing has come crashing down on the tracks.

Bruce reported in that the tracks were safe, and we finally left the station at 2:00, got to Western Springs dry enough, only to have the storm pop up yet another cell just as we arrived.

We huddled under the canopy at Western Springs, making jokes, until it passed and headed in.

Meanwhile, I talked with Gary and Reed, and we decided to run diesel the rest of the afternoon. Gary pulled the diesel out of the Sandberg barn and put in on the station siding.

After we got in, Reed put the steam engine away and, because Bruce was following us in on the scooter and had to put that away, I set up the 3:00 train. Bruce showed up at 2:55, and, because we both assumed that Reed would be busy with the steam engine, we agreed that he would drive and I would conduct the train.

Along the way, my hour or so turned into six, and I don't know whether Bruce ever got his lunch.

Right down the rabbit hole we all went.