Peck, Michigan

October, 1988

She sat quietly in the shops of the Sandusky & Southern, not really sure of what to do. Then again, there wasn't much to do but just sit in the shed. It had been another stressful day but at least she had been able to go outside and stretch her wheels. So she decided to close her eyes and try to relax. But that all ended with a rather sudden and loud commotion outside.

"I don't get why you're always mad at me for everything that I do," a voice said from outside the shop doors.

"It's because you're always doing something stupid when you do. And I have to pick up the pieces once everything clears up," said another voice. "And besides, you're late on paying your rent, again. If you didn't waste your time with all these stupid excursions and spent a little more on working the railroad properly and fixing up the tracks, Christine wouldn't have ended up on the ground today."

"When I operate her is none of your business, Dave. And that track was fine. All that happened was a snapped rail brace."

"Will, that brace was already worn out and split half way down the middle so it was bound to snap just because you haven't been taking care of the line. And yes it is my business since I own these tracks. It's my right to know what you do on the property, regardless of whether or not you lease it. And you derailed that damned RS1 the other day too."

"Hey! You leave Andrew out of this. He isn't a damned engine. He's a good operating locomotive that is more than capable of handling himself on the road."

The two voices trailed off as the two men they belonged to continued to argue back and forth. Christine hated it when they got into arguments, and it was always because of the stupidest things. But David did have a point. Will hadn't been taking care of the tracks lately and she ended up going on the ground because of it. He didn't mean to let the track condition go but sometimes he had a tendency to procrastinate on some things while fully devoting his time to others.

"Are they always arguing like that?" a small 0-6-0 asked from across the shed.

"I'm afraid so, Barry" she replied. "I don't get why whenever something like this happens they always fight about it."

"Well I can certainly understand why it makes you so upset, Christine," a Canadian Pacific 4-4-0 said from the other side of the shops. "I'd probably go just as crazy if my previous owners did that. Then again, I'm probably gonna have to get used to it."

"I agree with you there Joseph," Barry replied.

After a while, things settled down a bit and Christine tried to relax again. Maybe now she could get a little more rest. But that idea went out the window as quickly as it took her to reflect on the day's events. She was being used for a quick freight run up to Sandusky, MI and was on her way back to the sheds in Peck when an outside rail came loose as the brace snapped and she went off into the gravel. Fortunately she was going slow enough that she didn't go all the way into the ditch but was still wedged into the ground.

Andrew had come quickly with some crew members and the men worked hard to get her back on the rails along with fixing the broken brace. Once the men finished, Andrew coupled up to Christine and towed her back to the shed where she was then inspected for any further damage.

The men in the shop found nothing wrong with her and said that she was still fit for work, although everyone knew that this was only half true. Her flue time was rapidly running out. She was leaking steam somewhere and had been having a bit of a problem with keeping up steam earlier in the day; but there wasn't any money for her rebuild.

Yet she didn't let her physical problems slow her down. She always believed that if you tried your hardest and made a passionate effort to get the job done, despite the conditions, you were still useful. It was something that was taught to her by her previous driver, Mr. Wix.

After about an hour, her driver, Mr. Rauli, came into the shed. "Evening, Mr. Rauli," she said, her voice sounding a bit more cheerful.

"Evening Chrissy," he said. His tone was sounding a bit rough and it sounded like something was bothering him.

"What's wrong?" she asked, picking up that there was something going on. They had a weird chemistry that both of them could tell when something was bothering the other. Almost as if they were a well weathered couple.

"Oh it's just David again. I swear, that son of a b**** is gonna be the death of me one of these days."

"Was he talking about my flue time again?"

"Yep. He probably thinks that you're just a pile of useless junk, even though he owns some steam engines himself. But he does realize that you do have a soul, so I think that he realizes that by scrapping you would technically be committing murder."

"No truer words were ever spoken Mr. Rauli."

Suddenly, Will rushed into the shed. "I cannot believe that idiot," he said approaching the two. "Now he's trying to shut me down, again. He's saying that I'm running you illegally."

"But that's not true. There's nothing wrong with me."

"That's what I tried to tell him, but he won't listen to me. He never listens to me. And now I think he's actually going to win this time and finally shut me down."

"But what are we gonna do then?" Mr. Rauli asked.

"Well, I have an idea. I was thinking that we could send her up to Uncle Richard's barn, lay some track in there and fix her up. He's not using the barn for anything and it's big enough."

"Do you really think that Uncle Richard is gonna let us keep her there?"

"I don't know, Pa. But he's family and it's the best we can do. I'll call him and ask about it and then I'm gonna call some low boys to pull her out of here. In the meantime you get her ready."

Mr. Rauli instantly went over to the few men who were working on Barry and told them what needed to be done. The men quickly collected their tools and got to work on Christine.

Over the next two days, progress on getting Christine ready for her move was going smoothly; until David and an FRA inspector walked in the door.

"What are you doing with that tin kettle?" David exclaimed.

"Don't you DARE call me that, you no good excuse for a railroad manager!" Christine barked back.

"You watch your mouth, Missy. Just because you're an engine that's 100 times my size doesn't give you the right to scold me," David replied.

"Just a damn minute!" Mr. Rauli said, coming to the defense of his engine. "She's my engine and I can give her the right to scold anyone I want. Including an incompetent wannabe railroader who doesn't care about anyone's feelings except that of his wallet."

"Well I'm still waiting for an answer: What are you doing with that 'Engine'?" David asked again.

"We're moving her to a safe place where she won't be found," Mr. Rauli said.

"And away from the likes of you that think that I should be a bunch of paper clips like 17 of my 18 siblings and all my Canadian siblings!" Christine added.

"Well I was told that this engine was operating illegally. That her flue time is up," the FRA inspector said, finally managing to stop the squabbling between the men and the engine and get straight to the point as to why he was there.

"That is an outright lie," Will said. "In fact, here's her Blue Card. As you can see her expiration date is five days from now."

The inspector looked at the card and then turned to David. "I see nothing wrong with what they're doing," he said. "In fact, this is the cleanest shop I've ever seen."

"That's beside the point," David replied. "I was told that she was operating on a leaking flue."

"I told you about that and we immediately took her out of service and worked hard to fix her back up," Will replied.

"That was over two months ago. This is coming from today. One of your shop crews told me that she had a leaking flue the day she derailed."

"Is that true?" the inspector asked.

"Yes, but we found out about it after she derailed, when we were working on re-railing her," Mr. Rauli said. "When we saw it we immediately dumped her fire and had her towed back to the shops by our diesel."

"Well, I see nothing wrong with everything that's going on," the inspector said after thinking everything over. "But you do know that she cannot be fired until she is rebuilt, right?"

"Well, do you have paperwork stating that?" Will asked.

"Give me a few minutes to write it up in my car. I will be back in a minute."

The inspector walked out of the shop with a dumbfounded David watching him go. "But... aren't you going to do something about all these violations?" he protested.

"What violations?" the inspector asked and then he turned to walk to his car. "I have known the Rauli's and Christine for a long time," he continued as he opened his car door. "I have never seen them do anything that was in violation of operating procedures. Good day."

David stood there with his mouth agape. He couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. Everything he had tried to do to bring down that rebellious punk who thought that he could operate a railroad on his own, had failed. He let out an angry huff, turned to Will, and said, "Meet me in your office. Now!"

Christine was visibly shaken up by the whole ordeal. Even though the inspector had sided with them, she still couldn't help but feel like this was partially her fault. Her emotions got even more tangled up when he heard David and Will arguing with each other from the office.

After about an hour, they finally walked back onto the shop floor where the inspector, and some of the shop crews were waiting along with the engines. Barry and Joseph had remained quiet the entire time. But by the looks on their faces, they could tell that something was wrong.

"JOEY!" Will screamed at the men. A young man about 25 years of age stepped forward. "You're fired! Go up to the office to pick up your paycheck, get your s*** and get out."

"But... But," Joey said in an attempt to defend himself.

"No! I'm not going to hear your excuses!" Will roared. "You know exactly what you did and why you're getting the axe! Because of you, all these people are going to be out of a job. Do you realize what you've just done?"

Joey looked around sheepishly as all the other men, including the engines, and even the inspector looked at him with scowls. Quickly and quietly, Joey headed to the office, still not sure of what had just happened.

Will held up a piece of paper and said, "We have 60 days to get everything out. Everyone who is still on the payroll will be needed to help with moving everything to the interchange by then. After the 60 days is up anyone that is still here is welcomed to come down to Pontiac to work on my father's railroad."

The men looked at each other with a slight look of relief mixed with a bit of pain. Then, one by one, the men started to get to work. The inspector also offered a hand with the work to be done after he handed Will the paperwork for Christine. They worked on getting the engines ready first. Joseph would be towed to the interchange while Barry was to be put on a flat car for the trip. All the machine shop equipment and spare parts were to be put in boxcars or on flat cars to be moved.

But Christine was the first to be readied. That night, after David had left the property, several trucks came to the shops and were backed in. First, Christine's wheel set was put on the first truck. Then her boiler was put on the second. And finally, her tender was put on the third. A fourth truck was also used to haul her tender trucks, extra equipment and parts for her. No one, not even the shop crew, knew where she was headed, but they all knew that she was not coming with them to Pontiac.

Two months later, everything was ready and sitting in the interchange yard in Sandusky. They were then hauled west to Wilmont by three engines of the Port Huron Northern, the railroad that David owned. Once there they were interchanged over to the Jackson, Pontiac & Northern, the railroad line that Mr. Rauli owned.

Andrew, who had been towed up dead, was surprised to see that his brother, Adam, was sitting at the interchange. He hadn't known what had happened to him back in 1979 when they were retired by the Grand Trunk Western and had presumed him to be scrapped. But Adam told him that he had been working on the JP&N for the past 9 years.

"So where is this engine, Christine, that I'm always hearing about?" Adam asked. He had been told a lot about Mr. Rauli's pride and joy and was looking forward to seeing her.

"I don't know," Andrew replied. "When the order to shut down the railroad came out she was the first to go. I have no idea where she is."

"Man, that's disappointing," Adam replied. "I was really hoping that I could see her."

"Well, I'm sure that we'll see her again, eventually," Andrew said. "She's too precious to Mr. Rauli for her to be cooped up somewhere for too long without running, or even scrapped for that matter."

The two engines continued their chat before being fired up and headed the train south to Pontiac along with the two GP18's that had also been owned by the S&S. In the meantime, Christine was sitting in a shed somewhere in the southern portion of Michigan's thumb region, unsure of what her fate would be.