A Sibling's Bond:
Danville, Virginia, January 18, 1954:
Nobody spoke about the incident at the roundhouse the day before, especially in front of any officials. Larry particularly hoped the whole thing would end up swept under the rug; he'd park himself in a scrap yard long before working freights any longer than he had to. It didn't help that Darrel was still angry enough to ignore the E8 whenever he tried to strike up a conversation or even apologize for the incident. Larry also felt betrayed that none of the other engines stood with him up to Madison, Molly's sister J class number 611. He had to admit in his brain, Madison is far more terrifying than Molly, but he would never say it publicly. Today was an easy train that he was capable of doing himself, it was a mail delivery to Lynchburg. He backed into the station where people were loading the abnormally few RPOs, this did not go unnoticed by Larry, in fact, he was confused by it.
"Is that all there is?" He asked.
" 'Fraid so Larry, we're losing the mail business." Don spoke up from his cab.
"To who?"
His answer came in the form of a truck horn. Larry looked over in shock to find a semi-truck with USPS markings on its trailer. The driver was honking his horn at some goofball in a coupe who had pulled out in front of him. Larry's mouth dropped at this, the railroads were losing the mail to trucks? What madness was this?
"You can't be serious." He said.
"Believe me Larry, I wish I wasn't, them trucker boys are taking over the mail because for some reason the government thinks they are faster." Don told him.
"Hmph, like hell they are, railroads have the shortest and fastest route. Roads are nothing but curves, traffic jams, and 40 mph speed limits." Larry scoffed.
Chattanooga, 2014:
"You believed the roads were like that? Wasn't the interstate system around then?" Bethany asked, confused.
"Everybody knew that losing business to the roads was impossible back then, it was the reality of the time. As for the interstate, we'll get to that later. First let's skip ahead some, right to about a week after I had finished my punishment..."
Danville, Virginia, June 5th, 1954:
When Larry completed his sentence from Harry A Debutts, he was ecstatic to return to passenger service. Especially since he learned that he will be pulling the Crescent from Danville to Washington D.C. as a reward for excellent service in the freight department. Darrel, who had forgiven Larry for the incident with Molly, was with him to see him off.
"Darrel, I wanna thank you for working with me for so long, you've really made freight trains worth doing." Larry said.
"You're welcome Larry, we were all happy to keep freight duty as painless as possible...just don't forget to pay the tab." Darrel replied jokingly. Just at that moment, a loud horn blast was heard all around, it was the inbound Crescent and it rolled smoothly into a stop. Once the brakes were set, the lead engine was uncoupled and he rolled ahead to let a fresh Larry take his place.
"I'll see you around Darrel, thanks again." Larry called as he rolled ahead to position and coupled up to the train. The signal turned green, the conductor gave the ready signal, and Larry rolled out of the station with a strong reply from his horn. It didn't take long for Larry to get up to speed, it was night time so he didn't have to worry too much about freight trains slowing him down. He took a gaze over to find a black '52 Ford Crestline Victoria racing on the road that drove parallel to the line, the driver was a young man with his girlfriend. Most likely on their way home from a night out at a college dance. Larry noticed the little car going faster and faster and quickly caught onto the driver's intention.
"Those jokers wanna race eh? They're on!" Larry shouted out as he picked up speed, effortlessly catching up and passing the little car. The driver in the car slammed his foot on the gas pedal, the car responded with a roar and raced into the lead. Larry picked up more speed and passed the car. The driver honked his horn a couple of times and received a loud response from Larry's own horn. Suddenly, red lights flashed from behind the car, followed by a siren. Larry burst out laughing and continued on his way as a police car forced the couple to pull over.
"You'll never see a train get pulled over by the cops." Larry told himself. After the victory against the automobile, Larry became very sure of himself. After a quick stop at the station in Lynchburg, he noticed the Norfolk and Western roundhouse where several steam engines were sleeping. He blared his horn loudly as he raced past it, and he laughed as he heard the angry steamers complain about their sleep being ruined in a very rude manner. But then, up ahead, Larry saw Joe at the head of a waiting freight train. Larry remembered how Joe abandoned him so to speak in January. So instead of acknowledging the F-unit, Larry grew a scowl on his face and looked away in an effort to deliver a message. Joe, just gave a pair of toots as the Crescent passed him. Tammy happened to be with Larry in consist for the night, and she remained silent as to not burst Larry's bubble until Joe did it for her somehow.
"So, how was hauling freight?" She asked. "Awful I assume."
"You assume too much, hauling freight wasn't too terribly bad despite the F units giving me the cold shoulder." Larry replied.
"Did they? I'm sorry."
"It's alright, the geeps and RS's did what they could to help."
"Well good, at least there is somebody that cares. Now another thing I wanted to talk to you about was the thing you did in Lynchburg...with the N&W steamers." Tammy said solemnly.
"What about it?" Larry asked, confused.
"Remember what I said about not interacting with them?"
"Oh come on Tammy, blowing your horn at them in the middle of the night doesn't count as interaction." Larry scoffed.
"No, the other thing..." Tammy said ominously. "Did you honestly think that one of your siblings wouldn't see you roaming around in the middle of the night to their shed to kidnap one of the J classes? Lamar saw you while taking the Southerner and he told all of us about it."
Larry was surprised at the news that his entire E8 family knew of his little adventure with Molly.
"B-but, that was Joe's idea, to get back at Molly for being a thorn in everybody's side, especially mine." He protested.
"It doesn't matter Larry, not only did you break your promise to me but you also put your life on the line. We also know about what happened next morning between you and her sister."
"How? Nobody talked about it."
"I'm your sister Larry...I know everything..."
"What?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, what's forty four thousand times five hundred seventy two point four sis seven two three?"
"How is anybody supposed to know that?"
"I thought you knew everything dear sister." Larry teased.
"Alright you big kid..." Tammy laughed. "Just focus on making it to Washington without racing prom dates."
Larry was relieved that the subject about broken promises was so easily forgotten, he didn't know what he would have said if the conversation carried any further. A few hours later, The Crescent pulled into Washington D.C.'s Union Station in a gentle manner. Looking around Larry could find engines from all kinds of railroads, including the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac who were a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line as evidenced by their paint scheme being very similar to Coast Line's but blue instead of purple, Baltimore and Ohio, Chesapeake and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Canadian National. The nation's capital proved to be far more massive than Atlanta or Cincinnati, and far more busy. This was overwhelming for Larry, much to the amusement of Tammy who giggled at his wide eyed nerves.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it, just try not to saw anything about the odd look of the Pennsy's GG1 electrics."
"The what?" Larry asked as he looked around for anything strange. Yet he didn't find anything, and Tammy was a little disappointed as she couldn't find what she was looking for either.
"Aw, so much for having a laugh tonight, I love the look my siblings get on their faces whenever they see a GG1 for the first time. They're usually really nice engines though, haven't met a mean one among them so far."
"How would I know if I see one? Do they look the same as us?"
"No Larry, you'll be able to tell when you see one."
After they were uncoupled from the train, the two engines rolled their way to the diesel shed where the majority of the others were dozing off. Larry randomly remembered Lamar telling him that Tammy had wrecked in the past, he had been very curious about the details about it since then.
"Tammy?" He said.
"Hm?" His sister replied.
"What happened with your wreck?"
Tammy suddenly phased into a trance like she did before when the subject was brought up. And just like last time, she was unresponsive to Larry calling for her to snap out of it until finally, he gave up. It wasn't long until after the two loco's engines were shut down for the night and next day for maintenance that Tammy finally broke her trance and fell asleep. Larry soon followed suit. An hour or two later, Larry was stirred awake by the sound of soft crying. He looked over at his sister next to him to find her face soaked from tears. Larry said nothing and simply leaned over as best he could without falling over to try to comfort her. He managed to softly touch Tammy and catch her attention. Without a word, she leaned to him to give a sisterly nuzzle as a means to ask him to just be with her. Larry's plan seemed to work, as Tammy finally stopped crying and smiled to him. It wasn't long before the two engines fell asleep again, but Larry made a mental note to never ask Tammy about her wreck again.
