The Railroad Stories
Book 7: Snow, Ice and Engines
Written by: ThomasZoey3000
Greeting Readers,
Thank you so much for your continued support for this series, and for your wonderful comments. Now after a year off from writing, I'm back with more stories from your firends on the island. As 1957 came into play, I heard of two incidents on the Little Haulers line, one at the docks for the Freedom Railroad, which was Jessica's request, and finally there was a really sad story from one of the museum locos, but I mustn't say anymore, or I'll spoil the stories for you.
The Author
Tales Included:
-Tipping Over
-Shattered
-Horse Rescue
-A Bridge Over Troubled Water
Tipping Over
It was no secret that the boats and the locomotives on the Freedom Railroad never got along. It wasn't because of the locomotives, it was all because of the big ships. They were rude and arrogant due to their size and the modern equipment on board them. Needless to say, when a new loco comes in off the ships, they were told not to bother with the giant vessels.
It was a week before new years, and Andrew was backing up a line of empty box cars to be loaded up. A cargo ship stood nearby, smirking a nasty smirk, "you took your time getting here. If it were up to me, you'd get nothing from myself or me buds."
"Well sorry if we're not ready at your call, but we do need to get ourselves ready, or get our previous jobs done."
"There should be no excuses," the ship said rudely, "we have to make the tides, or we'll be late or left here for a long time. If only there were diesels, then this railroad would be better than it is now. You all are useless pieces of scrap."
"Says the piece of junk that can sink from a tiny scratch. At least when we get a little scratch, we keep going, as long as it doesn't make us explode," but he muttered that last part under his breath.
The ship gnashed it's teeth, "we ships can go on longer than you think you useless scrap heap. Now tell your workers to hurry up so I can be away from you stupid pieces of junk."
The workers did hurry, cause like the locos, they wanted the ship out of the port. Once they were done, the ship sounded it's horn and floated away.
"Stupid thing," muttered Andrew angerily.
That night, he complained about the arrogant ship to the other locos. Rebecca rolled her eyes, "I don't know why you bother with them, they'll never change their ways around us. They, as Niki often says, have their heads in the clouds."
"Do they really?" Andrea asked curiously.
"Sometimes, depending on their size," answered Jessica. The GS-5 Daylight had only returned from the workshops after a short 28 day overhaul, "I've often seen big ships like that, but I think Rebecca was referring to their high and mighty attitudes."
"You got that right. And if you ask me, cruise ships are the worst of them all. They carry passengers, as well as cargo, so they think they're the best thing since sliced bread."
"Well then, you're not going to like what I have to say next," Carrie cut in.
"What?" Andrew asked as he backed into his stall of the sheds.
"According to Robert, a cruise company is going to be coming to our island within a couple of days. It'll be a new way of bringing more people to our island, and while that will be good for all of us, I'm sure we're going to hear nothing but insults and high and mighty talk from those stupid ships."
"Weren't you like that when you first came here?" Andrea asked curiously.
"Perhaps, but I learned since then. For these ships to learn, they will need to go through a nasty incident, but hopefully it won't hurt the passengers." All the locos and crews agreed with that.
Two days later, Carrie was proven correct as the first cruise ship arrived. So many passengers were on board that Rebecca and Andrea had to collect extra coaches for them all. Also proven correct was the attitude.
"Slow things, no wonder the freighters all complain about you," snorted the ship rudely. It really seemed to have it's nose out of joint, sort to speak.
Rebecca was about to retort, but Wendy called out to her, "don't bother with the ship old girl, you'd be wasting your steam."
Rebecca gave in, though it was hard as the ship continued to boast over how grand it was, and how superior it was. Rebecca was grateful when she heard the conductor's whistle. With the ship still talking, Rebecca blew off a loud whistle.
"HEY!" snapped the ship.
"Sorry, but I don't have time to waste with you ships, must be off. Bye-bye." And she puffed off down the line.
After leaving the port, the cruise ship grumbled to the captain, "the nerve of that steamer, blowing it's whistle at me while I'm talking. Does it even know who I am. One of THE finest ships to sail the seven seas."
"Oh don't worry, when you see that stupid piece of machinery again, you can give it a lesson it won't forget."
"How?" the ship asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Just blow your airhorn at it. Maybe with luck, it'll scare the silly engine into silence forever."
The ship smirked at that thought. Though the next time they would meet, the ship wouldn't be smirking.
Ice-bergs are a danger to any ship of any size, for while they may not look big above the water, underneath the water the ice-bergs can be the size of a city, if not bigger. It is the ice-bergs that many believed sank the Titantic back in 1912. To this day, captains, crews and boats alike are told to keep an eye open for them.
However, the cruise ship wasn't doing any of that. Instead, it was thinking to itself; "just wait till I see that stupid powder-puff, I'll show her. Oh yes, I will show her."
The captain wasn't even at the bridge, he was having dinner with a woman in the dining room. Only two crew members were in the bridge, and they were following a pattern they thought was safe, but it wasn't. Up ahead, an ice-berg floated in the water, and while it was small on top, it was indeed big at the bottom.
The first anyone knew of trouble was when the captain came onto the bridge, and noticed the pathway was headed towards the ice-berg, now easy to spot in the head-lights.
"Steer to Port! Steer to Port! We're going to hit!"
The crew members reacted quickly, but it was no use.
On land, Jessica was pulling up with some passenger coaches. She had only just come to a stop when she saw trouble on the water, "they're not going to get around it."
Her Engineer; Cathy, looked out the cab and noticed that Jessica was correct, "good lord!"
There came a terrible grinding sound from below deck, which went on for almost a minute before it stopped, "OUCH! Watch it you ding-bats! You're going to ruin my paintjob!"
But the captain wasn't worried about that. He called out to a crew-member, "go below deck and see if we're taking on water."
The crew-member left, and returned quite soon, "we've got alot of water coming in, and it's all coming in on the right side Captain."
"DANG IT!" shouted the captain and slammed his fist on a nearby desk. He shook his head and said; "run the ship towards ground, if we can make it, at least we won't completely go under."
"GO UNDER?!" shierked the ship. "Why you moron, I trust you to run my controls, and THIS is what you do to me? Why I ought to..."
"Shut up!" snapped the captain, then went silent, as did the ship.
The cruise ship continued on to land where it came into shallow waters, but by then, it was starting to lean. The Cruise Ship looked and saw Jessica there, "oh I suppose you're going to laugh, aren't you?"
"I won't, not in this situation. Now, how many passengers do you have on board?" But the ship didn't respond, so Jessica asked in a firm tone, "how many do you have on board?!"
The ship groaned, "perhaps 3900 on board, I don't know, I don't really keep track as they are getting on board."
Cathy looked to the fireman, "Jayden, call Robert and tell him we're going to need more passenger coaches and emergency personal out here." Jayden the fireman didn't need to be told twice, he got on the radio and made the call.
Soon, Carrie and Warren were at the docks with empty passenger cars, as well as plenty of emergency personal. Joining in on the rescue operation was the coast guard, who had a boat that was friendlier than the freighters and cruise ships. He went by the name of Shane. As he rushed over, he noticed some life-boats heading for land, but with few people on board, and while it was dark out, Shane could see they were in white.
"Aren't those the crew members?" he asked his captain.
The captain looked down and confirmed with Shane's question, "they are the crew, what are those morons doing?"
The Cruise ship was shocked too, "get back here you stupid idiots, you need to help!" But they didn't turn back. They just continued on towards land, and right up to where Jessica was.
"They're making a break for it!" she cried, and indeed they were.
"Not for long they're not," shouted Cathy. She opened the reverser, and sounded the whistle to one of the workers. The whistle meant 'change the switches' and that's what he did. The switches were thrown and Jessica's train reversed into the pathway of the crew members.
"And where do you all think you're going?" asked the conductor.
They didn't respond. The coast guard radioed the railroad and asked to speak with the captain, "Care to tell us why you're on land, and not out here helping us with rescue operations?"
"We..uh, well we uh...thought maybe it'd be best if we were here," came the reply.
"So in other words, you didn't want to help your passengers, is that what I'm getting from you Captain?"
"Oh no Coast guard, you don't understand, we uh..thought we'd be of more help from land."
There was a silence, then an angry shout, "You coward! You'd leave your passengers to die out here, rather than helping them. Just wait till we get over there, we'll make sure you never pilot a boat ever again!"
Hearing that, the captain and crew tried to escape, but it was no use as now Warren backed up and blocked another path for them. Shane watched from nearby, "nice work there engines!" he called out.
The engine crews made sure the ship's crew went nowhere. All they could do was watch the coast guard, with help from Freedom Railroad workers, who went out in the escaped life-boats, as they worked together to save the passengers and bring them to shore. Much to everyone's surprise, the entire ship was emptied out and all passengers made it safely to land.
"Mighty fine work there laddie," Warren called to Shane.
"Ah shucks, it was nothing really, that's why I'm here, to help innocent people after all. I wouldn't have known though if you didn't alert us to the problem. I'd say we make a good team."
Carrie smirked as she looked to the sinking cruise ship, "see what happens when you co-operate with us, instead of being high and mighty?"
The Cruise ship said nothing at all.
After the new year began, the entire crew of the cruise ship were charged for abandonment and endangering lives. At least five went to jail. As for the cruise ship, she was repaired and put back to work. It has to be said though that since that night, the cruise ship was quiet whenever she made port on the island. She hasn't learned enough to change, but the locos are sure sooner or later she'll learn. I hope so too, don't you?
This story was partly based on the tragic real event on the sinking of the Costa Concordia in 2012. In the real event, many lives were lost when the cruise ship hit a rock and started leaning to one side. While it was run aground to prevent the complete sinking, the captain didn't stay to help and went ashore, despite pleas from the coast guard to return to help. The captain is still servicing time in jail. The Costa Concordia was salvaged, but has since been scrapped.
