Choo-choo

According to my mom, I'm not posting often enough...so here goes.

So, for many of you the reason behind the name of my blog is obvious...for others, perhaps not. I am named after a train. The MKT line that used to run through Missouri, Kansas, and Texas (get it? MKT?) was nicknamed the "Katy." The line no longer exists - it is now part of the Union Pacific.

Now, you might be asking yourself - who names their daughter after a train? Well, if your Dad's a train nut - things like that happen. I however, happen to love the story behind my name, so in honor of my Dad, today I'm going to feature some of his stories. He recently wrote up a summary of his experience both of working on the railroad for a couple of summers, and also his hobby of repairing toy trains, as stories for my young cousins, as my aunt is preserving some family history - great idea, eh? So, below, is an excerpt from what my Dad wrote...enjoy:

"For as long as I can remember I have loved trains – the big trains that we see running down the tracks and the small trains (electric trains) that I received for Christmas and which eventually grew into an avocation. I don’t know why I love trains. Maybe it was because my older brothers before me liked them. Maybe because the first small layout we had on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood was the first real toy I remember seeing. Even though I’m now 56 years old I really can’t get the enough of them...

...At some point when I was in high school I decided I had to work on a real railroad. I just had to find out what it was all about. The chance came between my senior year in high school and my freshman year in college. A couple friends of mine and I went over to Huntington, Indiana and applied for jobs on the track maintenance gang for the Norfolk and Western railroad.

All three of us were hired so we officially became gandy dancers – the railroad slang for track workers. We spent the summer tamping ballast under ties to level the track, replacing old ties and rails, cutting weeds and brush and replacing road crossings. I learned how to spike a rail to a tie using a spike mall. Not an easy thing to learn based on the number of mall handles I broke.

It was a long summer and a lot of hard work. I decided next summer I wanted to work on the trains instead of under them. So, following my freshman year I went over to Peru, Indiana, a division point on the Norfolk and Western and was hired as a brakeman. Up until 1964, this railroad line had been the Wabash railroad, the route of the Cannonball, one of the most famous passenger trains in the US. They were used to running the trains fast and were still doing that when I worked there...

...Sometimes there was danger, something my mother constantly reminded me of. If a person was the second brakeman (or sixth man) on a crew going west that brakeman would get off in Tilton, Illinois. The state of Illinois did not have a full crew law and since the crew’s pay was based on mileage the sixth man got off at Tilton yard instead of going to Decatur so the railroad didn’t have to pay them as much.

I had to do this a number of times. Once I got off the train I would call a taxi which would take me to the Wolford hotel in nearby Danville, Illinois. I could be there an hour or half a day depending on when a train going east needed a second brakeman. Getting back on the train is where the danger came in. If the train didn’t have to set off any cars at Tilton the second brakeman was required to board the train on the “fly” which meant you boarded the train while it was moving. The engineer was supposed to slow the train down to 15 mph or less which someone figured out what the safe speed for boarding a moving train.

One night after a brief stay at the beautiful Wolford (not really) I was back at Tilton waiting for my train which I would be boarding on the fly. As it approached I thought the train was going too fast but in my youthful exuberance decided to board it anyway. Bad decision! As several thousand pounds of moving metal was bearing down on me I grabbed the handrail on the first loco and planted my foot in the corner of the first step as I had done many times before. I instantly knew the train was in fact going too fast. Due to the speed and the momentum of my body I was slammed against the side of the locomotive. For a second, I thought I was a gone for good but gained my composure, slowly pulled myself back around to the steps and climbed up to the cab on the locomotive. It seems the fireman was operating the train that night and the train speed was actually closer to 20 mph. It was a long time before I told my mother about this – several years in fact."

Pretty cool, huh?

**DVD update - I have been a champ - not even tempted even though Borders put all of their single disc DVDS 3 for 2...yes!

**Sugar update - Cats and yoga don't mix. The cobra pose just isn't the same when a cat is rubbing against your arms and purring.