Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Railroad Yard

I did a railroad yard tour after work, fun to go up into one of the locomotives. Still made it in time to go onstage at the comedy club tonight, but was home just long enough to get my car after getting off the bus. Saw a girl on the bus who was pretty, but didn't smile. As that one song goes, she'd be prettier if she smiled once in a while. 'Everything's going to be all right, rockabye'. Saw a message on Facebook about some classmates being MIA- missing in action- for the reunion next year. I knew 2 of them, sort of. One of them is not on Facebook due to being a judge. The other is a Facebook friend, but I don't hear from him much. So I forwarded on what I knew about both. I said I would email the judge to let him know and see if he's fine with his information- the email address- being shared with the event coordinator.
    In many ways, doing the railroad yard tour was also for my dad, as he is really knowledgeable about trains. I spoke of him more than once during the tour as I was doing it 'by proxy'. At the start of the tour, we were given hard hats and safety glasses and orange vests. The tour guide apparently had met somebody from our office at a company volunteer event in the community. I liked how even there, one sees a sense of humor. Inside, where equipment can be worked on, I saw a picture put up as a joke. It showed 3 labrador dogs as the setup, golden chocolate and black. Then the punchline was 'meth lab'. A crazy dog. The tour guide also had a joke on his hard hat, it was labeled 'Mr. Disappointment', apparently the nickname his colleagues gave him. Outside, we got to climb aboard a locomotive, and the engineer did operate it for us. We were going just 10mph, the spped limit in the yard, and just a little ways ahead along with a little way behind, just to get the effect. I signed up for it, knowing this kind of tour doesn't come around too often. It meant leaving work 30 minutes before the end of my sihft, but I will gladly make up the time. The facility was a just a few miles away from where I work, a Canadian Pacific line. There was a picture on the wall in the conference room, where the tour began, with Milwaukee Road and Soo Line logos, those were the former operators of the line and the yard.  

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