Thanks Arnold for keeping the boiler hot and getting us rolling today!!
Yesterday the Fast Mail was delayed because its' FM Trainmaster broke down about 32 miles outside Patsburg. Chief Dispatcher, Dutch Carrington called roundhouse foreman, Flange Wheeler, for an engine to be quickly dispatched to rescue the Fast Mail and pull it the final 32 miles into Patsburg.
Ol' Flange with wrench in one hand and the phone in the other tells Dutch " The only engine I got ready to roll is number 244, an 0-8-0. It may not be the fastest engine but it will have to do!" Dutch whose eyeballs are now as wide as wide the Holland Tunnel exclaims " Jeeezee Peezee Flange! Why don't you just send me a hand car!!" With a grin Flange replies " I can do that too if you'd rather have one of those. Got a pretty yeller one right over yonder!" Not at all buying into Flange's humor Dutch hastily replies " Okay okay okay the 244 will have to do! You got anyone to run that critter down the tracks?" With a wink of the eye Flange says "You betcha I do! Ol' FT Thornton just marked up on the board. He supposed to work one of the yard jobs but heck things are slow in the yard today. There's only one yard drill working so that's all that's needed at the moment. Call Wally the Yard Master and see if it's okay for FT to run the 244 to rescue the Fast Mail. I'll betcha he'll be fine with it." Dutch with a somewhat satisfied expression on his face replies " Right O that's what I'll do. By the way, Thornton's initials, what's the FT stand for?" Flange whose face is now fully animated replies "Full Throttle. Yep! Full Throttle Thornton! He'll milk every bit of speed possible out of that 0-8-0 and then some! After being assigned to the yard and local switch jobs for a long time, he'll jump at the chance to operated on the mainline again! You can betcha bottom parts on that!
Well folks, Full Throttle Thornton rescued the Fast Mail and got her into Patsburg. Here's some photos of his "handy work"?! The video at the bottom of the post was taken just minutes before he rounded the bend which was comprised of a switch. O'l FT was the first engineer to ever rear end a train that stood on an adjacent track! Luckily no one was injured but .... Ol' FT has got a lot of, as Ricky Ricardo would say, 'splainin to do' ... A LOT!!
The crew examines the wreckage.
The tender of the adjacent tracks' train.