Re: A Railroad Saga... (add to it)...

29's conductor finally said, "Well, enough of the "ghost stories"..."we'd better get ourselves moving. We're burning daylight here."
Soon they were all back on their engines and had the air pumped up. 29's engine whistled off, and Billy answered with two short hoots, opened they cylinder cocks and put the johnson bar down in the corner. He released his engine brakes and opened the throttle to bunch the slack. Jojo got down on the deck to put in a fire and then went to work getting his injector set. As they moved ahead, Billy closed the cylinder cocks, left the throttle wide open on the Hog and worked the johnson bar to keep her doing her best with the train. The lead engine would regulate their speed as they started to attack the drifts ahead.....