2 of 3
DAWN TO DUSK ...
( PART 2 )
Rumor has it that the fire got its start with
the flick of a wrist of the night-watchman, Sidney
Samestreet, an inveterate chain-smoker. Rumor also
says that maybe it was not any accident, being how
the engine house was not insured until just 3 weeks ago.
Rumor also is mumbling something about how even
though no other structure on the line is covered, the
engine house is now insured "out the wahzoo". Rumor
also firmly states that all of the above is strictly
coincidence.
The enclosed film from my Kodak should
contain at least one good photograph taken from
a hot-air sightseeing balloon. I bribed the aviator
with some hooch to fly me over the site. Darn near
ran us smack dab into a Douglas fir (not to
mention the gallows turntable)! We could not have
gotten much closer if we had landed in the very
center of the destruction.
He assured me we would not raise any
suspicions on the part of management. I reckon he
ordinarily flies that recklessly. (I wonder how much
repeat business he gets.)
My job as clerk in the Bicci & Onri company
store is tentative at best. Seems to be the case with
most jobs around here. Old Mrs. Bicci has not been
giving me too much of a hard time lately, though,
especially since she took the rest of the family on
vacation back to Sicily just a week ago.
And we are rarely, if ever, visited by the Onri
clan from back East. Seems they are content to just
milk the railroad for what they can get in a hands-off
style. Surprises the marshmallows out of me that
they actually trust the Bicci's to run the operation.
Ties to either family are not of the healthiest nature.
Blessed be the ties ...
>>
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[ RR artwork - Clip Art Collection - RRHistorical.com ]
Copyright © 1991 MICK TERRY All rights reserved
( Published in Railroad Model Craftsman October, 1992 )
[ Reprinted here by permission of the author. ]
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Los Angeles, California, USA ( 34n03, 118w15 )
