Puddington
THE JOURNEY OF LITTL' PUDDY BEGINS.....
....." Earl, did you hear"? Earl hardly paid any attention; Steve was always popping
off about some unfounded rumour or story that some passing by loco crew had told
him and that made him crazy. It was a wise policy to ignore Earl when he started
a sentence with "did you hear..."
"I said, DID YOU HEAR WHAT DEM GUYS SAID ABOUT LITTL' PUDDY...!!!" Now, that got
my attention; what was Earl saying about littl' puddy"... "No Earl, I didn't - what's
that about littl puddy ?".
"Dem guys from 45 said that they was suppos'd wait an hour to get a late shunt and
that they'd be gettin two or three 40's, a couple of tanks and a white double door
fifty !"
"A white double door fifty !" I thought, realizing that Earl may have actually stumbled
on to something important for once. " Earl, you said it was the crew from the 45,
the eastbound hot shot ? "
"Yep" said Earl "They was just heading over to Millers for a bite and then they
was expecting the shunt from Northhill with dem cars... You don't think that Walter
finally found a way to get rid of littl' puddy do ya "?
Walter had been trying to get rid of littl' puddy for over a year now. Back in the
spring of 72, Mr Deyell, the Division Super had arranged the purchase of 12 used
50' double doors from the Great Northern. When the cars arrived they were shopped
at the Puddington yards and were given the required repairs and some fresh paint.
Eleven of the cars got the standard oxide red paint with the new diamond logo and
the "parallel slogan". But one night old Buford and Hans had gotten into the rye
and waters a bit early and for some reason they decided to go back to the shop and
paint the sixth car white.... bright white.
In the morning Walter Dion, the shop super arrived to find a bright white and red
50' foot double door car- looking like a SOO Line special, the car was a master
piece - and that drove Walter nuts.
" Get that snow white piece of %$#@@! into the paint shop and paint it red like
the rest" he exclaimed. But before anyone could find Buford and Hans, the Division
Super came over; saw the car and fell in love with it. He congratulated Walter on
the paint job and immediately had it photographed for the "Spanner" magazine. This
made Walter even madder.
For over a year, Walter had tried to get the car re-painted with no luck. Having
given up on that plan, it became obvious that he'd have to do something else to
get the SOO Special out of his life. It now looked like he'd succeeded.
The fifty's were usually confined to the sub divisions's own rails. Used to transport
lumber and paper from the Domtar mill to the Northhill yards for transship, they
only occasionally made the trip to Vancouver and then always got returned promptly.
They NEVER went East. But this time, littl' puddy ( we'd nicknamed her that to anger
Walter even more) was being assigned to the 45, an eastbound hot shot that only
made stops in Northern Ontario and Montreal before heading to Quebec City and her
deep water port. If littl' puddy was assigned to that, we'd most certainly never
see her again.... 50' double doors were a prize for any road.
"I'm goin to see Walter" cried Earl and before I could say two words he ran to the
truck and was off to the shops. "EARL, don't do....." It was too late.... I knew
Earl was goin to end up knocking Walter on his butt, but there wasn't anything I
could do about that now; I had to get to the crew of the 45 and see if I could stop
that shunt.
"There they are" I thought as I ran across the mains near Northhill; my heart and
lungs ready to explode from the two mile trot. "Hey guys, wait a minute" I yelled,
panting for oxygen and staggering towards the confused crew.
"Yeh pal, what's the problem eh ?" said the engineer, wary that a nut case had flagged
them down. " You guys on the 45 t'night" I asked. "yep" said the fireman " she's
all ready to go - last cars just shunted and SD's are warmed up...."
"Do you have a white 50' double door anywhere" ? I asked. The engineer looked at
me like I had escaped for a loonie bin " Beats me pal; they all look the same after
20 years - why do you care ?" he said with a curious gaze.
"Never mind, I'll see for myself" I said, running off towards the rear of the consist.
"Nice talking with ya.... ya nut" said the engineer as he and the fireman mounted
the stairs of the lead SD 40.
Back and back I ran, boxcar after boxcar, then a string of ACF's, a few tanks, more
oxide red box cars; GN fifties and a mixture of US road 40's. Still, no littl' puddy.
Then I saw him; it was Earl, just standing by a Penn Central 50' and beside it -
littl' puddy. " Earl, I thought you'd gone to find Walter" I said, trying to catch
my breath.
"I did, but then I realized I'd have plenty of time to drop his sorry butt later....."
his voice trailed off "I just wanted to say good bye to the ol' gal...." Earl looked
away, and then reached out and grabbed the stirup of littl' puddy and held it like
it was his own child.
I heard the air brakes release and realized that the 45 was about to pull out. I
went over to Earl and patted littl puddy. " See ya ol girl" I said. "You come home
soon, we'll miss ya"....... Earl just nodded and let go of the stirup. "Bye" said
Earl and as the consist slowly pulled forward - as littl puddy driffed out of sight
he and I walked silently away.
"A Blue and a shot at Millers" I said... "Sure Steve, thanks" said Earl....
"I wonder where littl puddy will end up" said Earl...... I wondered that too, thinking
it was a shame that we couldn't track or trace her movements..... oh well, I thought,
she's just a boxcar..... But I knew she ment more to us than that..................I
hope she stays well...
Earl and Steve say goodbye to Littl' Puddy
Murray and Norm were doing the late shift on Friday, working the interchange yard
down between Hardisty St. and the Kam River. The westerly CN freight had dropped
a cut of cars on it's way to Winnipeg, including a mish-mash of boxcars. Most of
those were the green newsprint cars, except for one. Murray was riding on the step
while Norm was running the SW up the tracks.
Now you need to understand that Murray has a drinking problem. Not the kind where
he drinks and falls down, but the kind where he can drink and drink and doesn't
fall down. Part of his problem is that his weekends start on Thursday afternoon,
and on Fridays he doesn't have coffee in his thermos. To make problems worse, Murray
had not been able to find his sunglasses through the Friday morning haze (the one
in his head, not the sky). He'd been trying to stay out of the sun for most of the
afternoon to keep his head from exploding. His "coffee" had only lasted till about
noon.
He glanced up to gauge the distance to the closest green newsprint box. The bright
white glare of the reflecting sun hit his retina like a supernova. By the time he
recovered adequately enough to put the radio to his lips there was a sickening crunch.
The SW decelerated from 15 mph to 0 in less then it's length, and Murray went flying.
Norm was kind of new in the yard, he still trusted Murray when they shared a shift.
After cracking a rib inside the cab this would change.
Murray and Norm surveyed the damage before calling the boss. The first boxcar wasn't
green ...it was a blinding bright white! The impact had driven the coupler into
it's pocket much deeper then it was meant to go, and the impact had wrecked the
front truck. One of the axles was sitting at a peculiar angle. Looking down the
line it seemed as though none of the newsprint cars received much damage ...as they
were driven into a cut of about 20 LOADED coal hoppers destined for the power plant.
Norm muttered "nice work you $%#@-up! ...YOU get to call the boss"
Some pictures right after the repairs were done:
The advantage of having a bright white car in your picture: You can use it to adjust
the white-balance (tone) of the image
To be continued
Hey Mike , Could I be cut into this somewhere?
How did I miss this????????????????? Sign me up. It would look great on the Great
Northern. Spokane Division....
Good to see littl puddy is back on her wheels - we hope she's behaving and she's
haulin the freight for ya...........nice pics !
With a mismatched truck, Puddy was captured airing out in the sunset. The crew working
on the coupler noticed an awful "stank" coming from the interior
nuthin like "real" sunlight
We're waiting for her to roll into Michigan. We're expecting her any day now...
No sign yet? Jon?
Sent by "airmail" ...but not sure what kind of plane. I was hoping for a Turbo Beaver,
(EH!)
...or a Norseman.
but it sounds like they loaded Puddy into the Tigermoth.
I'll see if I can track Puddy down from here. He's running way past due.
I am concerned that Littl' Puddy has been lost in the US-Canadian mail system -
when/if he arrives at his next destination, please post immediately.
Went to postoffice today with my receipt. Apparently the shipment can not be traced!
The nice lady told me to put in a claim if it hasn't shown up within a month (!)
or so.
Going on two weeks now...
I'm sure "littl' puddy" is being held up by customs and checking his cargo.
MrNScale
Hey all! I'm happy to say that Littl Puddy just arrived in the inbound yard at the
Lexington Railroad, his home for the next week. Pix later!
Yep, Jonathan had Lil' Pud sitting on the layout when I got home tonight. The car
appears to be in perfect condition too! The packaging wasn't opened or torn up in
any way so customs must not have done anything with the box. Unless they spent the
last week trying to melt him with X-Rays! We'll get some pictures of him on the
layout over the next few days and post them.
Dear Littl' Puddy: Daddy is happy you're ok - all is forgiven son... tee hee
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