 ames
the Red Engine
was elated when he received his invitation from the
Orange County Module Railroaders to be a part of the Fullerton Railroad
Days celebration at the beginning of May, 2004. He was even more
excited when he learned that he and his trainload of wagons would be
sharing the mainline with a crack freight train led by two Atlantic
Coast Lines steam engines hauling many many tons of freight. When
he got out on the mainline and started moving his wagons, he noticed
that there was a lot of hot, blustery winds that made his work a little
harder, but he was so happy to be there that he shrugged it off, and
kept pulling the train fast enought that the other train would not get
too close. He kept this up for quite a while, and was happy to
notice the children who came by and waved at him.
But James was not ready for what happened as he
approached Ted Johnson's modules- a gust of wind knocked over one of
the trackside trees, and he was horrified to see it fall onto the main
line, directly in his path. James tried as hard as he could to
stop before hitting the tree, but he couldn't stop, and hit the tree,
derailing in the process. James had only a few moments to think
about his situation when the following train, that also couldn't stop
soon enough, ran into his wagons, scattering them about like so many
matchboxes. Now that was bad enough, but there was a Santa
Fe train coming from the opposite direction straight toward the wreck
site on the second main line, and it, too, could not stop in time, and
struck the wagons again.
For the result of this tale of woe, see these
photos, taken by two of OCMR's club members... |
