John Gilbert > Great Locomotive Caper 6

The Great Locomotive Caper by John Gilbert
CHAPTER 6

Over the next several days Sam received more than a dozen phone calls. A few callers offered help while the others only wanted to reminisce about riding trains back in the good old days. The conversations would always end with “good luck”. Sam knew it would take more than luck to raise the money he needed.

Meanwhile, Barney had all but abandoned his tomatoes to spend time servicing the locomotive. He and Sam spent the week of Spring Holidays opening valves, checking packings, oiling bearings, checking gaskets, and left hundreds of spiders homeless while cleaning the engine.

“It’s Friday, the last day of spring break,” said Sam. “We’ve cleaned up the engine and tender and started on the caboose but we haven’t raised a dime.”

“Well, you’ll find that fund raising is a tough job,” said Barney. “Everybody takes a wait and see attitude. You know, I’ll give if he does and he’ll only give if I do. Nobody want’s to be the first to give but if the project is a success, they’ll all be the first to take the credit.”

Just then a patrol car pulled up to the engine. Sam and Barney looked down from the cab to see Officer Charlie Birdwell step from the car.

“Morning Charlie,” Barney called.

“Morning Barney,” returned the officer. “Could you come down for a minute.”

“What can I do for you?” asked Barney as he and Sam climbed from the locomotive.

“I don’t know how to tell you this but I’ve got some bad news for you and Sam. The Mayor don’t want you workin’ on this train anymore. In fact,” said Charlie reaching into his patrol car, “He want’s me to put this here no trespassing sign on the engine.”

“He can’t do that!” Barney shouted. “People have been climbing all over this train for forty years.”

“I know, I know,” said Charlie.

“Why doesn’t he want anyone on it all of a sudden?” questioned Barney.

“He said something about the insurance and someone’s liable to get hurt.”

“Insurance! That’s always the excuse. And no one’s been hurt in forty years. That’s a crock! He doesn’t want us getting folks interested in this engine. I’m going straight down to city hall and give him a piece of my mind!”

“Now hold on Barney,” cautioned Charlie. “Don’t go getting’ your dander up. Anyway, Pugmyre’s not in his office this afternoon. He’s off with his brother-in-law.”

“Then I’ll be sitting on his desk first thing Monday morning,” snapped Barney.

“I’m sorry,” apologized Charlie. “I know how much this old train means to you.”

“Can I at least get my tools?” growled Barney.

“Now don’t go getting’ mad at me. I’m just followin’ my orders. I used to climb all over this train when I was a kid. You know that,” said Charlie.

“I’m sorry,” Barney apologized. “Pugmyre’s just got you doing his dirty work but he and I are going to go round and round on this one.”

Sam was in a state of shock. He felt numb and betrayed. As Barney climbed back into the cab to gather his tools, Charlie placed several no trespassing signs around the train and left.

“What do we do now?” Sam asked. “I guess we’re the only ones interested in this old engine.”

“I know what I’m going to do,” said Barney. “Somehow I’m going to find out what Pugmyre’s up to. Something’s going on and when I figure it out everybody in town is going to know about it. He won’t even get elected dogcatcher when I’m finished with him. Why, I might even run for mayor! Yes, Mayor Albright! Has a nice ring to it.”

“Hey, I’ve got your campaign slogan,“ said Sam. How does this sound: ‘All’s right with Albright’.”

“Say, that sounds good. As mayor my first order will be to recondition this locomotive. I’m sure the people will--.”
Just then Barney’s acceptance speech was interrupted by shouts from across the park. They looked up to see Ralph, Mike, and Milton on their bikes coming toward them as hard as they could peddle. A few feet from the engine Ralph dropped his bike and ran to the footplate where Sam was standing.

“Sam! Sam!” he shouted.

“What’s the big rush?” Sam asked.

“You’re not going to believe this,” puffed Ralph. “My dad just told me he overheard the mayor on the phone this morning.”
Ralph stopped to catch his breath.

“Well, what did he say?”

“He heard him order a crew to the park at 7:00 Monday morning to start scraping the locomotive.”

“He can’t do that!” Sam shouted. “He made us a deal!”

“I’m sorry you had to learn the hard way,” said Barney. “Pugmyre’s word is no good. You’ve got nothing in writing so he doesn’t have to keep his word.”

“That’s not fair!” snapped Sam, his shock turning to anger.

“Life’s not usually fair,” sighed Barney. “If it was I’d be a millionaire.”

“What do we do now?” asked Milton.

“I know what I’d like to do,” said Sam pounding his fist on the footplate. Car bumpers! They want to turn this into car bumpers.”

“I say we steal it,” suggested Mike.

“How are you going to do that? Hide it in your billfold?” quipped Ralph.

“Yeah, maybe we can hide it in my mom’s strawberry patch,” Milton joked.

“I’ll just put it in the engine house on my dad’s model train set,” laughed Mike. “Nobody’ll find it there and I’m sure he’d like a new engine. You don’t think it’ll break his table, do you?”

“You know Mike, you’re right,” said Sam.

“Sure I’m right. He’s got so many trains on his table now it’s bending in the middle.”

“No not that. I mean about stealing it. That’s what we gotta’ do. We’ve gotta’ steal it,”said Sam with a dazed look in his eyes.

“It was a joke, Sam,” said Ralph.
Sam just stared off into space.

“Sam, it was a joke. There’s no way to steal a real train,” said Milton.

“It has wheels on it, doesn’t it?’ Sam questioned.

“What? Do you think you can just roll it down Main Street or something?” asked Ralph.

“I’ll just pull it behind my bike,” said Mike. “Sam, you’re not laughing.”

“We can do it,” Sam said to himself.

“Uh oh. He’s cracked up. The pressure was too much for him,” sneered Ralph.

“Don’t you see, guys? It’s the only way to save this engine. Mayor Pugmyre won’t listen, the city council isn’t interested, and nobody’s got the money to buy it. We’re the only hope 468 has got. If we don’t do something, by this time Monday there won’t be enough left of her to save,” said Sam.

“I know a great rest home, Sam. They’ll be real good to you,” Mike snickered.

“I’m serious you guys. We can do it! We’ll be Andrews Raiders!” announced Sam.

“Wasn’t that a rock group?” asked Milton.

“No. During the Civil War James J. Andrews and some Union soldiers dressed as civilians stole the locomotive General from Big Shanty Georgia, right under the noses of the Confederate Army. They were trying to make it to Chattanooga Tennessee. We can do the same thing.”

“I don’t want to go to Chattanooga Tennessee,” whined Mike.

“Shut up you dummy,” snapped Ralph popping Mike on the head. “And if I remember correctly, Andrews was captured and hanged.”

“How about it Barney? Could we fire her up?” Sam asked.

“Now hold on. Slow down a minute. You don’t just crank this baby and drive her off the showroom floor,” Barney explained. “She would need to be oiled and towed to a shop. The boiler would need to be inspected and all of her bearings would have to be inspected and polished. All of her plumbing and piping would have to be checked. With all we’ve done this week we’ve just barely scratched the surface.”

“Our pressure test worked and the engine even moved. She’ll run, I know she will!” Sam pleaded.

“And if she did run, what if she breaks down on the road?”

“Better to break down on the road trying to escape than to stand still for the cutters torch. What do you say, Barney?” asked Sam.

“We’ve got no coal or water and where do you hide an entire train?” questioned Barney.

“There’s an abandoned rock quarry about 30 miles north of town. We go camping there all the time. We can hide her there,” Sam explained. “And for water, there’s a fire hydrant over there by that picnic table. Can she burn wood?”

“I’ve never tried burning wood on a coal grate but I guess it might work,” Barney speculated scratching his head.

“Good! Here’s what we’ve got to do. Ralph, you stop by the fire station and see if you can “borrow” a fire hose and a wrench. Mike, can you borrow you’re dad’s pickup?”

“Yeah. He’s out of town this weekend.”

“Good. We need every scrap of firewood we can lay our hands on. Milton, you go over to city hall and get the whistle from the mayor’s office. Bring it back here and help Mike with the wood. Ralph, after you get the hose, bring a couple of shovels and start clearing the tracks. I’ll get some wire cutters to cut the fence and then I’ll…” Sam stopped in mid sentence as a look of disappointment crossed his face.

“Rats!” he shouted. “We haven’t got a switch key to unlock the switch stands.”
Barney’s mouth broadened into a grin as he reached into his pocket. From his pocket he pulled a ring of keys. Fastened to the ring was a large square brass key.

“Did somebody say switch key?” he asked. “I kept this all these years for good luck.”

“All right!” Sam shouted. “Here’s the plan. We’ll fill the boiler and tender with water. That’ll give us time to gather the wood. After we attach the whistle we’ll light the fire and build steam. While we’re waiting for the pressure to build we’ll uncover the tracks and cut the fence. Our biggest problem is the freight that passes the quarry at 2:17 AM. Milton, you’re the fastest bike rider. We’ll carry your bike with us and drop you with a walkie-talkie and the switch key at Digby Road. Meanwhile, we will have a long curved grade that we’ll have to slow down for. Digby Road is down hill all the way to the quarry road is. When you see us coming, throw the switch to let us into the quarry then throw it back and lock it. Any Questions?”

“Yeah,” answered Ralph. “You really are nuts, aren’t you.”

“You know, it’s crazy enough that it just might work!” exclaimed Mike.

“Don’t you see? We can’t just throw our hands up and just say, oh well! This is our last chance and we can’t blow it,” pleaded Sam. “Come on guys, are you with me?”

“Yes!” shouted the three boys.

“How about you, Barney? You’ve got to be our engineer.”

“Well, I don’t know. I just… We can’t…. Well…Oh, why not! Sure, we can do it. Tell me to keep off this engine! We’ll show ‘em! You bet I’m in!

“Good!” said Sam. “Everybody’s got his assignment. Let’s do it!’

Now read the final Chapter 7 of "The Great Locomotive Caper"

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