Squirrels and Derailments

Some of you may have been wondering what became of the filthy foxes that I posted about earlier this summer. I am happy to report that the battle is over and I won. I will admit to nothing, but know that they are gone...  until next spring at any rate.

In the mean time a new enemy has infiltrated the foundations of a number of buildings in the rail yard. Squirrels. Mean, conniving, relentless squirrels. They don't actually live in the rail yard, they live across the street from the depot in some big pine trees that surround the old superintendent's house. I suspect that they moved over about the time that I ran the foxes off. So, I have unwittingly found myself wrapped up in the intricacies of nature and the natural order of the food chain. Nonetheless! I will prevail. 

Hopeful I will have better luck against the squirrels then I did on my first rail speeder ride this past week. Rail speeder look like this:

I spent about eight hours in a safety class, took a 2 hour long test, and spent a morning being instructed on how to operate one of these speeders. We are getting ready to do some pretty extensive track upgrades at the railroad; as part of that the railroad management wanted an inventory of the their track structures done. Some of these track structures are only accessible from the track right-of-way itself. I volunteered to walk, but they insisted that the speeder would be more effective. After all of that training I had been on the speeder a grand total of five minutes before I managed to fling the thing off the track. My downfall? Switches. During the class there was a good hour or so on switches. "Oh I know how to work those", I thought to myself, "I had a toy train. It's not rocket science." Apparently, it must be. I had left the shed where the speeder was stored and I was reversing to a switch at the other end of the yard. Naturally, I had my head craned around to see behind me. As I got closer to the switch I eventually noticed that the switch was set against me, but unfamiliar controls meant that my reaction time wasn't quick enough to get the contraption stopped. A few shorts moment later and I was sitting in the dirt. The track crew and master mechanic showed up and helped me set the speeder back on the track and I was off, not without a good bit of teasing though. In fact, by the time I got back to the yard that afternoon the whole railroad had heard about it. Yeah, they're going to keep bringing that one up for awhile. Live and learn.