Lessons From The Father

Lessons From The Father

A 3-year-old girl with red hair looks out the window of a commuter train. Another girl who is 9 years old with blond hair says to her, “Megan. Let me see!”

“It’s my turn, Molly!”, Megan exclaims.

A middle-aged man sits next to the two girls, “Girls, why are you arguing while Dad is deadheading?”

“I want to look out the window.” Molly yells.

“Ok. Then why don’t you sit on another seat.”

“Like where?” Molly asks.

“Sit over there.” Her dad tells her as he points to another seat.

The train passes by a station.

The train seems to be gaining speed.

Megan looks at her father and says, “Daddy, why are we going so fast?”

“I’m going to go find out.” Megan’s Dad picks her up and takes Molly by the hand. He powerwalks to the front of the train. He reaches the cab car and finds the engineer confused. The engineer turns to him and says, “I don’t know what is wrong. The brakes aren’t working.” The train speeds out of control.

***

“Ouch!” A 23-year-old Megan falls off of a seat on a train and onto the floor. She picks herself up and seems daze and confused. As she stands up, she falls back down onto the ground. She gets up again and says to herself out loud, “Ahh. I’m drunk again. Was I partying?” She stumbles her way through the isle. As she travels along the isle, a passenger seated in an aisle seat, grabs her arm, “Hey, is there something wrong with this train?” “Why would you think that?” she replies.

“We’re going quite fast.”

“We are. I’ll try to find the conductor.” She continues to stumble along. She passes through the vestibules and into the next car. Now she’s in the dining car. She notices a conductor sitting down.

“Hey. Why are we going so fast?”

The conductor looks at her with a confused look on his face. “I’m not sure. Let me radio the engineer.” He picks up the radio and says, “Hey Bobby are you ok? We’re going quite fast.” He waits several seconds for a response and doesn’t get one. The conductor looks back at the woman and asks, “What’s your name?”

“Megan.”

“Where did you get on?”

“I don’t remember.”

“What does your ticket say?” Megan moves her hands through her pockets but is unable to find her ticket. Her only thought is to change the subject, and fast.

Megan asks the conductor, “Did you get a response from the engineer?” Megan looks concerned.

“No. I didn’t. That’s odd.” Worry lines form on the older gentleman’s forehead. He excuses himself and disappears out of site without another mention of Megan’s ticket.

“I need some caffeine.” She mumbles to herself while making her way to the Café cart.

“Can I have a soda please?”

The café attendant asks her, “What one do you want?”

“Whatever one has the most caffeine.” The attendant hands her a soda in a green bottle. Megan opens the bottle and drinks about a quarter of the bottle right away. She walks up towards the front of the train. She reaches the locomotive and climbs across into the access door. She walks through the hallway next to the Diesel engine and hears the loud roar of the engine. She gets to the cab of the locomotive and finds the engineer passed out over the controls.

“Come on,” Megan screams frustrated. She takes another drink of caffeinated soda. She says to herself, “I really need to stop drinking.” She shakes the engineer to try to wake him up, but there is no response. She sits down next to the engineer and a tear rolls down her face hitting the control panel.

She pulls the engineer off of the controls. She realizes this is the exact same locomotive her father used to operate. She picks up the radio and transmits to the control center.

“Train 519 is a runaway and we need medical for the engineer.”

Rail Dispatch Center Denver, CO

A dispatcher sits behind a desk.

She says, “Train 519, please confirm your last transmission.”

Over the radio the dispatcher hears Megan say, “Train 519 is a runaway and we need medical for the engineer.”

The dispatchers hand goes up into the air. A supervisor comes over and stands behind her.

He says to her, “What’s the problem?”

She tells him, “We have a runaway train!”

The supervisor says to her, “Get all other trains out of its way and make sure all upcoming switches are aligned for straight rail.”

The dispatcher says back to her supervisor, “Got it.”

Megan sits in the cab of the locomotive. The train speeds out of control. She looks at the display screen and finds that the train has gone into emergency braking, but the brakes seem to have no effect. She moves the air brake levers back and forth, but the train does not slow down. The train races against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. The sound of air displacement is loud as the train speeds out of control. She sees off in the distance a sharp curve. Knowing if the train does not slow down soon, she will die, she closes her eyes.

20 years earlier

A 3-year-old Megan is on a train that is speeding out of control. Her father tells the engineer, “This is a Diesel-Electric locomotive. It has dynamic brakes that use the electric motors as generators to slow the train down. Use that to stop that train.” The engineer moves the dynamic brake lever into the dynamic brake setup position. After several seconds, he moves it forward into the full dynamic brake position. The train starts to slow.

Back in the present

Megan opens her eyes, looks over the control console and tries to find the lever her dad showed her to move. She thinks she sees it and pushes it into the first position. The screen shows several letters indicating braking setup. She waits for a few seconds then pushes the lever farther into the highest level of dynamic braking, all the way away from her body. The train starts to slow as it races towards the curve. It finally gets to the curve and starts to tilt towards the outside of the curve, but it makes it through. Megan watches as the train slows to a about two miles per hour. She applies to independent brake on the locomotive. The train finally comes to a stop about several hundred feet past the curve. She climbs off the locomotive and people get off the train claiming her as a hero.

The conductor asks her, “What’s your name?”

Megan tells him, “Megan.”

The conductor asks, “Do you want to go for a drink?”

Megan replies, “No. I’m all done with that. My college days are over.”