Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 05:15:17 EST
From: SWarri1349@aol.com
Subject: Chapter 9 of High Iron

                            High Iron- Chapter 9
                            North Towards Jackson
                            Part #1

    The long blast from #6003, almost a mile ahead of caboose #600 and
the boys and men who shared it, linked together by a coupling force of
iron and steel, while one of flesh and blood took place in the caboose.

    "Umm, Joe, can me and Sean go and stand on the back platform?" Jamie
asked, his small but strong arms still wrapped around Sean.

    "Sure you can, boys, just be careful and hold on to one of the
railings at all times. You know, you don't have to leave to give me and
Scott some privacy, if you want you can lay in the bunk, we don't care,
but if you do go outside, be careful, you never know when Bill is going
to put on the air." Joe smiled at the two teens who smiled back.  As Sean
started down the rungs, Scott reached over and playfully pinched Sean on
his butt through the tight fitting denim jeans.

    "Scott, quit pinching the boy's ass, otherwise he will slip and fall
and Jamie will have to rescue him, then I will have to signal Bill to
stop the train so we can back up and scrape you off the side of the track
after you have landed there with Jamie's shoe still stuck up your ass."

    Scott smiled at Joe, "Naw, Jamie wouldn't do that, because he knows
better, if he kicked me off my own train I would just have to run him
back to 'Ole Man River'."

    Sean looked over his right shoulder to Joe and gave him the evil eye,
then winked to show it was all in fun as he stepped down onto the rocking
floor of the caboose. Jamie wasted no time in climbing down the metal
rungs of the ladder to the floor to join Sean. Joe called out one more
warning to be careful and to hang on to the railings in case Bill shoots
the air to the brakes in an emergency.


    "Joe, what are we going to do with those two?" Scott asked as he
leaned back against the hard rubber of the seat.

    "I don't know, Scott, keep them safe as long as we can, give them all
the love we can, and stop anyone that tries to get to them," Joe said
with his eyes closed as he to tried to get in a comfortable position.

    "You know, Joe, we arrive in Jackson this afternoon and tonight you
and I will layoff in Grenada, then what do we do, just walk home with
them in tow and say 'Hi, we're home and Sean and Jamie are now your sons
too'?"

    Joe smiled a broad wide grin, "Sure, Scott, but first we have to
sneak them past the bulls in Jackson. You know the Railroad bulls in
Jackson don't like any surprises."

    Scott looked at Joe, "Yeah, I know, they add a whole new meaning to
'cinder dicks'!"

    "Scott, I think after what we just told each other, we ourselves have
just added a new meaning to 'cinder dicks'!" Joe grinned and placed his
right arm around Scott, who looked over and smiled.

    "Sean, what you think will happen to us next?" Jamie asked as he
clung to the handrail on the back of the caboose platform.

    "Jamie, I don't really know what will happen next. We're stopping in
Jackson next and it's a major yard and terminal point between the McComb
District and the Yazoo and Grenada Districts, then there is Memphis, TN.
I am worried tho', those Railroad bulls in Jackson are not nice to
strangers and they don't care if you riding with someone you know or not.
They are some mean bastards from what I have heard." Sean walked behind
Jamie and put his arms around the smaller boy, "But don't worry, I will
take care of you," Sean whispered into Jamie's ear. Jamie's body shivered
when he felt Sean's tongue lick his ear lobe.

    "Umm, Sean, you better stop before I sprout a woody, and that
wouldn't be good right now. What would the people think if they saw this
train pass and two naked boys on the back platform making love?"

    "Well, depends on who sees us, might give the Southern Baptists a
heart attack and cause some old farmer to wreck his tractor!"

   "And the grandmas to faint!" Jamie added, as both boys cracked up into
fits of laughter. Time seemed to stand still at that happy moment as the
train rushed northward towards Mississippi's capital. The town of
Norfield left in a cloud of dust and coal smoke as Engine 6003 pulled her
heavy train down the shining rails of the Mainline of Mid-America with
ties stronger than family blood. To Sean and Jamie, New Orleans seemed
like a bad dream as the boys held onto each other as the cool air blew
their hair and the clank of wheels rushed them on with fading coal smoke
streaming high above. Sean tightened his grip on Jamie and slowly turned
him around until his slender back was pressed against the iron rail of
the back platform and reached down to lift Jamie's chin in his hand and
as the wheels clanked and clicked upon the iron rails, Sean leaned down
with his soft lips slightly parted and planted them upon Jamie's. Jamie
inhaled deeply as he felt the warmth of Sean's velvet lips touch his own
and he opened his own lips to let Sean's tongue enter. The boys kissed
deeply, inhaling each other's scents, tasting each other as if for the
first time. The almost primitive forest blurred past the rushing train
unnoticed by the two teens, the coal smoke high overhead part of a dream
or so it seemed as the boys continued to kiss in almost total privacy.
Jamie's arms left the cold iron rail to wrap around Sean's neck as Sean's
wrapped around Jamie's lower back, drawing him closer as their tongues
danced to the drum of the wheels rushing them onward north. While to the
southwest a different wheel was making its own drumbeat as the Steamboat
Gray Oak blasted her mellow deep whistle as she shoved off from the Port
of Natchez, Mississippi.

________________________________________________________________________________


   Eric leaned over the brass speaking tube, "Full ahead, Watson!"

    The muffled reply came back, "Aye, pilot, Full Ahead!"

    Eric spun the large oak wheel in the pilothouse and the big steamer
pulled away from the wooden docks and turned her bow upstream towards
Vicksburg. The coal smoke from her tall stacks darkened the sky as fresh
coal was thrown upon the fires to heat the fireboxes under the six
boilers. The steady clank of shovels was heard as engineer Watson shouted
orders to the black coal heavers as the needles on the boiler gauges rose
higher as the temperature rose from the fresh fuel, and the massive wheel
turned the muddy water into a foam with each revolution of the
crankshafts. Parsons stood on the Texas deck roof in front of the
pilothouse, nursing a cup of strong bitter coffee, his bloodshot eyes
scanning the mighty river that was in his blood stronger than the
moonshine he had drunk in the seedy riverfront bar that morning after
they had docked, before he had paid a visit to a friend he had not seen
in a good while. The cool breeze blew against his stubby cheeks and
tousled his long hair. The river flowed through his veins like the blood
that gave him life. "Father of the Waters, give me strength to find my
boy, to bring him back where he belongs beside me upon this deck, away
from the corruption of the damnable Railroad in which he fled," Robert
whispered to himself, almost a prayer to the great river as if could
bring his son back to the man that had run his own son off. Clouds passed
over the sun and shadows fell upon the man who at that very moment began
to realize what many others had known for years, he was a bastard, with a
slut for a wife, his oldest son gone and he did not know where, and now
his second boy also gone, his slut of a wife had talked him into selling
their son to make money when he was drunk one night right after the hard
times had hit the United States, but his oldest boy was gone many years
before when Jamie was just a baby in his mother's arms. Robert often
wondered late at night when standing behind the cracked oaken wheel,
staring at the river, where his boy was, "Ryan, O' Ryan, my handsome
laddy, where have you gone!"  Robert wanted to scream, but he held it
inside him, he wanted to cry at times and others he did, when anyone
asked he said he was just exhausted or made some other excuse for his
reddened eyes and tear stained, weather beaten cheeks. He knew when he
returned home, the house would be empty, his wife would be gone and the
house, he laughed bitterly, more of a two room shack on the banks of the
Mississippi, would have nothing left but memories. He thought back to
five years past when the family was happy. The large clapboard house
painted white sitting on a small rise of land just north of the city, a
large yard full of trees and green grass, then the panic started, then
the grease that turned the wheels of America's industry ground to a halt
like an axle without grease, the stock markets crashed, panic set in, and
the sun shone no more. First some of the fine furniture was sold, then
the house, and they moved to the shack on the riverbank. The fine packets
no longer needed a pilot who kept his head in the bottle when off, and
only the worn-out old tow boats and freight steamers would even give him
the chance. Captain Hawk gave him a second chance but it was too late to
save his family. Ryan had vanished one day from Bourbon Street in New
Orleans. Robert started to hit the bottle heavy after the police came up
with no leads to his disappearance. Sarah, the slut of New Orleans and
his wife by marriage, insisted on telling Jamie that Ryan was given up
for adoption at a early age. Standing now on the roof of a dirty
steamboat crowding on steam in order to beat the strong current, he
wondered why he ever went along with that lie. One that never did a bit
of good, "If I was an inch lower on humanity, I would kill that whore,
damn you, Sarah, God Damn You for making me lose the two things I loved
the most in life." Robert let out a sigh, "At least I still have you, Ol'
Man River."  The city of Natchez vanished around the broad bend in the
mighty river and once more the Grey Oak was alone on the river as the
coal smoke darkened the skies and a tattered and faded flag of the United
States snapped in the breeze and only the waves, clanking of the
firemen's shovels, and the whine of the boilers broke the silence as a
man who thought at one time he was King of his world learned a lesson -
sometimes when you took a gamble you won and other times you paid for it
dearly.

________________________________________________________________________________


   The dark haired woman, dressed in a tattered shawl, walked slowly down
the cobblestone street past the honking cars and horse drawn carriages.
She hated Mississippi and she hated Natchez. She had watched the Grey Oak
pull away from port, she saw her husband on deck, "the bastard!" she
hissed under her breath. She walked into the dark tavern, the old cracked
sign swung from rusty hinges - "King's Tavern". She reached for the metal
handle and pulled, the door let out a squeak and a moan as it opened to
reveal the darkened interior of the ancient building. She took timid
steps through the doorway, it had been years since the last time she was
here.

    "Hello, daughter of mine!" the big man said as he stood behind the
scarred bar, wiping glasses and mugs from the night before as a stream of
smoke rose from his pipe.

    "Hello, father," the woman said in barely a whisper.

    "So what brings my better than thou daughter home, when she didn't
even come home for her own mother's funeral? When her own husband is a
pilot on a steamboat." The big man growled the words as he spoke.

    "I have nowhere else to go, I know my husband has left me for good. I
saw it in his eyes when he walked out the door, our sons both gone. He
tried to sell the youngest to some foreign bastard, but Jamie escaped
from him, that I know..."

    "YOU LYING SLUT! DON'T YOU DARE COME INTO HERE LYING YOUR ASS OFF,
BITCH!  Robert came in here last night and told me the truth, you, slut,
tried to sell my grandsons." Jim Lebowe walked out from behind the bar
and to the center of the room, his heavy footsteps echoing off the
bricks. Sarah stepped back as her father approached, the footsteps
growing even louder in the empty tavern. Sarah wanted to just shrink into
a crack in the bricks but she knew she couldn't. 'So the bastard came in
here and turned the last of her own against her,' Sarah thought as she
stumbled backwards over a chair and landed on the floor. She tried to
stand but couldn't and now her angry father stood over her.

    "Now listen and listen carefully, whore, I know all about your nights
in that so-called tavern on the 'Orleans waterfront and you being a
waitress to all the hard workin' rivermen, until one caught your fancy
and you took him upstairs to ply your real trade. If that wasn't bad
enough, you didn't even share the money to put food on the table for your
own son. I know what happened to the oldest boy, Ryan. I hired a couple
of boys to find out for me and not the city pigs. He was fucking sold
right off Bourbon Street. Yes, it is amazing at what you can learn if you
give a street rat enough money to buy a bottle of wine, NOW JAMIE!" Jim
raised his hand and brought it down in a swift blow across Sarah's right
cheek, the skin instantly turned red as the second blow struck her,
causing her to fall back to the floor.

    Tears began to run down Sarah's cheeks as she fought to hold them
back, she hated when her father saw her weakness. Cajans had no weakness,
she was taught that from early childhood till the day she ran off to
marry Robert. "I DIDN'T SELL MY SONS, FATHER!" she screamed.

    "You fucking lying whoring slut! I should kill you right now and let
you burn in hell for your sins, but I do have pride in my heritage,
unlike you! I did my damnest to raise four children right under the
guidance of the Lord Almighty, but there is always one black sheep and it
had to be you, Sarah, You!" Jim's hazel eyes blazed red fire. Jim
snatched his daughter off the floor in a sweeping jerk. "Let me tell you
one thing, whore, you're not my daughter from this day forth and if you
ever set foot back in this tavern I will kill you and let the vultures
eat your rotting flesh from your bones," Jim hissed as he held his
forbidden daughter tightly in his grasp, his arms bulging as she tried to
fight back to escape his grasp.

    Jim glanced over at the huge hearth that was being rebricked, the
mammoth fireplace was no longer needed to cook on so he was having it
made smaller to use less wood to heat the large room. Jim smiled as he
thought of a plan to make sure the family name would not be tarnished
further as he began to drag his daughter towards the bar. The front door
opened and two large black workers walked in the room and just stood
there silent as the heavy oaken door swung shut behind them.

    "Afternoon, boys," Jim said, still holding Sarah in his arms.

    "Afternoon, Sur," the two black workers replied, their eyes still
glued to the scene before them.

    "As you can see, I have a problem with a child of mine that has
decided to tarnish my family's name. Josa, remember when your family was
broken up into parts because a planter didn't want your whole family?"

    The big black man on the right nodded his head slowly, "Yes, sur, I
sho' do remembah. My granny neve' did let me forgit about it," Josa
replied. The other man just nodded, he couldn't speak, his tongue was cut
out after he talked about a murder he saw to the sheriff.

    "Well, she tried to sell my only grandsons for sex!" Jim spit the
words out as the eyes of the two black men narrowed upon the woman,
filled with hate, even if she was a white woman.

    "What you want to do wit' her?" Josa asked.

    "I will give you both a ten dollar gold piece to make her vanish and
never to return." Josa looked over at his brother as he slid his index
finger across his throat, then back at Jim who nodded. Jim continued to
hold Sarah now with just his right hand as he reached into his pocket and
pulled out the two heavy coins and tossed them to the men, the coins
flickered in the dim light of the room as they flew through the air to
the men. Josa caught the coins and felt the weight, then took one and bit
into it to make sure it was real. He nodded to his brother that the money
was real.

    "Com'on, boys, time to take out this trash", he shoved Sarah into the
arms of the two brothers and nodded towards the hearth and the hole that
was being filled by the new layer of brick. "Of course there is always
the river and those alligators need feeding." Jim laughed, "Now take care
of business, while I leave to take care of some of my own!" Jim walked
out of the tavern to feel the afternoon heat blast his already sweaty
body as he headed to the steamboat landing.

________________________________________________________________________________

  "Passing Windsor Ruins, Parsons! You about ready for your watch?" Eric
asked as he spun the big wheel.

    "Yah, in a moment, Eric!" Robert shouted back from his place on the
Texas deck roof.

    "Damn, you sure are daydreaming a lot today, what you thinking about,
some boy pussy since you know that slut of a wife won't be home when you
return!" Eric laughed.

    Robert's eyes glowed with hate as he heard Eric laugh. 'Don't you
worry, Eric, what I daydream about, because it might mean you will have
an accident very very soon,' he thought as he puffed on his pipe and
slowly stood up to walk to the pilothouse. He let a small grin crease his
face as the cool wind hit him. The wind sent shivers down his spine to
touch his soul as a black crow sounded its call and landed on the
jackstaff where the boat's flag fluttered in the breeze. Robert stared
for a moment. 'Grandfather always said, when a cold wind touches your
soul and a crow flies near, a dark wish will be fulfilled before the day
turns to night.' Robert smiled once more, 'Just who would be among the
spirits tonight, the whore or the bastard, just maybe both!' Robert let
out a deep laugh as he stepped into the pilothouse and took over the
wheel from Eric. "Now go find the cabin boy if you want some boy pussy
and let a real pilot handle the wheel."

    "Fuck you, Parsons," Eric scowled.

    "Not on your life, you're not my type," Robert replied back.

    "Try to keep her in the channel and I think I will go find our little
cabin boy," Eric said as he walked out the door and almost stumbled over
the door jamb.

    "Don't kill yerself, I need you and we haven't reached Vicksburg
yet!" Robert laughed as Eric just glared back and then stormed down the
steps to his cabin on the Texas deck. 'Not just yet, Eric, old boy, after
Vicksburg, you might have someone to do it for you,'  Robert thought as
he turned the big wheel and smiled as he looked out upon the river, the
river that held more secrets than anyone could possibly guess or would
want to.

________________________________________________________________________________

   "Sean, promise me you will never let go," Jamie whispered into Sean's
ear over the rattle of the wheels.

    "Jamie, I promise never to let you go, never to let anyone hurt you
again." Sean kissed Jamie's neck and held him tightly against his chest.

    Bill blasted the whistle on 6003 as he shut the throttle off and the
heavy train began to slow some, two miles to the yard at Brookhaven, 12.6
miles north of Northfield.

    "We slowing down, must be coming to a city or town. I guess it is
time to look like innocent boys again," Sean said as he swung Jamie
around and stole a kiss as he smiled. Jamie smiled back as they once more
separated and gripped the iron rail on the back of the caboose as they
heard the hiss of high pressure air activate the brakes as the couplers
bumped together. They felt the bump and held on to the rail, then turned
and walked back inside the caboose. "Where we at, Joe?" Sean called up to
the cupola.

    "Brookhaven, MS, boys, and last scheduled stop until Jackson," Joe
said as he climbed down the rungs to the caboose floor.

    "Yeah, and it means I have to actually work today!" Scott growled as
he slipped on his leather gloves.

    Jamie walked to the back door and looked at the sky, "Hmmm, it's not
snowing in hell yet!" he chirped, then smiled as the expression on
Scott's face grew.

    Scott pulled off his gloves and handed them to Joe as he walked
towards Jamie and grabbed the boy in his arms and picked him up. "Now
what was this comment about me not working, you little bugger?" Jamie
fought to get out of Scott's arms as Scott continued towards the open
back door and the platform, all the time smiling at Jamie with an evil
smile and then winking at Sean and Joe.

    "Help me, Sean!" Jamie called as he continued to fight with Scott to
get out of his strong grasp.

    Joe laid Scott's gloves on the bunk and grabbed Sean before he could
move. "Sorry Jamie, I got Sean right here," and he smiled.

    "Sorry, babe, my hands are tied," Sean said as he felt Joe actually
pull him closer against his body.

    "Scott, com'on, I was joking about it snowing!" Jamie squealed. He
stuck his legs out, bracing them against the door of the caboose as his
hands fought to gain purchase on the other side to keep Scott from
carrying him out it.

    Joe was loving every second of it, laughing as he held onto Sean when
he really didn't have to, but holding the youth close to him gave him a
feeling of youthful freedom he no longer had since he turned 21, such a
short period of time, four years, he was sure Scott thought the same
thing at times.

    "Scott, let me go! Please, I won't say you're lazy again, I promise!"
Jamie whined.

    "Oh, I am lazy now, huh?, I was going to throw you off for calling
Mississippi Hell, but now I have a better reason to do it?" Scott had a
wicked smile on his face.

    "Scott, either throw him off the train or not, but we do have work to
do, you know, at least sometime this year," Joe said as he let go of Sean
and slapped the boy on the backside, causing Sean to jump.

    "Yeah, Joe, you're right. Come here, Sean, and get this little bugger
of yours, I can't see how anybody can love something like this," Scott
said as he began to let Jamie down and placed Jamie in Sean's arms.

    Jamie stuck his tongue out at Scott, "You wouldn't have done it in
the first place."

    "You're right, Jamie, I wouldn't have, can't throw away anything with
that fine of an ass!" Scott said as he slipped on his gloves.

    "SCOTT! I don't believe my ears," Joe said as he started laughing as
Jamie turned beet red in the face.

     Sean lifted his eyebrows, "If railroaders are one big happy family,
it sure is one sick family." Joe slugged him on the shoulder. "OW, what
the hell was that for, Joe?"

    "For calling us sick, that's why. I ought to throw you off the back
of this here hack but I am not, for one reason." Everyone turned to stare
at Joe, waiting his answer. Jamie looked at him with wide eyes while Sean
stood there rubbing his sore shoulder where Joe had slugged him, his
eyebrows still raised.

    "And just what is that reason, Joe?" Scott asked.

    "The same reason you can't throw Jamie off the back of this here
hack, too fineee of an ass to throw away and a halfway sweet kid to
boot!" Joe laughed as everyone else just took their turns looking at Joe
with mixed expressions on their faces.

    Scott smiled and walked out on to the back platform and stepped down
to the bottom right step as he watched the train ease across the diamond
where the Mississippi Central Railroad crossed the Illinois Central right
before the two story brick passenger and freight station. Engine number 5
of the Mississippi Central Railroad, an 1895 product of Baldwin
Locomotive Works, sat just east of the diamond, waiting for Engine #6003
and her train to clear the diamond so it could cross over the mainline
and then back into the passenger station on passing track one. While ICRR
engine number #383 sat on the other passenger siding with its 10 car
local of mail, baggage, and human cargo waiting, with steam shooting from
the open cylinder cocks and smoke drifting from the slender stack as her
passengers boarded the cars and the baggage agent threw bag after bag to
the baggage handlers and the mail clerk on board.

    Sean and Jamie watched as their train crossed the diamond and looked
over at Engine number #5. The engine could have been a mirror copy of the
ICRR Engine #383 except for her double bells, one mounted on top of her
boiler while the other hung over the front of the boiler above the pilot,
below the headlamp. The one on top of the boiler continued to toll,
sounding the presence of the 4-6-0, Ten Wheeler locomotive as it sat
there waiting for caboose #600 to clear the last few feet of the diamond.
As the caboose clanked over the clearance points, Mississippi Central
Number #5 sounded her whistle and released her brakes and the three car
train crept over the rails of the ICRR and the rear brakeman stepped down
from the last car to throw the switch and give the signal to the engineer
to ease back down the siding to the platforms where #383 was waiting on
the other platform track, leaving the double track mainline open for
passing freights and crack express trains that did not stop at
Brookhaven. Once number 6003 and her train had cleared the station,
Engine #383 would pull out on the northbound track and cross the MCRR,
then proceed to the crossover switch and switch tracks back to the
southbound mainline and continue her journey south.

    "I wonder why that engine has two bells for, Sean?" Jamie asked as he
watched the big plump brakeman in his fancy blue uniform lean way out and
over, passing hand signals to the engineer.

    "I dunno, Jamie," Sean replied as he watched the same scene as Jamie
and he both thought the man was going to fall off the last car of the
train, 6003 continued to ease past the stopped passenger train, her bell
continuing to sound its warning to all the people waiting on the
platforms.

    "Well, boys, the Mississippi Central had a bad wreck here last year.
That very engine #5 hit a loaded school bus about a half a mile from the
diamond and over thirty kids were killed. The Railroad management said
the fireman forgot to ring the bell for the crossing, so upper management
took action before anyone else could level blame on the Railroad for not
obeying state law and installed an automatic bell that rings continuously
when the locomotive is moving forward. You will hear it when the train
leaves the station because engine #5 will have to back out of the station
onto the track we are on now, then switch over to the southbound track,
then once at the interchange track, that one to the west, switch again
back onto home rails and continue towards Natchez. That is why she looks
so sharp in her fresh black paint and white lettering. The engineer
involved in that wreck could not stand the fact that the engine he was
driving killed so many so young and before the courts could clear him of
any wrong on his or the fireman's part, committed suicide by putting a
bullet in his head. The court removed the blame from the Railroad nine
days after the engineer's death. The cause was the school bus didn't
stop. A witness came forward along with several others and some of the
school kids, but the Railroad insisted on two bells on all passenger and
freight engines except switchers."

    "WOW!" Sean said in amazement and also in a hushed tone. "I know that
will haunt both the Railroad and the citizens for a long time around
these parts."

    "They have more pride than the Illinois Central, they put the number
on the side of the cab and spell out the name across the tender sides,"
Jamie said as he watched the train back to a stop at the station and the
conductor step down to assist the boarding passengers and the baggage
handlers once more went into action, tossing bags up to the mail clerk
and baggage man in the old wooden baggage car as #383 sounded her
departure call and the semaphore raised her blade to show clear for
engine #383 and her train. Two sharp blasts on the whistle signaled her
departure from the station and faint voice of the bell could be heard
tolling as #383 picked up speed and her unlit markers soon vanished from
the view of the two teens as #6003 picked up speed to clear the crossover
switches.

    "I doubt that, my boy, each to his own way, each to his own," Scott
said as he watched the departing train as he leaned against the wall of
the caboose. The wheels clanked over the crossover and Joe began to
mentally count cars until there was enough room for #5 to back up safely
and continue her journey. Joe reached inside the door of the caboose to
the flag rack and grabbed the green signal flag and waved it to the
conductor of the passenger train. The conductor of the passenger train
saw Joe's signal and nodded his head that he saw the signal and continued
to wave his own red flag, telling the engineer of his train to continue
backing as the bell tolled on #5 as Bill continued to ease number 6003
down the track towards the yard.


    The last car of the local was keeping about 100 yards to the rear of
caboose #600 until the boys heard the whistle of #5 as the engineer put
on brakes and the fireman stepped down to throw the switch at the
interchange. Once the switch was lined, the fireman gave the signal and
with two short blasts from the whistle #5 began to ease forward and the
fireman stepped on board and soon the boys heard both bells begin to
chime, then stop once more as the fireman stepped back down to throw the
second switch to put the passenger train onto the MCRR mainline and the
train moved forward once more on home rails as the fireman climbed back
onboard and as the overweight brakeman lined the switch back to the main
line on the ICRR and ran to step back onboard the last car. He waved to
the boys on the caboose before entering the car and begin his job of
collecting tickets and fares to points west giving the conductor a needed
hand.


    "I think that brakeman needs to go on a diet!" Jamie laughed as he
said it.

    "Ya', me too!" Sean said and flashed a quick smile to Jamie as Scott
and Joe shook their heads. The faint chime of the bell from Engine #6003
could still be heard as they continued to coast past the yard lead, the
heavy clink clank of the wheels told them they were passing over a loose
joint in the track as they cleared the frog of the switch. Joe swung down
and hit the ballast with his right foot forward as if he was walking on
the fly. He stepped off and was instantly pacing the train until Bill
applied the airbrakes and the train eased to a stop.

    "Sean, use those muscles and tighten that hand brake right there in
front of you, turn it until you can't turn it no more," Joe called as he
walked through the caboose and stepped down in front of the boxcar that
was right in front of the caboose.

    "Come on, Jamie!," Sean called as he ran through the caboose and
Jamie was like a shadow on his heels. They got to the other platform just
as Joe was closing the angle cock on the brake line to the caboose.

    "Turn your heads, boys, don't watch the hoses part, they might fly up
and hit you, so stand back a few feet or hop down on the ground!"

    Sean and Jamie climbed down to the ballast and stood behind Joe out
of his way as he gripped the uncoupling lever and lifted it. "O.K.,
Scott!"

    Scott waved to Bill and he released the brakes and moved forward as
the airhoses parted, sounding like a gunshot. Joe climbed upon the rungs
of the boxcar steps on the corner of the car and rode it down to the
switch that was several hundred feet from where the hack sat alone with
Sean and Jamie watching Joe ride the car as if it was nothing to it.
Scott was now at the switch, waiting for the train to clear, so he could
line it for the siding. Joe was passing more hand signals to John in the
cab with his free hand raising the proper number of fingers for feet
until they cleared the points of the switch. They saw Joe raise one
finger, then make a circle.

    "Ten feet?" Jamie asked.

    "I guess so, that what it looks like to me," Sean replied.

    Joe dropped his hand down and swung it back and forth to signal stop
and Bill applied the brakes as Scott pulled the lever and spun the switch
stand, lining the rails for the siding. Scott then stepped across the
track to the other side of the car and hopped on and gave Bill the signal
to back slow. Bill gave three short blasts on the whistle and the train
began to ease into the siding. The boxcar began to rock on the uneven
track as the rails sank and rose under the weight and joints popped and
moaned as more cars entered the siding. They joined the waltz of rocking
back and forth as they rolled down the siding under the careful control
of Bill in the cab.

    "DAMN, JOHN, I BARELY CAN SEE SHIT WITH ALL THE ROCKING OF THE
BOXCARS AND THOSE DAMNED NEW TANKCARS THAT HAVE NO PLATFORMS!"

    " I SEE SCOTT, BILL, AND HE IS STILL TELLING US TO EASE ON IN ABOUT
ANOTHER FIFTY FEET!"

    "I AM SURE GLAD YOU CAN SEE SOMETHING BECAUSE I CAN'T SEE SHIT!."
Bill and John continued to shout back and forth to each other in the cab
over the whine of the boiler and the clank of rails under twelve big
drive wheels.

    "OK, BILL, SHOOT THE AIR!" John shouted.

    Bill reached over and grabbed the red handled train brake and turned
it to the right to set the brakes on the train.

    "THAT'S GOOD, BILL, LOOKS RIGHT ON THE MONEY TO ME!" John continued
to watch, leaning far out on the tender gangway.

    "I wonder where the ten spot and her crew are?" Bill said now in a
more normal voice with John back in the cab for a few minutes.

    "Most likey getting beans at the cafe, it is that time, you know."

    "Yeah, but we not stopping that long. Once Joe cuts those cars off
and we grab the hack, then we're northbound again."

    "O' great, we're eating Joe's cooking again," John said as he broke
out into a large grin.

    "Yeah, his famous whatever he finds to throw in the pot all at once."
Bill laughed as they waited.

    "And his famous coal sulfur biscuits!"

    "Well, we can't blame him for that, it's not his fault the sulfur
actually improves the taste!" Bill cracked up and John couldn't help to
let out his own burst of laughter.

    "O.K., Joe, air is cut off, give Bill the signal," Scott said as he
pulled the uncoupling lever on the 12th car in the cut.

    Joe gave the highball to Bill and climbed onto the corner of the
boxcar that now was the last car of the train.

    Bill gave two blasts on the whistle and released the brakes and began
to ease forward once more. The cars rocked and swayed until they passed
the switch and were back on the level mainline track. Joe swung down and
reversed the switch and replaced the brass lock and climbed back onto the
corner of the boxcar and signaled Bill. Once more two short blasts
answered Joe's signal as the train began to ease back down the mainline
to where the caboose sat and Scott was standing with Sean and Jamie,
watching the train ease back towards them.

    "O.K., boys, once we're coupled up, next stop is Jackson, we not even
taking time for beans here," Scott said as he watched Joe signal Bill 20
feet to a coupling with the caboose.

    With a clang in the crew's ears and a bump under Bill's chair the
caboose once more was attached to her train. Joe lined the air and the
four climbed back aboard. Joe checked the air gauge in the caboose and
nodded to Scott to give Bill the highball to depart. Bill signaled back
with two long blasts and the train started to move through the yard, bell
clanging and plumes of black smoke shooting from the stack as the heavy
train once more got under way.

    John saw the "ten spot" sitting on the siding in front of the freight
house with her crew lounging on the hard benches in front of the
platform.

    "I told you they was doing nothing but sitting on their asses," John
called over to Bill."

    "Yeah, I see that now, the bastards!" Bill shouted back as he sounded
his deep toned whistle to the crew and freight agent.

    Joe was rolling up the way bills, one for each car that was dropped
off in the siding. Then stepped to the back platform where Scott and the
boys were still riding.  Joe stepped over the left steps and as he passed
the freight house threw them to the agent who caught them and waved along
with the yard crew finishing up their meals and stowing away their tin
lunch pails or stuffing their pipes for one last puff before returning to
work.

    Train number 26 continued to build up speed as she left Brookhaven
behind in a cloud of dust and cinders. Sean and Jamie once more were
alone as the last few shanties vanished around the curve. "Just a whistle
stop on the Mainline of Mid-America, Just another whistle stop...." Sean
was whispering till Jamie chimed in.

    "Just another port of call on life's journey, just another stop on
life's journey till we reach that final port of call and our packet is
due..."

    "Right on time for the Master Superintenant to say well done, boys,
well done, time to draw your check for happiness." The two boys looked at
each other deep into each other's eyes, their hands reached for each
other and touched their souls as if combining from two to become one.

    "Sean Davis, I love you with all my heart and soul, I would not be
whole without you anymore, promise me you will never leave me...." Jamie
whispered for Sean's ears only.

    "Jamie, I promise you that I will do my damnest to never leave you. I
will walk to the ends of this Earth, because I am not a whole person
without the beating of your heart, the warmth of your soul and the
completness of you."  Sean pulled Jamie into his arms and they kissed
briefly on the lips.

    "Come on, boys, time for y'all to learn how to cook at 60 MPH!" Joe
shouted through the door.

    "Awwwww... Damn, Joe, why couldn't you waited a few minutes?" Jamie
whined.

    "Because this not the varnish but a red ball freight! Now get your
butts in here!"

________________________________________________________________________________

    Hello, My dear Readers,

    I first off must apologize for taking so long to finish this chapter
in my tale of the High Iron. I have been very busy with work and
traveling since I last posted. Since that time I have been to Atlanta in
September with friends, then in October a dear friend came over from
England to tour the old South which was great, covering Memphis to Shiloh
to Natchez, then the Gulf Coast. Then on November 4th I left for a tour
of the East from Chattanooga to Hartford, CT to visit my friend Justin
and Boston, MA, then back for a wonderful week in South Carolina. I
covered a lot of sites from the Famous Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA to
glimpsing Old Ironsides and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad museum, the
best in the Nation in Baltimore, MD,  and many Civil War Sites including
Manassas, Sharpsburg, Harpers Ferry, Gettysburg, and Fort Sumter. A
wonderful trip in almost all ways except for the cold air up in the
mountains and along Boston Harbor. I hope this chapter lives up to the
rest of the story and I must thank my loyal readers for sticking with the
long silence.

Sincerely yours,
Stephen W.

    I must thank Ed for his work on this and all my stories.
    And to my special Sunshine out in sunny CA. Thanks, Peter, for just
being who you are and a dear friend.

    A Grateful thanks to my dear friend Willy for having me with him on
the trip to the Great White North and to Justin and Joe for letting me
stay in their homes and for making me feel welcome and to Wayne, Kelly,
and John in SC for making me feel like someone again. and one more
special friend from the MS coast, thanks for putting up with me all this
time and for letting me continue to be part of your life. I wouldn't know
what to do at times if you weren't part of my life.

  I love to hear your comments as always at Swarri1349@aol.com


and my home on the web is located at:  http://swarri1349.tripod.com/  The
door is always open so come on in. I hope to soon update my Civil War
pages and these pages as well, please bear with me.

    A few quick last minute notes on this chapter. The train wreck at
Brookhaven, MS actually did take place in 1930. A 4-4-0 American Type
locomotive on the Mississippi Central hit a loaded school bus on a foggy
morning. Killing 30 students and sending over 20 more to the hospital.
State, Federal and Railroad investigated the accident and found the
locomotive crew not guilty of any wrong doing. The engineer could not
stand what happened and did kill himself five days before the verdict was
reached the fireman quit firing for the MC and headed west. The Railroad
did it's best to increase safety at grade crossings by adding an
automatic second bell to all but it's yard switchers.


S.W.W.
12-03-2001