Sept/Oct contest, we all love mini-scenes and stories

[ezdays]

It's been a while since we've done a mini-scene contest. Let's do one this time, but with a twist. When you post your mini-scene photo, you must post a story along with it that describes the scene. Now, so that we can get a lot of entries, why not leave it open to any mini-scene, real or model? It's a good picture that counts, but a great fantasy story to go along with it that makes it even better. One caveat, there must be something in the picture that is railroad related. An engine, a car, a depot, a water tower, an engineer or whatever. At the end, we will have two polls, one for best picture and a second one for best story.

The specifics:

• One picture per person entering. The picture must not have been entered in any other contest or challenge on the Gauge.
• The picture can be taken of any layout or the real world, but it must have been taken by the one entering.
• The picture should be of a mini-scene but is not limited to the modeling world.
• The story can be as brief or as long as you want, but it must describe what, in your imagination , could be happening there. The wilder the imagination, the better the story.
• As usual, post your pictures,stories and comments here in this thread.
• This contest will end on Holloween Day, Oct. 31st. (Does that give you any ideas?)
  

Good luck...:thumb:

 

[EngineerKyle]

OK, I'll go first,

THE EMPTY FOOTBRIDGE

The bright yellow beach towel looked out of place on the rickety, moss covered foot bridge.

I suppose it had been forgotten there by one of the Owl Creek kids. Swimming was one of the few activities we could all participate in without ending up killing each other. See, there's not much else to do on hot summer days in August for kids bored and waiting for school.

We'd gotten over the excitement of summer vacation way back in June, and now that school was about to start, none of us rough-necks cared to admit we were anxious for school to start. We secretly were happy and excited about it, but the public opinion was more like Tommy Jeeter had put it. "I can't believe we gotta go back to ****in' school, already." He'd say.

Regarding this bridge, it was 'sposed to be haunted, and I would never cross it, but a yellow marker declared that somebody had been on it?
....
...
..
.

 

[MadCoW1]

A few years back..........

A couple of years ago, I was doing some railfaning on the Chicago and Northwestern line between Madison and the Twin-Cities. It was an ordinary Saturday morning and the weather was beautiful. I stopped in a small little town called Dachshundville. I was 'fanning' this line because rumor had it that a sale had been made and soon new owners would be operating this division. The CNW was courting the new investors and no one knew just what kind of equipment would be passing through before it changed hands.

So, with camera in hand, I made my way through the cemetery and down to the Little Tiddle river to get some shots of an eastbound I heard on the scanner. I had been to this location before and it is a favorite of mine. A little hard to get to, not many know about it, but you can get great shots of the trains on the bridge. Besides, the sound of the river is tranquil and helps pass the time while waiting for trains. Not to mention it's quite scenic in it's own right. I got some shots of some pretty common stuff that day, but it wasn't til later that I realized I had captured something 'special'.

As I made my way up the bank and back towards my car, I happened upon a man and his wife. They were obviously paying respects to a recently fallen friend. I'm not sure but I thought I could hear the man sobbing. It broke my heart. Not wanting to disturb them, I stood still, and let them have a moment of peace. In the distance, I heard the thundering approach of another eastbound. Soon the silence would be shattered as the rushing EMD's whistled for the highway 14 crossing in town. My first thought was to turn and head back to the river, but I quickly decided against that as it may disturb them. There was a hopper car on the siding, but I figured I may be able to get a decent shot from where I was. Not moving I got my camera and took this photo. As I was leaving the man approached me and inquired as to what I was taking pictures of. "Trains, just trains", I said. He said the grave he was visiting was that of a friend. A friend who worked for the Northwestern for 38 years. Later that day, as I looked at the film I had shot, I couldn't help but think that are actually two fallen flags here. A comrade of the couple, and the one flying by in the backround.

 

[Herc Driver]

Still he waits...

They wrote each other for months.

Exchanged thoughts and plans, dreams and hopes.

Finally deciding to meet, she chose the train for its romance.

He arrived early and waited for it to arrive.

Waited till the last person got off.


He's still waiting there...

 

[ezdays]

Swizzly, to increase your chances of winning the contest,

Just edit your text in the existing post and add a thoughtful little story to accompany the scene!:thumb:

Yep, that is one of the few requirments. That's a neat scene there and I can think of quite a few stories that would go with it.

We're off to a slow start, but it looks like we are begining to pick up steam..train97

 

[lester perry]

So I need story, this is a new twist.

Larry and Bill are sitting there talking about the future. They just heard a rumor that REA is in trouble. It looks as though this terminal may be closed along with many others. REA can't compete with trucking companies. Larry says he has 28 years with REA what is he going to do. Bill says he is going to apply for a job at a trucking company before his job is gone. He has heard about a company called United Parcel Service, he thinks he will try there. The day goes on and the bad rumors continue, what will the future hold for REA?

 

[shaygetz]

MTSB Incident Report 01OCT06 1438 HRS

Location: W.B. Knaebel Memorial Bridge, Clayton, MD

Equipment directly involved: 1 40' container flat, 2 40' tankers, 1 "Beercan" tanker

Locomotive(s) involved: 1 Bachmann F7A

Brief description of incident: Engineer Bob was just throttling up minding his own business when the first four cars behind the engine tipped over and off the south curve of the bridge onto Liberty Road, narrowly missing a '57 Chevy full of green body painted LPB "Cheeseheads". Soon after the incident, the cause was found to be the newly aquired blue ARCO/Polymers Inc. cylindrical hopper seen in the rear of the photograph. An unloading port had caught the bridge girder found to be protruding just above rail height on the north approach curve, causing a braking action that resulted in said incident. The B&MC ExteNded was cited for poor track maintainance, failure to comply with ICC regulations for track and bridges and wanton negligence involving the purchase of equipment w/o prior approval of the company CFO (read beloved wife).

 

[chessie4155]

Yeal sir, it's true! The railroad is agoin ta tear down this here old depot. Rumor has it, its haunted!! Ya see Old Man Johnson a sittin thar on that old bench? Well sir, he has been acomin here everday sittin on that old bench for ni on ta 50 yars. Ya see he thinks the train is a comin that has bride to be on it.
This here depot has been closed for 20 yars now and it was way back in nineteen hunderd and sixty five when the last train stopped here.
Old Man Johnsons bride ta be was killed in a tarrible train wreck away back in the 50s. Ya see she was a travilin on the Nash, comin West to get hitched. Well sir the Nash wasa runnin late that day cause ofa derailement up the line and the hogger was hell bent for leather to get er in on time. Yes sir nuttin was agoin ta slow him down. The mess up the line had been cleared and the Nash wasa given the Hi ball. Now that Hogger had the Nash up in the company notch in no time and as he came up on the spot where the derailment had happend he never slowed. Well sir the engine and first three cars derailed , slid down the bank , and caught far. There werent no survivors from any of those cars including Old Man Johnsons Bride to be.
It was just to much fer Old Man Johnson to take and sumpin snapped inside him. Since that day he comes here and sets on that old bench waitin fer a train that aint a comin.
Now the reason that Old Depot is haunted is folks have seen the Ghost of Old Man Johnsons Bride to be in the winders.
I tellya folks, makes me wander where Old Man Johnson and his Ghost Bride are a goin ta go when this here old Depot is gone. Who Knows, maybe theyll come an stay with yuall!!
Muuuuhahahahaha

 

[TruckLover]

Ok, this is my first entry in a contest. Finally got the guts to take a stab at it:

It is early morning and the concrete pumper has just arrived for the long day aheard of it's 2 man crew. The huge boom comes to life and lifts up to the top of the hotel. The man on top directs the hose to the wall awiting to be casted. The cement trucks begin to pour in the job site and wait to dump there loads into the concrete pumper. A Mack CH 603 pulling a 24' flatbed trailer leaves the job site haveing just dropped off it's load. Another truck backs up with a new load of materials and another parks anong side the fence with a load of concete slabs. The front loader moves some gravel around the job site and the dump truck dumps it's load of gravel striaght from the Glacier Gravel Company. The crew has to assemble a new tower crane because the last one has failed and tumbled over, it is said that this is going to set the open date of the hotel back 6 months!! A costly mistake by the crew for not checking the crane regularly. And then the Mack CH 603 pulls up alongside the outside of the fence with it's empty heavly lowboy trailer awaiting the front loader when it finishes it's work. And the day goes on!!

 

[eightyeightfan1]

What da.......?
How come theres a horse trailer at the industrial park......
And where is the driver?
With a full switching scheduale, a tractor trailer blocking the spur, and the driver MIA, Pete, the engineer of the Central New England local sends Mad Harry, the brakeman to the companies in the park to see if he could find the driver. You'd think with the tank cars parked at Connecticut Fastener, the driver would of realized that this was still an active rail served park.
Besides, Pete hasn't seen any horses around here anyway.

 

[ezdays]

A while back we detected some peculiar activity near an abandoned RR siding. (see this thread) It seems like the LGM (little green men) were using it as a skyport and bringing themselves and families here to settle. They’ve done just that in the Village of Santa Maria, opening up a gas station and a few other businesses vital to the community. They’ve adapted well, but they’ve still not learned how to dress properly. Now down the end of Main St. is Jilly Bean’s Lunch Stand. Everyone in town loves the food there including all the LGM. Ursillap88 and Oggellbeez92 have adapted to the earthman’s practice of using a ground vehicle for transportation, arriving there in an old VW bus, however, their guest, Ozzloes4, has found it hard to break old habits and arrived the “old fashion” way using the old rickety flying saucer that he brought here from his mother planet, Obikanobi-421 in the constellation Wrappacrabby, which is two thousand light-years from our own, or about 42 minutes by spaceship. I really wish him well, but he apparently hasn’t registered the thing with the MVD and it has no license plates; and if you’ll notice, he’s parked right next to the police station.

 

[Chessie6459]

Great Pictures Everyone.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[MCL_RDG]

The Payoff

The Payoff.

I watched as she got out of the taxi. She looked good in her red dress. Hard to miss as a matter of fact. Her honey blonde hair cascading over her shouders. I snapped off a couple of shots to justify my expenses to my client. I picked up on her at the train station and followed her here. I was getting bored with the case. Same routine until now. Just to make it interesting for me it seems, she's meeting a man. Sure, just a couple more pictures and whether she wanted it or not, she'd get the payoff.

The payoff. It's always different for everyone. It was a different one than I was after. I wanted cash. I don't know what she wanted, or her companion. My client, all I know is he wanted pictures and if I got a few fish for taking pictures, so be it. So here I sit. Across the street from a frie burger joint- "The Hole in the Wall". I've been in there a couple times. A quick cup of Joe, a chili, that's all they have there. Well, that and a, "Next"! bellowed for the next customer. Here I am again, chasing these two around. I'm not proud of it when it's like this but, it's what I do. At least that's what the ad I paid for in the phone book says. Yeah. What it says. IV-3-100. Private Detective for Hire.

IVy Ridge-3-100. Six numbers you dialed and I can tell you any thing you want to know. What it didn't say was the price you might have to pay. Any price I had to pay (mentally or otherwise), well, I console myself when I flop on the pile I usually sack into the safe at the end of the case. The, "adios", the simple , "goodbye". That's my payoff.

So, I followed her for a week. Nothing to report excepting to say she'd been trying to do something with her spare time.You know, shopping; shoes; clothes, whatever made a woman a woman. It seemed she had alot of spare time.

At first I didn't notice. Then I couldn't miss it. The newpaper pages weren't turning, it wasn't a bus stop. Someone else was watching. Right there on the corner by the mailbox. Light grey suit, hat, dark hair. I didn't recognize the profile from the circles I run in. So, this is either new talent or from out of town. It didn't matter either way. What mattered was that this was becoming a little more interesting.

I waited a few minutes to watch the play unfolding before me. The hairs on my neck raised. I was feeling like an alley cat on top a trash can knowing someone was about to toss a shoe at me, or worse. With all the distractions of traffic, a freight train clammering and the smoke, I knew I had better make a move. I slipped out of the shadows of the window drapes that nestled me. Deciding on my way down the steps- I'd call Laura, my gal Friday. A quick stop at the phone booth in the lobby was enough for me to let her know I wouldn't be back in the office until late. She'd be worried. What a doll. I was thinking what I'd tell her but all I could think of was that she should lock up and go home for the night. If I was lucky, she'd get to bring me a hot cup of Joe when I got in. If I wasn't...

Mark

 

[TrainNut]

That's great! When's chapter two coming out?

 

[MilesWestern]

I agree!! Continue and make a thread out of it, PLEASE!!!!

 

[MilesWestern]

Well, little Lucifer, the yippy neighborhood fire Dalmation went and chased Snookums up onto the cornice of the fire station...again!! Second time this week too.. They have to train that new pup, he's not like Sparky. Now HE was a firedog! He even saved a baby's life by carrying her out by the seat of her pants from one of the worst house fires I'd ever seen...but that's a story for another time. Looks like jimmy's up the ladder to get poor snookums...I bet she'll jump, that's what all cats seem to do, just as he gets to the top of that ladder I'll bet you $10 shell fly off that cornice like a bat outta hell, now just you wait!