Adventures in Electricity

Part 4

"So fast forward thirty years," Grandpa began. He knew that I wouldn't sleep until he finished telling the stories, so he didn't even try and coax me to sleep. "The railways of America grew and grew. Rails played an important part in World War I, and your great grandfather served overseas at that time. He returned home safely with many stories of European trains. I grew up hoping that I would be the next Sullivan to contribute greatly to the railway, but then World War II has begun."

"I was in my first year in college, studying mechanical engineering when World War II

broke out. Before long the army started recruiting for soldiers and even though I wanted to stay and finish my degree, I knew my duty was to fight and protect the country."

"Fight, fight, fight, fight!" I chanted, slamming my fists on the bed and Grandpa shook his head at me.

"Rory, if you keep interrupting I won't finish the story." He scolded me, and I gave him my best puppy dog eyes. "And fighting is not good."

Right. Fighting is bad. It's bad, but it's also cool.

"I thought it might be the end of my journey to become a railway engineer, at least for the next ten years. However, instead of being deployed like your Great Grandfather, I was to remain in America." Grandpa smiled. "I was assigned to work under the Office of Defense Transportation to overlook the railways during the war to make sure that everything was moving smoothly. At the time the rails were already in decline, and diesel electric locomotives were slowly taking over steam ones."

"I like the steam one." I piqued in, thinking about Harry Potter and the way steam comes out of the chimney of the train. "Why are they changing it? I thought diesel engines are bad for the environment?"

"At that time it wasn't important yet." Grandpa smiled, and I frowned. "And even though diesel electric locomotives are more expensive, they are more efficient and require less maintenance."

"What about electric ones? I thought those were the best?" I asked again, really confused by all the different types of trains there were.

"Electric ones need a lot more money to build and the railway also needs to be specialized." Grandpa answered, "So because of the war, steam trains were kept around longer."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, pulling my cover higher and waiting for more. Because Grandpa always told me his story without a journal, sometimes I find out new things. Dad always told Grandpa that he needed to write down all he could remember before he gets too old and forgets it all.

"I was stationed right here in the East Coast," Grandpa continued, "and at first my job was only to overlook the transport of goods and soldiers to and from here. But one day, it all changed."

Now wide awake again, I stared at Grandpa with wide eyes as he retold the story. "The rails were never so busy since World War I, and with the amount of traffic going on there were a lot of problems that needed to be fixed. Despite the war, a lot of companies were still coming up with new locomotive models. At that time, the new line of diesel electric trains by both General Electric and American Locomotive Company were running trial run in the station that I worked at.

I had already helped out on a few maintenance problems in the region when the engineers were occupied. On a sunny afternoon when a new locomotive was bound for the harbors, one of their engineers had called in sick and by a stroke of luck, I was recommended to them as a helping hand."

"Go Grandpa!" I whisper-shouted, in case he got mad at me for interrupting again. Luckily he only gave me a half-smile.

"I had already heard all about your Great Great Grandpa and Great Grandaunt Harriet's adventure, and I knew right then that this could very well be my moment." Grandpa continued, looking nostalgic again. "I was led to the back of the station, where the maintenance tracks were. The flurry of activities increased as we went towards the center of all the commotion, and everybody seemed to be moving with a purpose. Smoke was drifting around the air in elegant wisps and the occasional shouts and clattering of metal told me that this was the real deal.