The Engineer's Watch: A story from the book, Of Gears and Gaslight

The Engineer's Watch

It was 7:15 p.m. The train had just arrived as it did every evening. While the route was the same however, the train was not. Engineer Gerald Elgin had only been riding the route for two years but he'd been riding the train for the last eight. The train itself was ten years old and Elgin acquired it after the original driver retired. The train has become a bit slower and just didn't seem to run like it used to. Sure it still ran smoothly along the tracks from Portstown to Latmath or Portstown to Treadsville but every engineer knows their train and Gerald Elgin could tell his old gal was just getting older and things weren't right. In the eight years he had it the train never gave him a problem and even now that it seemed to have slight issues Gerald would never claim his ole train had anything big enough to be deemed a "problem". He parked the train at exactly 7:15 p.m. as his trusty watch told him each and every day. He smiled as he looked down upon it before exiting the train. All the passengers got off as he tipped his cap to those who thanked him or simply looked his way for getting them to their destination. Gerald scratched his long beard and waited for the last person to get off the train. He want to the cable cars to do a double check. One thing Gerald was fond off was his work but even he always liked to say "You always check to make sure every passenger gets off safely", it was just the right thing to do.

After making sure the cable cars were empty Gerald went back to his to retrieve his water. He grabbed it but as he turned around his pocket watch which he still held in his hand fell to the ground and onto the tracks. He heard the clanking sound as the watch hit one the rails and rocks. Gerald immediately dropped his water canteen and went to retrieve his watch. As he picked it up he noticed the glass was cracked and broken and the base had several chips along it's rustic bronze frame. Gerald became upset. He had that watch since the first day he became an engineer and it was issued to him. He was always fond of pocket watches and being an engineer meant you had to rely on it. He always took care of it and could not believe all it took was a small slip for it to fall to the ground and break. It no longer ticked and was hard to read which meant it could no longer be of use to him. Gerald however would not simply go out and buy another watch he wasn't the type to try new things. Gerald believed in what he believed and enjoyed what he enjoyed so the first thing he would do would be to get the watch fixed.

"Gerald!" a voice from the station called.

Gerald noticed the man and picked up his watch from the ground and made his way over to him. He looked down at his broken watch in his hand and let out a small sigh before placing it in his pocket and walking over to the man that called him.

"Hey Gerald, I noticed you kneeling down by the train, what's wrong?" the man asked.

"It's my pocket watch, it slipped from my hands and fell to the railroad tracks. You know I've had this thing since I first joined the railroad as an engineer? Never once in all my years did I ever drop it or scratch it and now.."

"Ah, I'm sorry Gerald. May I have a look at it?" the man asked.

"Careful Max, the glass is sharp." Gerald said before handing Max the watch.

"Ah man, you're right it's really out of sorts. Time to get a new one, get it? Time to get a..."

Max stopped halfway through as he realized Gerald wasn't laughing.

"You don't understand Max, it's not just a pocket watch to me, it commemorates when I first became an engineer all those years ago. Besides, my wife had it engraved with my initials a few years back giving it even more meaning to me."

Max looked at Gerald and could see by the look on his face that the watch was important. He then looked down at the watch and examined it.

"You know there's a watchmaker named Jacques Charlay over in Treadsville who might be able to fix it for you." Max says.