I had the opportunity to operate on Dave (TOC) Goodson’s RR several weeks back. I had a great time, and learned a lot about operations. He uses an interesting system that doesn’t rely on car numbers but works quite well. (Pick up an loaded reefer at the dairy and deliver it to the store, then pick up a empty reefer at the store and deliver it to the dairy.) I asked my wife if she wanted to take the throttle of one of the locomotives, but she declined, preferring instead to sit and watch, gossiping with one of the other wives. However, this is not what this story is about.
While there, I asked Dave to overhaul two Lionel Hudsons that I had as a kid, a 2055 and a 2065. He did hid usual fine work and they look and run just fabulous. He still hasn’t told me how much I owe him for the work, however. This isn’t what the story is about, either.
Dave was kind enough to meet my wife at a gas station near where she was staying at a business meeting as she was sure that she could not find his home to pick up the locomotives. She was flying back, and the locomotives were packaged for carry-on as per the instructions of the guy at TSA that I had talked to earlier in the day. As long as the locomotives can be seen as locomotives, they will pass through security at the airport, or so the guy said.
NOT!
At the airport, the mid thirtys TSA screener guy said to my wife, “Oh, my Dad had trains like that, let’s open them up to see if they are really what you say they are.” My poor wife is practically screaming at the guy, partly because she is pissed at me for asking her to do this and partly because she has a plane to catch and she is running late, “No, I have a plane to catch, you can see that they are just trains!”
The box gets opened.
The TSA guy says, “Those are really sweet. Tell your husband that he is a lucky guy.” By now, my lovely bride is plotting my demise, and thinking up all manner of torture for this poor TSA guy. She could probably go to work for the CIA.
The box gets taped up and she passes through security without further incident.
Her plane is an hour late arriving.
She is no longer angry by the time she gets home.
Thanks, Dave, for doing such a good job on them. When he is old enough, my grandson will probably get one of them.
SteveF
