Snowplow Extra Chapter 24
| Snowplow Extra | |
|---|---|
| Chapter 24 of 24 | |
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| Time frame | 0615 Jan 10 - 0757 Jan 10 1981 1430 Aug 17 1982 |
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Location
Characters
Summary
January 10th 6:16 AM to 7:57 AM.
All trains make it to Warsaw where things are switched around. The Rock and the 9608 would stay in Warsaw as a scram train while the SX-3217 would return to Spearfish Lake on an ambulance run. Much switching was needed including Bill Lee's snowmobile. Bud convinces him to take the train to Spearfish Lake before riding to the Coldwater Hospital and his daughter.
Frank Matson and Bud talk about business, especially what Frank learned from Greene about how D&O wanted to hike rates at the Big Pit. He also learned from Marshal that Jerusalem might use the insurance money to build a whole new, and more efficient paper plant. Things were still only tentative, but it was a bit of good news.
Just after the train pulled out of Warsaw, the sun came out and the storm was finally over.
The epilogue takes place in the summer a year and a half afterwards at the dedication of the new Jerusalem Paper plant. Bud's thoughts provide the narrative of the changes while various speakers hand out praises.
The arrival of the Camden and Coldwater fire departments provided the muscle needed to finally stop the fire. A train run to Camden was needed to fetch firefighting foam and repair parts for trains. The drawbridge in Camden still hasn't been repaired, so the Kremmling branch is important with the little GE running over the dubious track. Diane's derailed Alco is retrieved and returned to service just as she comes home from the hospital.
While the relationship between the C&SL Railroad and the D&O Railroad deteriorates because of the Big Pit gravel business, that between Bud and Bill Lee becomes closer. Bud hires many of the unemployed paper mill men in Warsaw to repair the Kremmling Branch rails and roadbed. He also buys more motive power (more engines).
Diane and Bruce Page are married and returned from the honeymoon to run the Baldwin steam engine to the ceremony in Warsaw.
Bud gets his turn to speak. He is brief. "There's been a lot of talk today about the heroism of the railroad people... I don't like to think of it as heroism. We were just doing our jobs"
This is the final chapter of Snowplow Extra.
