The Cat Who Blew The Whistle

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The engineer clanged the bell. The whistle blew two shrill blasts, and the old steam locomotive - the celebrated Engine No. 9 - huff-puff-puffed away from the station platform, pulling passenger cars. She was a black giant with six huge driving wheels propelled by the relentless thrust of piston rods. The engineer leaned from his cab with his left hand on the throttle and his eyes upon the rails; the fireman shoveled coal into the firebox; black cinders spewed from the funnel-shaped smokestack. It was a scene from the past.

Yet, this was a Sunday afternoon in the hightech present. Thirty-six prominent residents of Moose County had converged on the railway station in Sawdust City to pay $500 a ticket for a ride behind old No.9. It was the first run of the historic engine since being salvaged and overhauled, and the ticket purchase included a champagne dinner in a restored dining car plus a generous tax- deductible donation to the scholarship fund of the new community college.

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