Twas The Night Before Christmas - Prototype

[Timboy]

The following 'story', (adapted from an original by Clarence Clarke Moore) 
takes place each Christmas Eve at the Central Railroad of New Jersey's 
Bloomsbury Freight yard in northwest Warren County, NJ...a few miles from the 
Ready Made Trains/RMT office. 

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T'was The Night Before Christmas - 2010 Edition

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the yard,
Every brakeman was on duty and working quite hard.
The extra list was depleted and all were quite tired,
But work they must or else just get fired!

Each yard track was filled with boxcars of toys
Lots of dolls for the girls and toy trains for the boys.
The yard boss was screaming into the speaker alright
Let's get those tracks switched out so we can call it a night.

So out of the dunnigan they flew like a flash,
Tore across the yard lead and made a mad dash.
Checking the switch list and chalking the cars
The sky was pitch black except for the stars.

The freight cars were all flying and moving quite fast
The pace was tremendous and surely would not last
Over at the roundhouse, it was quite the same
The Christmas Eve Special was a most important train.

The engines were serviced and sat by the shed
Ready for whatever long trip lay ahead.
This train was important and that was made clear
It was powered by new BEEF® diesels instead of reindeer. 

Three A-B-A little diesels were ready to go,
Glistening underneath a light cover of snow.
Usually steam-powered in many years past
These little BEEF® diesels were sturdy and fast.

The hogger marked up...the best on the list
He checked the engines and nothing was amiss.
A CNJ veteran of many, many years
A ringing bell was simply music to his ears.

The engineer was Santa...of course we all knew
And believe it you must because it is true.
Many miles tonite this special train would run
Completing its long journey before the Christmas morn sun.

The Christmas Train was soon complete...engines, freight cars and hack
Santa whistled the air test and looked down the track.
All signals were green and glowed bright in the night.
A highball came from the conductor that relayed all was right.

Slowly Santa notched out the throttle and the BEEF®s answered the call 

As the train passed the shanty it was looked over by all.
No hotbox or stuck brake was heard as it passed
Because soon on the mainline the speed would be fast.

With Santa at the throttle...now in Run 8
A schedule had to be kept and no time to be late.
As the caboose markers glowing red into the night
The Christmas Express was soon out of sight.

Over the train radio came a message...loud and quite clear
It rattled across the yard for all the brakies to hear
"Your job is complete...the train is right
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!

[Penny Trains]

There's a song now from Styx, that's stuck in my head,

"Can you guess what it is?" she quietly said.

I'll give you a hint, it's not Paradise,

This little ditty, would fit in quite nice!

It starts with some ticks,

And some tocks of a clock.

And speaks about time,

Of which you must have a lot!

LOL, Merry Christmas Timboy!  You are a very creative soul!  All kidding aside!

Becky

[Timboy]

Thank you, Becky!  I wish I could take credit for penning that, but I can't.  I don't know the original source, so I don't know who deserves the credit.  Anyway, it is very well worked out by someone who obviously knows prototype train procedures!  If anyone on this Forum knows the original author, please share that info with us all!  Perhaps the author is unknown and will this remain a Christmas mystery.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Timboy