Archive: Objects Around My House. Part 5.

Nicest conductor on the Illinois Central:

I left on a freight train from New Orleans just before Christmas, 2004. I was going with a kid named Seth, who was also hoping to reach Illinois by Christmas. He had a lot of experience riding trains, but even he was worried about the cold as we got north.

When we got to Centralia, Illinois, we had been riding through the middle of the night and it was below freezing, not to mention traveling 70 mph, with no shelter from the wind. Needless to say we were freezing. We got off the train when it stopped and started walking to find out where we were and if we should find a bridge to sleep under. While we were walking down a road that ran along the train yard, a truck pulled up beside us. We thought we had been caught and were going to be arrested. The man in the truck yelled, “You two guys just get off that train?” We didn’t know if we should lie, so Seth said, “Maybe.” We asked if there was a 24 hour restaurant nearby. He said that it was several miles away, but to get in and he’d take us.

Over a meal, we learned that he was the conductor of the train that we were riding. We asked about the yard, when the next train was, etc. He let us know that trains don’t really stop there anymore and that if we wanted to get out of here anytime soon, we’d best get on that same train before it goes.

So he drove us back to the yard, he stopped in the office to find out which cars would be going the rest of the way, then drove us down the half mile long train to the right car. He asked if we were hungry. We said we would be fine. But he gave us a bag of fruit and chips and stuff. He asked if we had warm enough clothes to sit on the cold steel all night. We said we had planned to get some cardboard but, for obvious reasons, were unable to get some. He gave us his floor mats from his truck. We tried to refuse, but he wouldn’t hear it. Then he scrounged through his truck and handed me these:

He said they weren’t much, but I should use them. I was amazed and didn’t know how to thank him.

Keep in mind, one: what we were doing was illegal. Two: he could lose his job for this. and Three: what the fuck? Who is that amazing to two dirty kids in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere?

I wish I could remember his name.

Oh, and here is a picture of Seth, while we were riding trains: