The Unusual Train Station

  Katie and I were in Richmond, trying to hop a train to to Florida. We were outside of a strange train station, and got on a grainer. The train was creeping, about to go into the station, when we were noticed by a lady with a CSX patch on her jacket, and she was carrying a clip board. We jumped off the train and were going to run the other direction, when the lady smiled, and said "you kids don't want to go to the loading yard, do you?" We looked at each other and laughed, no - we didn't. The lady told us we looked tired, and that we should follow her, she'd help us.

      She lead us into the station, which was multi-level, and we saw old steam engines, Amtraks, common freights, all sorts of trains stopped and moving. It was completely surreal. We kept walking, up flights of stairs and on winding escalators, and on the top level of the station, we got into an elevator. When we stepped out, we were in the hallway of a fancy hotel. The lady walked up to a door of a room, unlocked it and lead us in. There were our friends John and Den, watching TV and smoking cigarettes. Katie and I were shocked to see them and the nice lady told us that she had pulled them off of a train the day before that had been destined to swing back North. She was very surprised to see that we all knew each other, and told Katie and I to make ourselves at home for the night.

      The next morning, the CSX lady took John and Den to find the perfect westbound train, and we said our goodbyes. After some time passed, the lady came back and asked if we wanted to go downstairs. Once we were again into the station, the lady waved to an old woman who was waiting by a water fountain. The old woman walked over and introduced herself as the lady's mom. The two women lead Katie and me down a few escalators to the second level of the station. The old lady went to the front of a train, and started talking to the conductor while the younger one started looking at the cars. I suddenly realized that we weren't just there to look around and that I left my pack in the hotel room! I ran through the crowds of people, up the stairs, up the escalators, up the hotel stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, and finally made it to the room, got my pack, and began the race back downstairs. When I was on the escalator, I saw Katie climbing up the side of a very tall gondola that was almost full and already had 3 other kids in it that I didn't know. When I made it to the train, the air brakes went off and it started to creep.

      I jumped up onto the ladder and scaled the side of the train before it got to moving too fast. I hopped over the side and Katie threw her arms around me and said "I thought you weren't going to make it!" I took my pack off and made myself comfortable. I leaned over the side of the car to see what was ahead of us and there was nothing. The rails ended! (Keep in mind that we're still on the second level of the station in a big deadly metal train car, and these rails lead to a strait drop to the ground below.) At the last second, the conductor made an emergency left to save the train from falling. On new rails, we were relieved that we weren't dying, but I then looked ahead again, and part of the rails were red. I looked closer, and noticed that there were some kind of emergency water piping system lying across the tracks, that would surely derail the train if we didn't stop.

      The conductor noticed this in the nick of time and threw on the brakes. The train screeched to a halt faster than I’ve ever seen a train stop, and we barely nudged the piping that could have killed us all. The conductor jumped out of the train and asked us all if we were OK then ran to yell at lower level employees about not switching the rails and how we all could have died; and the two helpful women walked up and also asked us if we were alright. I gave each of them a conch shell out of my pack to thank them for all their help. The conductor came back and climbed up the car to talk to us. He asked us where we were going and the three kids I didn't know said they needed to go to Rocky Mount. He said he hadn't planned on stopping there, but would to make sure they got off OK. He turned to us, and we said Florida. He half smiled and said "this train's destined for Hamlet, North Carolina. But I'll stop it there for you and get you two food and water or anything else you need. I'll also drive you over to the other end of the yard in the morning and get you on a train headed for Jacksonville. I’ll even talk to the conductor and tell him you kids are alright. He’ll stop for you and everything. Have a safe ride." and with that, he hopped back down and got into the unit.

      The train started moving again, and we wound our way to the bottom level of the station by way of very curvy rails that slunk to the bottom at an uncomfortable angle. At the bottom, there were hundreds of people looking at us, pointing and taking pictures. There were reporters filming and taking notes. Somehow, it felt good. We were allowed to be there and were high priority riders, we didn't have to hide or worry about being seen. Katie turned to me and said "looks like things will be a bit different from now on!" and we laughed and waved at the people standing in the station. As we pulled out, the conductor blew the whistle twice and we headed for the woods.

      And that's about when I woke up.