Riding the Rails

[Pennyfeather]

Quality stuff in the Lottery last night. As usual, tons of fun, and smart playing....all the way around. As well, thanks to everyone who said hi to us 12 Caboosers who were there, standing in the back, as usual. Afterwards, at least 8 of us on the team went to McManus. Shared some pitchers. And some laughs. And we all stood around having quality conversation...conversation void of any train-talk WHAT-SO-EVER to be exact, and then we all slowly moved into train-talk mode. So predictable.

And then I kind of lost it on my teammates. As you can tell from yesterday's post, I'm kind of going through this "self-doubting" thing right now, in regards to whether or not I need to chill on the train info in my life. More importantly, should the Pennyfeather Caboose try and broaden our interests some, and perhaps begin trying scenes outside of the "train" world. AND, if neither of those things can happen, and the team agrees (which we obviously will) to remain solely a RailroadProv team, THEN can't we at least have some non-train conversations OUTSIDE of team functions.

I mean I was enjoying talking about Billy Joel last night. I never talk about Billy Joel. As well, Becky and me had a wonderful conversation about the Fraggles. It was probably a 10-minute conversation about those loveable scamps. My favorite character being, of course, the Doozers, those little working green men who live in the caves of Fraggle Rock. They build towers from sugar cane, which the Fraggles love to eat. The Doozers really don't care. They just like to build and keep out of the Fraggles way.

Becky agreed with me. AND THEN, we started talking about the weather. And not that unspecific, stereotypical, "we have nothing else to talk about" discussion about weather. Both Becky and I expressed our concern about the heavy rain and gusty winds from Tropical Storm Isidore that are threatening the central Gulf Coast and the South. Then from there, we moved onto Southern customs. And picnics. And bible camp. And rednecks. And pop-top campers. All around, quality conversation from Becky. I mean, sure, a couple of times I'd have to hold mid-sentence to let her finish checking out some dude, or something...but it was still quality Becky-time.

AND THEN, someone on the team asks the whole group, "Hey, what does everyone think about hitting the Greenberg Train Show the weekend of October 5th and 6th, up at Hofstra? Anyone down with that?”

The response from all of us was luke-warm, if not completely negative. For one, the Greenberg Train Show is a huge MODEL train convention, and no one on the Caboose is a model train hobbyist. Plus, it’s probably a $20 dollar cover to get in, plus travel to Hofstra…it’s a no-brainer.

But now, “train talk” was in the air. It’s now 1:15 am, and we still have beer, and we were all having great “normal” conversation, but now all any of us could think about was railroading. And like I said, I kind of lost it on my teammates. Well, only 7 of them. Luckily 9 of them weren’t around to see me kind of freak out. After about 5 minutes of silence while everyone searched for a topic to discuss, I jumped in harshly with, “Hey, guys, what the fuck are we doing? I mean, I’m having my first non-railroad conversations with you guys tonight, after FIVE FUCKING months of knowing each other, and we can’t even sustain it the entire night. What the hell? As well, don’t we need to find OTHER STUFF in common between each other, BESIDES fucking trains?!”

Then I stormed to the bathroom. Then came quickly back, without peeing, and apologized. Then I broke down my progression to getting to the point of that brief freak-out. About the journal, and being some what called out for using, and/or boring, readers with too many train details. And then, my self-doubt about my own railroading interests, as well as the overall goal of the team. And then my thoughts about perhaps opening up our scenes into other worlds besides the “railroad” world.

They knew what I was going through, and forgave me. Then I said fuck it.

I mean, like I said, we’re a RailroadProv team. That’s what we are, and that’s what we should be. I mean, hell, if we aren’t, then why in the hell would we go through the headaches of having 17 members. Last night, I looked into the eyes of my teammates, and felt railroading. I saw steam smoke bellowing from a Baldwin smokestack. I saw coal. I saw brake grease on an already dirty pair of blue and white striped overalls. I saw a Sharknose diesel. I saw a lot of things in our collective eyes. But the most important thing I saw? Confidence. Let’s do what we want, and screw the rest.

Perhaps the Pennyfeather Caboose should be more like the Doozers. Let’s build our own little team, do the work we want to do, and if people knock us down, we’ll keep on building. And we should all start wearing hardhats.

Onward!

What else is onward? Your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

Chicago Burlington & Quincy 4960 class O-1A (2-8-2) with the Schlitz circus train crosses the Wisconsin river on the C&NW at Merrimac, Wisconsin…from all your friends on the Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Oh man, tonight is truly going to rock. Right? Am I wrong here? I don’t think so. Tonight is going to be super fun. Oh crap, I need to pick out my outfit. I should have done that yesterday, but I didn’t. Ok, don’t panic. Perhaps some carpenter jeans with a nice knit flannel. Or maybe some kackies with perhaps a nice knit flannel. I’ll figure it out.

You know what? I’m going to say it again, “Oh man, tonight is going to rock it out!” Start off with a little appetizer of New Team. Then move on to an entrée of the PCR debut w/ Respecto. Then have another beer. Then for dessert? How about The Office and OI in the cage. Mmm…

I’m going to have to undo a couple of notches on my belt after those shows….not to mention after all the beer I plan on drinking.

I wish the entire Caboose could make it tonight. Unfortunately one member has prior commitments; meaning only 16 of us will be out in support. Standing in the back, as usual. Probably at least 3 of us will be wearing engineer hats, and at least 2 of us will have big, blue handkerchiefs around our necks. Oh, and as always, say hi if you want. The Caboose loves saying “Hi”.

Practice was a blast last night. And, luckily, there were no lingering bad-feelings from my freak-out on half of the team the night before at McManus. It was completely forgotten. All 17 of us were there for practice, on time. We warmed up with a little “Follow the Leader”, then some “Zip-Zap-Zop”, except the Caboose does it as, “Shovel-That-Coal”.

Then we jumped into some Class-1 railroading scenes. It started as a loose montage, but after about 40 minutes, we landed on one character (Becky’s invention) that no one wanted to see leave, so it organically turned into one big character wheel. I’m not kidding either, it just happened to be Becky. I only say that, cause I know I mention Becky by name more than any other Cabooser in this journal, but that’s only because she’s so damn active. Seriously, she’s like paranormal activity; she’s everywhere.

Anyway, Becky was playing this Oregon log-mill dispatcher named Tucker. Tucker’s responsibilities as the dispatcher included facilitating all the diesel freight traffic coming in and out of the log mill, as well as accurately documenting how many log-cars left on each train. Although, Tucker was obviously much more than just a dispatcher, and we learned so much additional info about him during our hour long “Tucker” Character Wheel.

We learned Tucker was deeply shy. Also, very horny. Tucker had some weird, Native American spirituality thing going on. Oh, and Tucker had a ponytail. He liked Herb Albert and his Tijuana Brass Band. He hasn’t had a date in 5 years. Lives alone in one bedroom house on Killawee Creek. Wants to see Holland before he turns 40. And is a big Fraiser fan.

Then we finished up practice with “Whatever the Fuck We Want to Do” hour. Just as an experiment, and perhaps to kind of just wash our palate clean, we did an hour of scenes that could be about whatever you want. If it includes railroading details, awesome. If it has nothing to do with railroading, awesome. Some of us were hesitant, at first, but warmed up to the idea of non-railroad scenes. It was kind of like having our favorite blanket yanked away. Our comfort zone was gone. For the first time in the Pennyfeather Caboose history, everything was fair game. Oh man.

It was good. Honestly, the first 20 scenes still had elements of railroading here and there, but for the most part I’m pretty proud of the way we all attacked the unexpected. Will we do it again? I don’t know. Perhaps.

Oh Lord, I can not stop thinking about TONIGHT. Get to the theatre if you can. It’s going to rock.

What else is going to rock? I’m sure it’s your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

Milwaukee Road Time Freight No. 100 departs Milwaukee July 22nd, 1979…from all your friends on the Caboose. SEE YA TONIGHT!!!!!!!!! Right Level 2ers? RIGHT?!

 

[Pennyfeather]

CONGRATS, CONGRATS, CONGRATS......to me. A couple of minutes ago I just made my first grilled cheese sandwich in years, and it was delicious. Wait, that doesn't deserve "caps locked" congats....

What does deserve them? Last night's Harold Night. Goddamn. For real.

The PCR debut was electric. The audience was insane, energy-wise, and PCR delivered, I thought, with some quality, quality stuff. It was a blast, and I’m not just saying that because there was a “train” reference in one of their group games. That was followed by the "Respecto" (just Dannah and Jackie) harold. Personally I thought it could have been the best harold I’d seen in months. Pure genius. Really smart and funny. Some of the best stuff of the night.

Then I had some beer with the Caboosers.

Then the cagematch where both the Office and OI rocked their butts off. Seriously, good shows all around from both.

These “caps-locked” congrats are for all of you guys, even you New Teamers last night.

CONGRATS, CONGRATS, CONGRATS.

Afterwards, most of the Caboosers made it to McManus. 6 of the 16 of us who went to cage went home. The other 10 of us hit the bar. And talked. And drank. And congratulated the players. And discussed the new Amtrak Eastern Corridor Route changes. It's a little weird. All of the caboose still kind of feels a bit weird and shy around Harold team members, and/or students who are on quality practice/performance teams, and/or hot girls. The backroom was fully packed with all of the above, so the Caboose just hung by the jukebox. Then Becky said, "Fuck it, I'm going to go to the backroom." And we said, “OK, be careful.”

So Becky went back there, and was never seen again. Oh man, the stories that she must have. Especially since I heard a rumor she and Conroy were hanging for a bit.

Oh man, I have no plans tonight. I should probably stay in, save up energy, reheat some jambalaya, and watch a new train video I just got. Well, actually, it was a Pennyfeather Caboose purchase, and will be passed around to all 17 members eventually, as part of our on-going team “learning program”. This one is Durango & Silverton Railroad. Only a 45 minute tape, but it’s probably packed full of all the Durango & Silverton info any one person needs.

I don’t know much about the railroad, except that the D & S is a forty-five mile branch line of the Denver & Rio Grande, and the entire line was built in nine months and five days back in 1882 to reach the booming mining town of Silverton.

Oh, I should probably detox tonight as well. Unless of course the Durango & Silverton video is so good, that to celebrate I have a glass of red wine.

Wait, that sounds like a lead-in to your “Train of the Day.” So here it is….

You know what we can celebrate? That’s right, your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

Canadian and US festive holiday trains meet at Pasqua…from all of your hungover friends on the Caboose….

 

[Pennyfeather]

Oh man, it's the start of a new week. And almost the beginning of October. I love this time of the year. The Fall. Leaves changing, the wind blowing, and Touristy Fall-Rail Excursions are crowded with eager non-rail fans. However, I'm sitting Fall out here in the city, practicing and learning improv, and surfing the net, as usual, for rail fun.

I'll be honest, I haven't heard a peep from my teammates on the Caboose this weekend, so I got no team news. Which is probably a good thing for all involved. This last week I took a bit of flack from a couple of teammates about just how much I've made this journal about them, and others on the team, and whatnot. It's not a big deal. I just promised to be cool.

Oh, as well, since I had free time this weekend I basically surfed the net for "rail fun" for two days straight. I mean, sure, I hit my other daily sites quickly as well, such as pbs.org, The Topeka Capital-Journal, and my various porn sites, but mostly I just looked for cool Rail info.

I found a cool web-only Train radio-talk show called Let's Talk Trains. It's an ok show, pretty interesting. I listened to a couple of old shows, and attempted to access the live show on Saturday morning, but had some difficulties. I almost tried to call in anyway on Saturday, but chickened out. I know, BE AGGRESSIVE, but I said, “Fuck it” anyway.

And then I looked for some neat T-shirts I’ve been interested in for Christmas. For myself, and/or better yet, for my team. I stumbled onto this beauty:

How cool is that?

Got class tonight. Then not sure what I’ll be up for. I think Becky has a bit of a crush on Conroy, after their brief conversation after the Cage on Thursday night. We’ll see how she plays it.

Hopefully, she plays it cool. Real cool. Much like that above T-shirt.

I don’t really feel like a TRAIN OF THE DAY today. Do you? If you do, how about a compromise? How about a not-so-large TRAIN OF THE DAY ?:

The inaugural train, powered by BNSF and UP locomotives, leaves the north side of the Alameda Corridor…from me, just one of many members of the Pennyfeather Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Class was a good one last night, for everyone but me. I screwed up about 3 times-- twice during the same Harold, and once during the LAST scene of the night. It was so lame. During the first beat of the Harold, my partner walked out, initiated she was waiting for a bus, I guess. She was checking her watch and holding an umbrella. Then I came in and said, "This Rock Island train to Danville is always a couple of minutes late." And my partner agreed with me. Then I couldn't come up with anything else so I just started going on-and-on about the Rock Island Railroad for a couple of minutes, not ONCE actually engaging my partner and attempting to move the scene forward. I honestly don't know what happened; I violated my number 1 rule, and made the entire scene about the THING and not the relationship between my partner and me.

AND THEN, in the second group game, we were all in an office birthday party where we knew NOTHING about the Birthday guy, so all of our gifts were what WE ASSUMED he would want. My gift to him was a brand new Lackawanna Railroad DVD, with commentary by the legendary Conductor Dalton Wilson. It sounds ok, but it was lame, and didn’t heighten the scene WHAT-SO-EVER.

Afterwards Delaney gave me some well-deserved shit for the moves, especially the first beat “Rock Island Line” scene. Same note I gave myself: lack of partner engagement, and NO forward progress at all.

At McManus (for one beer) after class, my class hung for the very first time. It was cool. Although at about 11:30 Becky walked in and I tried to wave her over, but she didn’t come to the table. She just turned and left. I have no idea what is up. She’s a moody, moody girl, but it’s not like her to ignore me. Perhaps I did something I’m not aware of, but if I did, I have no idea what it is. Maybe I’ll email her.

I love the CABOOSE. I think I would be crushed if anything came between any members of the team. Especially if it led to us breaking up, or members leaving. I mean, sure, luckily we have 17 members, and even if half the team got mad and left, the Pennyfeather Caboose would still be an 8-member team. But I really do love and respect and want to work with and develop this stupid team concept with all 16 of my teammates for a long, long time. At least for a couple of more months, AND, more importantly until at least we have a couple of public performances. Otherwise all of our collective hard work and struggles with this dumb RailroadProv idea will have been for nothing.

Oh well, for now all is cool. I guess.

What else is cool? Your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

Montana Rail Link's "Gas Train" is seen here approaching the foot of Evaro Hill….from me, one member of the Pennyfeather Caboose. Becky, what did I do?

 

[Pennyfeather]

Congrats to everyone who made the Lottery such a fun experience...for the audience. Last night was a good way to go out, as I thought both Harold's were good ones. There was a little hostility in the first one of the evening, as I just felt there were too many characters who didn't want to be around the other character on stage, but overall, those specific feelings were justified, and in no way did the overall piece suffer because of it.

I can't wait for the Lottery to happen again and new students picked. And this time, the Pennyfeather Caboose HAS GOT to get a representative in...right? I mean there's 17 of us, not all of us are going to get shut out again. And if we do? That just means more available time to devote to RailroadProv. Hurray.

Oh, and as always, thanks to everyone who said "hi" to members of the Caboose last night....luckily we had seats in the back and didn't have to stand. For those of you who did not say "hi" to the Caboose, I have this to ask you: "Why did you not say "hi" to the Pennyfeather Caboose last night? Do you not like the Caboose? Do you hate railroading? Are you in love with Becky?"

Actually, I probably would have only asked you the first question.

Oh, so, I still have no idea what the hell is the matter with Becky. I still have no clue as to what I did to her, but whatever....I know our friendship and teamship is strong enough to get past whatever it is that's up her butt. I left her 2 messages on her cell yesterday evening about The Lottery, but she didn't call me back. So I know it's serious.

Actually, I saw that she registered for the IRC over the weekend, so perhaps she's found this journal....or possible not. I have no idea.

I mean all my teammates know about this journal, and some of them, I KNOW, read it daily, because I've had very detailed conversations at McManus about it. So, it's not like this is some TOP SECRET thing. It's not.

So, I don't think that's it.

The Caboose has practice tonight, so whatever it is that's up between Becky and myself better be squashed before 6:59 pm, cause we start warming up at 7:00 sharp. Then we jump right into “Old Wooden Trestle” scenes, where every scene takes place on an old wooden railroad trestle, and the two players start each scene carefully crossing over each plank.

It’s a cool dynamic we all thought of one night…probably at McManus, while we were drinking. We all thought it would be cool to see two characters attempt to establish a relationship and needs WHILE both are carefully and methodically attempting to cross a dangerous railroad trestle.

AND SO, what if Becky steps out onto the trestle and I walk out with her? And we start the scene, and instead of thinking about each step we make and playing a smart scene while safely getting across the trestle, what if we in our minds all we can think about is our stupid personal squabble. If that happens, I’m sure we’ll both start rushing, trying to get across the bridge as quickly as possible, as in to run away from actually engaging each other. AND then what if I fall through one of the wooden planks, and I’m only hanging on by my right hand? Then what if we hear a big ol’ C & S 2-8-2 whistle in the distance, and now Becky’s character is the only person who can save my character’s life? And she decides to run instead of stay and help. Oh man, I need a class of water.

Mmmm, that was wet.

Anyway, I'm excited about our new coach tonight. THAT’S RIGHT EVERYONE, the caboose has FINALLY secured a coach. It’s so weird to say, but it’s true. I, unfortunately, can’t say who it is, YET. Our coach has asked to remain anonymous, only because he doesn’t want to get labeled as solely a RailroadProv coach. (Although I can assure you it is a UCB Harold Team member, and he seems to be very well respected throughout the coaching community. And once Becky said, “he’s hot”.)

I’ve attempted to assure him via email, that we don’t JUST want to do railroad scenes. I made it clear the team would also like to incorporate at least 20% non-railroad stuff in as well. Regardless, tonight is going to be a fresh experience. Oh, and our coach can only make it for 2 hours tonight, so that’s why we’re doing the “Old Wooden Trestle” scenes from 7 to 8.

You know what does it 24-7? Your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

In celebration of the new Caboose coach, here’s one of my favorite train pics of all time. The train for the 2002 Olympic Torch Relay rolls over the High Bridge 20 miles east of Tucson…from me, one member of the Pennyfeather Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

My head is going to slowly expand until it blows apart. For whatever that is worth. I didn't know where else to start today's entry with, so I started with that.

I feel like there's so much to cover...none of it being what I'd really like to be writing about. Cause ideally, I'd love to start a journal entry like this:

Last night's Pennyfeather Caboose show at the theatre was remarkable. We played a strong 45 minutes, creating real, honest, and fun characters who had strong wants and relationships, and we made active choices, and had detailed railroad specifics. Afterwards, Mullaney offered us the Friday midnight slot, and all 17 members of the Caboose are in love with each other---in a "friendly" kind of love, AND to top it all off, a representative from Trains Magazine was in the audience and wants to write a story about the team. Hurray for life!

BUT, unfortunately, none of that is true. We are yet to perform, especially at the UCB, we rarely make active choices, our railroad specifics have been somewhat vague lately, Mullaney probably has no idea who the Pennyfeather Caboose is, the 17 of us like each other, but surely are not in "love" with each other, AND, we have had absolutely no luck in getting a rep from Trains Mag to acknowledge the group's existence.

I'm an idiot. I'm honestly just stalling here; avoiding getting to last night's practice and all this Becky crap...which we did managed to resolve nicely, with a little help from some good old fashion “Improv therapy.”

Like I said our awesome new coach wasn’t showing up until 8, so we took it upon ourselves to warm-up and then jump into the previously mentioned “Old Wooden Trestle” scenes. In about 45 minutes, we managed to do around 14 really different scenes. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and playing smartly the dynamic between specific character wants and the broad want of carefully crossing a wooden railroad trestle. For some reason a lot of the characters were running away from something, which made the urge to get across the bridge that much greater.

We had “run-away” circus clowns who jumped off the back of a moving circus train and were heading back to Gruberville. There were two silver miners running away from the Durango mine, and one of them thought the other was hoarding silver. There were two twin brothers who ran away from their mean foster parents, and one of the boys wanted the other to accept him as a sister instead a brother. I can’t remember the rest….Oh, and the backline was fairly nice about the “Blowing the Whistle” during a “wooden trestle” scene, cause it tends to completely shatter the reality of the scene, and then it only becomes about running to safety, and the “spirit” of the scene is basically lost.

Becky and I did not do a “wooden trestle” scene together. Although I made her laugh a couple of times so I thought all was cool.

THEN…..Oh my God……our coach arrived. Actually he walked in the middle of the “Trestle” scenes, and got to check us out for a good 10 minutes. Then he just went, “That’s RailroadProv, huh?”

Someone said, “Yup, we guess.”

Then our coach basically said : “Shit, you weren’t kidding about 17 members. This is ridiculous. But should be fun. What is everyone up for tonight? Do you guys have specific exercises or scene-work you want to do? Or is everyone cool with what I have in my back-pocket?”

The Caboose agreed we were cool with whatever. So our COACH (I wish I could call him by his name, “Coach is ridiculous”) had us do some 2 minute/2 person scenes…just to get a feel for us. And when we asked about “Railroad specifics”…he said, “Do what you want to do. For now.”

So we jumped into scenes, and I thought had some pretty good ones. It’s hard to tell. I was nervous…and was a backline fly all night. On the Railroad side of things, we only had about 25% of scenes that involved any sort of train specifics at all. I think everyone was a little embarrassed about introducing our “niche” to our new coach so soon. As if it would scare him away. Or perhaps everyone just wanted to do something else, and once you start doing non-railroad scenes, sometimes it feels awkward to get back on track. I don’t know.

I only did 3 scenes last night. But I’m really happy with how the entire practice went down. I thought our coach had great notes for us, and I can tell he kind-of liked us. I’m not sure how he feels about RailroadProv, but I do know how he feels and thinks about Improv, and surely that is more important. As well, I can tell that he is going to really kick our butts. Which is what the Caboose severely needs; a coach who won’t let us get away with shit, and will force us to get performance ready.

Anyway, all is cool. With everything and everyone.

Oh, and most of the team will probably be at HAROLD NIGHT tonight. For real. Should be a good time. Especially that OFFICE/Dr. A cagematch at 11:00. We’ll surely be standing in the back for that, so come say “hi” won’t ya.

If you say “Hi” to me, I’ll whisper back, “TRAIN OF THE DAY ”:

Sun shines on a cold December morning as Wisconsin Central Limited Train # 50 departs Waukesha, WI with WC #6586 on the point….from me.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Harold night was a good time, despite my lack of an umbrella. I have to say Ice-Nine's Harold during the 8:00 show rocked my socks off. Seriously, there were such funny, strong, committed choices being made all around, and the whole team took on a real attitude about the entire piece. It was cool to see. Oh, and Gelman's "Cry-Baby Buddha".... Hilarious.

Oh, and congrats, of course, to The Office for winning their SECOND Cagematch in a row, with a hard-fought win over Dr. A. Both had such strong sets, so I knew it would be a tough decision. Actually, the 10 of us Caboosers who were there last night (standing in the back) figured out at McManus afterwards that we actually cancelled each other's votes out. We were split completely; 5 for the Office, 5 for Dr. A. Oh well....the Caboose has no power.

McManus was fun afterwards. Hanging. Drinking. Bitching about how expensive the new jukebox is. Looking down this one girl’s shirt. It was all cool. As well, the Caboose was attempting to branch out and not just cluster together like big nerds talking about railroading. We hung out with a couple of the Office guys after their big win. They seem pretty cool, and really nice...but I don't think they know much about classic American railroading. Becky, I think was the most excited about hanging with them, as she's been a big fan for a while, ever since she saw them at Flipside in early August.

Later on still, I saw her talking to Charlie Todd some. They were laughing and drinking. Which is cool.

Later, when the Caboose was hanging out by the telephones, I kept seeing Becky just looking at Charlie from across the room. I was in the middle of my diatribe about how Casey Jones should NOT be considered a hero by the majority of public opinion, because Casey was nothing but a sloppy, dangerous engineer. I’m pouring my heart out about this and Becky wasn't even listening to me when I was talking to her 'cause she was just staring at Charlie the whole time. I mean, I guess Becky doesn't start paying attention to you until after you’ve won two cagematches. Oh man, that sounded catty.

Actually, Becky and I are all cool again...if you were wondering. We hung out last night like old friends and I think all that "crap" is behind us, except for that jerky-comment above by me. OH MAN, I have improv to get to….

Seriously. I like improv. And trains.

Someone on the team emailed me this morning about a new scene-dynamic he’s been thinking about. He explained it as a “two-way Switcher” scene, which I don’t really understand yet. From his description I see it has just a normal scene except that down stage right is positioned a “Switcher”, who is at the controls of “track”, and can decide at any moment what direction the scene goes. It’s probably a bit too wacky an idea, but with a little thought and experiment it could be fun.

I doubt our new coach would have the patience for such a process. As well, I most certainly would be too embarrassed to put him through it. I mean, believe me folks, the Caboose will remain a RailroadProv team, at least through our first performance. Even though we now have an outside EYE that will attempt to make us better, and call us out on our crappy crap, and make us faster and quicker, and smarter, and all that other good stuff, the Caboose makes this promise: We will not give up our love of trains. Or for the majority of the 17 of us, our “like” of trains.

This should be a good weekend. I’m going to watch Football for two days straight. I don’t know teams, and I don’t know players, and I don’t know the rules, but I’m going to watch it anyway. Oh, wait, I know Purdue….cause they’re the Boilermakers. Right?

Holy cow, check out that LOGO. I’m going to root for them, against whomever they play.

You know what else I’m going to root for? That’s right, your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

I know this isn’t a “real” train of the day, but I chose this picture because the guy riding the train seems like a good role model for the Caboose. I mean, I’m sure he takes a lot of crap from his friends and his community, because of his love of his trains, but he doesn’t care. If he wants to get dressed up and ride around on a little locomotive in his backyard, then that’s what he’s going to do. Choo-choo.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Leave me alone. Don't touch me. Ok, you can touch me a little, but I still reserve the right to be in a bad mood. You see, it seems my Thanksgiving vacation plans with my family are terribly messing with all the cool UCB events I would love to be a part of. This last week I had to cancel my audition for the One-Acts, and just this morning I see that the next round of the Lottery AND the 3-on-3 Tourney are both Thanksgiving week and/or weekend, so I'm out for those two as well.

And I have no one to be mad at so I'm going to be mad at my parents.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll be having a great time golfing in the Caribbean, and sipping Caribbean drinks, and lounging in the Carribean’s blue waters (I don’t know much about the Carribean), while HOPEFULLY at least a couple of my Pennyfeater Caboose teammates are either in The Lottery or the Tourney. Wait, don't stop touching me.

This was a great weekend. Wasn’t it? MMM, not really, but I was just trying to rally myself for some energy. Wait, I'll try again.

Holy crap, what a fucking great weekend, right?! (Getting serious) It was good all around for me. Not too much team business, just enough improv but not too much, and I tried a couple of new things as well, which should help me become a more rounded individual later on in life. I have no idea what that means....

On Friday night, at around 7:00, I got really baked and started watching the Caboose's latest video purchase: The Eureka & Palisade Railroad. It was pretty cool, not great, as I thought some of their stock footage they used was fairly old and not too attractive. But I still enjoyed it very much.

Some of things I learned about the E & P, despite being high, is that the narrow gauge line was built in 1875 by the Denver & Rio Grande to move coal between Eureka and Palisade, Colorado. Today it obviously operates as popular tourist railroad, with many of the stops along the 40 miles route being classic “spooky” Ghost Towns of short-lived Silver boomtowns, which I bet makes for some mighty fun exploring. I would love to go on a Ghost Town Vacation. Oh man…

The video was only 51 minutes, so around 9:10, I got restless and hit the Swarm show, which kicked butt as always. I saw a couple of the Caboose teammates there as well, so that was a plus. Several us have a bad habit, however, of sitting in the back and whispering possible up-coming scene moves to each other, just to see how smart our moves end up sounding after the Swarm eventually makes theirs. Usually they trump ours by 80 %. Which probably isn’t that bad.

Oh, and so on Saturday, I kept to my plan, and watched the entire Purdue College football game. Purdue was winning until the last period when Iowa found a touchdown with a minute remaining to win the match. I have to say, football is a pretty exciting game, but unless I felt a diehard love for any one team (which I don’t), I don’t think I can just watch the game without that emotional attachment. Anyway, congratulations to Iowa. As always.

Yesterday I didn’t do shit. I thought about going running in the park, but then I start thinking about not doing that.

Class tonight. I hope it’s fun since we got New Team coming up soon. I would prefer to just do a shitload of scenework tonight, and not Harold. Perhaps we could pump out like 150 scenes in 3 hours? Yeah, I know, no way; I doubt we’ll even reach close to half of that number, but regardless it should be fun. Oh crap, I have to figure out what to wear tonight. Perhaps a pair of cords and a white Tee and since it’s a bit nippy out, a hooded dark navy sweatshirt. No wait, that sounds lame, right? Ok, calm down. How about a soft-knit beige pullover? Yeah, good thinking, that’ll do nicely.

Almost as nice as your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

Cass Scenic #5, preparing for departure from the Cass, West Virginia station up Cheat Mountain to Whittaker Station. Cass #5 has been climbing Cheat Mountain for almost 90 years making it one of the oldest locomotives operating on it's original line….. from me….and no one else on the Pennyfeather Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Class was good last night. We Harolded, and got notes. That's about it. My work was ok, I guess. I think I found and hit some pretty smart games in my beats, and had one killer walk-on. And Delaney agreed. Cheer, Cheer. Bow, Bow.

I'm so lame. I apologize for my lameness.

I will try to make-up for any and all of my lameness in practice tomorrow, our first FULL three hours with our awesome new coach. I begged him over the weekend with some friendly emails to let me reveal his name, but he didn't budge. I totally respect his wishes, however, but I had to try. I understand that our team is not the norm, and that we have a really dumb specialty, and a lot of members. I know we are a RailProv team, and nothing more at this moment. But hopefully, after no less than a month of working with us, our coach will see that the Caboose has skills. He'll understand that we could be just another practice team doing regular scenework, but that we collectively chose to narrow our focus because of our undeniable passion for the railroad. Perhaps after tonight he'll see that we just aren't a bunch of Level 3, 3b, and 4 students who simply HIDE from making real, honest, need-driven choices, behind a giant wall of train descriptions. Yeah....

Tonight by the way, he's having us simply do scenework for 3 hours, just to see what he really has to work with. So tonight, the Caboose will leave all Train info AT THE DOOR. Which I think is a good idea at this point. I mean, our coach is going to have a hard time getting this train out of Practice Team Depot unless he knows what's under the hood. And beneath the boiler. As well, it's not like we hired a famous Railroad Historian to come in and teach the team Railroad details. I mean, indeed, it's not like we hired Dave Rutan as our coach. We hired an improv coach, and that’s what we want.

It’s going to be refreshing to just get back to the basics with the team again. Which I guess means my “snow shed” scene idea will have to shelved for a bit. I better write it down though here, since I just came up with it last night, and don’t want to forget it.

I was thinking about the cool dynamic of wooden snow sheds and how important they were in making sure that Northern train could still make it’s run, even after a massive snow fall. And I was thinking about the Caboose, and how, when you are doing a 2 or 3 person scene, on the backwall is at least 15 unused bodies, just standing there. And then I thought how cool it would be for the backline to become a snow shed over the scene that’s on stage. To protect the scene from the cold, harsh, Northern winter, or perhaps the feisty, drunkenness of an unruly audience.

I’m going to jump right into your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

A beautifully efficient Snow Shed on the old South Chickery Branch of the N & O….from me.

 

[Pennyfeather]

It's a slaphappy Wednesday. I have no idea what the slap part of that means, but I am happy today regardless. I spent all morning here at work making business calls, faxing, and rearranging videos. I did a full day’s work BEFORE lunch, so now I have some down time (especially with my boss out of the office) to do some Caboose "business". Internet business to be exact.....or to be even more exact (which sometimes is fun to do), shopping business.

Ok, wait, breathe. Please do not ask me to get more exact than that. I'm not sure it can be done. What? You want me to try? Ugh...ok.

I started shopping for Pennyfeather Caboose handkerchiefs. I had said I was interested in such a purchase as a joke a couple of posts ago, but the more I started thinking about it, the more I wanted to see exactly how much 17 handkerchiefs would cost. Becky keeps bugging me to refer to them as bandanas, but I told her “no thanks.” And then, about an hour ago, I started Google searching “Railroad Handkerchiefs”, and I found absolutely nothing. Actually I found a bunch of stories that involved railroads and/or handkerchiefs, but not one online store selling them. This, by the way, is my favorite story I found.

So, I just tried “Railroad Bandana”, and low-and-behold, the motherload. Thank you Becky. Holy shit, there’s a lot of people that sell bandanas over the internet in this country. Who would have suspected that? It’s probably a fairly good life. Buy a shitload of bandanas, put them in your garage or your child’s bedroom while she’s at college, and get a website, and then just sit back and watch the profits roll in. I could see myself being happy with that life. Slap happy? Mmm, probably not, but I would be content, especially if the web address TallyMyBandana.com is still available.

Anyway, this store looks good: fashionbandana.com. $4.95 per dozen, which would mean the team could actually by 3 dozens for $15, which comes out to about $1.25 per teammate with shipping and tax. Very doable. Wait let me check this website out real quick and get a feel for the merchandise.

How about a little Boxcar Willie while on hold?

I've seen the Coal Mines in Kentucky
I've seen the Steel Mills in Birmingham
I've seen the Appalachians, seen Hoover
And I've seen ev'ry other dam
I've seen the great Salt Lake in Utah
I've heard the mighty N-i-ag-ra roar
Yea! big or small, I've seen it all
From A Boxcar Door.

OK, I’m back. I think the Caboose would do best with the standard railroad colors: red, blue, and green.

Luckily we have practice tonight (which should rock), so when I collect money afterwards from everyone, perhaps I’ll just ask them for a couple of bucks extra for team wardrobe expenses. Man, we are going to be snazzy.

Enough about that. After practice, a couple of us talked about hitting Piledriver, perhaps catch the last half of it. So if you see a group of 5 or 8 people who look like students coming through the curtain half way through the show tonight, you’ll know that’s most likely the Pennyfeather Caboose. Then you’ll have no excuse not to say “Hi” afterwards.

Oh man, I love improv.

Here’s your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

PRR E units lay over in Butler, PA yard, August 20, 2001. They were pulling a special "Northern Express" private car train around Pennsylvania….from me, one member of the practice team, Pennyfeather Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Well, this is a journal first. I'm attempting an after Harold night and late-night McManus fun, entry. After all that beer with friends and teammates, bitching about the new jukebox and discussing hilarious things, such as 1945-Baldwin Centipede Engines (which always catch on fire), I'm sitting here, drunk, writing a journal entry.

Real smooth, my man, real smooth. Shut up.

Honestly, I can't sleep so I'm going to write. Plus, I didn't get around to an entry on Thursday afternoon, so I'm doing it now. You see, when I can't sleep at night I'm convinced it's just because my mind isn't done thinking about stuff for the day. And what am I almost certainly always thinking (stressing) about? That's right...the 'boose.

Man, I'm such an idiot. There was this gorgeous girl at the bar tonight...I mean, there are always several cuties (including Becky), but this one girl was awesome. I should have just been aggressive and gone up and talked to her. Perhaps put the smooth moves on her. And I could have said “hi.” And NOT brought up railroading at any point during our conversation. That would have rocked it out. AND, if I would have worked it completely smooth, I’d be doing something other than writing this entry right now. Choo-Choo! I suck.

I should erase this entire entry…I’m not saying anything. Which I’m going to make sure and change starting with this upcoming paragraph.

Yeah, this one right here. Man, Harold night was awesome tonight. Quality stuff all around. Especially the 9:30 show…..with My Kickass Van and Ice-Nine, both with strong shows. I gotta say though, this is the second week in a row where Ice-Nine has floored me. Tonight it was basically the “Poop” Harold, but with complete justification and commitment.

Then the cage---which again rocked the caboose. There’s double meaning in that sentence. The first being the old railroad phrase, “rocking the caboose” which refers to a jumpy train, and the fact that on a long train, the caboose should be the smoothest car on the train, BUT, if a caboose is rocking, then you know the loco on the front of the train is going to be a hopping everywhere. SO, if something is rocking the caboose, you KNOW it’s rocking the train. I also mean it as the CAGE rocked the Pennyfeather Caboose tonight. 7 of us Caboosers were there for the 9:30, but another 5 of us showed up for the cage, for the Office/Neutrino battle. I have to say, I loved Neutrino’s show. Such smart and truthfully played scenes.

But the Office pulled out the win, with a rip-roaring set, which included lots of jumping off things. But well earned jumping off of things! Congrats!

BUT AGAIN, all of the Pennyfeather Caboose votes counted for nothing, as the 12 of us were split down the middle 6-6. How appropriate! Man, we are such losers…

We have got to start performing. Perhaps after our bandanas arrive. When they do, I’ll take them to practice, then, more than likely in front of our awesome coach, we’ll take them out of the box, put them around our necks, and look into each other’s eyes, and hold hands, and close our eyes, and say together, “RailProv.” I’m sure it won’t go down like that, but I can dream can’t I? I’m drunk. Shut up.

Practice was good on Wednesday. It makes such a difference in everyone’s work, to have a coach there, making sure the Caboose really worked our collective butts off; which I felt we did. It also felt comforting to just start doing NON-RAILROAD scenes with everyone, something we had only tried a couple of times before.

I mean can you imagine, the Pennyfeather Caboose initiating scenes on a tennis court? Or a driving range? Or the Moon?! Holy cow!

I really should go to bed now. Man, I should have just talked to her tonight. I know she saw me looking….what is wrong with me?

Oh well, at least I got my team….and my 3B class….and my UCB/IRC friends…and my best friends of all, my trains.

You’re always there for me…and for you. Just like this one…your TRAIN OF THE NIGHT :

BNSF 3197 on a office car special at Kingman AZ in July 2000….from me, who's still drunk and is now going to bed…..and by-the-way, I’m a member of the Pennyfeather Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

I wasn't going to respond to the big topic of the week, but since everyone else is chiming in with their thoughts (including people who probably shouldn't), I'm going to throw in my two cents to the pot as well. But I'm going to do it here, in the dark, coal dust and brake oil trashed corner of my own journal. Here's my comment on the subject: I like trains.

I mean, yeah, a lot of people have been talking, and raising their voices, and expressing their fear and concern and sadness about the rumor that I don't like trains, but I do. I like 'em big and small, fast and slow, tight and hard...if it runs on rails and isn't used as daily commuter traffic, I love it.

And there it is.

Ok, I'm an idiot. Honestly, there's no reason for me, or any member of the Caboose for that matter, to respond to anything at all, in regards to the "big topic of the week". I don't know shit, and a lot of my feelings have already been said appropriately by people I respect, so I'll shut up and wait things out. Which I know may seem like a lazy stance, but fuck it. I want to get high.

It’s a raining weekend afternoon, what else is there to do?

Anywooooo, I just finished the biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The book, entitled Cornelius Vanderbilt and the Railroad Industry , is fascinating reading. My favorite chapter of the Commodore’s life being his crusade to take control of the Erie Railroad, which has always been one of my favorite railroads.

By the end of 1867, Vanderbilt controlled the New York & Harlem Railroad, the New York & Hudson Railroad, and the New York Central Railroad, which gave him total control over all railway lines into Manhattan. The only railroad he did not control was the Erie.

Vanderbilt wanted the Erie to cooperate to hold up freight rates. When Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, and Jim Fisk, who made up the Erie Board, refused Vanderbilt’s plea, the Commodore vowed to buy the company and fire all three of them. There was about 250,000 shares outstanding when Vanderbilt began his campaign. Drew, Gould, and Fisk, not wanting to lose control of their only profitable business, simply started printing more stocks, expanding the total amount of common stock, which Vanderbilt kept buying and buying.

By the time the dust cleared, Vanderbilt had over 200,000 Erie shares and Drew, Fisk, and Gould still had the Erie and $7m of Vanderbilt’s money.

Finally a deal was made to settle the Erie War. Drew was anxious to get back to New York City and went to Vanderbilt without telling Fisk and Gould. Fisk and Gould later found out and entered the negotiations themselves. Vanderbilt got about $3.5m in cash and $1.25m in bonds of Boston, Hartford, and Erie (this Railroad’s board had been on the Erie board). Fisk and Gould ended up with the bankrupt Erie Railroad, which wouldn’t be profitable for 75 years. Drew died pennyless and alone.

The rest of the biography is good reading as well. It gets into his love life, his secret desires, his love of theatre and music, and his love of trains.

Did I say I like trains already? I think I did….

I also like improv, even though I have no “improv” plans this weekend.

I really do like my team, the Pennyfeather Caboose. Not that I have to remind myself of that fact, but it’s still comforting to say, and probably to hear, or read. Sometimes I feel guilty that a couple of my teammates are being held back from working with other practice teams, in the sense that a small core of us came up with the idea of the Caboose, recruited non-railroad members, and even though we are all pretty much on the same page, I often feel bad. Even in practice, I sometimes feel like a couple of the teammates would rather be with another practice group, doing NON-RAILROAD scenes…which is completely understandable. Oh, I know, I’m a worry wart. I just don’t want anything to happen to us, before we at least have a chance to show this community what we can do…

Wow, it’s going to rain all weekend…

I better turn on the headlights and the windshield wipers on your TRAIN OF THE WEEKEND :

Eastbound CSX Freight west of New Baltimore, OH from me….one member of the ‘boose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Good weekend, with one glowing omission: not enough improv. That will all change tonight however, with our rock-awesome class, which I can't wait for. Holy cow, I suck so hard. Why do I have to dance around every statement I want to make with long, drawn out sentences? I have no idea....let me try and start this again...

My weekend was good. Tonight, I have class, which should be fun.

There, much better. Clean, to the point, and accurate. Quality journaling….

I'm off from work today (hip hip hurray), which means I should be well rested, at peace with my mind, and clean shaven for class....which is rare for me, so it should be cool. Plus, all we've done is Harold the past 3 weeks, so hopefully Delaney will switch things up a bit and just drill us, 2-person scene style. Oh, that would rock. No openings, no group games, just scenes. Hard and smart. Hopefully with scenes that involve gold prospectors, because I think we can all agree that nothing is funnier. Although, I make this promise to any classmates that may be reading this: I will not force gold prospecting into any of my scenes. If it comes about organically and is smartly earned, than so-be-it.

The Caboose has long been obsessed with gold prospectors, but we’ve had a lot of problems incorporating them into our RailroadProv, because gold prospectors definitely were not railroad men. I mean, yeah, we could make that leap, and say that gold prospectors have that “railroad” feel, what with the bagging long-johns and the beards and floppy hats, and the dirt on their cheeks, and the rough life they chose to live, but they DON'T ride trains. And yeah, we've tried to justify it by saying that perhaps many gold prospector took the Railroad to the west during the gold rush, but that's just not true. The transcontinental railroad wasn't even completed until 1869, a full 20 years after the initial gold rush of the 1840s.

But man, I wish we could just bend our Pennyfeather Caboose rules just ONCE for those lovable scamps. I mean check this out:

One word: hilarious. Man, I would love to play that guy on stage. In a scene. With Becky. And we could say wonderful gold prospector sayings such as, “Eureka”, or “I found gold”, or “that’s my claim, get away”, or “I haven’t found shit in 2 years, and am sick of eating bear meat every meal of the day”. Oh well, perhaps we’ll figure out the justification for it eventually. Without forcing it.

It’s getting to be Winter. Time to put on a sweater and start growing my Winter beard.

It’s also time for your rock-hard TRAIN OF THE DAY :

Baltimore and Ohio's Shenandoah, Train #8, arriving Harper's Ferry, West Virginia on Labor Day, 1964….from me, one member of the Pennyfeather Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Wind and rain. And rain. And some more wind. This is one of those days where being a car-switcher at the BNSF's main car hub in Fort Worth, TX would simply suck.... for possibly everyone but me. Seriously, rain is one of my favorite things in the world; right behind trains, improv, and female breasts.

Wait, I gotta post this logo:

You know, it's been a year since my first level 1 class. AND, before I decided to sign up for the class, and endure all the crappy improv I would do for months, I actually spent a couple of months researching Railroad jobs. At the time I had convinced myself that railroading was the ONLY thing I could be happy doing as a profession, and that I HAD to leave New York and pursue my life's dream. And then I saw a show at the UCB, and I'm still here today, involved in a RailroadProv practice team which I love, and still taking rock-awesome classes.

It's amazing though to think back and realize that a silly $5 show at the theatre is what kept me from TODAY being a boxcar coupler for the CSX in Sacramento. Or a dispatcher for the Union Pacific in Denver. Or a conductor for the Norfolk-Southern in Knoxville. Oh man, improv, thank you from saving me from that.

Actually, I just found the job I had settled on; I still had it bookmarked. I had already talked myself into applying to become a CSX Transportation freight train Conductor Trainee, which would have required me to take one year of Conductor classes at a local college, but then after that, smooth sailing.

A CSX Conductor supervises the switching, loading/unloading, breaking or making up of trains. Travels with the train on its assigned route. Inspects all equipment on cars prior to departures. Assists and instructs crews to couple and uncouple cars, throw switches, and make minor repairs to rail cars, including replacing heavy couplings or air brake hoses. Requires walking long distances over uneven terrain. Work hours vary in length and schedule, including being on call 7 days a week, 24 hours per day. Conductors are exposed to various safety hazards and are required to wear protective equipment such are hearing protection, safety glasses, etc. Most work is done outdoors, year around.

RATE OF PAY: Approximately $698.37 weekly during training.

Sweet, real sweet. Anyway, I'm so glad that isn't my life right now. I mean, I could clearly be happy with it, if I would have chosen to go that path, but I didn't. I've gone the path of the Pennyfeather Caboose, and I really am happy right now.

Ok, I just deleted the link to that job from my bookmarks. Not that I couldn't find it again if I needed too, but hopefully I won't.

Oh man, the Caboose has practice tonight, with our coach. Last week, our coach talked about just having us RailProv tonight, for the full 3 hours, so that he can get a real good feel on what it is exactly that we do. And then, railroad specifics aside, he'll see where we are IMPROV wise....because surely they are separate. I mean, the Caboose's use of railroading details such as Burlington Zephyrs and the Rock Island Line's Track Schedule, and boilers and brakes, and water tenders on B & O 4-8-4's, has nothing to do with us yes-anding, and making smart, need driven choices, and getting grounded and connected with our partners. We totally look at what we do as two separate things....that are COMBINED to form this stupid thing we do called RailroadProv. And we do it cause we want to....

So, hopefully we can just concentrate on doing what we do tonight, and not get bogged down in making our coach laugh, or impressing him, and all that other crap. Let's just improv....with railroad details...and then get notes, and hear our coach's thoughts on the direction of the team...

Oh no, I just got an email from Becky. She's apparently thinking about asking Conroy out on a date, and wants my advice. Great...what do I tell her? Personally, I think Conroy is probably very busy, but who knows...I'm not going to speak for him. Should I say, "Go ahead, Becky"...or "Whatever, Becky"...I'm not sure...

Maybe I'll just ignore her.

Or perhaps I'll kiss her again. That'll show her.

I'm an idiot.

Here's your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

Just think, that could be me driving this CSX Q316 through Terra Alta, WV....but it's not...cause I'm one member of the Pennyfeather Caboose....

 

[Pennyfeather]

Well, the Caboose was out in full force last night for Harold night, standing in the back as usual, laughing, drinking, and waiting for people to say "hi" to us, which is always fun. Oh, the shows were good as well.

Especially the cage. Congrats to Ice-Nine on a wonderfully smart and fun set. As well, congrats must go out to The Office for their awesome run....it was a pleasure. After the show, only a couple of the Pennyfeather Caboose made it over to McManus. I went, and a couple of other dudes....Becky went home cause she's getting the flu I think, I don't know. We didn't really talk to anyone but ourselves at the bar, but that's ok.

Oh man, so practice on Wednesday night was a good time, DESPITE the fact that our rock-awesome coach didn't show up, due to a teacher's meeting at the theatre running long, which is ok. He called around 8:20 and said he couldn't make it, and we all said, "Cool, no prob." I mean, hell, if any team can work effectively without a coach, it's the Caboose. SO, we montaged for about an hour, then sat around talking for about 20 minutes, before getting remotivated. That's only one of the difficulties with having 17 members; a 5 minute break can turn into 20 minutes quickly if a bunch of us have to pee and/or get a soda, and such. Oh well.

For the last hour of practice we tried "Haunted Railroad" scenes, since it is nearing Halloween and all. The scenes were good, a little detail heavy, and not a lot of real relationships going on, but they were fun to watch none-the-less.

Honestly, we could just become a Haunted RailroadProv team if we wanted to, since the 180-year history of the American railroad is full of ghost stories and headless engineers and ghost trains. It really is fascinating stuff. And some of it I believe is real, while others, of course, I'm sure are just great legends perpetrated by bored and superstitious railroadmen. Actually, all railroadmen are superstitious to some extent.

Oh man, there are so many great railroad ghost legends. My favorite being the Legend of Bill McKeon's Ghost. In March of 1888, there had been two major wrecks due to blizzards on the New York Central Railroad. One day, engineer Bill McKeon got the call to push the snowplow down one of the branch lines, which he was not happy about at all. Bill believed that all wrecks happened it threes, and that if he went out, he would surely be the third accident. His firemen convinced him to take the call despite’s Bill fear, insisting, “Bill, if it’s your time, it’s your time. There’s nothing you can do about that. Now get out there and run that snow plow.”

So Bill set out the next day, and indeed, his number was called. Just as he took out his watch to glance at the time, his engine skidded off the rails and plunged into the snowy muck of Black Ash Swamp, where he died at the throttle.

But exactly one year after the tragedy, farming folk around the site began seeing a ghostly specter waving a lantern, right around the site of the accident. They would see it for about a month and then it would disappear, and wouldn’t return until the next year. Each year the ghost would return, and appear even more restless, as if he was searching the grounds surrounding the accident site, looking for something important. Finally, the locals had an idea, “Old Bill is looking for his watch.”

The locals searched around and found the man who had pulled the watch from Bill’s dead hand the night of the accident, and he agreed to give it back to Bill. SO, on the next anniversary night of the wreck, they place the watch in the snow right beside the track, and waited. It wasn’t long before the ghost appeared, and began searching as usual. And when he got to the area where the watch was placed, the ghost stopped, and bent down. And then vanished immediately. Neither the watch nor the ghost of Bill McKeon has ever been seen again.

Man, I love trains….

Here’s your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

A coach, passenger car which is supposedly haunted, even though it looks innocent enough…..from me…. Oh, and by the way, I’ll be telling more Railroad Ghost stories throughout the month, so keep checking back

 

[Pennyfeather]

I just got back from buying my annual Halloween pumpkins, which is always exciting. As usual, I went for two nice sized ones, so that I can carve one and keep the other intact to set on my fire escape. Oh, man, I love Halloween. I think I’m going to try and carve a train that goes all around the pumpkin, which sounds very difficult, but I think it can be done.

We have no Caboose activities planned this weekend, and honestly, I don’t even have anything set for tonight, so I guess I’ll just stay in and watch SNL. And then possible a train video or some HGTV. It depends on my mood, and the amount of Jack Daniel’s I have consumed by then. Hopefully not too much.

It’s UCB registration time again, and I suppose it’s time I move on to Level 4, joining several of my Caboose teammates. Although, I just noticed that they are yet to announce what exactly each Level 4 will be, so perhaps I’ll wait to figure it out. I know Billy is doing the Documentary cause he told Becky, but I’m not sure about Mullaney and Delaney. MMM, I have no idea.

You know, I keep thinking about this big group scene that the Caboose did late during Wednesday's practice. As I mentioned we were deep into “Haunted Railroading” scenes, and then some one yelled out “Ghost Train”, and we played some kind-of lame, but funny, scene about two dead engineers pushing a ghost train up Mt. Shasta. One was headless, and the other one had no idea they were dead. Kind of like the beginning of Beetlejuice, right after Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin crash off the covered bridge, but don't realize that they are dead until something happens. I don't remember what thing was, but it was probably hilarious.

Anyway, that scene was edited and someone initiated two trackworkers inspecting switches on the New York Central line. Eventually one of the workers remarked, “Well, I know we’ve been avoiding it, but it’s April 26th, you know what that means?” He said it to his partner, but also to all of us on the backwall, and all of us reacted appropriately. We all knew what April 26th is the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Train journey from Washington DC to Springfield, Illinois. So about 10 of us jumped off the backwall and became the famous ghost train.

Lincoln’s funeral train is the world’s most famous ghost train. Every April 26, on the anniversary of it’s initial journey, a cold chill rolls up the Conrail line between NYC and Albany. Trackerworkers always step aside for it, and they are always amazed by what they see. One car, right behind the engine, is full of a grotesque band made up of skeleton’s playing noiselessly on black instruments, sitting in fantastic poses. Behind that car is a flatbed car, on which Lincoln’s coffins sits, all alone. As the train passes, ghosts of soldiers in tattered blue uniforms may be seen floating in the air all around. The train makes no sound at all as it passes by. And, the next morning, all the clocks on the old Hudson Division are accountably five to eight minutes behind. The old timers offer up one simple solution: Lincoln’s train stopped time as it ran by.

Purdue is currently losing to Michigan by 3 points. I have no idea how to tell what period they are currently in, or how much time remains in the contest, but Go Boilermakers! Fight, Win, Make that Boiler!

Your reward? Your TRAIN OF THE WEEKEND :

The Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad’s annual Great Pumpkin Train. This train has quickly become a classic and now attracts several thousand people on weekends during October….from me, one member of the Practice team, Pennyfeather Caboose.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Well, this week has started off beautifully for the 'boose. Here I am at work, rewriting some business addresses, and I hear a knock on the office door. And I say, "Crap, who is that?" But then I open the door and say, "Hello, can I help you?", and this UPS guy says, "Yes, package." And then I sign for it and say, "thanks" or something, I don't remember.

And I returned to my desk. And inside the package? You guessed it: THREE DOZEN BANDANAS! Hurray! In colors red, blue, and green! Hurray! Oh man, the team is going to love it this Wednesday. We even have enough left over to give our rock-awesome coach one. Probably a green one. Luckily the lot of them isn't too heavy, and it may even fit in my backpack. Hurray! I'm tempted to wear one to class tonight, our last Delaney class of the current session, but I won't. Although, I could justify it organically if I leave work at 6:00, and notice it's a bit nippy out and that my neck is cold, and I look for my scarf, but remember I left it at home today. AND THEN I pull out one of the bandanas. Then I wouldn't feel like a loser.

Don't worry, I'm not reverting back into that self-doubting drama I was so obsessed about only a couple of weeks ago. I'm really not. Trust me.

Again, I have to say it, I hope we don't Harold tonight. I mean it's always fine if we do, but I'd rather not. It'd be cool to just 2 person scene it, hard. Or, perhaps some deconstructive montages. With a mandatory ONE group game, which isn't rushed or heighten too simply or too quickly. But whatever...

Oh, over the weekend, the Caboose got into a pretty fierce email conversation, which is fun, but time consuming. We kept emailing our favorite Railroad ghost stories, with almost every one of them being debated, since most stories are known to have more than just one ending. My favorite Railroad ghost story of this conversation was that of the legendary Screaming Jenny of West Virginia.

In the small town of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, a young girl named Jenny lived in an old storage shed near the Federal Armory in the mid-19th century. She, like other poor residents of the industrial town, suffered through the humid summers and cold winters of Harper’s Ferry with only a shanty to protect her. One winter night, Jenny drew too close to her fireplace and her ragged dress caught on fire. She immediately ran for help. Screaming and engulfed in flames, Jenny fled from her shack and ran down the railroad tracks and was hit head on by a passing locomotive. The night train killed Jenny, but it could not silence her screams or extinguish the flames.

To this day many engineers who pass through Harper's Ferry at night tell of seeing Screaming Jenny standing in the middle of the tracks, attempting to stop the train. She is still on fire, screaming noiselessly for help. As the train approaches her and finally flies through her, the engineers claim to hear her screams.

I made a joke to someone about Screaming Becky, but no one really thought it was funny. I just pictured Becky screaming and running down an old wooden trestle, bitching about improv. Becky, of course, was not on fire in my scenario, which I probably should have explained when I originally made the joke. But, again, whatever…

Wait, I believe I started this entry off by saying this would be a GOOD week for the Caboose. I still believe that.

And it all starts, right now. With your rock-awesome TRAIN OF THE DAY :

The Nevada Northern Railway, featuring the "Ghost Train of old Ely" is one of the best-preserved shortlines in North America. The Nevada Northern tracks were originally built to help bolster the economy of E&P and explore the local copper properties in Ely….from me.

 

[Pennyfeather]

Here it is October 22, and I am yet to be invited to any Halloween parties. NOT ONE! What the hell am I going to do that night? Wear my costume to the bar? Or on the subway? Or the pizza parlor? I don't think so.

It'd be cool if one of the members of the Pennyfeather Caboose threw a Halloween Party at their apartment. That would be fun...all 17 of us, with our girlfriends/boyfriends/friends....drinking, telling ghost stories, watching haunted train videos, and drinking "poison". I'd even help decorate by bringing over some cotton cobwebbing, and some lollipop-Kleenex ghosts, and some construction paper pumpkins, and a blacklight poster of the Orient Express which we can hang in the bathroom and replace the lightbulb in the bathroom with a blacklight. Holy cow!

See how excited I get over this holiday. A Pennyfeather Caboose costume party would be the shit! With the only downfall being that I'm sure all 17 of us will come dressed as old timey railroad engineers, especially since we all have brand new bandanas. You know, if this party did come together, I should probably switch and come as an old Railroad conductor.

Cause every train needs a conductor, even a train with 16 engineers. MMM, then it becomes a comfort thing though...cause if I'm drinking and dancing and getting my flirt on, do I want to be dressed in a stiff, tight conductor suit? Or the cool, baggy and flowing overalls of an engineer? As well, if all of my teammates are engineers, shouldn't I be a teamplayer as well? I mean, indeed, who can argue with this look?

Oh well, I hope we do end up having a party....otherwise I'm stuck at home that night, crying and cuddling my blanket. Wait, that sounded lame....oh well, I have no secrets in this journal.

Class was good last night, our last of the session. I knew if I wished for something other than Harolding, we'd end up Harolding, which is what happened. But it worked out for the best. I thought I had some good, slow, smart scenes, and my second beat heightening was spot on. And that's not my quote, that's Delaney's. I also had two spot on walk-ons, a group game initiation, a third-beat connection, and six offensive rebounds.

I talked to Delaney for a couple of minutes right after class, regarding something he had said about paranormal experiences a couple of weeks ago. Which led to me telling him a cool-ass railroad ghost story, which he seemed genuinely interested in hearing. I recounted the legend of The Ghost Tunnel of Moonville, Ohio.

Located deep in the Zaleski Forrest in Ohio, the Moonville Tunnel is all that remains from a small mining railroad branch that existed in the late 1850's. For nearly 100 years, folks have sworn that several old railroad ghosts haunt the Moonville Tunnel.

The most popular ghost of the Moonville Tunnel is that of the headless figure who walks around inside the tunnel and around the area waving a yellow lantern in an effort to stop the train. There are many theories as to how he lost his head, however. One story is the ghost of the man who haunts the tunnel was a train conductor who was drunk and fell in front of the train and was decapitated. Another theory says that the conductor was having an affair with the brakeman's wife and he was pushed out of the train and ran over. And yet another story, has it that Moonville was struck with small pox, and sent their most healthy person to the tracks to walk and get help. That man approached the tunnel, he was apparently sick and delirious from the small pox and staggered in front of an oncoming train waving his yellow lantern, and was decapitated.

Another ghost of the Tunnel is of a woman in a nightgown seen wondering around the area of the tracks at night. There are documented cases where a woman was killed about a mile from the tunnel while walking the tracks in 1886. The ghost seen resembles a woman in a blue'ish nightgown wandering around waving his lantern and then disappearing. And she has large breasts.....wait, I made that part up.

Boo!

I’m taking it easy tonight, I think…although I’ll probably end up catching Billy’s Level 4 show at 11:00. At least 2 Caboosers are in the class, so I’ll check it out. Should be fun.

What else is fun? You guessed it, sucka, your TRAIN OF THE DAY :

A Lima Shay, from me.

 

[Pennyfeather]

This is my first "written directly after a Pennyfeather Caboose practice" journal entry. Isn't that cool? I think so. Tonight was a pretty fruitful but tough practice, and I think most of the 17 of us did some really good, smart work, which is cool. And our rock-awesome coach was fairly tough on us for the first hour and a half, but seemed to at least enjoy our choices. This was only his second full practice with us, but he's seems to be opening up to our style, while not letting it throw him. Meaning he easily sees passed all of our railroad crap, and realizes the team is at least attempting to play real scenes under all the train details. Oh, and we made him laugh about 40 times, which seems respectable.

We warmed up with a 10 minute round of "Stoke-That-Coal" (our version of Zip-Zap-Zop), and then our coach suggested some quick 2-person, 10 second scenes which made the 17 of us happy, since we often do that anyway. But, after about 5 or so scenes, we were asked us to cut out the railroad stuff for a bit, and just cut loose for warm-up purposes.

After warm-up, our coach (I've almost got him to allow me to reveal his name-2 more weeks he said) suggested we jump into a huge character wheel, which is another Caboose classic. The team loves the wheel, but with 17 members, once we start a character wheel, it often takes a good-while before we end it. I mean a couple of months ago the Caboose knocked out a 2 hour long one. It was awesome, but so so tiring.

Tonight's was cool though. There were many cool, smart characters, all railroaders. Becky played a brakemen named Lindsey from Memphis. Wait, actually there were several brakemen tonight, but Becky's was the only one from Memphis, that I remember.

Anyway, the highlight of tonight's character wheel was when someone jumped in as Casey Jones, at which time I looked at the backwall and could see everyone just salivating at the chance to explore the country's most celebrated engineer who died at the throttle. I mean how cool is that? Especially since it’s Halloween time and the legend of Casey Jones is such a spooky one.

We explored the shit out of Casey Jones. We went back to his early years when he was a freight and passenger engineer between Jackson and Water Valley. We went back to the day he married the young and beautiful Janie Brady. His days as a youth. How he shops for groceries. The day he learned to fire a gun. Casey’s first touched boob. And of course, no one could resist putting Casey back, holding the throttle, on the night of his legendary tragedy.

Casey was transferred early in 1900 to the Memphis-Canton run as throttle-puller of the Illinois Central's powerful "Cannonball" train. Casey and his fireman, Sim Webb, rolled into Memphis from Canton about 10 o'clock Sunday night, April 29. They went to the checking- in office and were prepared to go to their homes when Casey heard somebody call out: "Joe Lewis has just been taken with cramps and can't take his train out tonight."

"I'll double back and pull Lewis' old No. 638," Casey volunteered.
At 11 o'clock that rainy Sunday night Casey and Sim Webb clambered aboard the big engine and eased her out of the station and through the South Memphis yards. After a while, on a long winding curve, Casey noticed something. “There's a freight train on the siding," Casey yelled across to Sim Webb.

Because Casey’s train was already very behind scheduled, he had opened her up to an access of fifty miles an hour. It was because of that speed, that made Casey’s train pretty near impossible to stop before it would hit the other freight train.

"Jump, Sim, and save yourself!," was Casey's last order to his fireman. As for himself, Casey threw his engine in reverse and applied the air-brakes-all any engineer could do, and rode roaring 638 into a explosion of crashing wood that splintered like match boxes. Sim Webb jumped, fell into some bushes and was not injured.

When they took Casey's body from the wreckage (old 638 had plowed through the cars and caboose and turned over on her side a short distance beyond) they found one hand on the whistle cord, the other on the air-brake lever.

Anyway, it was a cool, reflective character wheel. Oh, and I resisted the urge to go into my own philosophy about Casey Jones, which most have heard anyway. I am admittedly opposed to Casey Jones being celebrated, since my vision of him is that of nothing but a lousy engineer. Instead of the hero who saved many lives by giving up his own, I see an engineer who was very late and going too fast around dangerous curves to make up time.

Oh man.

Oh, and I’m sure more than a few of you, thanks to the Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones”, think that Casey died because he was high on cocaine. Which IS NOT THE CASE. He wasn’t even drunk. Just late. Oh, and for the last 15 years I’ve protested the Dead’s “Casey Jones” because of this lie. If I hear it at a bar, I walk out for a couple of minutes. Or if I’m at a party, I go out to the balcony. I even saw the Dead in Richmond-Spring 1994, and they started playing the song, and I booed, and then went to the bathroom. And then probably got high.

That’s enough about that. To sum up: good practice, way to go team!

And Harold night tomorrow! HURRAY! Get your asses there! And say “hi” to the Caboose who will be standing in the back as always….through the Cagematch, which should rock the frickin’ house down, what with the PCR cage-debut and the champion, Ice-Nine, who’s really had some kick-ass Harolds the last couple of months.

Boo! Here’s your scary TRAIN OF THE NIGHT :

OK, so maybe this Walkersville Southern #2 isn’t that scary, but the engine does have a 4-speed gas-mechanical V8 engine….so getty-up! From me….a Cabooser!