In Search Of A Home Cooked Meal

A few days ago, I caught a trip to Chattanooga with my conductor, Nick. We climbed on the engine to head back south and both of us immediately started to work on the most important part of the trip…our food! Nick went out to back door to find a warm spot on the engine to heat his meal. I plugged mine up. Not far into the run, the cab of the locomotive started to smell like an Alabama BBQ Joint. Nick made several comments about how good the chicken I was fixing smelled.

We were 50 miles into our run before we made our first stop. A train meet at Fort Payne, AL. Nick got down to line the switch and I went to work…preparing to eat. I waited for him to climb back onboard before I removed the lid. Making sure he saw the steam coming from the food and of course I bragged on what a good railroad chef I am.

Nick couldn’t stand it any longer. Out the door he went to retrieve his food from the engine. When he made it back, I could tell something was wrong. He sat what was supposed to be his meal on top of the control stand. The heat from the engine had melted the plastic containers that his food was in. The only thing he could do was toss it in the garbage.

Before you start to wonder, of course I offered to share my food. Nick refused, probably because he was scared to put his hand anywhere close to my knife and fork.

He did have some more food with him. So, he didn’t go hungry and in the end, we had a good laugh.