Excerpt
…handrail as the engine, like an exploding volcano, started moving
towards the spot where the fuel depot was located. Mike paid attention
to the two ground switches they had to cross to reach the fuel depot.
Reaching the first switch, the rain being so heavy, it was impossible to
discern the position of the rails and the foreman, in his rush to service
these engines, the sooner the better, didn’t even slow down to check
the switch, and as the wheels passed over the wrongly set switch, they
opened it so the engines passed.
The work at the fuel pump was done normally; the fuel tanks of
all three engines were filled to the rim, and these monsters were taking
about eight hundred gallons of diesel fuel in each. After the mechanics
did their inspection under the engines the foreman, always in a rush,
started moving the engines for the return trip to the shack outside
of which the labourers, Mike and Thomas were supposed to wash the
exteriors and wipe the excess oil off the engine blocks surely when
they passed the switch which the engines had opened when they
passed the other direction and not knowing in which position the
switch was positioned the unimaginable happened: The first engine
turned to the right rail, where they wanted to go, the middle engine
went straight onto the other line which resulted on it to fall off the rails
onto the ground, and the third engine was still on the rail they had
started from. What a spectacle. Three engines in three different rails,
something one had difficulty fathoming, and all this, because the first
switch was violated on the way up, thus open but not attached to any
of the other two ways, resulting in the abominable sight.
Suddenly, the world stopped in its tracks. Mike stopped breathing.
The foreman stepped down the engine stairs and inspected the
situation. The rest stood in amazement at what happened. They didn’t
know what to do, what one might do to an engine with all six wheels
on the ground, what could one do for a problem he was never taught to
solve in school? The foreman ran to the shack to get the big boss, while
the others walked slowly towards the shack, where they usually took
their daily breaks. Mike was angry at himself; he had to discern the
position of that darn switch…
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