Little G thoroughly enjoyed the first 40 minutes of holiday clay-mation classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer last night, and was particularly intrigued by the Island of Misfit Toys. He couldn’t comprehend why a child would refuse an elephant with spots, a train with square wheels, and, most perplexing, a race car with no discernible handicap.
He repeatedly asked what was wrong with that blue race car on the lonely island, and we had no good explanation for him. Maybe the engine broke, we said. Maybe it has a flat tire. Maybe the steering wheel is busted.
But Little G saw that race car cruising across a patch of ice, and none of the explanations held up.
But back to that train with square wheels. It got me thinking about Metro-North, and the dreaded slippery rail season that hits around this time of year, during which trains skid on wet leaves, lock up their wheels, and retire to the fix-it yard to have their wheels made round again.
A train with flat wheels. You get the connection.
My first year of commuting, the fall of 2006, this was an absolute nightmare–an eight-car fleet reduced to 6, to 5, then to 4, and perfectly respectable people folded into inhuman corners of the train.
Last year, the railroad took considerable measures, project name “Water World,” to combat slippery rail. These involved shooting a stream of water ahead of the train to clear out the mucky leaves, and reprogramming the cars to not skid when they hit the leaves. It worked really well.
And I think it’s worked really well again this year. The leaves are down, and I haven’t seen a single incident reeking of slippery rail. As the great Yukon Cornelius might say, “mmm…nothin!”
[image: missfittoys.net]