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Owensville Terminal Railroad (An HO model railroad of an imaginary rail line) Stories Along the Line Updated on |
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HOME TRACK PLAN Rural Rails |
(The following is a work of fiction by
D. Tom Conboy. All rights reserved) The Tackle Box You will not find "The Tackle Box" in any timetable or paperwork of the Owensville Terminal Railroad, although everyone along the line knows the name well. This local freight is not scheduled, but it once ran like a first class passenger train. The story of The Tackle Box began back in 1946 when Bill Henderson was hired on as conductor of the local train to Owensville. Known back then as the Bourbeuse Local, the train ran as an extra. The engine for the Bourbeuse Local was number 16, a 2-8-0 Consolidation that was newly purchased by the Owensville Terminal back in 1912. The train was based out of Stephenson Yard in Cuba and ran daily to Owensville, passing through the small town of Oak Hill. Each day, the Bourbeuse Local would stop to switch the many on-line businesses located in Oak Hill. The Bourbeuse Local needed to have its work done and get out of the way of the scheduled southbound second class freight train. Mr. Henderson was one who liked to get the job done fast and he made sure the work was done well ahead of time. Sometimes the crew would ‘go into the hole' for up to two hours, but that never seemed to bother Mr. Henderson. On those days, he would simply walk back to the caboose and grab his fishing pole and tackle box and head out to a little pond located a stone's throw from the tracks. Mr. Henderson was a good fisherman and seemed to catch fish with every cast. Within a short time, he would have enough fish to feed the entire crew as well as a few of the locals who always seemed to show up just in time for lunch. The other crew members did not seem to mind the long wait at Oak Hill, after all, they loved to eat the fresh fish Mr. Henderson would catch and fix for lunch each day. As the years went by, number 16 was retired and number 71, a 70-ton diesel engine, took its place. In 1964, the railroad constructed a shorter main line that bypassed the town of Oak Hill. The track, no longer part of the main line, became a weed-covered branch line called the Stephenson Branch. Even the name, Bourbeuse Local, was dropped and replaced with the simple designation, Extra 71. The residents of Oak Hill had long stopped calling the afternoon train the Bourbeuse Local, but instead affectionately called it, The Tackle Box. The crew of The Tackle Box still worked the line, but they no longer had to wait for a passing second class freight. The crew worked hard to get the work done quickly and even Mr. Henderson still found time to get his line wet, although the days of fresh fish for lunch began to fade. As track conditions on the branch began to deteriorate, so did the speed of the train. The poor track conditions slowed down switching work and derailments happened frequently. What used to take two hours was now taking up to eight and the days of Mr. Henderson fishing came to an end. Eventually, the end came for Mr. Henderson who retired from the railroad on May 5, 1972. Today, the Stephenson branch has been revamped and The Tackle Box still runs up to Oak Hill. The crew is not the same as it was back in 1946, but every now and then a special ‘passenger' is spotted exiting the caboose at Oak Hill with pole and tackle box in hand. Copyright © 2009 D. Tom Conboy Copyright © 2009 D. Tom Conboy
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