Monday, November 10, 2008

A gift from Hunter, age 8

Click to enlarge

It's against Metro North policy to accept gratuities or gifts from our passengers, but yesterday, while working a Stamford local train, a young artist named Hunter, age 8, presented me with this drawing. Of course I bent the rules a bit and accepted his wonderful gift.

Hunter is a 3rd grader and a big railroading fan. He said he recently visited The Danbury Railroad Museum, and a month ago went to Metro North's Open House at the diesel shops in Croton-Harmon, NY. There he inspectied all of our rolling stock and told me all about the inner workings of the Genesis engine (pictured above). He then went into great detail, explaining the engineer's stand, the train throttle and independent braking system.

Maybe he'll be my engineer someday.

A note to Hunter and other rail aficionados, tomorrow night (Tuesday November 11th, 10PM) The History Channel starts an eight-part series called "Extreme Trains." It's described as *"a series that tracks amazing locomotives that have helped shape America and continue to deliver today."

*Frazier Moore, AP Television Writer

4 comments:

Tony Alva said...

Now THAT is an awsome gift. Is Hunter and his Mom a regular on your route?

Bobby said...

He was with his dad, and no, they weren't regulars. It was just a random act of kindness.

Steve said...

One pocket of my grip has several such drawings. If I see a kid on board the train drawing, all I have to say is something like "I see we have an artist on the train," and, almost without fail, I'll be handed a picture of a train or a conductor before the trip is over.

Anonymous said...

I thought the 844 Exteme Trains episode was a interesting, but a little overstated on its condition.