Great story, Ken. These folks paid dearly for their last minute arrival, and then had the gall to attempt to shift the responsibility onto someone else!

I have a similar story with a happier ending that happened on Sat, Oct 8, 2005; a beautiful mid-west fall day. A friend and I were at Minneapolis Jct Minn, doing some miscellaneous work on a couple of passenger cars at the home shops of MILW 261. The 261 was running excursions from Minneapolis Jct to LaCrosse Wisc on both Saturday and Sunday. The Minneapolis Jct starting point is a former GN roundhouse area as well as a single track diesel shop building which is home for the 261. The roundhouse was long gone and the turntable pit filled in, but there was the low outside concrete foundation wall for the roundhouse; key elements as this story unfolds. Unlike Ken's situation, there was plenty of parking in the area for the train riders and others who came out to watch.

People arrived, parked their cars, and boarded the train for the 8:30 am departure. The "Friends of the 261" group had thoughtfully hired a couple of young men to provide security for the parking lot. We continued working on the passenger cars. Soon the security guys appeared, quite concerned about an automobile that was parked, running, and high centered on something. They were worried that it might overheat or self-destruct in some manner. I went to investigate.

Apparently some passenger, either arriving late, or overly excited, had parked his Ford Crown Victoria on a slight rise approximately where the turntable had been. Further, he neglected to shut off the engine, or even put it in PARK! It had traveled unattended about 100 feet, bouncing up over the roundhouse wall foundation before stopping. Here was this car idling, in drive, and hung up under the driver's door! Naturally it was locked and all windows were up. It did not appear to be overheating, or in any danger of causing further problems. Anything we might attempt likely could damage the car, so we elected to leave it alone and just check on it periodically. There were no other vehicles parked close by. It idled there all day, burning about 1/2 tank of gas in the process, and was still there, happily idling, when the train returned that evening. Like Ken, I did not go over to add to the rider's embarrassment, but let the security detail inform them about what (basically nothing) we had done. I heard that they were able to get the car unstuck by jacking it up to clear the foundation, and then backing away.

I bet they didn't brag about this part of their trip to their friends!

Bruce Butler