© George C. Thomas 2001
It happened the other evening, just as it had happened before. When the old
gibbous moon was high in the sky and someone in Circleville, Ohio was playing “The City of New
Orleans” on the radio, Slim and Stumpy entered the plastic-plasma phase and began to “connect.”
If this doesn’t make sense, you should read one or more earlier adventures.
In case you’ve forgotten, Slim is a 1:20 figure on “Engineer” Jeff Saxton’s Winona &
Thorny Mountain RR in St. Louis, Missouri, and Stumpy is a short 1:20 figure on George Thomas’
Lazy Acre Lumber Company RR in Delran, New Jersey. When Slim and Stumpy “connect” they like to
visit a great model railroad. In addition to visiting each others railroads they had already
enjoyed several others, but one can never visit too many railroads. This goes without saying in
our hobby.
“I have an idea,” said Slim. “Instead of visiting just one layout, let’s go see a whole bunch at one place.”
“How can we do that?” asked Stumpy.
“By going to the East Coast Large Scale Train Show in York.”
“New York? I don’t like cities all that much.”
“New York City? I mean York as in York, Pennsylvania, you dummy,” replied Slim.
“Oh, I knew that. Just kidding . . . ”
So Slim and Stumpy headed for York, Pennsylvania. Since it was a rather small town they had no trouble finding the fair grounds, and then a few minutes later the train show itself. They were not at all disappointed--this show gets better each year. What to do first? The Central Connecticut G Gaugers’ module in the far corner caught Stumpy’s eye.
“Let’s go take a look at that neat logging module.”
“OK,” came Slim’s quick reply.
They hurried over and imediately started inspecting the module. These modelers did one fine job! While they were looking around a long logging train passed by. The smell of the freshly cut logs and the pounding of the loaded skeletons on the rails brought smiles to their faces. Well, at least it brought a smile to Stumpy’s face. Slim, on the other hand, felt the rather immediate need to heed the call of nature.
“Hey Stumpy, I gotta go,” he whispered.
“You sure?” Stumpy exclaimed. “We just got here! We haven’t even started to explore the show”
“Shhh! Yes . . . ”
Nature’s call can be hard to ignore. Slim spotted a Texaco gas station on a nearby layout, so they headed for the Susquehanna Valley Garden RR Society’s module.
“Now be sure to wait for me--I’ll only be a minute,” said Slim.
“Sure,” replied Stumpy. But not more than 10 seconds later he spotted another interesting module. It was like a magnet, and Stumpy could not resist its pull. Before he knew it he was walking around on the New Hampshire Garden RR Society’s layout. And he was thirsty--he just had to get something to drink. He spotted a Coke machine on a freight platform and quickly headed toward it.
Stumpy fumbled in his pocket to find some change. Good, he had enough. As he started to put the coins in the machine he happened to glance up. What a shock! There was a guy standing there that looked just like him. Well, not exactly just like him, since he was all cleaned up with a nice, new shirt, etc. But still, there was a striking resemblance which could not be denied.
“Who are you?” asked Stumpy.
“I’m Dave Sawyer,” the man replied. “And why, may I ask, do you want to know?”
“Oh, nothing. Just curious.” Obviously this Dave guy didn’t think that they looked a lot alike.
Stumpy wondered if he was imagining it all, so he turned around to clear his
head. That didn’t help at all. You see, there was a chicken, and a very big one at that, talking with the freight agent.
“Yikes!” he shouted, as he ran away from the freight platform. He bumped
into some people and knocked over a few boxes as he made his hasty exit.
Several people started to chase after him.
Meanwhile, Slim had emerged from the men’s room. Needless to say, he
was more than a bit disappointed to find that Stumpy had vacated the area.
In fact, he was angry.
Just then Slim became aware of the ruckus at the New Hampshire module
and concluded that Stumpy must be involved. He quickly ran over there
and found Stumpy in the lead of what looked like a mini-marathon. As
soon as they met they zapped themselves across the room to the
Chesapeake, Allegheny & Blue Ridge LSRS module.
“Why didn’t you wait for me?” Slim demanded.
“Well, I looked over and saw this interesting . . . ”
“And what did you do to upset those people?”
“You wouldn’t believe it, Slim. I saw my clean twin, only I don’t have a
twin, and he said his name was Dave something. . . ”
“So? How did that cause such a ruckus?”
“Did I mention the big chicken? He was almost as tall as me . . . ”
“That’s ridiculous!”
Slim mad at Stumpy... Stumpy seeing his clean twin and a big rooster... People chasing Stumpy... It was clearly time for them to leave York, Pennsylvania.
Just then a small trolley came their way. And not just any trolley, the
Toonerville Trolley! It was the perfect way for Slim and Stumpy to exit the
show. They didn’t get window seats, but maybe you can see them anyway if you
look really hard.
Their short, though eventful, visit to the East Coast Large Scale Train Show was over. Slim and Stumpy knew that it was time for them to part ways again, and as we all know, it’s not easy for good friends to say good-bye.
“When and where will I see you next?” asked Slim.
“Who knows," answered Stumpy. "It’s up to the moon and a beautiful railroad song. There are plenty of other fine layouts to visit.”
“You got that right, little buddy, until next time . . .”
And so they left the little town of York, Pennsylvania. Slim headed westward toward Missouri and Stumpy headed eastward to nearby New Jersey. But rest assured, web site readers, Slim and Stumpy will meet again to make another layout visit. So modify your modules, it could be yours!
