Best Christmas Ever

[crimestinc]

So when I got off the train yesterday morning in Amarillo I was wet, cold, and miserable, after riding from Winslow thru winter storms. It was snowing when I got off, and at this point I was sore from shivering, and I had Acab(my puppy) in my carhartt so I wasn't wearing that. Everything I had was soaking wet, it was a pretty bad and dangerous situation.
I ended up walking about a mile until I saw a church, and decided to try and warm up there; it was Sunday so I knew it should be open. When I got there this guy invited me to their grand breakfast they were serving inside which was great. While he was introducing me to the other churchgoers he tells me he is an engineer at BNSF! I was like duuuude lol. Well after breakfast, I was outside talking to him and his wife and they seen how I was shivering cuz it was snowing and I was all wet. Well they invited me into their home to do warm up and chill, do laundry, and stay the night. He took me to Walmart and helped me out with some much needed gear for me and Acab, and when we got to the house he gave me some dope BNSF merch That night me and his family went to a big Christmas dinner that the church threw that night, which was awesome. I felt like a normal person with his family around a community of people who genuinely care about each other, it was surreal. The next day he checked the schedule, talked to the crew driving the coal train to Houston that day and had them stop just outside the yard so I could get on. Got a dam ride to the DPU.
This has been an amazing experience, him and his wife were so nice to me, it felt like I was part of their family for a day and we celebrated Christmas. That's the closest it's going to get for me and probably the best Christmas I've ever had. I got about $200 worth of gear, $100 cash, and a key to unlock the door to the locomotive(couldn't believe he gave me that, sooo cool). It felt amazing to be taken in and saved that day, I was in a really bad situation.

<edited title per OP's permission - cause it is just a great story --- Tude>

 

[kriminalmisfit]

key to unlock the door to the locomotive

holy shit.. great story but that was the dopest part. good to hear there are some cool RR engineers here in TX. if u end up in ATX hit me up to hang out. i'm housed up here till march.

 

[Tude]

Ohhhh @crimestinc ask me ask me ask me to adjust your story title to something like Best Christmas ever - because that is how it sounds. Awesome experience to happen for you. This ... made me smile

 

[crimestinc]

Ohhhh @crimestinc ask me ask me ask me to adjust your story title to something like Best Christmas ever - because that is how it sounds. Awesome experience to happen for you. This ... made me smile

Yeah change it!! That's A lot better title haha

 

[crimestinc]

holy shit.. great story but that was the dopest part. good to hear there are some cool RR engineers here in TX. if u end up in ATX hit me up to hang out. i'm housed up here till march.

Will do where is ATX?

 

[kriminalmisfit]

central tx
the capital city

 

[crimestinc]

O right on will do

 

[kokomojoe]

I always hear the worst when it comes to bnsf workers, that's so tight you got that awesome of treatment. Especially getting one of the keys, that'sone awesome Christmas gift

 

[Art101]

Awesome story nice to hear some positive sht still happens out there.

 

[Dmac]

That is so nice to hear. By the way, I would happily buy a copy of that key!

 

[Coywolf]

thats a great story. I've had rides buy me gear while hitchhiking before, there are some cool people out there. But an engineer that gives you a key to a locomotive? Thats fukin' rad.

 

[Matt Derrick]

that's fucking rad man, glad to hear you had a good xmas cause of those folks. im not a fan of religious people in general, but it's nice to see there's some folks that prove me wrong every once in a while

 

[Jimmy Beans]

I love this story. That took a lot of balls for that guy to give you that key, he could probably do time if you did the wrong thing with it. Guard it with your life, it unlocks a lot more than you realize. Major catastrophes can occur if you unlock and move the wrong thing the wrong way. Be very careful with it, the same locks are also used on other things on the ground, completely unrelated to locomotives. If you're caught tampering with those things and repositioning them leading to something really horrible happening, it's gonna be a whole lot of bad Christmases.

Just take it seriously, and as unpopular as this statement is going to be here, I wouldn't give copies to anyone asking for them. I have that key and another type of railroad key just as special and I've never given anyone a copy. I've given hobos I befriended my employee login password and let them access the portal online to download maps and all sorts of shit I wasn't supposed to do. I've let hobos onto the very locomotive I was running and taken them along for the trip. I've taken a lot of risks when I was an engineer, but giving that key away was never a risk I was willing to take. I'm only saying this because it's pretty serious shit, and I hope you take it seriously. The safety of the public is in your hands, literally.

Serious stuff aside, what a fucking awesome story. I'm glad there are people out there like him. I'm with Matt in terms of religious folks, usually they rub me the wrong way. It's nice to see some of them are actually decent and helping others. Apparently, all Christians aren't bad.

 

[Matt Derrick]

Just take it seriously, and as unpopular as this statement is going to be here, I wouldn't give copies to anyone asking for them.

yeah, i'm with lupo, i probably wouldn't even mention it to other riders. not in person at least.

...geez, it's like he's got the holy grail or something!