The
Old Railroad Hand Car Adventure
I
recall a time many years ago when we displayed some artifacts at the Windsor
arena on behalf of the HVSO (Historic Vehicle Society of Ontario).
The show was the usual thing with tire kickers and fender thumpers
and the old adage, “They don’t make 'em like that anymore,” while some
old guy was rapping on your newly painted and polished fender with his
knuckles.
One of our
proudest displays was the old railroad hand car which is now in our museum.
This was a four-man or two-man vehicle which propelled railroad
workers to their trackside jobs by pumping a set of handles up and down
VIGOROUSLY.
The show at
the arena was a very modest success, but we had to vacate the premises the
last night so they could put the ice surface back in good order for the next
day. Our
small committee worked feverishly, but by 1:00 am we were very tired.
To make matters worse the guy who was to help us take the railway
hand car back to the club garage left us at the arena and went home to bed.
This left three guys and myself at the arena at 1:00 am with no way
to get the hand car and ourselves back to the club garage approx one mile
away on Church Street, where our cars had been left.
I suggested
to the exhausted crew that we pump the hand car down the street at 1:00 am
and the four of us would ride on it across downtown Windsor to our club
garage. After
much discussion about getting caught by the cops for this dangerous stunt
(there were no lights on the vehicle) and no steering mechanism and as I
said it was 2:00 am, we decided to take the chance and set off pumping the
hand car north on McDougall Ave., jumping off at frequent intervals to keep
the vehicle on our side of the road and to turn the corners by sliding the
rail car wheels sideways.
When we went
through the intersection of Ouellette and University we were pumping
furiously and going quite fast.
There were not many people on the street that hour of the night but
we heard later that several incredulous drunks quit drinking that night
after swearing they saw a railroad hand car and four furiously pumping idiots
going through the intersection of Ouellette and University Ave
The cop
standing on the corner after whistling for us to stop ran for his call box
to call headquarters for assistance.
I hollered at the guys to keep going as I knew if we could make the
alley of our club garage before the cops could catch us we would have it
made. As
we jumped off the vehicle and turned it up the alley we were all laughing so
hard that we fell off the hand car.
We opened the garage door and shoved the vehicle into the garage and
shut the garage lights off just as a police car with siren screaming went by
the entrance of the alley.
We all fell
down on the garage floor screaming with laughter at our foolish but funny
stunt. I
often wondered what the conversation was when the cop talked with his
sergeant about what he saw that night.
You saw a what???
This story is true and actually happened.
Jim Moir
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