My new hardbound copy of the Fiddletown & Copperopolis came today. This is a 1960 edition by Carl Fallberg. What an interesting old book! The subtitle is "The Life & Times of an Uncommon Carrier." I don't know how many of you have seen this book. It is a series of single page cartoons about a mountain railroad. If you get a chance to borrow or buy a copy I recommend it. I snagged my copy off of eBay.

Den

Normally I work as a switchman on the Polar Express railroad. But due to cut backs and layoffs I was the second fireman on the last 2012 Polar Express run to Santa’s workshop. I worked my but off shoveling coal all the way to the North Pole.

I wrote this story several years ago when I lived in Mobile Alabama. At that time I raised German Sheppard's and one of my pups had an ear that always flopped over. The CSX branch line between Mississippi and Mobile was about a half-mile away. As the pup grew up, every time he heard a train he always howled at it and if they blew the horns (which they did due to a road crossing about a mile away) he would sometimes jump the fence and run up to the tracks and chase the train.