Every night we lifted our bolt tightening machines off the tracks and put them in the railroad ditch. We would just leave them were they were. But the motor car was a different matter. Each day we left that at a siding in the nearest town. We would drive to that town and ride the motor car to where we had left our machines. How were we going to get our motor car back to Alden? Neither Pete nor I had driven that day. Joe was hesitant to let us drive the motor car back, but he had no choice. Joe and the other fellows departed in their cars (I remember Joe had a little Rabbit) and Pete and I prepared to set out on our 15 mile or so rail journey.

The motor car was a four wheeled, heavy, and yellow. It had a metal canopy on top. It was probably twelve feet long. There were two benches, one on each side, for men to sit on. There was a great big lever sticking up that controlled whether you were to go forward or backward, plus some kind of throttle. You could get going pretty fast - maybe 40 miles an hour?

We got going East and after a while decided to stop and try some railroad torpedoes. These are like blasting caps. I remember being told they were equivalent to 1/4 stick of dynamite. They are about 2 1/2 inches square and have bendable tabs that bend under to help hold them tightly on top of a rail. They are used by track repair crews to warn a locomotive that men are ahead working on the track. The engine runs over them and they explode and warn the Engineer. The only use to that date that I had seen made of them was one day when a train passed us. We had our machines off the tracks. Joe and I went ahead with a flag to wave the train down. The train had been warned about us so it was going very slowly. Joe had the most responsible guy run the motor car ahead to the next town. Before it left, one of the guys took two railroad torpedoes off it and put them on the track. Joe and I walked alongside the engine and came abreast of our crew. Just then the torpedoes went off and Joe jumped about five feet in the air. He was pretty mad.

Pete and I put a torpedo on the rail, backed up, and then came on as fast as we could go. Disappointment. The motor car wasn't heavy enough to set off the torpedo. We went back and I retrieved it. I took this torpedo and another one up to school with me. I also had a one foot piece of rail and a spike maul in my dorm room at Sanford hall. During finals week I twice put on my spiking safety glasses, put a torpedo on my chunk of rail, hit the torpedo with my spike maul, and completely shattered the piece and quite of the dorm. Man, every door moved from the shock of this tremendous explosion. Both times the RA down in the lobby came running as fast as he could, but by the time he got to the third floor I would be back in my room.

Pete and I next explored the supply of railroad flares. We would light them and then hang off the motor car and wave them around like sparklers. When they got too hot we would heave them. I remember going over a small bridge and heaving mine in a graceful arc right beside a stream. I guess we should have made sure no prarie fire ensued, but then again irresponsibility was the keynote of our rail voyage. Joe never knew what fun we had on our little trip.