Chapter 30: CROSS MY HEART

Negotiating with the railroad for a new spur is a one sided affair, I’m the only one interested in it. The old spur is one thousand feet long including the three hundred feet of curve to join the main line. The old switch is still there but bypassed. It’s junk now anyway. A new switch with installation costs about six grand. Track costs twenty to twenty-five dollars a foot to lay. Includes roadbed and grading.

Replacing the spur with an identical modern spur will cost between twenty six and thirty thousand dollars. The railroad doesn’t see potential for enough freight to warrant their investing in it and neither are they interested in selling the land. They would consider leasing the land to me, if I want to rebuild the spur at my expense. How much for the lease? Yet to be determined. Unknown, and unknowable at present.

Maybe a shorter spur, or two short spurs, not right angled, not perpendicular to the line track. A lesser angle would need less curve length. Flat cars are eighty feet long. If I constructed a hundred feet of curve, an extra switch to a hundred foot siding and the unswitched track continuing another hundred feet straight line, I could receive an empty into the siding when a loaded flatcar on the straight is picked up. Three hundred feet of track cost me between six and eight grand, plus two switches at six grand each? Twenty grand or a bit less. Maybe eighteen grand. Still too much. Why have an empty delivered when the load is picked up? Convenient for the railroad?

Why should I pay for extra track and a switch for the railrods convenience? A hundred foot of spur with the shortest curve necessary and one switch meets my needs. Cost, ten grand, maybe less.

Still a hefty investment, but amortized over the next several decades, worth every penny in saved transport costs. I propose a horse-trade.

I’m willing to build a spur long enough to park two flat cars on, at my expense. The land isn’t doing the railroad any good, not producing a cent as it is. I’ll lease it for a hundred dollars a year for the next thirty years, and they will have not one but two new freight customers. Mr Moses will appreciate having a siding nearby for transporting his farm machinery. The railroad agrees to the terms of the lease! You can knock me over with a feather.

Discussing it with Mr Moses, he offers to put up half the cash. Five grand is my part. Since it doesn’t need to be paid for up front, I intend to pay as I go out of cash flow. Mr Moses plans the same.

Best start prepping cars enough for a complete flat car load. About a hundred cars. I have more than enough wrecks and junkers on hand, but I’ll need more wrecks than I currently have, for the second load.

Professor Moore is upset I won’t take Janey to the prom.

“You should forget matching Janey and I for a wedded couple, it’s not happening. Probably, it will be at least a decade before I even consider marriage. If I did want to get married, it would be with you I’d marry, Lupe, before I’d marry Janey!” That cooled her jets.

“You want to marry me, Ricky?”

“I don’t wish to marry at all, not now. What I was trying to say, and making a hash of, is this. I like Janey, she’s fun, but I’m not in love with her. I AM in love with you, Lupe.”

“Really Ricky? That’s so sweet. You probably already perceive, I’m madly in love with you! I’m too old for you, and that’s the hurtful part. Too late in life I finally meet the love of my life.” Sniffle.

“Are you attending the Senior Prom?”

“I’m chaperoning all the proms, every year. Why?”

“Do you have a date?”

“No. Why do you ask?”

“I’m asking to be your date for the Senior Prom.”

“Corsage in hand at my door date?”

“Stretched limo at the curb, the whole kit and kaboodle.”

“Your really are my sweetheart! Of course I accept. What about the other proms?”

“I already accepted invitations to the other proms.”

“Oh! Well, aren’t I fortunate to have you for my escort for the Senior Prom.”

“The most ostentatious and important prom could only be yours.”