Where’s Agather Christie when you need her?

Yesterday evening, while I was having a beer and a chat in my normal spot in the park car the train came to an abrupt halt in the middle of nowhere. Coming to a stop on these trains is not uncommon. This is mainly a single track railway and we’re often put in a loop while another train passes in the other direction. But this was unusually abrupt.

Looking up I saw a sudden procession of staff (the conductor, a couple of engineers, several attendants, the chef) frantically running back along the track. Brain, the park car attendant, came into the lounge asking if anyone would like another glass of champagne and an appetizer, and, perhaps as an acknowledgment that something might be happening that didn’t involve food, drink or interesting geological landmarks, left his radio on the table so people could hear what was happening:

“Which car was it?”
“113”
“The window’s completely smashed?”
“I think it was the girl in the blue pants that couldn’t settle her bill.”
“We’ve found her.”
“Careful, if she’s smashed the window and jumped out she could still have the emergency hammer. Probably unstable.”
“No, the hammer’s still on the floor in the Skyline.”
“All railroad traffic now stopped.”
“10-4”
etc...

A few minutes later the level crossing about 20 metres behind us was surrounded by several police cars (just as you see in American films) and a couple of ambulances. An engineer came into the lounge, opened the rear door and instructed the engineer in the locomotive at the front to reverse, guiding him over the radio.

When we reached the scene and stopped, several police officers boarded through the open door and swiftly moved through the lounge urging everyone to remain calm. A couple of people looked up from their books. I ordered another scotch.

The radio crackled some more:

“Yeah, is there any more ductape in the emergency box up in coach? Trying to sort out this window.”
“Err, no tape, godda duck though.”

I went to bed (which happened to be ten cars up past the scene of the crime). The police were taking statements from staff and passengers in the area as I passed.

Seems that the girl involved had been acting strangely since see boarded in Toronto and this evening, while sitting in the Skyline coach, had decided she wanted to leave the train. So the got the emergency hammer, smashed the adjacent window, told the attendant she had to get off and then jumped. She’s alive but “pretty bashed up” in the words of one of the engineers.

Next morning and we’re about four hours late. The engineers are over hours and we’ve now just been parked up in some freight sidings 80 miles from Vancouver while we await some more engineers. It’s all good though. Just had another cooked breakfast - pancakes, maple syrup, egg (over easy, apparently) and bacon.

Ah, we’ve started moving again...

...And stopped.