The Gas Car

I was working on the Eklutna section for Jim Kirsh (foreman).  It was just him and me.  There was a bridge or trestle south of Eklutna that we were to work on this particular day.  When we got there a calf moose (large calf) had just been hit by a passing train and had been hit just in the head. Well, Jim had two daughters and was not over vested with food money so I spent my whole work day trying to get that moose into the gas car and back to the section house.  Once we finally got it there I spent the rest of the time cutting and wrapping.  I was invited to Moose dinner the next night. The next day we had to take our gas car and meet another work crew and somebody noticed blood in the gas car---Jim was petrified (scared to death he would lose his job) and somehow he brushed it off and we high-tailed it out there.  I had to scrub that gas car from one end to the other. I know it was the cleanest car on the railroad. (September 1963)