From Chapter 20 – This was my original solution to the dilemma the brothers and Riders faced in getting the autorack out of the cave. During final edits, I realized that this was logistically impossible, so I removed it. I thought it was just clever enough to share with you, though.

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Moving the lever to reverse, Barrett eased on the throttle. When the machine did not move, he added more gas, and then even more. After maxing out the throttle with no success, he eased the throttle back to nearly zero, moved the lever to the forward position, and watched as the draisine lurched the smallest bit forward. He then tried reverse again, but still could still not budge the heavy autorack in that direction.

Shutting off the engine, Barrett let loose with a loud swear word, which echoed noisily through the cramped quarters.

“What?” asked Jam with a puzzled look on his face.

Climbing out of the vehicle, Barrett said, “There’s too much of a decline here. I can’t get this thing to move in reverse. It seems fine going forward, but even with a bit of forward momentum, I can’t get it to roll backward any.”

“Oh! Chud, you’re right,” said Jam. “There’s no way to turn this thing around in here, is there?”

Nasty shined the light around the tracks near the draisine. “I can only think of two ways to get this thing in the right direction, and both suck.” Walking over to the motorized machine, he reached down, bent his knees, and tried to lift it. “Get over here, ya idiots!”

The other three men took up positions around the draisine and lifted up with all of their strength, but the machine did not even budge. Shaking his head, Barrett said with a grunt, “There’s no way. The thing weighs far too much!”

Grabbing at his back, Nasty agreed. “Yeah, I know. Hadda try.”

“So,” Jackson said, “what’s your other idea?”

Nasty pointed his light at the tracks in front of the draisine. “See here? The dirt’s piled up pretty thick. We may be able to drive the jigger off the tracks here, turn it around over here,” he said, moving the flashlight beam off to the side, “and find a spot to jam it back on the tracks.”

Laughing as if he had heard the funniest joke ever, Barrett replied, “Are you nuts? Even if you could get the draisine off the tracks back here, and drive it through this loose dirt, getting it back on the tracks up there is nearly impossible!”

“Whatdya mean loose dirt? The ground’s pretty hard-packed over here!” Nasty stamped several times on the earth beneath his feet, to prove his point.

“You dummy,” yelled Barrett, “It may be hard enough for your fat ass to stomp on, but try driving 80 tons on it! It’ll never work!”

Walking right up to Barrett, he put his face an inch from his. “Most of this is rock. And besides, we either try this, or we give up and let Santascoy win. Now which do ya think’s a better choice, hmmm? And I don’t see you coming up with no better ideas.”

Barrett backed away, waved his hands in front of his face, and coughed a couple of times. “Dude, ever hear of a toothbrush?”

“You ever hear of an ass whoopin’?”

Stepping between the two fuming men, Jam said, “Fellas, this isn’t helping. We gotta try something.”

“Hey,” yelled Jackson, who had wandered toward the back of the cave, “do ya think these would work?” He shined his flashlight at a pile of old train track sections. While many had a healthy layer of rust on them, some did not.

Barrett grinned. “Well I’ll be! We just might be able to make this work!”

It took the four men a good 20 minutes, but they came up with what they hoped would be a workable solution to their dilemma – a hybrid of two ideas.

They found two long, curved, non-rusted pieces of track and positioned them near the switching section. After packing more dirt around the area of tracks in front of the draisine, Barrett uncoupled it from the autorack as Nasty hopped into it. Grinning like a lunatic, he yelled, “Wish me luck, boys!”

Looking over at Jam, Barrett shook his head and said, “I can’t imagine this plan will work.”

Smiling, Jam replied, “I can.” He then looked over at Jackson and beamed even wider.

Jackson nodded and then gave Nasty the thumbs-up signal. Turning the key, the jigger roared to life, the single headlight cutting through the near-darkness like the moon on a cloudless night.

Slamming it in drive, Nasty eased the machine slowly up to the area where the tracks were now almost completely buried in dirt. The job proved to be all the more difficult with only a few flashlights and the lone headlight illuminating the dark mine. He angled the maneuvering lever to the right, rolled the jigger up the dirt mound and with a loud clang of metal wheels hitting the rocky earth, he drove it slowly off the tracks and onto the ground.

“I’ll be dipped,” said Barrett. “But he’s got a lot of work left to do.”

Once off the tracks, Nasty kept turning the draisine on a slow, easy arc to the right. While the ground was mostly solid, some spots had just enough loose dirt to slow him down and cause him trouble. In a couple of cases, the draisine started tipping. However, Nasty realized if he straightened out the jigger and drove straight until he found more solid ground, he was able to save it from tumbling. It took several minutes of tense turning and straightening, but he eventually brought the machine around and lined it up with the newly laid track section. “Get that light over here,” he barked. Three beams instantly shined on the tracks.

Slowly, Nasty rolled the jigger up to the newly laid section of track. Though they had managed to at least partially bury the ends of the track into the earth, there still was a sizable lip onto which the draisine had to roll. Gunning it, Nasty managed to get the wheels to hop up and onto their new section of track. He then angled the draisine to the left, and with another loud clank, it dropped onto the original tracks in front on the autorack. “Yeehaw!” He screamed as he backed it into the autorack, the final click of the coupling telling everyone that the deed was done.

Jumping out of the jigger, he sprinted over to Barrett and slapped him hard on the back. “See? Told ya it’d work! Never doubt me, boy!”

Though Barrett felt a bit annoyed by Nasty’s smug attitude, the happiness over a job well done overwhelmed any animosity. Smiling, he replied, “Indeed! You are amazing, I’ll give you that.”

“And don’t you forget it, neither!” Nasty then turned toward the brothers. “All righty boys, it’s your turn. Hop on in, and I’ll teach ya the basics.”