Top Gon
Flash Fiction
By Charles McKelvy
All steamed up about trains.
“Top Gon. Cool.”
“What?”
“Look at those cars on that siding.”
“Yeah. They’re boring old freight cars. So?”
“Not just any freight cars. They’re gondolas.”
“What?”
“I’ll save you the trouble of Googling it by telling you that in U.S. railroad terminology a gondola is an open-type of rolling stock used for carrying loose bulk materials.”
“Aren’t you Mister Wikipedia. So what’s the big deal about some freight cars that are named for those boats they have in Venice?”
“The big deal? Well, see where it says: Top Gon?”
“Yeah.”
“So?”
“So, it must be the name of the railroad or something.”
“No, the railroad’s name is printed over there. On the head end. See the horse?”
“The horse?”
“The black horse. And the letters NS.”
“I tell you, riding the train into Chicago with you is turning into a bigger adventure than I ever imagined.”
“Well, it is interesting to me, because—“
“You never saw a choo-choo you didn’t go cuckoo over.”
“Guilty as charged. But back to Top Gon.”
“Here we go. So, oh great and learned Mr. Choo-Choo Cuckoo, pray enlighten me.”
“Remember that movie with Tom Cruise about fighter pilots in training?”
“Not really. Should I?”
“Well, it was called Top Gun, and that refers to—“
“Whatever. Some macho guy thing. So how does this possibly relate to a bunch of ugly old rail cars on a siding?”
“They’re gondola cars, like I said, so somebody at Norfolk Southern with a sense of humor dubbed them Top Gons. Like Top Gun, but Top Gons because they’re—“
“Wake me up when we get to Chicago.”
###
Charley, when I was about 18 in the summer of ’46 a couple of my buddies and I decided to ride the rods to Northern California and work in a sawmill. The route was from Denver via Pueblo and west to the Feather River Canyon. One of our accommodations along the way was a gondola car loaded with cast iron railroad car wheels. It took us seven days to reach Quincy, CA. I’ll never forget the storm of grasshoppers we went through.in cracked desert soil. The gondola gave us no protection.whatsoever. True story! Bob
Thanks for sharing your story, Bob.
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