After Life for a Train Car

After John graduated from school he helped work in Daddy's woodworking shop. But with the added full time help Daddy was faced with another problem. The air tanks that produced power to operate our many air powered machines simply couldn't keep up.

He went looking for bigger tanks. We already had two big propane tanks that he had converted to air tanks and didn't want to get a lot more to keep up with our production demands. After checking around he finally found what he needed. His brother in Lancaster had a friend that had a business of finding, cleaning up, and pressure testing tanks and converting them to air tanks to be used in Amish businesses. Daddy was excited about this tank because it was huge since used to be a tanker car on a train.

He hired someone with a flatbed to go pick it up. Mom and I spent the day in the sewing room while John worked at the lathe all day in the shop. But we all kept thinking of Daddy and wondering how he was going to get the tanker car home safely.

Bedtime came and Daddy still wasn't at home. I went to bed while Mom and John opted to wait up till Daddy got home. The next morning when I got up I looked out of my window and saw the huge tank sitting in the barnyard next to the barn. At the breakfast table they talked about the challenge they had faced to get it unloaded which made me shiver just listening to it. I was glad that I had been sleeping rather than watch that dangerous part.

Several days later Daddy had everything hooked up and it was time to fill it with air. Everything worked great and we finally had enough power for the shop. It worked so well that Daddy bought several more washing machines and hooked them up to work on air power. I was thrilled. Laundry day was so much more enjoyable since we could get it done in a third of the time.