Nerve gas

I grew up in Loyall, Kentucky, a small town about which I’ve written before. Loyall, so the story goes, was named after an executive for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad which built its switching and maintenance yard in Loyall. I suppose that’s true, although I’ve never met anyone named Loyall nor did he leave any descendants in my hometown. Then again, it might just be a misspelling of the word “loyal.”

Loyall is in Harlan County, tucked in the southeast corner of Kentucky on the Virginia border. Bell County, to our south, is all that protects from Tennessee. As I grew older, I met many people from other small towns and visited quite a few such places, too. Loyall wasn’t much different than these other places. People knew their neighbors, went to school, gossiped about each other and did all the other things people do.

For most of my childhood, the posted population of Loyall was 1100. I have no idea if that was even close to accurate. Honestly, it didn’t seem like that many people lived there. We had one main street, one red light, a few small grocery stores, a school, a full-service gas station, barber shop, post office and an honest-to-goodness corner drugstore with a soda fountain. We even had a movie theater and drive-in restaurant. The L&N yard, though, is what dominated the town.

The Loyall Yard was built in the early 20^th century to accommodate the burgeoning coal industry. It was a switching yard with multiple tracks, a turntable and mechanic’s shop. By the time I came around, the maintenance folks had all moved over to the L&N yard in Corbin, Kentucky. The Loyall Yard was still a big deal. Trains ran in and out of it day and night.

Until I was about 12 years old, I lived about 200 yards from the railroad track and a crossing. If you lived in Loyall, you got used to two sounds: 1) trains slowly moving in and out of the yard; and 2) the ringing of the crossing bell. To this day, I think I could fall asleep with a bell ringing beside my head.

In my memory, everyone in Loyall worked at the yard, although that’s not really the case. My parents didn’t work for the L&N, but my Dad’s brother Jack did. Uncle Jack told me that I could identify the old men who used work as couplers in the Yard by their missing fingers. My Dad told me to ignore that “foolishness.” Frankly, I don’t remember a bunch of finger-less old men in Loyall. I was terrified of people who had missing limbs, fingers, etc. I would remember these dudes if they had been hanging around.

We were accustomed to trains but only coal trains. When my family went on vacation, I was intrigued by trains pulling tank cars, flat cars and even the occasional passenger train. Our trains consisted of a couple engines, coal hopper cars and a caboose.

This is all a long way of saying that we knew about trains. We knew people that worked on them, engineered them and road the cabooses. Of course, we also knew the people that mined and loaded the coal that went on those trains. It would have taken a lot for a train to get our attention. The United States Army took care of that in 1970.

I was eight years old when the Nerve Gas Train came to town. That’s not a typo—it was a train loaded with freakin’ nerve gas! I remember my eighth birthday. I was at Yellowstone National Park with my family. My Aunt Norma surprised me with a cake. She also surprised me by buying every piece of junk I had begged for in every store and gift shop we visited. She gave me a bag of marbles, jacks and sundry other items. My parents gave me a baseball glove and Pete Rose bat—that was the summer I became a baseball fan. I still have that bat, but I digress.

I need to digress again. I was a worrier–yes, even at eight years old. What does an eight year old have to worry about? Lots of stuff. I hated school, so I worried about that. I was scared of storms, so I worried about those, too. I worried about being so small and skinny, even though most of my friends were, too. Oh, don’t forget people with missing fingers. I was scared of my great-grandmother because she had a glass eye. Really, it was a sort of generalized brooding which occasionally focused on specifics worries, both real and imagined. Needless to say, the thought of nerve gas train was worrisome.

How did we get a Nerve Gas Train? That’s a fine question. I’m not real sure, but I have done some cursory research, which I’m sure some Harlan County historian will quickly correct. It seems that the United States Army had a large cache of chemical weapons, including nerve gas. As we’ve learned over the years, disposing of such weaponry is not nearly as easy as making it. We know that well here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky where we maintain an enormous stockpile of such weapons in Madison County, some 120 or so miles away from Loyall.

The Bluegrass Army Depot stores such delights as sarin gas, VX and mustard gas. “VX” is shorthand for “venomous agent X,” a nerve agent. It sounds like Dr. Evil named it. I suppose it’s so deadly that no one could come up with a more appealing name. I guess the Nerve Gas Train had goodies like that on board.

In 1970, the Army came up with a plan to dispose of some of these weapons by dumping them in the Atlantic Ocean. I know–that sounds like a plan that Wile E. Coyote or a dull-witted high school sophomore would come up with, but it was a plan. Soooo….they loaded a bunch of them on a train.

That’s how Loyall got on the path of the Nerve Gas Train. Boy, were people excited. It was in the newspaper. We talked about it at school. People said that even a small leak would likely wipe us all out. If the train wrecked? Cataclysm. We occasionally had train derailed. We even had a disastrous head-on collision near Loyall once. There was even loose talk that the Soviets would love to sabotage the train. We were quite ready in Harlan County to take the Red Scourge. There was some real potential here. People were excited.

I’m serious. We were excited. Okay. They were excited. I was more terrified. I envisioned a train pulling flatcars loaded with Saturn rockets chock full of venomous nerve agents. For some reason, my mind’s eye saw them steaming with toxic vapors. I hadn’t been this worked up since a rumor that a busload of hippies were coming to town. (By the way, they didn’t, much to my disappointment. I always liked hippies.)

We were like the citizens of Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show awaiting the arrival of the gold truck! Unlike Mayberry, though, our shipment wasn’t supposed to be secret. I don’t remember anyone holding up signs, but they should have.

gold truck

So, what happened? The train came through town. People gathered at the railroad tracks and watched. My father mocked them, of course, pointing out to me that it was just a train and no big deal. I saw it go by. No Saturn rockets. No steaming canisters of deadly gas. Not even the smallest leak. No one collapsed and died. No derailments or collisions. No Russian attacks. As far as I know, no one in the county was harmed in any way. It was just a train pulling some nondescript cars.

Here’s a link to podcast discussing the Nerve Gas Train. According to these guys, it carried sarin gas which is neutralized when it comes in contact with salt. That explains the dumping in the ocean. Apparently, there were troops on the train, ambulances and decontamination equipment. I don’t remember any of that. Sound pretty cool, though.

So what? We liked it. It was something to do. Not everyone sees a Nerve Gas Train, and I did. Or at least I think I did. Like I said, I was pretty terrified. Maybe I stayed in my room, and through the fog of time now believe I saw it. I like to think I did.

©www.thetrivialtroll.com 2018

As any reader of this blog knows, I grew up in Harlan County, Kentucky. I’ve written extensively about that before, but I got to thinking about some of the things I experienced there that I haven’t seen since. Here is a sampling:

THE NERVE GAS EXPRESS

As my readers know, I grew up in Loyall, Kentucky. When I was a kid, Loyall was home of a Louisville & Nashville Railroad yard, and I lived about 200 yards from the track that ran from the yard to parts unknown. The 1970’s were the time of the Coal Boom and trains ran day and night. They were as much a part of life as the sun coming up. We didn’t give them a thought, until the Nerve Gas Express came to town.

Some one decided to ship old nerve gas by rail to somewhere. Loyall was on that road to somewhere. We knew it coming. It was in the local paper–several times in fact. People talked about what would happen if the train derailed (which they did sometimes) or, God forbid, there was a real wreck (which almost never happened). The nerve gas would leak, and we would all die. Everyone was quite excited.

What was the nerve gas, exactly? I don’t know–sarin gas maybe. I also don’t know where it was headed. I do know that it had the capacity to kill us all.

Given the deadly qualities of this Hellish trainload, one might think that the townspeople would have cowered in their basements or taken cover in old bomb shelters. Remember now, we were Harlan Countians, which means two things: (1) We’re a fearless bunch of hill jacks; and (2) We don’t have a hell of a lot to do most of the time. As a result, we did what you would expect, and gathered by the railroad track to watch the paralyzing cargo roll through Loyall. It was reminiscent of the episode of the Andy Griffith Show where all of Mayberry gathered in town to see the “gold truck” pass through.

REPLACE “GOLD TRUCK” WITH “NERVE GAS,” AND YOU GET THE PICTURE.

I should note that my Dad talked quite a bit about how stupid it was to watch a train go by. He thought it was especially dumb since the only possible excitement was the annihilation of all the spectators. He noted several times that if the gas leaked, you could get the same thrill of being gassed hanging out in your house. He was not a fan of the Nerve Gas Express.

Just as planned, the train came through Loyall. Unlike the Andy Griffith Show, I don’t think it was decoy. As far as I know, it contained enough nerve gas to kill every man, woman, child and beast in the county. I’ll admit that I watched it go by. It was just a train, but everyone seemed pleased. No one cheered, although that would have been somehow appropriate. There were no protestors. No one died.

THE WONDERS OF DUCT TAPE

Okay, the entire world knows about duct tape now, but there was a time when it was actually used mostly for duct work. In the 1970’s, for example, it wasn’t as ubiquitous as today. Naturally, we called it “duck” tape, just as many people do today.

I knew this guy who used it for everything. Have you ever seen a shotgun held together with duct tape? I have. He had a Stevenson shotgun (12 gauge, as I recall), which he affectionately called “Stevie.” Stevie had fallen into disrepair to the point that the stock (that’s the wooden part for you novices) fell off. Duct tape fixed that. He simply taped it back together. I never saw him fire it, but swore it held together. I have my doubts.

The same guy also made his own boots. How, you ask? Three pairs of tube socks and duct tape. I’m not kidding. He said they were both comfortable and water tight.

Okay, that’s actually TWO things you don’t see every day–duct taped a duct taped shotgun and duct tape boots. I’m proud to say that I’ve seen them both, on the same day, in fact.

THE COAL MONUMENT

I’m sure other coal-producing counties have their tributes to coal mining, but we had–and still have–a genuine monument:

Our monument is in Baxter–right in the middle of traffic (such as it is).

You have to navigate your way around the monument, which isn’t too tough these days. Back in the 1960’s and ’70’s, this was the main drag to Harlan and quite busy. Plus, Ken’s Drive-In was a popular eatery across from the monument. For the uninitiated, this was as much a traffic hazard as it was a historical marker. Nowadays, one could comfortably nap in this intersection.

We should salute the builders of the Coal Monument. As I write this, I am 51 years old, and the Monument has been there as long as I can remember. As far as I know, it’s never even been repaired. I don’t know who build it, when or why it’s in Baxter. If anyone knows the story behind it, please let me know.

If you live in Baxter, Kentucky, it’s probably wrong to say you don’t see something like this every day. In fact, you may well see this every single day, but I don’t know many people who live in Baxter. Close enough.

COON ON THE LOG

The only Coon on the Log contests I’ve ever seen were in Harlan County at the Fish and Game Club. What is that, you ask? It involves 1) A raccoon; 2) A log; 3) Water; and 4) Dogs. Here’s how it worked. A raccoon was tied to log. The log was placed in the middle of a pond. The dogs swam out to the log–one at a time, of course–and attempted to knock the raccoon off the log. Simple enough. Now, you ask, what is the entertainment value in that?

You might be a city person who thinks raccoons are cute, like their cuddly cousins, the Pandas. You would be wrong. Raccoons are, in fact, vicious critters. They have sharp teeth and long, razor-like claws. They also have bad dispositions. They might rabies, too, although I don’t believe that is true with competition-level raccoons. Knocking one of these nasty bastards off a log is no mean feat. They fight. They claw. They bite.

I was probably 6 years old or so when I attended the Coon on the Log. My Dad took my brother and me. We sat by the pond and watched the dogs do battle with the hellish beast. I only remember one dog. He was black hunting dog of some sort and could swim like a fish. He swam out the log and immediately engaged the raccoon. They fought tooth and nail until the raccoon managed to claw the dog’s face, sending him back to shore much worse for the wear. The next year, the dog was back, this time with a scarred face. I recall that he vanquished the raccoon. Honestly, it could have been a different less fierce raccoon, but I remember being pleased for the dog nonetheless.

I know you animal lovers are poised over your keyboards to attack me and, possibly, my late father, like a rabid, typing raccoon. This is not an endorsement of Coon on the Log contests. PETA hates them, as you would expect. I doubt that they are very popular anymore, having gone the way of Donkey Basketball and Greased Pig Contests. (I’ve attended both of these events, too, and they were quite entertaining; however, I do understand why the use of cattle prods in a basketball game is now frowned upon). These days, people get all torn up over monkeys riding dogs (possibly the most entertaining thing on Earth, by the way). The Coon on the Log doesn’t stand a chance.

TIRE WALKING

My Dad didn’t throw away things. He always figured he could use them as some point. Old magazines, engine parts and the like might come in handy. For example, when I was a kid, he found a six-pack of beer and put in the trunk of his car. While Dad was fond of Scotch and Bourbon, he didn’t drink beer. But he knew a guy who did. He said he would give the six-pack to that guy. I don’t think he ever did, but he drove around with that six-pack in the trunk of his car for several years–just in case.

Among Dad’s collection were old tires. He would change tires on his cars but keep the old ones. You never know, he might need them one day. During a summer of my childhood, my friend Jimmy and I were bored, having exhausted the possibilities of bike riding and playing Army. So, we started rooting around in my garage where we happened upon two tires. We could do something with those.

The first thing we tried was walking on them, kind of like a circus bear walking on a ball. It just couldn’t be done. Even though we were both slight of build, our inconsiderable weight caused the tires to collapse.

Then, we came up with Tire Wrestling, which consisted of rolling the tires at each other and diving on them. That was kind of fun, but we couldn’t devise a scoring system. So, there ended up not being much point to it. It never caught on, not even with Jimmy and me.

I didn’t give up on the idea of walking on tires but just couldn’t master it. Then, Uncle Jack showed up. My Uncle Jack was my Dad’s younger brother and probably in his 40’s at the time. As a bachelor, Jack spent a lot of time at our house. Jack had all kinds of tricks. He would pull out his dentures and put a cigarette between them and make the cigarette bounce up and down. He could play a mean harmonica. He could shuffle cards like a magician. He was always entertaining.

Jack was a small man, about 5′ 5″, maybe 140 pounds. His hair was the kind of silvery-white you want if your hair turns gray. He was quick with a joke or some smart-ass comment, and always laughed at his own stories. He chain-smoked Phillip Morris non-filter cigarettes.

One day, I was on the back porch with a tire leaned against the side of the porch, studying the possibilities. Our porch was a wooden structure about 3 or 4 feet high with railing only on the sides and 5 or 6 steps on the left hand side. I was on the steps when Jack and Dad stepped out on the porch.

“Whatta ya know, boy?” Jack asked (this was the same greeting I got from Jack for the remaining 40 years of his life). I explained that I had tried to walk on the tire but couldn’t do it. Jack said, “Let me see that tire. I can do that.” Dad looked at Jack and said, “Now, Jack, you’ll break your neck on that thing.”

Jack ignored Dad, as he usually did whenever Dad started a sentence with “Now, Jack….” Jack balanced the tire perpendicular to the porch, stuck his cigarette in the corner of his mouth and grabbed the side rail of the porch with his left hand. He was ready to roll.

He did it. It was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. He just stepped off the porch on top of the tire and took off. He looked like a tap dancer on hot coals. His arms stuck out to side for balance and a thin trail of cigarette smoke coursed behind him like a contrail.

Had we owned a clothes dryer, I’m confident that he would have made all the way across the yard to the back fence. As it was, our clothes line ended the ride. It caught Jack just under the chin and flipped him backward off the tire. He slammed to the ground like bag of sand. For a moment, he didn’t move. Then, he hopped up, grabbed his smoke off the ground and just laughed. Dad was laughing himself into a fit on the back porch. If you think walking on a tire is easy, try it sometime.

I could tell a lot of other stories about Jack but that one stands out. Jack was always entertaining. Every kid needs an Uncle Jack.

Well, that’s it. Five things you don’t see every day. If you’re ever in Harlan County, ask a local for directions to the Coal Monument. I can’t promise you that will see any of the other things I described, but I’m confident that the Monument will still be there.

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ALL ABOARD THE NERVE GAS TRAIN!

Five Things You Don’t See Every Day