Hi, Mike!  Recently you wrote in a message to Dallas Hinton:

MP>  A "torpedo" is also railroad slang for a small explosive
MP>  device that would be set out on the tracks to warn oncoming
MP>  trains that another train was unintentionally blocking the
MP>  tracks (due to mechanical issue, accident, etc.).  The noise
MP>  would alert the crew that they needed to prepare to stop
MP>  quickly.


           Interesting.  Until now I wasn't aware of this definition, but both
of my Canadian dictionaries agree with what you said....  :-)



MP>  I am guessing that those are not often used now in the age
MP>  of electronic signals, radio, etc., but they were used in
MP>  the steam era.


           Makes sense to me.  I didn't fully appreciate until Dallas & I rode
on the Royal Hudson... an old steam train which served as a tourist attraction
in our area until the upkeep became prohibitively expensive... how limited the
field of vision must have been for the driver.  And because mechanical signals
could be tampered with they weren't 100% reliable.



MP>  Since I would not expect a young child to be putting those on
MP>  the track, I could only assume it was firecrackers or the like
MP>  because the author mentioned that the 4th of July was soon.
MP>  Either that or the kid had got ahold of some railroad explosive
MP>  devices he should probably not have.


           Now that you mention it, I think the boy might well have been using
railroad explosives.  The author describes him as "gray"... perhaps suggesting
he hadn't bathed for awhile, and "scrawny"... perhaps suggesting he didn't get
enough to eat.  Tom's remark also implies the setting is not in a particularly
nice neighbourhood.  If the family's socioeconomic circumstances did not allow
the purchase of luxury items such as firecrackers, one has to wonder....  :-))




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+