Stories

A new technician proudly showed me a perfectly clean scan: no noise, no grass, no indications. 'Nice,' I said. 'Where's the back wall?' He studied the screen, checked the knob, and grinned. 'Either this plate is perfect, or my gain is at zero.'

The client asked why we need couplant. I explained that sound doesn't travel well through air. She nodded, then asked whether a thin film really beats pressing harder. I said it does: pressing harder only wears the probe and tires the thumb, while the film gets you a signal. She asked if she could squeeze the bottle.

My apprentice's thickness gauge said the steel plate was less than half its drawn thickness. He wanted to alert the engineer. I asked what material he had set. 'Whatever was on the screen when I turned it on,' he said. It was acrylic.

At 3 a.m. on a turnaround I realized I'd been finding indications for two hours that moved whenever I rotated the probe. The wedge was cracked. The only discontinuity on the job was in my equipment.

The auditor asked how we know the thickness gauge is accurate. I showed him the step wedge. He asked how we know the step wedge is accurate. I showed him the certificate. He asked who checks the lab. I said the Level III. 'And who checks the Level III?' 'That,' I said, 'is what you're for.'

My mentor handed me a half-inch steel block and said, 'Tell me what's in there.' I scanned for an hour. 'Nothing,' I said. He nodded. 'Good. Now tell me how you know.' That was the longest exam I ever took.

I once ran Time-of-Flight Diffraction on a weld for six hours before noticing the encoder was unplugged. The data was beautiful. It was also one single point, six hours long.

The client watched our Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing setup for forty minutes. 'When does the inspection start?' she asked. 'Forty minutes ago,' said the technician. 'Setup is half the inspection.'

The technician spent the morning chasing a signal across the heat exchanger tubes. It showed up in every tube, always at the same distance. She finally traced it to the support plate, which had been on the drawing the whole time.

The apprentice nulled the probe, then lifted it off the part to point at the screen. 'Look at that huge signal!' he said. 'That's lift-off,' I said. 'You made it yourself.'

The client asked if Eddy Current Testing could find a flaw on the far side of a thick steel plate. I explained skin depth. He nodded. 'So you need to be on the other side.' 'Yes.' 'Then why are you on this side?' That was a fair question.

The rookie pulled her bobbin probe through twenty tubes without a single bit of noise. The senior technician was impressed, then suspicious. The cable had been disconnected since tube one.

At a family dinner someone asked what I do. I said I use sound waves to find cracks in steel. 'So, like a bat?' 'Exactly like a bat,' I said, 'but with more paperwork and fewer insects.'

The instructor asked what happens to sound at a steel-to-air boundary. A student said, 'Almost all of it reflects.' 'Why?' 'Because the air isn't interested.' The instructor wrote that on the board and underlined it.

A retired radiographer explained half-life to his grandson with a bag of candy. 'Every minute I eat half of what's left.' After six minutes the boy asked how much remained. 'About one and a half percent.' 'That's still a lot of candy.' 'That's what the source people say, too.'

My nephew asked why a straw looks bent in a glass of water. I explained refraction. 'So the straw is fine?' 'The straw is fine.' 'Then how do you know the weld is fine?' I said, 'Same way: we look from more than one angle.'

A new technician was told: no light in the darkroom, ever. When the power went out across the building, she was the only one who didn't notice.

At 2 a.m., in the rain, the client's rep asked, 'What's the rope for?' The radiographer said, 'It marks the edge of the radiation boundary.' The rep looked at the rope, then at his truck. He has watched every exposure from the heated cab since, and says the view is better.

A radiographer visiting a kindergarten class explained that she took pictures of the inside of metal. 'Do the pictures come out?' a boy asked. 'Eventually,' she said. 'First they have to sit in the dark for a while.' 'Like me at nap time!' he said. 'Do they get cookies?' 'No, just chemicals.' He decided to become a firefighter.

The shop's new digital detector arrived. The old darkroom man, who had loaded film for thirty years, watched the first image appear in two seconds. 'That's it?' he asked. 'That's it.' He stood there a moment, then quietly went and made a pot of coffee, because for the first time in thirty years he had time to.

Two radiographers argued for an hour about whose turn it was to carry the survey meter. The supervisor finally settled it: 'You both carry one.' They looked down. Both were already wearing one.

A client asked why the shop still used film. The radiographer held up a radiograph from 1987 and said, 'This one is still perfectly readable.' Then she asked, 'Do you still have a computer that can open your files from the same year?' The client ordered film for another year.

The inspector found a long, bright indication on a shaft. She marked it, photographed it, and was drafting the report when a coworker leaned in and pulled a paper clip off the part. 'Nice crack,' he said. She rewrote the report. The paper clip has been on her checklist ever since.

In his first week in the Magnetic Particle booth, the Level II told the new hire that the black light would reveal everything. It did: the lint on his shirt, the coffee on his boots, and a corner of the part he'd forgotten to clean. 'Ah,' said the Level II. 'Now you understand the process.'

The Level III asked the trainee what to do after Magnetic Particle Testing. 'Demagnetize,' she said. 'Then?' 'Clean the part.' 'Then?' She looked down. Her clipboard was stuck to the part. 'Demagnetize before I leave,' she said. 'And maybe before I start, too.'

Every morning the inspector ran a settling test on the wet bath before the first part. The new hire asked why. 'Because the bath can't tell me it's tired,' she said. 'The tube can.'

On night shift, an inspector spent forty minutes chasing an indication that moved every time she wiped the part. It turned out to be a firefly that had wandered into the booth and decided the UV-A lamp was the best party in town.

A new inspector applied penetrant, waited the dwell time, washed it off with great enthusiasm, applied developer, and found nothing. 'Did I miss anything?' she asked. The Level II looked at the part, then at the drain. 'Not anymore,' he said. 'You washed it all away.'

A part arrived covered in paint, oil, and what the customer called 'a little grime.' The inspector cleaned it for an hour. 'Why did that take so long?' the customer asked. 'The penetrant needs a way in,' she said. 'Like a handshake?' 'More like a door,' she said. 'And yours was painted shut.'

At minute two, the client leaned in. At minute four, she asked what the penetrant was doing in there. 'Pulling into the crack,' said the inspector. At minute fifteen: 'Okay, now we wipe it off.' The client watched the first bleed-out appear and asked if there was a chair for the next part.

'Every casting has an indication at the same spot,' said the new inspector. The Level III looked at where each casting hung on the rack. 'Then it isn't the casting,' she said. 'It's the hook.' The new inspector wrote 'check the hook' in her notebook.

A shop kept two black lights, one bright and one dim. The inspectors argued over the bright one until a Level III measured both and found someone had swapped the labels. The dim lamp had been working perfectly. The bright one had just been louder.

The client held the flashlight while I checked the underside of the weld. 'I'll aim it where you look,' she said, shining it at the ceiling. I moved her hand six inches. 'Oh,' she said. 'That's where the weld was hiding.'

A new inspector proudly flagged a bright spot at the bottom of the bore. The senior inspector looked at the screen, said nothing, and gently wiped the borescope lens with a cloth. The spot left with the smudge.

The inspector found a dark line along the weld toe. Before writing anything, he wiped it with a solvent rag. Pencil. He cleaned the next one. Also pencil. On the third, the welder admitted he'd been doing his math on the pipe.

The light meter read half the level the procedure required. The inspector asked for a second lamp. It arrived by morning with an extension cord, a work order and a supervisor who had never seen a weld so well lit.

The flange looked bone dry. The technician brushed on bubble solution anyway. Within seconds a foam beard grew at the gasket. He wiped it off and reapplied it, and the beard grew back. 'A flange can look dry,' he said, 'but it can't fool soap.'

The thermographer scanned the electrical panel and found one connection glowing bright white against its cool neighbors. The electrician was skeptical. "Looks fine to me." The thermographer handed him the image. The electrician studied it for a long moment, then went to get the torque wrench.

The guided wave operator reported a signal at forty feet. 'Is it corrosion?' asked the owner. 'It might be a weld, a support, or a flange. Guided wave screens; it doesn't size.' 'So what next?' 'A second method,' said the operator, 'and a good pair of boots.'

The technician was ninety feet up and tied off when the battery warning flashed. She saved her data, climbed down and swapped in the spare. At the bottom she gave the instrument a short lecture about timing. It stayed on the rest of the shift out of respect.

Overnight the shop pushed a firmware update to every instrument. In the morning Sam found a new menu, a new icon, and a welcome screen. He needed three things: gain, range, and zero offset. He found the welcome screen again nine more times before lunch.

The technician spent twenty minutes tracing a missing signal through the instrument, the cable, the connector and the probe. Then someone asked whether the cable was plugged in. It was plugged into the wrong port. She moved it and the signal came back. 'Twenty minutes of electronics,' she said, 'and the fix was one inch of cable.'

The auditor held up the reference block. 'When was this last verified?' The technician opened the labeled calibration binder to the tab and handed over the certificate. 'Last month,' she said. 'It's been resting ever since.'

The welder asked the inspector if the porosity was acceptable. "It's a discontinuity," said the inspector. "So it's fine?" "It's a discontinuity." "Is it a defect?" "Let me check the table." He checked. "It's a defect." "You said it was just a discontinuity." "It was," said the inspector, "before I read the table."

The inspector found the indication on the third pass, circled it, and waved the welder over. The welder squinted. 'Is that a scratch?' The inspector rubbed the spot. Nothing changed. The welder rubbed it. Still there. 'Okay,' said the welder. 'That's a very stubborn scratch.'

The inspector found a lamination in the incoming plate. The receiving clerk checked the order. 'It says one plate.' 'It's two,' said the inspector. 'They just aren't speaking.'

The new technician reported forty indications on his first day. "They're all geometry," said the senior inspector. "The root, the counterbore, and the edge of the weld face." "But they're there," said the new technician. "Yes," said the senior inspector. "First lesson: being there is not the same as being relevant."

The inspector measured the remaining wall under the pump house floor. 'Remaining thickness is 0.210 inch,' he said. 'Required is 0.250.' 'How far off is that?' asked the apprentice. 'Forty thousandths,' said the inspector. 'About ten sheets of paper, all of them missing.'

The new Level II proudly showed the Level III an indication. 'Is this a defect?' The Level III studied it for a full minute. 'It's a discontinuity.' 'Is it a defect?' 'Let's find out.' He opened the code book. 'Rejected.' The Level II beamed. 'So I was right!' 'No,' said the Level III. 'The code was right. You were just standing near it.'

A Level III was asked to speak at a Level I graduation. He stood, surveyed the room, and said, 'Everything you learned this week is true, and every exception is on page four hundred.' Then he sat down. Nobody has ever given a more accurate speech.

'You have two hours,' said the proctor. Sam found all seven discontinuities in thirty minutes and spent the next ninety double-checking. He passed. Later the proctor told the Level III, 'He had every answer right away. He just couldn't trust it.' The Level III nodded. 'That comes after the first rejected report.'

Pat's logbook had a blank week because the job was rained out. His boss asked what he'd done. 'Watched the weather.' 'You can't log that.' 'Waited on the forecast.' 'Can't log that either.' 'Then I'll log the other thing I did all week,' said Pat. 'Practicing patience. I'm basically a Level III in it.'

The inspector found a discontinuity and checked the code. Table 6.1: acceptable. The client, thrilled, asked, 'So it passes?' 'It's a discontinuity, not a defect.' 'But it's a flaw?' 'Everything is a flaw,' said the inspector. 'This one just fits in the table.'

The engineer phoned to say his spec was stricter than the code. 'Then I'll inspect to the spec,' said the inspector. 'But the spec only has half the acceptance criteria.' 'Then I'll use the code for the other half.' 'You can't mix them.' 'Then which one do you want?' There was a long silence, followed by a revised spec.

A new inspector asked which code applies. 'Whatever the contract cites,' said the mentor, 'down to the edition.' The new inspector wrote the edition on her clipboard, in her notebook and on a sticky note inside the code book. 'Good,' said the mentor. 'Now you're ready.'

Three inspectors argued over one clause for an hour. They finally agreed. Then the Level III arrived, read it, and said, 'Oh, that was superseded last year.' They've been quiet ever since.

The welder handed the inspector a perfect-looking weld. 'Nice,' said the inspector. 'Thanks,' said the welder. 'It's also my third one today.' 'Third?' 'The first two had porosity.' 'Where are they?' The welder nodded at the grinder. 'It's been very busy.'

The welder insisted the plate had been preheated. The inspector held his temperature crayon to it. The mark did not melt. 'It was warm when I started,' the welder said. 'So was the day,' said the inspector. They preheated it again, together.

The apprentice read the weld symbol and welded the arrow side. The symbol was above the line. 'Above the line means the other side,' said the supervisor. 'So the arrow side is the side the arrow isn't on?' 'No.' 'Then which...' 'Let's get you a drawing and a coffee.'

A welder bragged to the crowd, 'Twenty-five years, thousands of welds, never a single reject.' In the back, the inspector whispered, 'It's true. He studies the acceptance table the way other people study a menu.'

The apprentice asked why the inspector wrote every weld number twice, once on the sketch and once on the data sheet. 'The sketch is for the report,' said the inspector. 'The data sheet is for the day the sketch gets rained on.'

The technician asked the Level III how to know she had the latest procedure. 'Check the revision letter,' said the Level III. The technician flipped to the cover page. 'Rev C,' she said. 'Rev C,' the Level III agreed, and went to see who still had Rev B.

The new inspector's sketch was so good that the welder asked for a copy. He'd been looking for that weld since Tuesday.

The apprentice asked why every sketch needs a north arrow. 'So the next inspector knows which way you were facing,' said the Level III. The apprentice checked her sketch. Her arrow pointed at the truck.

At 2 a.m. on a refinery turnaround, the crew lead asked how the Magnetic Particle Testing was going. 'Third weld of forty,' I said. Then the crew lead asked what day it was. Neither of us knew, so we settled on 'night shift.'

I asked the motel clerk for a room away from the ice machine. She checked the screen and said, 'Good news, I have one nowhere near it.' It was right above the ballroom, where a wedding was just getting started.

A rope access technician hung a hundred and fifty feet up, taking a thickness reading. The radio crackled: 'Hey, quick question.' He said, 'I'm in the middle of something, literally.' The voice said, 'No problem, I'll wait.' He waited twenty minutes. Then he got the question. It was about lunch.

I climbed out of the tank, tired and proud. The attendant asked, 'Did you find anything?' 'Mostly my lost sense of direction,' I said. He handed me the permit for the next tank. 'You've got four more.'

A technician reported a missing wrench at the end of a hangar shift. All work stopped. Forty people searched every compartment for two hours. It was in his hip pocket. Nobody ever lost that wrench again, because nobody let him forget it.

The excavator dug all morning to expose joint 41. The inspector climbed into the ditch, brushed off the pipe, and read the stamp: joint 14. 'Good news,' said the crew lead. 'We're way ahead on joint 14.'

The wind technician spent forty minutes climbing, three hours inspecting the blade, and forty minutes coming down. Her manager asked how the day went. 'Productive,' she said. 'The paperwork will take two days.'

Aboard the ship, the inspector asked where the next tank was. The first mate pointed at a hatch the size of a pizza box. 'Through there,' he said. 'It's always through there.' The inspector spent the next hour learning which of his tools were truly necessary.

The new technician packed for her first outage: hard hat, safety glasses, gloves, harness, flashlight and three pens. The Level III checked the list and nodded. 'Perfect. Now add ten more pens.'

The track inspection crew arrived at the yard at dawn. The dispatcher said, 'The track will be free as soon as this freight clears.' Four hours later, a second freight came through. The crew learned that in rail, the train sets the schedule and takes no requests.

On the underside of the bridge, the inspector found the best view in town: the river below, the traffic above, and a family of pigeons who had clearly filed no permits. He logged them as 'existing conditions.'

The site's safety lead finished orientation and asked for questions. The new technician raised his hand. 'Where's the nearest muster point?' She handed him a gold star for his hard hat.

The night crew finished the last tank at dawn. As they walked to the truck, the sun came up, the day crew arrived, and the client's manager waved. 'Great timing,' she said. 'The coffee just got here.'

At the power plant, I spent three hours finding the right gate, an hour at security and six hours on the inspection. My boss asked if I had any recommendations. 'Yes,' I said. 'A map.'

The client asked how long the inspection would take. 'Three weeks,' we said, 'weather permitting.' He looked out at the rain. 'So, how long?'

A client asked the technician how she found such a tiny crack. 'Magnetic particles,' she said. 'They gather where the field leaks out.' He nodded. 'So the crack told on itself?' 'Cracks always do. You just have to ask the right way.'

The new trainee dusted the part with magnetic particles and found nothing. 'Check the yoke,' said the instructor. It was off. The trainee turned it on, and the crack showed up like it had been waiting for an invitation.

The plan said two days with two technicians, weather permitting. On day nine, the technicians sat in the truck watching the rain. 'Which two days?' one asked. 'The sunny ones,' said the other.

A new project coordinator asked how long Radiographic Testing takes. 'It depends on the thickness,' I said, 'and the source strength, the geometry, and the film.' She wrote it all down and added a new column to the schedule, titled 'It depends.'

At the kickoff meeting, the client asked how many welds we would inspect. 'All of them,' we said. 'And how many will be rejected?' 'That depends on the welder.' The client looked at the welder. The welder looked at the inspector. The meeting broke for lunch, the only item that passed first time.

At 4:58 p.m. on a Friday, one more weld on the schedule needed a full inspection. By 6:30, the weld, three nearby welds, and a sandwich had all been inspected. The sandwich passed first.

The plan gave the technician thirty minutes to get from one tank to another. The tanks were a mile apart. 'I can do it,' she said, 'if the gate is released.' The coordinator studied the site map, then handed her a bicycle.

The inspector arrived to inspect the storage tank floor. 'It's under a million gallons of crude,' said the operator. 'Then I'll need a million gallons less crude,' said the inspector, 'and about three weeks.'

The plant manager asked how long a heat exchanger bundle would take. The inspector pulled it, cleaned it, tested every tube and wrote the report. 'Great,' said the manager. 'And the other twelve?' 'Same,' said the inspector. 'Twelve times.' The manager did the math and quietly sat down.

The outage manager asked how long the weld inspection would take. 'Two hours,' said the inspector. The manager wrote two hours, then added the walk to the weld, the permit and the scaffold. 'Four hours,' he said. 'Now it's accurate.'

At the pre-job briefing, the inspector asked for the dose estimate. 'Plan for fifty minutes in the area,' she said, 'forty to inspect and ten to double-check.' The planner wrote fifty and underlined it. 'Now that's an estimate I can plan around.'

The mechanic watched the inspector tap along a panel with a small hammer. 'Is that scientific?' he asked. 'It is,' she said. 'It has been peer-reviewed by every inspector who ever said, "That sounds wrong."'

On day one of the heavy check, the planner joked, 'Where's the airplane?' The inspector pointed at forty labeled bins, three work stands and a fuselage with every panel open. 'That's her,' she said. 'She's just spread out a little.'

The crew waited two hours for the weld to cool. The inspector checked it, accepted it, and marked it. The crew lead asked about the next weld. 'It's in the next section,' said the inspector, 'on the other side of the creek.' Everyone looked at the creek. The creek did not move.

On day one the plan showed paved access to every weld. By day three the road was a ditch, the ditch was a creek, and the creek was the only way to the next site. The inspector sent a photo with one line: 'Found the paved access. It's under there.'

The Navy inspector reviewed the weld map with the shipyard supervisor. 'All of these are required?' asked the supervisor. 'Every one,' she said. 'Even this one in the forward void?' 'Especially that one.' The supervisor sighed, picked up a flashlight, and handed her the other one.

The ship was due to leave dry dock Monday. By Friday the inspector found a weld that needed repair. 'How long?' asked the project manager. 'A day to repair, a day to cool, and a day to re-inspect.' The project manager nodded. 'The ship has waited longer for a tide.'

The county engineer asked how the bridge inspection was going. The inspector arrived with a snooper truck, two flaggers, a lift operator and a six-page traffic plan. 'That's a lot of equipment,' said the engineer. 'Ma'am,' said the inspector, 'on a bridge, this is the light version.'

An inspector found a crack at the end of a cover plate and marked it with a paint pen. Fifteen years later, the next inspector found the faded paint stripe and a crack that had not grown an inch. 'So it's stable,' said the owner. 'That's what the last report said,' said the inspector. 'That's why I'm measuring it again.'

The wind farm owner asked how long the blade inspection would take. 'Two days, if the weather holds,' said the crew lead. Monday the wind hit thirty miles per hour. So did Tuesday and Wednesday. 'It's a wind farm,' said the owner, smiling. 'Exactly,' said the crew lead. 'Just not this much.'

The crew's new borescope had a seven-hour battery and a lovely screen. At the base of the tower it said 100 percent. At the top of the tower it said 14 percent. 'It's the cold,' said the technician. The battery said 9 percent. 'And the altitude,' she said, and headed back down to charge it.

A supplier shipped 500 brackets with a certificate saying every one was perfect. The inspector found a cracked one on the third part. 'Statistical outlier,' said the supplier. The inspector held it up. 'It's also a bracket.' The supplier took the whole lot back.

The plant manager cut the ribbon on the new inspection station, thanked everyone, and put a pallet of parts in front of it. By lunch the line of pallets behind it was long. 'That's a queue,' said the inspector. 'It means everyone is counting on us.'

The railroad granted the inspection crew a four-hour track window. They set up, got on the rail, and began. At minute 200 the dispatcher radioed: 'Good news, you've got five extra minutes.' The crew lead asked, 'What do we do with five minutes?' 'Same as always,' said the dispatcher. 'Clear the track.'

A rail inspector drove forty miles on hi-rail to check one reported crack. She found it, measured it, wrote it up, and drove forty miles back. Her supervisor asked how it went. 'Smallest crack, longest drive,' she said. 'It all comes out evenly on the report: one line.'

Dana resolved to renew her certification early this year. On January 2nd she opened the folder and found her eye exam record, her hours log, and a sticky note in her own handwriting: 'Do this in January.' She stared at it for a minute, then picked up the phone and booked the exam. The sticky note, for the first time in its life, went in the trash.

The crew lined up the instruments next to the heater so the batteries would last. By lunch the instruments had the best seats in the shack, and the crew was standing outside holding the clipboard. Nobody complained. The instruments had been tested more thoroughly than anyone else on the job.

The crew found the only shade on the site, behind a storage tank. Then the sun moved, and the shade moved with it. By four o'clock they had followed it forty feet across the yard and scanned nothing. They all agreed it was the most productive shade tracking in the history of the site.

Lena spent Monday visiting booths, and every one scanned her badge and promised a follow-up. By Friday she had forty-one emails, one pen that worked, and a calendar invite from a company she could not remember visiting. She accepted it anyway. It turned out to be the best demo of the year.

'Where is the written practice?' asked the auditor. The new Level II pointed at the shelf. 'And the current revision?' She pointed at the binder. 'And the evidence that everyone has read it?' She opened the training record: eighty signatures, each dated the day that person read the current revision.

The scheduler asked when the vessel would be done. 'When the scaffold is up,' said the inspector. The scaffold lead said, 'When the isolation is verified.' The operator said, 'When the gas test is clear.' The gas tester held up the meter.

'How many steam generator tubes are left?' Carlos asked. 'About three thousand,' said the lead. 'At this pace, Thursday,' said Carlos. 'Good,' said the lead. 'Tube three thousand gets the same attention as tube one.' Carlos nodded. Tube one had been very well treated.

The crew was finishing a report on New Year's Eve. At 11:58 p.m., Sam asked, 'Should we sign it now or in the new year?' 'Now,' said the Level III. 'I'm not explaining a signature that crossed midnight.' They signed at 11:59. It was the most punctual report of the year.

Before the wing was closed up, the inspector counted her tools out loud. 'Twelve,' she said. Then she counted again. The crew chief asked why. 'The wing closes in an hour,' she said, 'and the tool count is the one number nobody negotiates.' The crew chief nodded and started counting his own pockets.

The inspector crawled into the ballast tank and started the thickness survey. By reading forty, every one said 0.312 inch. 'Remarkably consistent plate,' she told the radio. Then she looked down and found the chalk mark she'd made an hour earlier. She had been measuring the same spot.

The crew finished the girth weld in record time. The inspector arrived to find three hundred feet of pipe behind it and a crew holding coffee. 'We were fast,' the supervisor said. 'Great,' she said. 'Now we all wait for it to cool.' The supervisor looked at the weld. The weld looked at the supervisor. Everyone drank their coffee.

The inspector found a tiny crack at the end of a weld on the girder. She marked it, photographed it, and radioed the lead. 'How big?' he asked. 'About a quarter inch.' 'Anything to worry about?'

The inspector reached the top of the tower after a long climb, caught her breath, and opened the hatch to the nacelle. 'Everything okay up there?' the radio asked. 'Great view,' she said. 'And I forgot my torque wrench.' There was a pause. 'I have one,' the radio said. 'It's in my truck.'

The inspector got a four-hour track window and rode the hi-rail truck out to mile marker 112. Setup took an hour. The first mile took another. By the third hour the dispatcher said a freight train was due. 'How much did you cover?' he asked. 'Eleven miles,' she said, 'and one rail that needs a second look.' She cleared the track with ten minutes to spare. The train was an hour late anyway.

The line manager stopped by the inspector's bench on December 30th. 'Two more pieces,' said the inspector. 'Want to help?' 'Sure,' said the manager, picking up the traveler. Ten minutes later: 'Did I pass?' 'First time,' said the inspector.