RB-046 The Handcar Race

The Fireball Express is streaking north toward the Knotty Pine region at 100 miles per hour with 400 souls on board. "Unc" McFadden is the rail dispatcher at Junction City. His job is making sure that the trains under his care get to their destinations safely. That includes the Fireball Express. Heavy rains followed by flash flooding threaten the rail trestles and bridges near Knotty Pine. To be safe, Unc sends a trestle tester engine to check the northern line especially the old trestle over 800-foot-deep Cougar Canyon. What will the tester crew find? This doesn't sound like any kind of a race to me. What does a handcar have to do with the whole problem? And what does this have to do with our rangers?

How's Your Ranger Bill Memory?

John from Florida wrote to ask:

"In all the years I have listened to Ranger Bill, I do not recall the last three episodes, including this week. [The Crusher, The Old Diehard, and The Road Ghost] Has Moody been issuing programs which had been set aside for a few years?"

I don't know if I can answer John's question definitively. I think that these shows have been part of the regular list of RANGER BILL shows for some time, but I'm not absolutely sure. How about you? Do you know if these three episodes have always been part of the regular rotation of Ranger Bill programs? Or have these and/or possibly other episodes been taken out of the rotation for a time and are still out or have been added again?
If you know or have a good idea what the answer to John's query is, please email me at rangerbillclub@aol.com and I will post your answers here. We'll try this one on our Ranger Bill group on Facebook as well.
Thanks in advance for your help. And good head scratching!

RB-045 The Road Ghost

Buses heading for Knotty Pine are crashing. It's not poor weather or icy roads that are causing these accidents. Bus drivers on the night route from Junction City to Knotty Pine are seeing animals, ghost animals, crossing the road in front of them causing the drivers to swerve and wreck. Gus McDougal will go out of business unless the road ghosts and the wrecks stop. Gus asks Bill and the boys to look into the problem. Are the animals real? Are the road ghosts real? And what can Bill do about ghosts anyway?

Pet 18-foot Python Found in Florida

Shades of "The Crusher"!!! A 400-lb, 18-foot long, reticulated Burmese python was seized by Florida wildlife officials on Friday. The 16-year-old snake, named Delilah, was seized because the owner did not have the proper permits to keep the snake and the snake's chain-link cage was not secure enough to hold the snake. The snake appeared to be well cared for. It had eaten 7 rabbits for breakfast that morning. The had no signs of disease, pests, mistreatment, injury, or starvation. The snake's mid-section measured 30 inches around.
It took four large, adult men to pick up the snake and place it in a truck for removal from the residence in Apopka, Florida.
Pet snakes are an on-going problem in Florida. Laws have been passed recently in Florida limiting the sale and ownership of snakes. Last year a two-year-old girl was crushed to death by a python much smaller than Delilah.

RB044 The Old Diehard

Ranger Bill and the boys take a trip to State U. to give chemist Dr. Thaddeus Draper some soil samples to test. The fellas walk into an disagreement between Dr. Draper and his grandson Mel. Dr. Draper wants to Mel to follow in his footsteps and become a research chemist. Mel wants to be an agricultural chemist but won't buck his grandfather. Bill sees the tension building between the Drapers. Mel asks for Bill's help with his grandfather. Then Dr. Draper wants Bill to talk Mel into being a research chemist. Bill is between a rock and a diehard. What is he going to do in this situation? Can Bill make either Draper happy, or will both be mad at Bill and at each other?