There was once a train named Marley. He was a very special type of train, becuase he was able to ride specially designed train tracks that were laid across the bottom of the ocean. The OCEAN!? Yes, the Ocean!

Every week, Marley would load up his train cars with things from the United States and then start on his way across the Atlantic Ocean. He had to be careful, though, becuase if he didn’t go fast enough the cargo he carried would start to rust.

One day, Marley received a very special load, but there was a PROBLEM! No one could figure out how they could safely carry the load across the ocean without ruining it. What was his load? He had been asked to carry a load of WATER from one side of the world to the other. How could he do that? How could he safely carry water through the ocean without having it get all mixed in with the ocean water?

Marley thought for a while. He was worried he might not be able to help. And then he had a GREAT idea! Marley told the workers to bring around his tanker cars, the kind that were sealed so tight not that even gasoline could leak out. He told them to wash them out and put the water in them. THAT would do it!

Marley slowly ventured out into the ocean. At first, he continued to worry that the water in the tankers would mix with the ocean water. But it didn’t. It all looked fine. The more Marley chugged forward, the less he worried about his cargo, because he knew he’d done what needed to be done to keep it safe.

When Marley got Europe, the people gasped at what he had done! They didn’t believe the tanker cars could keep the water safe, but Marley no longer had any doubts. They unscrewed the top of one of the cars and let the people taste it; it was as pure as the day it had left the United States. Marley was RIGHT!

From that time on Marley stopped worrying about things a little bit. He knew that if he thought something through and took the right steps, things would probably be OK.

He also thought it was pretty neat how the tanker cars looked like little submarines trailing behind him as he chugged across the ocean floor.

Marley smiled. THIS IS THE LIFE.


Recently I’ve been making up train stories for Colton of trains on great adventures. This is the most recent one. He doesn’t care how crazy the stories get, in fact, the crazier, the better. Trains can do amazing things in our stories, things we never thought trains were even made for… but that doesn’t make the stories any less fascinating or open our eyes to the realm of possibility in our own lives.

I’ve been informed that tonight’s story must be about the Moon Train. Or maybe it was the Space Train, or the Mountain Train, or the River Train. I can’t remember… it’s a new adventure every single day.