Great story. Thanks for posting.
A few years ago I read an article about stray dogs in Moscow. They learned the train schedules and could go where ever they wanted. The passengers didn’t seem to mind.
The shortline railroad I used to work for had a neighborhood Golden Retriever that would show up at the shop every morning at 7:30 when we opened up the enginehouse and he would hang out in the shop office all day.
Aside from running freight, we had a tourist passenger operation as well with historic coaches and when we would run school trips Sandy would head over to the picnic grove and “make friends” with the kids.
At the end of the day, one of the guys from the track gang would load Sandy in his car and drive him 1/4 mile up the road to his owner’s house. This was the routine every day.
Sometimes the truck drivers that were in and out of the yard transloading plastic resin from covered hoppers onto their truck would load up Sandy for a road trip... everyone knew where Sandy lived... so it was OK with his humans.
One year when we were running Santa Claus trains, we loaded Sandy onboard and as Santa made the rounds through the train asking little boys and girls what they wanted for Christmas, giving out candy canes, Sandy was right behind him going down the aisle of the coach, all happy to get pets and treats from the kids. Sandy was as much as, if not more that the hit that Santa was with the kids.
I recall Sandy “The Railroad Dog” getting a front page article in the County newspaper... I can still vividly see Sandy sleeping on the couch in the shop office... that was 25 years ago... What a dog!