Chapter Text
Lee Radcliffe is familiar with Alice’s brag book. She kept a book of the cars she’d restored over the years. The one that she showed customers is the before and after but back in her office there were project books with all the work along the way. Alice’s Custom Restorations had been in business since before he was born. Gordon Motor Tours which specializes in touring rigs whether its bus or semi conversion is a more recent development. The first bus came out Chandy’s senior year at Berklee, the Mayday bus; it’s still in service. The next bus was for the Michaelson’s; that one had been one of his. He’d put together the financing between his folks, Hill and Grandpa Edward who’d called it foolishness but gone along anyway. The next one was a touring rig he’d reinvested in. Hill would butt her nose in on things picking colors or whatever, as would Twink down in Boston, but they didn’t get to do it as often anymore because he isn’t building touring rigs on spec anymore and not just for Courtland Street Management Company-- Talent. The only way he’s been able to do this is Alice. She’d taken him under her wing and really made it possible. She’d shown him how to do it right, because she believed as long as you did it right there would always be a market for the rigs.
“What are you looking at?” Alice is wiping grease from her hands as she comes into the office of Gordon Motor tours.
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.” Lee replies looking up from the laptop.
“Yeah, and that’ll be different from yesterday how?”
Lee laughs and flips around the monitor so she can see what he’s looking at.
Alice whistles. “Now that is a flash from the past. What got you going there?”
“Something Fancy and Hill were yammering about. They think Grandpa Edward should get some Private Varnish.” Lee makes quote marks in the air. “Hill and Twink started first with the rehabbing of the shipping containers into tour rigs or emergency housing. Then Fancy was telling Hill about going up to Toronto to see a basketball game and how nice it was on the train.”
“That Amtrak run from Toronto thru Port Charles and then down to The City is a nice one.” Alice agrees. “Liked the trip from The City up to Boston too.”
“And Amtrak will pull private cars if they are up to code. They charge an arm and a leg but they do it.” Lee flips to another car online, and another. “You get a lot more flexibility of course with the road mansions– aren’t limited to the rails.”
“Lot of truckers getting out the business or doing local only because the freight companies going back to the rails– cost of fuel is getting out of hand.” Alice grabs her glasses and looks at the monitor more carefully, pursing her lips as she studies the details. “The Old Man isn’t getting around as much as he used to. Makes everyone come to him instead.”
“Bill is going to be at Emerson come September. Drew is going to be going too probably the year after that for Vet School at Tufts-- I know it was one he applied to. Chandy is still based out of Boston, along with all of Mayday. It’s getting to the point where there are more people needing to be shuttled than can fit on the jet. Aunt Colby is based out of Boston now too. I can almost picture it. Grandpa would still make them come to him but he’d be parked at the local train station! Some of the styles on these look like the family room over at the mansion. If he isn’t happy about how often they come up here he could take the family room to them.”
“Mrs Q would have love this.” Alice nods. “It’s an interesting idea.”
“It’s an expensive idea.” Lee sighs. “It’s got to be up to Amtrak mechanical code or it’s parked. That can cost six figures easy. And we’re booked for the next two years with work on the Motor Coaches. We’re already looking for a new building because we’re growing out of the current one.”
The PA calls out in the warehouse. “Hey Lee, need you down on the floor.”
“Got to go.” Lee turns the monitor around and heads down the stairs to the floor of the warehouse bustling with activity-- two buses in different stages of rehab.
Alice looks out the window to the floor below. The kid is right; they had been looking to expand. The cottage is only really big enough for doing a couple of cars– a hobby really, keeping it small. This place had been picked up after the Mayday bus had been completed when she’d started getting calls from bands on the road because of Mayday’s promotion of their bus along with their album. Picking up the phone, she makes a call. “Mouse, going to have to move up that search for a bigger space. Things are getting a little cramped over here. But I have an additional condition. It’s got to be a on a rail line. Hell if there are tracks running right through it wouldn’t bug me a bit.”
“Well that’s a new twist, what brought this on?”
“Kid got an idea.” Alice goes over to Lee’s computer. She isn’t as good with them as the kid is but mostly because she always feels like she’s going to hit three keys at once. “Just sent ya a picture.”
It takes a couple of seconds but then there is a whistle over the phone. “Yeah, I’d say he did. You think there is a market for this?”
Alice shrugs. “Who knows. How would Baby like having a CSMC club on rails?”
“Taking party bus to a whole new level.” Mouse jokes. But he isn’t coming at the idea cold because Fancy had put it in her journal when she’d been doing that tour of the NE. Had hit basketball games in The City, Toronto, Boston and Philly. All of which have rail stations.
Warehouses down by the docks are at a premium. ELQ still uses the docks for their international fleet with the big Sea crane AJ had put into play back when he was running ELQ. Because there is a large freight component to the dock there is a rail line in close proximity. At that point it had been a matter of taking a walk along the tracks to see where they would go and what if anything is available along the way. Having a spur coming off the main rail line into... no, through a warehouse well that is going to be just interesting. It didn’t have to be fancy. Had to be affordable and big. Big enough to house all their equipment and more than the two buses they are working on now. The rehabbing is all about the interiors which had never been Alice’s love. She’d always been more about the mechanics and she would love to get back to that even if it is on the big rigs.
It had taken some doing but Mouse had found one that would work for Alice’s purposes. He’d even sent the graphics off to the sign maker so that a new sign could be made per her specs. Gordon Radcliffe Tours. It was going to fold everything into the space– what they are doing now and what they would be doing hopefully in the future. Baby had found out about the plan and fronted the first of the passenger cars to rehab. It had already been up to Amtrak specs as far as the undercarriage is concerned so it’s all about the car itself and bringing it up to the details expected by the comfortably well off– a polite euphemism for filthy rich. And the passenger cars for a train are definitely more to play with than even a Prevost bus conversion. They are twice as long and actually have an upstairs/down set up. One of the things most of the Private Varnish folks seemed to be doing is trying to hook into nostalgia and bring back the look of the forties and fifties, the heyday of train travel. Thing is that was the best that the 40's and 50's offered and if train travel is going to make a comeback then it’s going to have to be the best offered now, with modern amenities. Alice has always been about taking her cues from the luxury yachts when building her buses. Lee had too in his own way while giving them a younger feel in his choice of colors and fabrics.
“Where is he?!” It’s a screeching bray that has no need for a PA system to carry through the cavernous warehouse of GRT.
Lee looks to the sky for divine intervention and wonders what he has done to deserve a visit at work from Aunt Tracy. He knows right now every single person on the warehouse floor is pointing to the office, the sooner to get Tracy the hell away from them.
Hillary is the first one through the door and it’s at a run so that she can get her side in first. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I had sketches in my portfolio. She thought they were hats. I didn’t mean to tell.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?!” Tracy demands out of breath from climbing all the stairs. “How could you do this as a present for my father from my family and not tell me about it?! I know what my father would like not some grease monkey who can’t even bother to go to college.”
Lee closes his eyes and with his thumb attempts to rub away the headache that had started right between his eyes about a minute ago. “Aunt Tracy, right now it’s a mechanically sound, rusted out in spots, filthy hole getting money thrown at it. I fully intended to bring you in once I had a clean canvas to get started. Hill saw it early because she was checking out one of the rigs. Believe me she’s barred now.”
“Lee! I said I was sorry. You can’t bar me; I’m an investor!” Hillary protests.
“Do you really want to see it, Aunt Tracy?” Lee inquires.
“Of course!” Tracy declares but now she’s not so sure since Lee seems to be giving in a little easy. He’s as bad as Cole.
“Fine. But you’re going to need these.” Lee goes over to a cupboard in the corner of the office and pulls out two pairs of coveralls. “Both of you. Because I’m not going to listen to bitching about snagged this or stained that.” With that he gets up and walks out of the office shutting the door behind him.
Hill grabs a set of coveralls; no matter how small they are she knows they are going to be huge. “Well I can guess that Maxie didn’t design these. But maybe we should have her make some if we’re going to work on Grandpa Edward’s present.”
“You have got to be kidding!” Tracy screeches.
Hill winces but she is already getting changed into the coverall. “I should have thought of this before. Sorry. And Lee’s right. Daddy Cole freaked when I got this sweater if I wreck it the first time I wear it I’ll be cleaning the bar for a month.”
“Oh for goodness sake!” Tracy grabs a pair of overalls and finding a sheltered spot starts changing too.
Lee hadn’t lied. And mechanically sound is really rather boring. Because that is all about where the trucks hit the tracks, brakes, hydraulics. It might be what makes the ride smooth but it isn’t something either Hill or Tracy are going to be crawling around to see. If Tracy hadn’t already seen Hill’s drawings she would be out the door with a curse and the roll of her eyes. But because she has seen the drawings she is already predisposed to see the potential while already seeing the reality. “Your brother needs to get the number of one of Fancy’s shrinks.”
“Not going to be ready for Grandpa’s birthday or Christmas either.” Hill sighs. “Maybe next spring, cherry blossoms in DC when he rips the senator a new one?”
Tracy laughs at that. It’s a short laugh, more of a cough. Hill still adores her father and believes he can do no wrong but over the years that had been tempered with reality. So she knows the Old Man will rip the senator a new one but believes it will be totally deserved and would probably even provide him with a list of things to tear into the senator about.
“You never did see the Mayday bus did you, Aunt Tracy?” Hill frowns. “Lee says before Alice built the bus she did her homework by going to not only RV shows but also yacht shows and reading magazines about boating. It’s all about the built-ins and having all the comforts of home in a much smaller space. And then everything basically has to be contained in case somebody slams on the brakes.”
“Yacht hmm.” Tracy considers. It’s like a turn of a kaleidoscope.
“And Lee says he doesn’t want to build something like the forties or fifties. Doesn’t want to be a trip back in history. He wants it to have all the modern conveniences, doesn’t want it to look retro or dated. Timeless yes, timewarp no. And it’s going to be lot easier to get furnishing and putting in really nice details because you don’t have the weight restrictions that an RV does. It really can be a house on rails.”
“Father isn’t getting any younger.” Tracy mutters as she tries to not touch anything. “The mansion has many of the adaptive things still from when Mother was alive: the elevator, wider hallways, bigger bathroom.”
Hillary pulls out a notepad and starts taking down notes. Her eyes get really wide as an idea occurs to her.
“What?!” Tracy demands impatiently.
“That painting... the one you’ve been hiding from Grandpa that you’re going to give him for his birthday. The one from that artist you like.” Hillary looks around. They are in the lower level of the car which is going to be the lounge. Above it is the observation deck with the big windows designed for site seeing. But this space would be Edward’s lounge. “This is Grandpa’s Zone. Right here. It’s going to be where he’s going to have his chair and there would have to be a beverage cart for his scotch and there would be a small table where he could have his croissant and fruit for breakfast while reading the paper. Where would be the mantle?” Hillary starts looking around the space. There isn’t going to be a fireplace of course but...
“Right there.” Tracy points emphatically. “We need to get measurements of the space. Pull the colors from the painting. Go get a measuring tape.”
Hill gives her a thumbs up not taking the terse order any way but positively and races out of the car in search of a measuring tape.
Tracy looks around again. “This could work.”
“I’ll have a beer.” The man at the rail says to the older man behind the bar.
“Try again.” Cole retorts as he pulls a glass and topping it with ice fills it with coke. He spins it down the bar to his eldest son. “Bad day at the office?”
“Aunt Tracy showed up.” Lee informs his adoptive father glumly.
“Why didn’t you start with that? I might have been tempted even if you are a couple of years short.” Cole makes his way down to the bar stopping briefly to pick up his coffee cup. “What in the hell was the old witch doing at the shop?!”
Lee takes a sip of the coke. He’d cleaned this place long enough to feel almost like he was in a second home. “Hill was at the shop checking out the new space when the rail car was brought in. Hill being Hill promptly started decorating car. She’s done it with the rigs, with the cargo boxes so of course she’s right there with the railcar. Aunt Tracy evidently went snooping through her portfolio thinking it was going to be hats.”
Cole grimaces and shakes his head. “I do not and have never understood your sister... and I have always prided myself on being a man who understands women but your sister...”
“It’s not Hill, not really. It’s Aunt Tracy I don’t understand. I mean I get that she’s a judgmental bitch who is never satisfied with anything and believes any time spent with Grandpa Edward is an infringement on her personal turf– and yet she and Hillary get along.” Lee rubs his thumb between his eyes again. That headache is coming back. “Hill I get. She’s taken martial arts training for the last ten years. She knows she could take Aunt Tracy. Hell she probably figured she could take her when she was ten. It’s Aunt Tracy I don’t get.”
“Tracy I get well enough.” Cole retorts. “She’s all about the Old Man and getting what is hers. I always figured that Hill was her ticket into his good graces. And that whole stock thing they have going... I figured it was going to be just birthdays. Your mother knew better. She saw this coming when Hill turned eight the way Edward, Tracy and Hill all had their heads together. Been that way ever since.”
“I can’t complain.” Lee shakes his head. “She was a major investor in my first rig. In fact she used that against me today when I was trying to kick her and Tracy out of the office. I’m too young to wish that kids didn’t get summer breaks.”
“Yeah, lucky for you that she’s doing a summer job at ELQ.”
Hill’s job at ELQ is in the mailroom. And she follows the uniform of the staffers there for the most part. They are all the go getters the interns and the first years who didn’t jump to a cube on some of the higher floors. But Grandpa had wanted her here because everything that comes to ELQ comes through this room and it would involve her stopping in every office on every floor. She is a Mail Room Spy as far as Grandpa and Aunt Tracy are concerned. Thing is she really didn’t plan on being good at it. Which is why it’s uniform for the most part. She has the feminine version of the button down shirt, dressy slacks or more often skirts, low heels since she’s walking and standing all day and then her business hats which do vary by the day. There may be some in the building who didn’t know the name Hillary Radcliffe but everyone knew about Edward’s granddaughter with the hats.
So the first Monday of her Summer break she is there bright and early arriving before any of the other mailroom folks but not before the mail room supervisor. Since she is the only newby this summer, the supervisor shows her the nuts and bolts of the job and gets her sorting the mail. If the supervisor is surprised by her willingness to get her hands dirty he keeps it to himself. Hill might have not been a regular doing the clean up at Jake’s but she’d done it enough times when Daddy Cole thought she was in need of some one on one time to know how to just get it done. When it comes time to do the mail run for the building she accompanies a more senior member of the mailroom staff who gives a running commentary as they are going floor by floor, door by door. They finish on the executive floor.
“Hill, in my office now!” Tracy demands from her doorway. She’d already called down to the mailroom to find out where the girl is.
“Auntie, we haven’t finished this floor.”
The other mailroom staffer blanches and feels his short career passing before his eyes.
Tracy gives Hill a scathing look which Hill just returns blandly. “Fine, but don’t dwaddle. I have a conference with the designer in twenty minutes.” She goes back in her office.
“Look just go.” Her coworker hisses.
“No, We’ll finish this but really fast okay? I want to hear what the designer says.”
“You seen how we do it. You take this side and I’ll take the other.”
“Deal.” The delivery to this point had been a marathon but they are finishing with a sprint. In 9 minutes and thirty seconds, Hill is breathless but at Tracy’s door.
“Tell her supervisor she’s on a project for me.” Tracy pulls Hill in her office and shuts the door in the staffer’s face.
Hillary goes back to the door and opens it up. “Sorry. I’ll check in right after the conference and...”
“Hill! Now!” Tracy screeches.
“Sorry.” Hill wrinkles her nose but then shuts the door again. Then turning around she demands. “What designer?”
“I commissioned a designer in The City to come up with some looks for the Rail Car.”
“Aunt Tracy, you can’t do that! It’s Lee’s car!”
“You do it all the time. You’re always giving him your little drawings.”
“And he never uses them. Not really.”
Tracy grimaces. She suspects Hill is telling a version of the truth. She wouldn’t put it past Lee to take what he wanted from Hill’s drawings. The boy’s as stubborn and mule headed as his father. “All I commissioned are the drawings. And I paid a premium to cut to the head of the line to get the drawings done. It gives him a place to start.” Tracy hits the intercom to the receptionist. “Send her in.”
The designer isn’t used to cooling her heels in a lobby. She made appointments to see her prospective client’s spaces and take measurements. At this level of her career, she is the one to dictate her schedule. But a commission by Tracy Quartermaine... “Good afternoon, Ms Quartermaine.” She shakes Tracy’s hand since she’d put it out there to shake and looks over at the petite woman in a junior staffer uniform... except for an over the top hat which has her raising a brow and giving a smile.
“This is my niece Hillary Radcliffe. Between the two of us, we know what my father likes.”
“Hello.” Hillary comes over and offers her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I didn’t know that Aunt Tracy was doing this. Did she send you all the measurements and a description of the rail car?”
“A very colorful description and measurements, thanks. As well as the insurance picture of a painting you wanted included in the design.” Opening up her portfolio, she pulls out the first of her sketches. “These are rough; I’d have to do my own measurements if getting into specifics.”
Hill looks at Tracy and shakes her head. This is so not going to work. Lee would never go for it. He has final say on everything going into his rigs and he has his own sources, Alice’s sources. And thanks to Alice’s sources he probably knew where to bury a body of someone that really started getting on his last nerve. “Did Aunt Tracy tell you Grandpa would want timeless and not time warp?” Her voice is wry because she can see the problem already.
The designer winces and glancing through the sketches sets a couple aside.
“My brother may still want to buy those sketches from you. Maybe even frame them and hang them in his office. I don’t think this is going to be the last rail car he rehabs, just the first. But they’re not going to work for Grandpa.” Hill walks along the wall of sketches and adds a couple more to the discard pile basically concluding the rough sort and then glances over at Tracy.
Tracy goes over and examines the works more carefully. Hill goes over to Tracy’s computer and pulls up her own email and prints off an email from Twink. It has a list of adaptive ideas, not only for Grandpa but also for going high tech with the railcar without leaving a huge footprint on the environment. She prints off the email and seeing that there is a pause in the conversation between Tracy and the designer goes back over to them. “I think this one.” Tracy considers. “It’s the closest to what we would have in mind.”
Hill nods. “It’s the one I think Grandpa Edward would like best too.” She glances over at the designer. “The car will be rated for 110 mph. The scary thing about that-- stopping at 110 mph. I doubt it will ever go that fast, it’s not exactly bullet train territory but it’s a requirement for Amtrak. That means everything used on it will have to be installed with that in mind.”
“You’re basically talking like riding an earthquake complete with aftershocks for the length of the trip.” The designer puts it in terms easily understood.
“What a horrifying thought.” Tracy grimaces.
“I’m sure Lee will make sure the shocks are better than that but yeah, there is going to have to be materials used that are going to have some give in them.”
Notes:
http://www.aaprco.com/cgi/cars/cardisplay.pl?yerba buena:type
http://www.aaprco.com/cgi/cars/cardisplay.pl?pointe charles:type
http://www.aaprco.com/cgi/cars/cardisplay.pl?warren henry:type
http://www.aaprco.com/cgi/cars/cardisplay.pl?bella vista:type
http://www.aaprco.com/cgi/cars/cardisplay.pl?vista dome:type
http://www.aaprco.com/cgi/cars/cardisplay.pl?hollywood:type
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