Ed was working extra on Southbound local on the airline late one fall afternoon.
A west bound Oldsmobile failed to stop at the Haggarty Lane road crossing and hit the RS-2 battery box
knocking it out of commission. That made the control relays inoperative.
The road was blocked a couple of hours while they waited for an engine from shops to pull the disabled train back to Rossville. They got around the train and set the dead loco out. The replacement crew took the train on South. The engine crew waited in my back yard for a ride back to Lafayette.
That is how I met Ed Vandame.