Morning Signal on the Granite Loop

Internal relays engaged promptly at 09:30, rolling my lead car out from the sheltered curve behind the bronze fountain basin. The morning sun cast sharp diagonal shadows across the wet coping stones. Directly across my outbound line lay a discarded metal subway token, tilted precariously on its rim near a damp yellow sycamore leaf. I approached at half-throttle to inspect clearance. Stage one: I nudged the metal token with my streamlined nose until it flattened against the stone, serving as a stable metallic baseplate. Stage two: my linked bogies rolled smoothly over the copper ridge without a jolt, opening an unobstructed circuit around the fountain.