No. 108. Off the Track. He tried hard to get back to his painting, but all he could think about was his Art Train.

No. 107. The Club Car. He grew prouder of his Art Train with every passing month, and the closer her came to reconstructing it and refurbishing it to his satisfaction, the more eager he grew to light out for parts unknown. This afternoon, he was extolling the delights--the delights to come--of the Club Car he had recently purchased from a collector. It was in terrible shape, but, as he explained to his friend, he would soon have it fully restored. Its interior was to be finished in mahogany, with fine brass fittings and soft, deep leather chairs. There would be a bar, a galley, a media centre and a small but distinguished library. He modeled it, he went on to explain, on the Club Cars he loved in some of his favourite films--in Vincente Minelli's The Band Wagon, in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, and in Michael Curtiz's White Christmas.

No. 106. Riding the Green Rooster. He and a handful of diligent friends continued to work on his personal, agit-prop Art Train--upon which it was his intention to travel the world, like a missionary for himself. It had taken months, but they were now almost finished with the caboose. It was his favourite piece of rolling stock. They had carefully maintained (and even exaggerated) the car's vintage, slightly battered look on the outside, but the interior had been impeccably designed as a rolling studio, replete with effective lighting, work tables, cupboards for supplies, a year's supply of paints and canvas, a sink, a washroom, a well-stocked bar, his computer, and a provisional, rather ad hoc bed for momentary visitations of happy exhaustion.

No.105. Highballing. As he grew older, his childhood obsession with trains reasserted itself. This past week, the week of his birthday, he decided to assemble a comfortable if not luxurious train, and set off for the unknown (if he could find it). Each piece of rolling stock was being crafted to his needs. This little luggage car was constructed to hold his art supplies and a small galley-like kitchen. He had hired a photographer to document his entire romance-of-the-rails, and this was the first session. He sat atop the little utility car like a king in his throne-room.

No. 104: Agitprop. Because he very much admired the thrilling Agitprop trains screaming around Russia bringing the good news to the masses during the 1917 revolution, he decided to build one for himself--to set off down the screeching tracks of the future. His train had come exactly a century after those of Lenin and Trotsky. He brought it flowers and wished it well.