World at War Part One.

The year is 2013 the 10th of March as the ES44AC Locomotive blows past the railroad crossing.
The engineer in the seat of this beast is named John Clark, a 2nd generation railroad engineer for Gulf Coast and Western Railroad, he comes from a long line of railroaders, his great great grandfather was a engineer for a confederate steam train that supplied the advancing confederate armies during the civil war.
"Sure is a beautiful day today" Said Wayne Johnson a 20 year seasoned veteran of the railroad who sat next to John on the locomotive. "Beautiful day indeed." Agreed John as he radioed the dispatcher to request clearance across the approaching train bridge. "4474 to dispatch" Said John over the radio. Within five seconds he got a reply. "This is dispatch, go ahead 4474" The dispatcher said over the radio.
"This is 4474, we are requesting clearance to pass the bridge near signal 1055, over." John said before blowing through another crossing.
"Dispatch to 4474 you are clear to go through the bridge at discretion of the signals, over." The dispatcher finally replied. "Clear to go past bridge at signal discretion thanks, 4474 out." He said, before setting the radio on top of the radio stack. The train carrying 50 Boxcars and hoppers worth of goods slowed down to 15 miles per hour before crossing the swing bridge that spanned over the bay.
The trestles on the bridge creaked and shook under the weight and noise of the train as it made its way across. John waved to the bridge tender as the leading locomotive passed the bridge tenders hut.
Finally after 15 minutes the train was passed the bridge and started to speed back up, that's when tragedy struck.
They had passed a green signal when all of a sudden a bright white flash appeared, the train crew was startled and could not see out the windshield. The conductor instinctively pulled the emergency brake valve sending millions of tons of freight to a stop, the train crew began to shield their eyes.
The flash dissipated and when John Clark opened his eyes to look out the window, what he saw shocked him. The locomotive was black. The flash was so bright it burned the paint clean off of the locomotive body and most of the freight cars behind it. Both John and Wayne were sunburned on their faces pretty badly as a result of the flash. After Wayne got his bearings straight he looked out the window and screamed. "John what the hell is that!" Pointing to the west.
John looked and with fear in his voice he said "That's a mushroom cloud. We've been nuked."