RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappett Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and, duh, the answer to last week's Puzzler. And this one came from someone named Tim Sullivan, and I don't know if the facts are right, but the flavor was just so good, I had to use it.

TOM: I'm beginning to remember it. It was good.

RAY: Anyway, Tim writes, years ago, when the railroads used steam locomotives, and that isn't even relevant.

TOM: No.

RAY: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had a busy freight line running south from Rochester, New York, and they used a locomotive of the 2-8-2 type, also irrelevant, meaning there are two wheels in the front which don't do anything, eight wheels behind those, which are the drivers. Those are the ones that are connected to the steam engine. And then, two trailing wheels. And a 2-8-2 could handle a train of 80 cars.

TOM: Mmm-hmm.

RAY: But on this particular run, it couldn't handle a train of 60 cars. It had to have 80.

TOM: That doesn't make sense.

RAY: Doesn't make sense. And the hint is, there's something unusual between Rochester and wherever the train is headed. And what's unusual --

TOM: Bandits. No. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

RAY: Bandits would be good.

TOM: Bandits would be good, but that's not the answer.

RAY: No, this route consists of a bunch of hills which are pretty closely spaced. Imagine the following scenario.

TOM: OK.

RAY: The train with 60 cars is trying to climb one of these hills. As it nears the top, it is pulling all 60 cars up the hill, OK?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And, the engineer says, the drivers are beginning to slip. I ain't gonna make it. If only I had some help. And the help would come from an additional 20 cars attached to the back of the train --

TOM: Still on the downward slope!

RAY: -- on the down slope of the previous hill, and helping, by the force of gravity, to push the train up over the next hill.

TOM: Sonja Henie's --

RAY: Whaddya think of that?

TOM: Love it! This is great!

RAY: Do we have a winner?

TOM: Man! All right. We do have a winner. The winner is Ray Johnson from Titusville, Florida.

RAY: Ray Johnson.

TOM: From Titusville, Florida has won the Puzzler prize. And he may say, what did I win? What did I win? Well, don't get your shorts in a bunch, Ray, because all you won is a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk Shameless Commerce Division on our website.

RAY: Hey, you can get our new T-shirt, the Car Talk T-shirt emblazoned with our motto, Non Impedite Raditioni Cogitationis.

TOM: I had one on yesterday.

RAY: Yes.

TOM: I loved it.

RAY: Yes.

TOM: Yeah.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]