All Aboard
Salvaging some more pictures from the farm, I found a box with the above photo in it showing a train sitting in the very town where I live now. Sitting in the upper row, third person from the left, is my great grandfather Irvin who worked for that railroad. It certainly is a classic picture and one that I knew the story behind. Taken in 1937, is certainly wasn't the first train in town and not the last because trains still run through town to this day.
Incidentally, down near the historic train depot that Amtrack uses now, a nearly identical train engine sits out front on display of times gone by. The front end is just a little bit different and the number isn't the same but it is close enough one might not notice without comparing pictures.
Ed, that is neat (both the picture and the story).
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in eighth grade, the local big city had a train festival and engines from all over came. I remember standing behind my school and watching a steam engine come down the tracks and through. Likely that had not happened for 40 years or more at the time, and it was wonderful to get that quick view into history.
They are certainly a lot different than the modern Omaha Orange boxes that pull the trains through town.
DeleteThat's a very neat picture to have! I was waiting at a train track, watching a very long train go by. It went on and on and I was daydreaming. I was in the town that I had grown up in. When I was a little girl in my little bed, I used to hear the train whistle, and even at 3 or 4, it sounded sad to my ears. I found myself wondering about the life expectancy of train engines. I wondered if I was watching a train rush by being pulled by an engine that I had laid in bed listening to as a preschooler.
ReplyDeleteI wonder where this engine sits now or whether it has been scrapped.
I would guess there is probably some directory of train engines out somewhere on the interweb but I don't know where nor what information I would need to identify the one above. I'm guessing the number alone isn't unique enough.
DeleteWhat a great old picture! And it's even better that you know some of the backstory and can identify your great-grandfather.
ReplyDeleteKnowing someone in the photo does make it more special.
DeleteHow cool is it you have that picture?! In a future post, you should show us a picture of the train engine you describe that is on display. It would be interesting to see the two photos side by side.
ReplyDeleteI'll see if I have a photo of it. I probably do somewhere but not sure I can find it.
DeleteI'll have to share this with my SIL. He loves trains!
ReplyDeleteI like the thought of trains and certainly enjoyed the one time I rode Amtrak. I just don't know if that one time would translate over a lifetime love affair of trains.
DeleteVERY cool!
ReplyDeleteI thought so too.
DeleteThat's a great picture of a bunch of hardworking men who kept the trains going. I noticed there's a guy on the top row who is waving at the cameraman. Sad to think that all of them must have passed away by now.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly makes we could go back in a time machine and be at whatever event this was just to get a perspective that a picture alone will never provide.
DeleteThis was once a bit of a railway town at the junction of a north-south line and east-west one. The E-W line was well gone before we arrived in 2005, but N-S line survived until about 2008 until that recession put an end to it. It tool awhile but that line has been converted into a trial. The trail along the old E-W line leads right into Ottawa.
ReplyDeleteCurrently there is a merger in the works between the company that owns the rails here in town and one that owns most of the ones in southern Canada. If the merger goes through, the train traffic here in town might increase ten fold. Many of the locals are not too keen on that happening. I live too far away so the sound doesn't bother me and I only directly cross the tracks maybe once every couple months. Mostly I use one of several bridges that go over the tracks.
DeleteI love those old photos with their history! Next time I'm in your town I'll ask to visit that nearly identical train.
ReplyDeleteIt is fairly close to the ice cream shop!
Deletevery cool old photo:)
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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