This is what I stole from for the title of the original post.
Walking home from school in 1962 a group of us kids would always walk the tracks the mile or so from town out to where we all lived.?ÿ There was passenger service then on the Denver & Rio Grande Western.?ÿ It was common to have a southbound train at that time with two passenger cars behind the engine with freight cars trailing behind them.
The first mile or so the train would be rolling fairly slow.?ÿ At times you could almost walk faster than the train and we would watch the 'bos hop on and off near the trestle over the creek.?ÿ It didn't take long for one or two of us to consider riding a freight car for that mile.?ÿ One day I (for some reason I still can't put my finger on) decided to try it out.
I thought a couple of us would try, but I seemed to be the only one that made it to the landing of a hopper car.?ÿ I waved at my buddies as the train slightly outpaced them.?ÿ Trouble was by the time I had made it to the where I needed to hop off the train was rolling too fast to make a safe jump.?ÿ Looking backwards I sadly watched Buena Vista, CO disappear and settled in for the ride to Salida.
The train made a stop in Salida and was able to hop off.?ÿ I started walking and tried to figure out how to get home.?ÿ The Salida PD snagged me quickly...I was the only hobo carrying a book bag.
My folks made way too much out of the affair....
The only portion of that entire story I question is the mention of a book bag.?ÿ I also attended school in 1962 and no one in our school had a book bag of any kind.?ÿ We did school work at school and our chores and farm work at home.?ÿ Separation of two functions was essential.
My class at school had 6th., 7th. & 8th. grades combined in one room with one teacher.?ÿ No lockers and no assigned desks with any sort of storage.?ÿ We simply had to lug our books around with us.?ÿ If I remember it was a math book, social studies and a grammar book.?ÿ My "bag" was a simple square of green oiled canvas with a pocket of sorts.?ÿ The books fit in the pocket, the corners were folded in and then the whole thing was rolled like a tortilla.?ÿ It had an attached canvas belt that could be wrapped around the whole mess and cinched.
I don't remember calling it a "bag" back then.?ÿ I believe we referred to it as a "satchel".?ÿ It was essential gear when walking to school with 3 and 4 feet of snow on the ground.
PS - There was at least one book we left at school.?ÿ It was an English literature book.?ÿ Nice and thick, it had all the favs like Silly-Ass Marner and Great Expectations.?ÿ We had to leave them at school because other grades used them too.?ÿ I also remember there was only a certain number of them.?ÿ If you didn't grab one quick enough you were doomed to 'share' with someone that read a lot slower than you did.?ÿ
With all due respect to Glen, John Hartford wrote this song, and my opinion the following is the best rendition ever.
That reminds me. I supported the Hartford Fiddle Tunes project and got the CD. I need to pull it out and listen through it again.
They invited a bunch of acoustic musicians to look through the many notebooks of unpublished tunes Hartford left, and pick one or two to record.?ÿ I especially like the ones done by Brittany Haas. I heard one of them live before the CD when she played our local arts venue (now a rather inactive place, of course).
I certainly wouldn't argue that. It's just a great piece of music, appropriate for a single banjo or a full symphony orchestra.
Introduced in 1967-68, the subtle mention of railroad tracks and soup cauldrons marks the intersection of the past and the future. It just seemed appropriate for this discussion.
I go to Glen's Sioux City performance because it was done very late in his career and it shows the versatility of him and his music. His simple ones with just the guitar are just as impressive though.
I always wanted to take a train ride through the Rockies, but it looks like that's not going to happen.
I too have always liked trains, there was a Union Railroad (US Steel subsidiary) line about 1/4 mile from my house, it brought iron ore pellets from the Great Lakes down to the Mon Valley mills. Always had lots of ammo for my slingshot. I could hear it at night climbing the grade up from the Allegheny River crossing. There was an island in the middle of the river and a ladder from a catwalk underneath the surface of the bridge down to the island. I used to climb down there and camp out. The island is shown in the pic below...long climb down. A similar ladder is shown at the far right of the picture from the top down to the land pier. Pretty dangerous looking back...the ladder was in two parts, down to the pier and then down to the island. The section to the island was always locked, but I would climb the fencing around the top 5 fet and then get inside the "cage" for the climb down. One time I was doing that and a portion of the fence broke loose and I was swaying pretty high off the island. Lucky I wasn't killed.?ÿ
An interesting thing about that bridge it that it replaced an older one in 1905. They built this one on the same pier, then somehow jacked it into place and removed the old one from the 1800's.?ÿ
There was also a train along the Allegheny River through the town I grew up in (Oakmont, PA) that we figured out how to trip the signal where a state highway crossed it, that was our mischievous fun. When we first moved there in the mid 60's there was passenger service in to the city, but that disappeared a few years later. There is still periodic talk about bringing back the passenger service, but it never goes anywhere. I am not even sure that the line exists all the way to downtown anymore.?ÿ
When I was 15 I lived in Chile and took the train to school every day, even though there was a faster bus the train was more cool. That train is now gone. So is a really cool line from the capital to the south of Chile. So it is not just in the US where lines are disappearing.?ÿ
I rode the Black Diamond Express from Calcutta to Dhanbad in India in the mid 90's when I went there for a project. Also the Marrakesh Express from Casablanca to Marrakesh, Morocco. And lots of trains in Europe. I got a picture on a train from Madrid to Barcelona where the display at the end of the car said our speed was 301 km/hr. Smooth.?ÿ
In the US the only real train trip I have taken other than local commuter trains and tourist trains was from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC. It takes at least twice as long, maybe longer, than driving. But still a cool ride through the mountains.
@paden-cash Once upon a time "someone" (I'd NEVER do that) put a dime on top of a penny on the rail.?ÿ I did find the penny but not the dime.?ÿ The dime had made an impression in the penny.?ÿ Copper must have been softer than whatever the dime was made of.
Andy
Thirty-six years ago my bride and I rode the Via Rail from Vancouver BC to Banff Springs for our honeymoon. The return trip was right before Grey Cup weekend which filled the train with fans from Hamilton Ontario. Needless to say those fans had pretty much drank all the liquor on the train shortly after we boarded at Lake Louise. Our west-bound train met the east-bound train and took on most of the liquor that that train had but it wasn't enough. So approaching Revelstoke the hat was passes in the bar car so that a couple of guys could sprint to the liquor store during the scheduled stop and resupply. I remember the hat being full of that colored funny money they use up north and that there were a couple of guys that were willing to make the run.?ÿ However, the conductor put a damper on that endeavor when he noted that a coal train was approaching on the other track and this train would be leaving before it cleared, stranding the two guys in Revelstoke. Even though they would have a bunch of booze, they also had tickets to the game and weren't willing to take the chance they would miss it. Sure enough Mr. Conductor knew what he was saying.?ÿ I don't even know if there is passenger service across Canada anymore.?ÿ?ÿ
@mathteacher I saw an advertisement on PBS for that this morning.
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Here's the whole trip in 16 1/2 minutes. I think that Mighty Trains has an episode that goes west to east with a lot more detail.
I was hungry when this video was over.
@mathteacher Sadly, it appears that Via Rail doesn't go thru Banff and Lake Louise anymore. You need to take the bougie tourist train to get there.
