Earlier this week Jayne at injaynesworld was talking about trains. She was talking about how President Obama was committing millions of dollars to build a high-speed train service. We don't have a high-speed train service in Canada. Some would argue we don't even have moderate-speed service but that's a subject for another time.
Jayne's story got me thinking about my childhood and the role trains played in it. For example, I remember as a kid getting a Lionel train set for Christmas one year. Lionel made smaller, "O gauge" trains and I recall subsequently adding to the set and spending hours and hours playing with it on the floor. I wasn't the only Lionel fan. Singer Neil Young apparently has a huge collection of Lionel trains and used to be a minority shareholder in the company.
I also recall my friend's father driving us - what seemed like miles - to the train tracks to watch freight trains go by. We'd lay down a couple of pennies on the track and then we'd wait what seemed like hours and then wave at the engineer and count the boxcars. Then we searched for our flattened pennies. Hey, this was quite an exciting activity for a couple of 7 year-olds.
A few years later my father, a federal public servant, was transferred from Toronto to Ottawa and, not owning a car, the family took the train. We had our own room and for a 10 year old it was like living in the lap of luxury.
Later, in grade school in Ottawa, my buddies and I used to hop trains on the track that ran behind the school. Lord knows what we were thinking. When we got caught we were told stories of kids falling and getting their legs or arms or even heads severed beneath the train's wheels. That put us off hopping trains.
But it didn't put us off hanging around the train tracks. At around the same time my buddies, the same reprobates I think, and I used to walk down the street from the school at lunch hour and duck under the train trestle where we'd eat our lunch, shoot the shit and smoke. Yep, I had my first cigarette by the train tracks.
Maybe that's why I liked the movie Stand By Me. The film was based on a Stephen King short story about a group of kids who go on a trip down the train tracks in search of the body of another kid who got struck by a train. It was one of those coming of age stories. I and my buddies walked plenty of railway tracks, although we never found a body. But seeing that film as an adult brought all those memories flooding back.
And that pretty much sums up my childhood relationship with trains. Thankfully, since then I haven't strayed too far off the beaten track.
Jayne's story got me thinking about my childhood and the role trains played in it. For example, I remember as a kid getting a Lionel train set for Christmas one year. Lionel made smaller, "O gauge" trains and I recall subsequently adding to the set and spending hours and hours playing with it on the floor. I wasn't the only Lionel fan. Singer Neil Young apparently has a huge collection of Lionel trains and used to be a minority shareholder in the company.
I also recall my friend's father driving us - what seemed like miles - to the train tracks to watch freight trains go by. We'd lay down a couple of pennies on the track and then we'd wait what seemed like hours and then wave at the engineer and count the boxcars. Then we searched for our flattened pennies. Hey, this was quite an exciting activity for a couple of 7 year-olds.
A few years later my father, a federal public servant, was transferred from Toronto to Ottawa and, not owning a car, the family took the train. We had our own room and for a 10 year old it was like living in the lap of luxury.
Later, in grade school in Ottawa, my buddies and I used to hop trains on the track that ran behind the school. Lord knows what we were thinking. When we got caught we were told stories of kids falling and getting their legs or arms or even heads severed beneath the train's wheels. That put us off hopping trains.
But it didn't put us off hanging around the train tracks. At around the same time my buddies, the same reprobates I think, and I used to walk down the street from the school at lunch hour and duck under the train trestle where we'd eat our lunch, shoot the shit and smoke. Yep, I had my first cigarette by the train tracks.
Maybe that's why I liked the movie Stand By Me. The film was based on a Stephen King short story about a group of kids who go on a trip down the train tracks in search of the body of another kid who got struck by a train. It was one of those coming of age stories. I and my buddies walked plenty of railway tracks, although we never found a body. But seeing that film as an adult brought all those memories flooding back.
And that pretty much sums up my childhood relationship with trains. Thankfully, since then I haven't strayed too far off the beaten track.
Comments
Nowadays they still do it, but in the safety of their home: video games. Oh, and they usually shoot things at it.
This was a sweet memory Nomie. Thanks for sharing it with us.
But I never hung out around train tracks. I still don't. Pity. I may have missed something there!
I'm not sure they got the right kind though. It seems they got tropical weather trains when we really needed trains suited for a temperate climate. First hint of snow, cold, wind or rain they stop working and are 5 hours late.
The tracks were never removed and served as a nature and ATV trail in the summer and a snowmobile trail in the winter.
On Sunday, I am going to travel to San Francisco by TRAIN instead of by car just so I can experience no traffic and be able to relax instead of grit my teeth for 3 hours into the city.
Have you ever read Atlas Shrugged? Of course you haven't. No one in their right mind would. But I did. I ask because of the train thing in there.
Thank you for sharing your childhood memories, Dufus. It was one more wonderful piece of you we got to know.
But I never hung out around train tracks. I still don't. Pity. I may have missed something there!
I'm not sure they got the right kind though. It seems they got tropical weather trains when we really needed trains suited for a temperate climate. First hint of snow, cold, wind or rain they stop working and are 5 hours late.
If I ever got super-rich, I would have a train set that ran the whole house ...