Trains

February 10

I am thankful for trains. There is something powerful and grand about them. The noise and rhythm they make as they lumber down the tracks, clickety clack, clickety clack, opens old memories for me. Having a train set as a child only enhanced my love for trains. For me, trains represent a romantic and bygone era.

I remember my first train ride when I was quite young. My pregnant mother (with my sister Mary Beth) was taking my brother Fred and I to Akron, Ohio, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to visit her parents prior to us moving for nine months to Chicago. I remember how scared I was to walk between the cars with the loud noise and the rocking of the cars. I too remember seeing a man in a car at the intersection drive slightly too far before stopping and his radio antenna was clipped off by the descending arm of the railroad crossing arm. I also remember my last train ride when I was just sixteen (it's been way too long) when two of my golfing buddies and I went off to Pensacola on a train to play in the Southern Junior Golf Tournament. It was my first time away from home without my parents and the first time I ever saw the beach.

This photo is of a train which happened upon me all of a sudden while I was taking the photograph from yesterday of Train Tracks/Train Stations. I just had enough time to get off of the tracks to snap this photo.

train

passenger train take me away

onboard your clean and shiny cars

while i sit in comfort and style

no navigational lodestars

no surprise where you’re going

just follow the rails away

never get lost

never fear going astray.

© rt tulley