These are just great gang! Wonderful memories. I love trains.

Ya' see I was the son of an Engineer.......technically they are "Enginemen" as opposed to the other definition of engineer. Dad hired out on the section gang with the Pennsy in 1937 when he graduated high school. Dennison was a railroad town and back then railroading was a very respectable profession with good union and good pay. Then of course there was just the respect and awe that railroaders were held in back in those days.

He went into Engine Service in 1940 , served in a railway battallion in WWII and came back to work on the Pennsylvania Railroad...for the entirety of his life. He loved running freight and preferred it over the regularity of passenger service. I think there was something about moving 140 cars smoothly at speed that got to him where he lived. My Mom on the other hand hated it!

It was no way to run a family, or like none she was used to anyway. But Margie was an early "liberated woman." A "Rosie" during WWII, she worked at Timken Roller Bearing in Canton. She was musically talented beyond belief, very intelligent, very independent, and an only child of a family that was not rich, but certainly not hurting for money either. But then when she was 24 she fell in love with this railroader from the "wrong side of the tracks" and life became really entertaining! You could never plan anything because Dad might or might not be home. It drove her nuts but she loved him and he loved her. I never questioned that one thing in my childhood although I questioned everything else. They were truly in love. She'd throw a fit, he'd make her laugh. When she died, he was lost.

But what of the train trip?

Okay.......Back then, Pennsy employees families had Passes to ride anywhere at anytime. We liived in a small Ohio town that had once been a major rail yard and station but was now closed down with the runs on the Panhandle Division going between Pittsburgh and Columbus. Every month or so, we'd go to Columbus and every few months to Pittsburgh. This was big around Christmas of course and as a kid there was nothing much finer than visiting those cities when they were decorated for Christmas. My world was a lot smaller then and I remember asking a conductor friend (most of the guys were known to me and many were from my town like my Dad) if we were out of Ohio yet when we were only halfway to Columbus. But one trip sticks in my mind above the rest.

I was 13 or so and one early summer morning the Old Man says, "Hey....Wanna' take a train trip?" I agreed right away and before you knew it we were downtown Columbus (we had moved to a Columbus suburb when I was 10) at Union Station and hopping a train for Indianapolis. Now I had been to Indy by car to watch cars, but to ride the rails there was completely different. I have no idea what inspired the Ol' Man but off we went. We ate in the dining car both ways, wandered around Indy with no specific destination or reason and went to a movie..."The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." We also went to a few shops until we found this beautiful crystal rose bowl, etched with roses, which we bought for my Mom.

We arrived back home pretty late and I was worn out but anxious to give my Mom her gift. She loved it of course and even if she hadn't, I would never have known. I would bring her baskets of lavender from every county and state fair I went to my entire life. Remember those? Little baskets filled with lavender you used as sachets in drawers. Every drawer in our house stunk of lavender because I was the pipeline.....bringing something home to my Mom that always made her happy.   The night she died, Dad and I were talking and he said, "Son, she would never say anything to you, but she hated lavender."   But on that night we got home from Indy, I think what she liked best was me and Dad having a good time together. Dad was always gone more so our time together was less.

I know that's not much of a story, but my entire childhood was somehow inextricably tied to trains because of Dad and where we lived so picking any one story isn't easy and most of them are pretty boring......except to me. So thanks for hanging in this long.

Spaw