I Love Trains...

-

 I’m not yet ready to write a blog about Christmas, but I’ll get there. This week, I’ve been thinking about trains, especially while watching so many ‘going’ and ‘coming’ through our valley. Trains have change in many ways in my lifetime, and this may bring back a few memories for you too.

In the early 1940s, our family lived on a farm, and when it was necessary to travel 80 miles to the city, many times my Mom and I would take the train. The proprietor of our General Store, would sell us our tickets, and then put up ‘the flag’ so that the train engineer would know to stop the train to pick up more passengers. I loved the huge steam engine, and the recognizable whistle that we could hear on the farm. I didn’t love it so much on the winter trip in 1947, when the train got stuck in the huge snow drifts. I do remember that we had to sleep on the train one night, until the snow plow helped to get the train going again.

When I had my first vacation, after graduating from Nursing School, I treated myself to a long train ride from the small prairie town where I worked to the northern mountain area of the western province. It was my first independent trip to visit my very favorite friends, and the whole vacation was filled with many first-time experiences.

The next significant train ride was with our two children, heading to the west coast of Canada on ‘The Canadian’. We spent a lot of time in the Panorama Car, a sort of ‘bubble top’ that was perfect to observe the beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The kids were well entertained, no matter where they were on the train, especially in the Dining Car.

Our travels have also given us opportunity to take train rides. We’ve been on trains in theme parks, LRT in several cities, and on a narrow-gauge railway in Alaska. We also toured England on a train, travelled to Edinburgh and Inverness in Scotland, and now enjoy train travels on TV. Our travel days seem to be in the past, but we still have these trains to watch every day. I’m still fascinated, and catch myself trying to count the cars as they roll down the valley. Many of them are well over 100 cars, with multiple engines on front and in the middle, and a pusher at the back.

I've discovered that it is much easier to count cars when I’m at a rail crossing in town, and need to be patient.



Train-Valley


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Tale of Toasted Buns

-
Image
My mother's family were of German decent, with several major moves in their history. There are few details of her grandparent's move from Germany to southern Russia, during the reign of Catherine The Great, but we were told of the importance of the toasted buns which were, and still are, a special treat. In preparation for their long journey, they believed that to stay healthy, it was importance to bring a supply of drinking water with them as well as an abundance of homemade buns, toasted so that they wouldn't spoil. Mother frequently made toasted buns but I was never much for helping in the kitchen during my school years. All I had to say was that I needed to practice my piano lesson, and I would be excused from kitchen duty because Mother loved to hear me play the piano. My interest in cooking began to increase when I started my first job after graduating from nursing school. I rented a small basement suite and I had my own kitchen, and a recipe book from my mother. ...
Read more

Blogs On The Hill

-
Many of my cyber-friends know that I’m not much for watching TV. I love music, and I love to learn new stuff, so I am a fan of YouTube. Politics is something that I won’t discuss if at all possible. So much of what is on TV is focused, either directly or indirectly, to current trends and politics, peppered with antagonistic, hurtful, and unsubstantiated accusations. I’m a Canadian, living in an area that apparently produces ‘dirty oil’. Maybe they meant to say that oil makes your clothes dirty!!!! We have our share of domestic and government problems, as do many other countries. We are inundated with American News and politics, as well as our own, but in a democracy, it is our votes that count.  Voting to me is still a privilege, and I have never missed an opportunity to cast my ballot. Some will applaud the outcome of the vote, others will disagree, but we have to live with it. Why is it so hard to find a positive result instigated by a government decision? In my opinion, the ...
Read more

Cyber Friendships

-
My weekend was wonderful … the weather was ‘ify’ and I was happy to stay home. The housework was done, I don’t have a garden, and I’m feeling quite well. I’ve missed so much of what has been happening with my friends here on The Hill, so I spent much of the day, sending private messages to those who are on my list of friends. I discovered that a number of my long-term friends have not been on The Hill for almost a year. I do know that one of them had been very ill, and I’m wondering how she is or if she survived her physical challenges. All of this activity has got me thinking about the cyber friendships that we make here, even though we probably will never meet them in person. How do we decide who we would enjoy meeting and getting to know, and do we accept every invitation to join someone else’s group of friends? I registered on NOTH only weeks after it was launched, and have enjoyed many wonderful friendships. I’ve also made some errors along the way. Having been a staff helper for...
Read more