Charlie...I hope you really
mean it when you say that this "good stuff"
ie stories is going to get preserved...I've
often wondered over the years if someone was
actually doing it.
I've done some writing on my own regarding
my "Adventures" as a Terminal Trainmaster on
the RI, and am gathering material...actually
I've already gathered it..just a matter of
getting it on here and other places...for a
Burlington Story...I've got the title, which
I'll not reveal here, but this recent stuff
started by Louis Z. has "tripped my trigger"
and now approaching the Biblical "three score
and 10 plus 10 if your strong"...I'm closer to
the "home terminal" than most of you so the
time of procrastination is almost past... Time
to do it is now.
I've appreciated so much John and now Louis
emphsizing the important of the
Stories....I've always thought that the people
side of the railroads was "where it was" for
me...
Louis your "word picture" of the TCZ
arriving at LaCross was great....My
granddaughter is a golfer and she played that
course last summer..She came home and
said.."Grampa...that golf course was right by
a railroad track...the whole picture came
immediately into focus.
The smell of the diner is someting one
never forgets...When my dad and I would be
waiting at Langdon for 21 and 26 back in the
50's...they usually met somplace around
Langdon so we would catch them both...26
carried a diner-parlor car on the rear
end...As the train would leave and the diner
would go by the platform the aroma of dinner
preparations would waft from the open kitchen
door and the grinning black chef would toss
out a bone to the "depot dog"...Actually he
was the Langdon postmaster's dog and his name
was Spot. We would usually make the Langdon
trip before having supper at home and those
diner smells created a "lustful desire" for a
"dinner in the diner"...well my mother always
had a good one for us when we got home.
Pete