John - Well, no wonder, smell is the strongest memory. One smell
I'd rather forget after all these years, but will share with all of you tonight,
is the STINK of baked urine on a suburban depot stove in the dead of winter. I
can't remember if such stoves were gas or fuel oil fed, but the Q left them on
day and night. You might freeze to the platform waiting on some dinky
to stop, but inside the depot waiting room it was like a sultry August
afternoon with, of course, the STINK. I always wondered what kind of pervert
would delight in p------ on a hot stove? Ahhhhh, that was just part and parcel
of the old Q we loved so long ago and in particular Downers Grove Main Street
depot in the early 1960s. More on smells, later. Louis
In a message dated 1/28/2013 7:42:21 P.M. Central Standard Time,
cbqrr47@yahoo.com writes:
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Pete
You brought to mind a favorite theme. You know we read and
hear a lot about the sights and sounds of the railroad, and of
course the feel of it and with reference to diners, the taste. But what
about the smells, the wonderful smells. The odor of a kerosene lights,
the aroma of high sulphur coal smoke, the smell of steam
and valve oil, the smoke of creosote ties being burnt, hot brake
shoes and the skunk-like smell of new air hoses, all blended
together to make something that smelled like the railroad. Later, there
was the smell of diesel exhaust. I always thought Q depots, yard offices
and waycars had a musty smell that was unique.
John
--- On Mon, 1/28/13, Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com
<Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com> wrote:
From:
Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com <Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com>
Subject:
[CBQ] Story POsts
To:
cbq@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, January 28, 2013, 7:12 PM
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
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