Tag: railfan

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Americana Journal

Railroad golden era reminders

It is interesting to me how you find reminders of the Golden Age of Railroad transportation in the oddest places.  Perhaps they only seem odd to me because 100 years ago railroad tracks meandered into many corners of our nation that are far from any railroad today.  

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I attended the CNY-NE district pastors’ retreat at Camp of the Woods near Speculator in the Adirondacks.   To my surprise and joy, sitting in a lawn was an old Erie Railroad caboose #04947.  On the other side it was labeled Napierville Junction 38.  The Napierville Junction Railroad went from Rouse’s Pt. NY to Montreal.    This caboose was from the area when cabooses were made of wood and had rounded dome roofs. Beside it was a station freight cart.   I looked the caboose up on a hobby website by its Erie number.  This one was built in 1929 by Magor Car Company of New Jersey.  

Why was it there?  From their website, Camp of the Woods offers lodging at a cabin built onto another newer caboose—part of a strategy of offering some unique accommodations.  I found a picture on their website. I missed seeing that one but will look for it if I have a chance to visit there again.    I suppose the idea of staying in a caboose may have originated back in the days when tourists came to the Adirondacks by railroad rather than by motorcar since Camp of the Woods traces its history back to 1900.    Was the now unused caboose on the front lawn an earlier accommodation?   Maybe a reader knows.

 

Erie caboose #04947
the caboose in its setting
an old freight cart
A caboose cabin

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Americana Journal

Stony Brook State Park

Once a year or so, JoAnne and I like to return to another place we remember from our youth, Stony Brook State Park.   It contains a glass-clear stream that tumbles down an impressive glen.  It is located between Arkport and Dansville, NY and it can also be easily reached by going over the hill from Haskinville.  So my home church often held its annual Sunday School picnic there.  This entrancing park was also the site of a very special double date when JoAnne and I were in college.   Last week, JoAnne and I took a few hours off to visit it while we were visiting our parents.   We discovered to our sadness that it is one of the state parks that have been partially shut down by the NY state budget crisis.  What a loss to the Hornell-Dansville and eastern Alleghany County area.   It is a little gem.   I recently saw a copy of an antique postcard showing the Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad Bridge that crossed the top of the glen years before I was born.

Stony Brook Glen
It\'s a cold stream
a new wooden bridge
a sheet of water on a smooth roock face
double beauty
the rock is loose too
Sunshine sparkles on the stream
they don\'t seem big enough
The bed is scoured by spring floods
The walk is not hard
The air smells so fresh in here

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Americana Journal Who Am I

January fun with Christmas trains

I always wondered what went on in those houses where Christmas trees remained visible in the windows many weeks into January.   Well, now we’re one of those houses.   So I can share the secret inside our house that keeps the Christmas tree up so long.  

(Psst!)  I’m a small time railroad hobbyist that sets up multiple O-gauge trains under the tree in a display that takes up half the living room.   I can’t bear to take the whole thing down right away!   It is a three level display that includes a Christmas village, farm scene, bridges and tunnels, and the Christmas tree is built in.  It can’t come down until I move enough train stuff so we can reach the tree.   Thankfully, my wife tolerates, maybe even enjoys just a little, my affection for model trains and associated Christmas villages; so she doesn’t object too much that I take up some floor space for two months of the year.   

But that is only one-half of the story.  The other reason for the display staying up so long is this.  The most fun comes when I invite children over to play with the trains.  And everyone is far too busy for that to happen in December, so we wait until January.  All during the month, JoAnne and I invite children from church to view and play engineer with the trains.    Well, yes, it is a little dangerous to the train cars and parts and model vehicles because there are wrecks, but it is so much fun to watch the boys and girls having fun that it is definitely worth the risk.   JoAnne bakes cookies and I get down on the floor, give instructions in how to operate things, take pictures, and try to keep the trains running.   It is the best part of the hobby.   

So now you know.  In case you still don’t believe me, here are a few photos for evidence.   But now it’s February tomorrow and I really do have to take down the Christmas tree…

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Americana Journal

Snoqualmie Falls and A Railroad Museum

This railroad museum we didn’t just run into, but found on the maps and in the guidebook.   Near the end of our recent summer vacation, we decided to stop on our way back toward Seattle to see Snoqualmie Falls in WA (http://snoqualmiefalls.com/).   It is an impressive cataract, higher than Niagara.  The viewpoint park was under reconstruction so we could not quite see it to best advantage.  In addition, the water was lower in August, so it did not show the power it would have in the spring.   But it still was very impressive.

On our way out to the falls, there were two tracks of old railroad equipment collected by the museum there, including numerous engines.  So JoAnne hung out at the falls park while I returned to the train museum.  A few pieces had been restored.  Many others were awaiting attention.  One of the most unique engines, in my view, was parked in the back where it could not be seen very well.  It was a large tank engine.   One usually thinks of tank engines as being smaller.   However, the curator at the museum answered that in the West larger tank engines were not that uncommon. Near the museum grounds was an example of the logs that where originally cut there. As you can see from the picture, it was huge.   You would think it was a redwood but it was not, it was just a big spruce. 

The depot itself was impressive and very well preserved.  Behind it was an old building, originally a lodge building, currently holding a restaurant/bar.  It had been preserved too and was fascinating inside.  I had a glass of Snoqualmie Root Beer on-tap there.   There was a mount of a mountain lion in the corner and a chromed wood stove. The old bar still had water running in the trough spittoon at its base.    I could only imagine how gross it must have been when that was actually in use. 

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Americana Journal

A Rural Railroad Surprise

We had stopped to get gas in the middle of nowhere.   As I pumped gas, I looked to the left of the station and noticed a small railroad station and yard, only a couple tracks and a sideline or two.  But they looked like they might belong to a branch line or a tourist railroad.   So I walked up the street and checked it out.   The pictures show what I found.    It was obviously rather rural as the mule deer ate right beside the tracks.    I found a couple websites for it too.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4alxKVJ4eVk  and http://www.trainweb.org/rosters/WURR.html.

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Americana Journal

An old Shay locomotive

in Columbia Falls, Montana
in Columbia Falls, Montana

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One night we were searching all over for a motel.   It was at the end of a long travel day and we were both tired.  We hadn’t made reservations since this stop was about 10 days into the trip and we weren’t positive we could keep up our planned itinerary.    When we arrived at Glacier, hotels were full and in Kalispell, the nearest big town since the State Fair was in town, so the situation was compounded.  

But, sometimes good things happen, even when you are frustrated over something else. We turned up a street in Columbia Falls, Montana, looking for that elusive room.   As I started to turn around, there at the end of the street was a railfan’s dream, an old lumber locomotive, a Shay.   It was all alone in an end-of-the-street park.  Of course, I jumped out and took the picture.  Online, I found a webpage about it  (http://claytondeerparkhistoricalsociety.com/photo_11.html). 

It’s easy in life to get so focused on the frustrations that we miss the gifts that come at inopportune times and unexpected moments.  One of the great skills in life is to be tuned in to the rarity of the moment so that we don’t let the urgency of the mundane – like searching for a room – make us miss experiencing something rare, like a parked Shay, or a special spiritual moment.