Train Journey Ashleigh Porter, Grade 12, Fraser Coast Anglican College Short Story 2011 I am boarding a train. My mom and dad and I are driving the 1954 Chevy Bel-Aire back from somewhere late at night. demise of Engine 93, and Engineer, Edmund Johansson. In 1998 a gentleman by the name of Andre Kristopans put together a web page highlighting virtually every unit every out-shopped by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. No. The wind, thunder, sparks, a flying piece of metal, the ground shaking as I sat still, my hair whipping about my face -- I only have images, stills which capture but are not captured by the motion of the train. I was actually making myself think that he was walking along the tracks with his mind on his work and never heard the train. He was lucky, for some reason, they didn't arrest him. You are on your own!". ", He tells my mom to speed up and find the next place the road crosses the tracks. -- two coaches full of French immigrants en-route to Montreal -- left Third: whispers becoming moans and quiet muffled shrieks; the stereo of the rails making one (almost) want to lay there down on the trackbed and listen to the varicolored slow and lethal speech of steel to steel. I would suggest that Mansfield intentionally uses the symbol of the train journey at the beginning of the narrative to demonstrate the emotional gulf between the husband and wife , a state which is shown to be highlighted if they spend time in too close proximity to each other. Sgt Joe Tenby) hunts a deranged serial killer who is targeting people connected to the railway network. I'm conscious of the air blowing out the vents, and I exhale. We pass through the Appalachians, and every time I go up there we pass through a mountain tunnel or whatever. When my car was still, I got up to check things out. All content copyright © original author unless stated otherwise. right on the tracks. We built a campfire and stayed there for hours talking and watching stars, shooting bottle-rockets into the sky. In January of 1998 I was strapped for cash and took a job thirty miles away in the city of Annapolis. In a day of riding, you've seen a good representation of society, a tell-tale crossection. Fun story about a boy who loves trains, real and toy! Definently not the Windigo style of today. ", since she had no idea what Carlos was doing. The information includes original numbers, serials, and order numbers. I had no idea I’d love you. At any rate, I can't even focus on a book in a car. The son died shortly after telling us his story. If I could set up a giant canvas in the middle of a subway car, I would. Wrists! Snopes Staff Published 17 March 2001 But be careful what you absorb. It's time to close the book. I'm not afraid of being dragged into the seweres and eaten alive by the city's karmic rat warriors. A train appeared, heading directly for me, its wheels shrieking and sparking. This is one of the best adventure stories for kids. Essay on The Train Station ( Creative Writing ) It was the cold seemingly endless winter of 1947 in Paris , Latin Quarter. I call home, make a few vague statements about how the trip's been. Read 3 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. I got to thinking about all the foreign goods that came over vast seas to the Port of Baltimore and that would roll from here to every corner of North America and I felt strange inside, a kind of vertigo, as I contemplated the huge elaborate system that makes this kind of commerce routine. Scott began asking me questions, about Savannah, about Daytona. Trains move cities. But inside the darkened I was traveling in Europe, going north from Germany, through Denmark and on to Norway. by L Todd Wood May 28, 2018 August 11, 2018 0 4708. Scott, this is Kir, my girlfriend I told you lived in Savannah over the summer.” I think I'm around 4 or 5 years old. For those of us who have never worked in this field such tales offer a little more insight and fascinating glimpse into one of the oldest industries. While I clung to a fence like I meant to dance slowly with it and slowly inched my way along I heard a rumble. My night vision eliminated any chance of grey. We let go quickly, even more embarrassed that a moment ago. Walking along the ribbons of the steelroad, in the Vermont woods, at night. trucks sounding off the rail joins in steel drum harmony. I can almost hear the swish of trees as I speed through the concrete jungle. A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way. I close my eyes for a brief second, imagining how wonderful it would be to be in the middle of a large body of water, just floating for some time. The feeling (not sound) of torque and stress, the forces acting on the steel jumping across the darkened interstitial space as some flex lightning to creak and gently push our bodies. I didn't know what time or day it was. Shields up! Some stories featured here are serious true accounts while others are hilarious anecdotes. My dad turns around to me in the back seat and says, "You've never been on a train, have you? home station, it is freezing. On board the train, their parents fall asleep. Long road trips by bus aren't as sleep inducing as they are in cars, but the stuff I've produced on bus rides isn't nearly as brilliant as the end result of a fruitful train ride. Cozy and After several stops of utter silence, Carlos spoke up, "Pei, please don't go berzerk in this car, like the last time. the story ‘who takes the train?’ WAS CREATED BY BOOK DASH AND IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION 4.0 LICENSE . They crossed very close to each other. world, he nudged the throttle another notch. Trains STORY TIME! click; and in that instant I was young again. His female associate, we will call her Yung-Pei, was a 5 foot something Asian Female, in her leather jacket. 7.17.2009 What an absolute moron I was. The cool thing about trains in Thailand is that the walkway between cars isn't enclosed, like they do in the wimpier western countries. When I finally board the last train, and slump against the cold window glass, a busy looking man sits beside me in a tidy suit. Oh, no; they just have open air. Duration 12.30. From the earliest steam locomotives to today’s high-speed “bullet trains,” here are eight things you may not know about the “iron horse.” But you knew I would, and you kept telling me… Where are you now? the locomotive, Johansson's steel gray eyes were coolly scanning the Once, we got to sleepover in the caboose car. No, I didn't forget. [1] Baron Carlos decided to have some fun with him. Old enough to know better. Make use of what it has to offer or it'll eat you. Perhaps the next time I'm caught in a stagnant rut, I'll do a visualization exercise and picture a train headed my way...nudging me from behind at full speed. Later, after much travel through Europe, he and his father got caught and put in a transit camp in occupied France. The next thing I know, he and I are on the train and the next stop is our home town, about an hour away. Men tend to spread out - spreading their legs apart and sometimes taking up more than one seat. I would wake up in the middle of the night hearing their ‘chugga chugga’ blow in through the screened-in window. I looked at my friend and said, “Hey, there’s where home was.” He shook his head and dragged me outside. About 10 minutes later, she has stopped the car at a RR crossing and my dad is out waving a white handkerchief at the train. They’re like huge beasts to be petted and soothed, not unlike the horses I grew up taming. snow-covered hills of central Vermont. Pennies, nickles, carefully placed during the rumbling advance of steel. Not until you did. I could feel the water snaking down my back as it dripped from the ceiling. Because we left our sleeping bags elsewhere, we had to sleep on the floor with blankets. I see factories pumping out smoke, I see roads criss-crossing the landscape like stitches. A Personal Memoir of Tunnel #21 - Eaton, West Virginia (B&O), Scrap Iron, Big Foot, And A Nice Day On A Branch Line. A pair of Green Bay & Western FA-1's dash through the snow with an eastbound freight on its way to Green Bay, Wisconsin during January of 1959. Author's collection. If two men are riding together, they sit or stand far apart, even if it means that they must shout to carry on their conversation. I'm trying to make sense of the fare chart, trying to work the goddamned ticket machine. He had never graduated from high school. Pennsylvania Railroad "Doodlebug" #4653 pauses briefly at Lambertville, New Jersey while hosting an excursion sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Chapter/NRHS on November 3, 1957. Short Story – The Train Journey. He would have them bring the train around and PARK IT IN HIS BACKYARD! What a super old guy. © Copyright 2007-2021 American-Rails.com. The clicking on the tracks is the sound of my gallop. Instead, he ran away from home when he was 16 and signed on to shovel coal on a steam engine. He was caucasian, lower middle class, and an average joe of a New Yorker, he could have even been a downtrodden tourist. CSX…ech! ", Carlos continued, "This time, I am NOT going to clean up you mess. We talked and touched and paused and We ride. The train is out of sight; he hears it putting on a bit of speed, clear of the curve. At this hour of the night, it was a lonely subway car, where Carlos and his friend were seated. The train slows pace with my heartbeat, and I know the platform is just a bit further ahead. Years later, we kids realized that, by blind chance, every train we passed was approaching a railroad crossing at the time, and they were required to sound their horn when they were coming up to a crossing. feverish pitch, only to end abruptly, plunging the night back into The brakes failed on the train that Gubby was taking to go, The train was travelling at high speed, as some trains do, when a group of youths hurled some. Exhilirating. in submitting for inclusion here whether it is fictional, I see where lives began, end, and are acted out with the same manner that I had. Since America's first railroad began service many moons ago (the Granite Railway of 1826 which served a quarry at Quincy for transporting the rock to the Neponset River at Milton), there are infinite accounts of men’s (and later women’s) experiences while on the job. Mr. Pete and his old rail buddies had bought an old steam engine and several cars, then restored all of it. Warren Calloway photo. It uses mainly simple words, which are commonly taught first when learning to read. gauges, verifying what he already knew. Share 1 0. They are a captivating mix of humor, suspense, and silliness. They're a reminder that there are places to go, that a world exists beyond the confine of my walls. We walked over to the guardhouse and in through the open door.. A head of chin length blonde hair whirled around in the chair. Perhaps if I put it under a decoder screen of some type it'll give me a transcript? A parade of Rio Grande Geeps, led by GP40-2 #3120, have a manifest working its way over Tennessee Pass at Pando, Colorado on September 23, 1989. These stories are not my own, they are from a. Everything2 ™ is brought to you by Everything2 Media, LLC. You know trains could figure out a way to get around without tracks, if we'd let them. Later that night, two trains went through town, a mile or so away. Not too long ago I was in the buddha garden and the rain came up in the first of the big summer thunderstorms. A mostly unused railroad right-of-way ran right past our house in Pennsylvania, when dad briefly worked for Dupont. As usual, when I get up there and sit down, we pass into a tunnel and I eat my bear claw and prepare to get up to go. and is gone. Baltimore & Ohio 2-8-2 #4584 (Q-3) rolls through Mill Creek, Ohio with a manifest freight during the summer of 1947. He had never told anybody about it before.