Hell on Wheels

My dad always had a thing for trains. He’d keep a Lionel train set in good condition, setting it up around Christmas, & I’d marvel at all of its working electronic components. Usually, kids love anything in miniature & I was no exception. The flashing lights, sounds, & even ”smoke” from the engine provided a sense of realism that I appreciated. And my father’s love of trains didn’t end with models. He’d make use of the T system in the Boston area during the several years we lived in Massachusetts.

One of my favorite memories of my father & brother Dan (you may remember both passed if you’ve been following the blog) involved traveling by the commuter rail into Boston & using the subway when I was a child. So, inevitably, when I see trains I think of them.

That’s largely why we lived in Rockport, MA, when I was a kid & my father was employed as a plant supervisor for GE in Lynn. Rockport sits at the end of a Boston area commuter rail line that offered easy transport. So much so that my dad dispensed with the family car for those two years. We’d walk everywhere, which meant Dan & I would be expected to help carry groceries home with Dad (which felt like a considerable trek when I was 7 years old in third grade). But Dad would give us treats to literally sweeten the deal.

When Dad passed away, his Lionel train set went to Dan, which made complete sense, given how close they were.

And when I think of the Wild West, I can’t help but think of the transcontinental railroad & all of the effort that went into laying those tracks. In school, we learned about the famous ceremony of the Golden Spike that celebrated the joining of two different railway systems that spanned the entire American continent. A fan of the show ”Hell on Wheels, ” I grew fascinated by Anson Mount’s Bohannon, very much a kind of Civil War Byronic hero. Also, Colm Meaney’s portrayal of the entrepreneurial Durant brought the challenges of laying tracks to meet deadlines.

Maybe that’s the appeal of the Old West–the rugged pioneer spirit, the outlaws defying convention, the innovation in steam technology & engineering of the wooden trestles that traversed chasms & grades carved through rock?

In visiting the Golden Spike National Park, I could only imagine what that historical landscape would have looked like with the countless herds of buffalo roaming across it. Can the modern American even conceive of the horrors presented in usurping lands from natives, exterminating wildlife, running lawlessly, or even resisting deaths caused by illness or poor sanitation? The Herculean effort made to accomplish such an endeavor as building the transcontinental railroad could be lost on the modern mind. Of the two locomotives extant at the park, one (Jupiter) runs on wood while the other runs on coal, remaining true to the way the trains would have functioned back in days of May 1869.

The little one loved seeing the brightly-colored, old-fashioned trains rolling in, yesterday, during their final run for the 2019 summer. The sounds were quite unique from the engine & whistle blows to the wheels on the track to the clanging brass bells. The ceremony reenactment brought many details to life, so it was definitely worth checking it out.

Visiting historical sites, national parks, & places of cultural meaning has always been a favorite activity of mine, especially as an introvert. (You’ll notice this as a common theme for most of the year, my soaking in & capturing local history). So this park was no exception. My father was a history teacher in his retirement & my brother Dan loved historical facts as evidenced in his favorite game Trivial Pursuit, so there remains an immediate connection in my mind to trains & my dad & brother. So when the little guy excitedly yelled, clapped, & pointed at the locomotives rolling in to the station, exclaiming, ”train, train, ” my heart felt full.

That I might be able to pass along a love for trains with the little one, just as I would an appreciation for boats or baseball, for a deeper connection sustained with Dad & Dan whom I love? What could beat that?