Riding The Rails - Re-post 2009

Train rides are my fondest memories of the first 25 years of my life.

From 1944 to 1969, my mother and I traveled the Atlantic Coastline RR, on the Champion and the Silver Meteor, several times a year.

photos taken on first train ride at the museum in 2009

Mother was born and raised in Palmetto, and married my dad on her 18th birthday in 1943.
She had been riding the trains to Savannah and back during the war years to see her dad, who was at the CC Camp in Savannah. In fact the trains ran on these same rails.

On my first ride with my mother, she was 5 months pregnant with me in 1944 and that was the beginning of my love affair with trains.

I truly loved the trains, the squealing of the wheels as they stopped, the rattling on the rails and the waddle as we backed into the stations in Savannah and Jacksonville, the long mournful wails as we got close to a crossing.

I did NOT love the fact the bathrooms were locked in the 2 hour lay over in Jacksonville and the 1 hour in Tampa.

The bathrooms were very tiny and very loud, and they rattled and shook me so hard I could hardly stand.

I made many trips to those little rooms because of the amazing water that came out of the spigots on the wall and trickled into those tiny little cups. I think they held maybe 3 ounces.

Did I mention the reclining seats? and the pillows provided by the conductor? Sheer Magic!

The cars I rode were very much like these.

The conductors amazed me as they traveled up and down the aisles, swaying to the rocking cars. The same rocking cars that caused me to stagger and fall against the seats as I traveled to the water fountains and rest rooms. Mother packed lunches because there was no money for the dining car, and she would not even let me go peek in the door to see where the rich were eating and drinking.

The trip was 10 long hours, and I loved every minute, that is until my brother was added to the trip when I was 4. Some of the joy was snatched away while he was a baby, but the joy came back as he grew older, but he never loved the train like I did. He entertained himself with tiny toy soldiers.

In my teens I was allowed to do the trip ALONE.What Fun! My last train ride, in 1969, I was alone, riding for the last time to attend my grandmothers funeral. To see her for the last time.