Mia culpa!  This got posted before I was finished editing, but I think I got it now.  ~ L   😉

Once upon a time travel by train was the ultimate in luxury, though I am sure that those who traveled by rail in its infancy might argue that point.

Photo credit:  Scanning around with Gene – please click the photo for source and many other wonderful vintage photos and adds.

~*~

As a child, in California, my 2nd grade class took a ride on the train to the San Bernardino Depot.  It was a wonderful experience, though I also remember how cheated felt on finding out we did not get a return trip!

San Bernardino Train Depot, California

I also recall arguing with my teacher about this point.  At which time she put her hand firmly on my arm, and with the conductor’s assistance, redirected me to the bus!

Photo credit:  Scanning around with Gene – please click the photo for source and many other wonderful vintage photos and adds.

The picture is the right vintage, but do you see that the Teacher and Conductor have strained smiles… and me?  No way was I smilin’!  Posers all!

~*~

Later in my life I would meet my husband Bob.  He and his father were great train enthusiasts.  Why, he even had a model RR set up in his bedroom that was so big it went edge to edge, taking up a full two-thirds of the room.   That  necessitated the placement of his bed shoved head first into one closet, with the chest of drawers shoved into the other!   Me, being a tomboy at heart, loved to watch him and his dad run the HO Scale models on the layout.  There were mountains that climbed the back walls, tunnels, bridges, a town and more.  All done to exacting scale and very realistic.

~*~

Jump forward to this November when we went to the Huntsville train museum with our friends Pam and Tim…  They wanted to take the “Fall Color Ride” and could either of us say no?  Of course not!

The following photographs were taken on that day and recalled many memories of times that are no more…

In its heyday, the dining car carried folks long distances, and you were  wined and dined in comfort and luxury.

~*~

Looking about I saw

A Diner’s still bright windows,

and  I thought to myself, 

“They resemble eyes, still bright, that remember better days.”

Clinging vines tying iron wheels to the tracks,

dust, rust, and

Couplers gone green with algae

were now rendered useless.

The men who remember,

some as old as the relics they tend, 

dream of a time when life was large

and mighty engines

huffed,

screamed,

and rattled down the tracks,

taking us to where we were going

in style and luxury.

A time that passed…

and is no more.

~*~

_