A Train of Thought
Posted on October 26, 2013 under Storytelling with no comments yet
“For they looked in the future and what did they see
They saw an iron road runnin’ from sea to sea.”
Gordon Lightfoot – Canadian Railroad Trilogy
A Sunday morning walk has brought me face to face with the past as I meander down the train tracks past the Heritage Museum. I have seen the train trestle many times, from a distance, spanning the confluence of three rivers. On this day, something beckons me towards the mist which shrouds the bridge and tracks. I gingerly walk among the rails, festooned with high weeds, discarded coffee cups and broken beer bottles. I am tempted to lower myself to the ground to put my ear to the steel rail to see if a train might be coming. But all I hear is silence.
Travelling by rail was once a vital transportation link. It was the favored mode of travel for people going to the city for medical appointments or on shopping trips. It carried students who attended the local university to and from Antigonish. It took high school students on educational trips to far off locales like Rimouski, Quebec and for sports fanatics, it was simply the best way to get to Montreal or Toronto to see the Leafs or Habs play. And in a distant time, it carried our boys off to war.
Everyone of a certain age has a train story but sadly, our children and grandchildren who live here will not be so lucky. Passenger rail service has all but disappeared from Atlantic Canada.
Rail has a magnetic draw, even to a three year old girl, some fifty years ago. The girl’s beloved aunt, who lived with her family, was travelling on the Rail Liner to Cape Breton, and this wasn’t going over well with her small niece. She didn’t want her aunt to leave or, better still, wanted to ride the rails with her.
It was a cool, crisp fall day and the youngster had watched her dear aunt depart, suitcase in hand. Wearing her pretty yellow dandelion hat, she remained outside playing in the yard. Or at least that’s what everyone thought.
When the girl’s mother called the children in for lunch, the three year old could not be found. Her older brother reported that she was headed for the train station. That is what she had told him. Concern turned to panic and then fear as the mother and her five year old son hurried eastward down Main Street. They stopped at the flower shop and discovered that a small person fitting the description had indeed passed by their doors a short time ago. A call was placed to the police department to report a missing child.
The mother, son and the flower shop owner raced towards the train station. They stood on the train platform and looked to the left in the direction of the dairy. Nothing. As they swung to the right, they spotted in the distance a small figure in a yellow hat, close to the trestle and the rushing river below. The child was rescued without any harm done. The tears only came later when the police arrived at the train station and she discovered that this was serious business indeed.
My wife still loves to travel by train.
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