Sacramento is a railroad town. Late at night, with the back door open to the night air, I can hear trains passing less than 2 miles northwest of us. Some of them must be really long freights, because they rumble by for several minutes. I know there is a grade crossing somewhere in there because I can hear the engineers toot out their dah-dah-dit-dah warning (coincidentally (?) Morse code for Q).
I remember our first house in Poultney (1949) was right next to the tracks, and the bigger house there was a block away from the tracks. The Delaware and Hudson ran steam locomotives back then.
The summer of '53 when we lived in Burlington on the bluff above the lakeside industrial area, I smelled my first diesel exhaust. In Groton ('53-'55) our house was across the street from the Montpelier and Wells River station. There were reminders of steam days there -- the old water tower beside the tracks and spilled coal between the rails (We boys would hope to strike it rich by bringing in coal for the home furnace). Next year when we lived in Newbury the B&M tracks were out of hearing range, but we could walk down to the tracks and hide in the Page farm underpass while a train passed over our heads.
I remember our first house in Poultney (1949) was right next to the tracks, and the bigger house there was a block away from the tracks. The Delaware and Hudson ran steam locomotives back then.
The summer of '53 when we lived in Burlington on the bluff above the lakeside industrial area, I smelled my first diesel exhaust. In Groton ('53-'55) our house was across the street from the Montpelier and Wells River station. There were reminders of steam days there -- the old water tower beside the tracks and spilled coal between the rails (We boys would hope to strike it rich by bringing in coal for the home furnace). Next year when we lived in Newbury the B&M tracks were out of hearing range, but we could walk down to the tracks and hide in the Page farm underpass while a train passed over our heads.
