Monday, January 20, 2014

Sunday With the Wolverine

Yesterday was a stick close to home day again only this time I went to a different haunt instead of my normal haunts.  After I finished waking up and before I went to my next place, I decided to stop at Depot Town since the Wolverine would be passing by.  I like trains.  I'm going to try something a little different this time.
Imagine that it is over 100 years ago and you've just received the telegram that the train is on its way.  You would see a flourish of activity as the workers would prepare the freighthouse for the arrival of the train.  They may be making room for new cargo or they may be preparing the cargo that is leaving the station.  Across the tracks, you would see the people getting ready if it was a passenger train on its way.
 If it was over 100 years ago, instead of the drone of a diesel horn, you would have heard the more pleasing sound of a steam whistle.  Instead of the rumble of diesels, you would hear the more living sound of a steam engine.  You would also see a cloud of black smoke along with a train of steam coming from the stack.
 As the train got closer to the station, you would also hear the sound of the bells.  Although this is a sound that you still hear today.  You might hear an announcement at the depot about where the train is coming from and where it is headed.  In this case, the train would be coming from Chicago and points of east of Chicago but west of Ypsilanti.  After leaving the depot, it would be continuing to Detroit.
 At this point, the train would be slowing down to a crawl.  You would see more anticipation at the station.
 If the train were a little further past the station, it would be stopped and the people would get on the train.  You would hear one toot of the whistle and the conductor would cry, "All Aboard!".  This is pretty much the same these days.
 The train would start to accelerate and continue on to points east.
And things would return to normal.

2 comments:

  1. all true . . your glimpses of the past, but if it really were 1913, no one'd blog about it. . .

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  2. ... but they might jot out a postcard on the way about their trip. I know I have a couple of circa 1913 train ride postcards in my collection.

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