[RP TownTalk] Trains & Horns

[Gerald King]

Thanks Emily. It's thoughts and memories like these that give meaning and character to our little town of Riverdale Park. Though I was first attracted by the historic mansion of George Calvert and the many parks, river, and fields sprinkled about the town, I soon came to realize that Riverdale Park was really created by the railroad and perhaps the trolley. I've enjoyed riding into the city via the Mark Train for a number of years. I've met and talked with a number of train watchers, and while the Riverdale Bookshop was still alive, I shared the thundering, rumbling clatter of heavy trains that would interrupt the musicians as they played for a room full of townsfolk. It was exhilarating and memorable. I felt that this was a special place. 
I did a  painting of a small boy with his grandmother sitting in the window of the Bookshop. Just outside, a freight is traversing the intersection. The boy, who is suppose to be reading, is looking out the window at the train. The train seems to offer excitement and flights of fancy to the youth. It will become an intimate part of his character, and some day, the inspiration for artistic or literary expression. I called the painting, "The Reading Lesson." 
Save the horns, whistles and clatter of steel wheels over steel rails. They're intoxicating.
Gerald King

  
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: OurDollMom at aol.com 
  To: towntalk at riverdale-park.org 
  Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 8:47 AM
  Subject: [RP TownTalk] Trains & Horns


  I really do not know how far away you can hear
   the horn of an approaching train BUT I have always
   heard the train horns crossing in the Riverdale area
   between Riverdale & Berwyn Hgts/College Park
   train track areas.  And I have always depended
   on the horns besides my eyes.

  And the children depend on the horns besides 
  looking.  I think parents have told their kids not
  to play on the train tracks - but kids are kids - 
  what is playing to a parent - is not always playing
  to a child.

  My boys played games on the tracks as kids.
  And you know I told them umteen times not to 
  play on the tracks. They used to sit on the side
  of the tracks & watch the trains go by.

  My dad & his brothers (in Branchville area) used
  to walk the tracks - my uncle is 81 & still has 
  his trains & scenery up in his basement. The 
  other brothers have passed on now. I used to 
  have trains & layout under my Xmas tree & in the
  attic. 

  On nice days in the past I have walked to the shop 
  and crossed the tracks in the Ravenswood area or
  down at the far end of Lafayette.

  There is something about railroad tracks & trains
  that draw you there - maybe knowing how far &
  wide a train travels & what adventures a train may
  have seen.  When in my early 20s - my girlfriend
  and I hopped an open door freight train & rode - it
  was scary on the way back to jump off a slowly
  moving train car. Lucky we did not get killed.

  Since my car accident I have crossed a couple of
  times....once in the snow - but using a hiking stick.

  At the far end of Lafayette people cross all the
  time and sit along the side of the  tracks eating
   as they leave their lunch/dinner trash laying about
   which I used to pick up daily.  There is a path there.

  At one time there were crossing paths off and on all
  along the train tracks between Riverdale & College Pk.

  I do not have a problem with the new gates coming.
  But I do have a problem with silencing all horns. 
  There has to be a HAPPY MEDIUM PLAN.


  Emily






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