Trains
Trains. Ian's grandfather, great grandfather and great-uncles worked
for the Great Western Railway, or GWR, in England, and trains are in his blood. We
fulfilled his childhood dream and took
the train across the USA, from New York to California, in June of
1997.
True, we had a lot of baggage as we were moving house, a total of 17 pieces on
the trains, and true that we did not know exactly where we were going to live or even how we
would live once we arrived in Santa Cruz, but what a trip. Look at that sunrise,
looking back from the train on the third or fourth morning!
Somewhere around the Utah Nevada border, early in the morning.
Ian secretly wants to buy a modest plot of land out there somewhere, where
Nevada and Utah and Colorado and Arizona
congregate, with water and hook-ups and a concrete slab big enough to park a
trailer on, and spend the rest of his days listening for the freights and
writing. Meanwhile, he works on!
"This land is your land, this land is my land . . . ."
Woody Guthrie
On a Rocky Mountain prairie an hour or so west of Denver, we
caught our own locomotive crossing a rural road.
Here are more views of the Colorado mountains.
What someone who has never been to the American West cannot
imagine, especially coming from one of the European or Asian
countries where people are packed together like sardines in cans that won't open, is the vastness of the
land, the sense of space almost everywhere. We've all heard of the great conurbations,
and we love New York the same as anyone who's
ever been there, but cities of her ilk remain the
exception to the rule of inviting and enormous expanses of empty land.
These two photographs, this is
America. This is the land that immigrants across the generations, around
the world, fell in love with.
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Alex thought that the train was the most fascinating
part of Christmas 2000, and watched it constantly!
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Here is what Alex was watching: our first Christmas
train set, from Orchard Supply Hardware.
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Here's the train that everyone in this family fell in
love with in around 1996, the Thunder Mountain
Express at Disneyland in Paris. Alban
shares the joy. . . .
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. . . with Daphné and Maman. We
went almost bi-weekly for a while there, after Grandma Stock offered us all
annual passports, and that roller coaster was just about the high spot of
the children's young lives. |
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A real train. It's an ex-GWR tank engine (as in
"Thomas the tank engine") that we saw on the Devon coast outside
Paignton in August 1994. |
Here's the Disneyland train
itself, which we all called the "train fou."
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Papa was fortunate enough to be able to participate in
the annual Happy Valley School Rail Faire in May
2004. The large photo below shows the uninstallation of the model steam train
track at the end of the Faire.
Then there was the famous popcorn man, busily working below, between grumps!
He was asked to prepare popcorn for 200 children (a neighboring school was also
invited) using the home popcorn maker in the photo, and it took several hours
the night before as well as all morning at the Faire. Carl is the popcorn man,
as Judy and papa offer encouragement! Carl and Judy can also be seen at this
party.
The conductor of the Faire was none other than Mr. Mac, of
Happy Valley School. Here he is, offering papa a
little much appreciated encouragement. The love of trains faces great
misunderstanding in this world, and we should all do our best to encourage it!
Finally, while we're in modes of transportation, here is a boat, and here a plane.
And here are more trains!
