The Past Brought Back to Life

I couldn't believe my eyes as I picked up the latest issue of Classic Trains. There on the cover was an amazing shot of fallen-flag DL&W F8 units rounding a bend and leaning into a superelevated curve as their train rolled off the Nicholson Viaduct in 1951. In the foreground is a set of double semaphores guarding the tracks. The viaduct was still new enough (completed 1915) that the trees clinging to the hillside around it don't yet block the long view back to the bridge itself. Quite a shot!

The reason it caught my eye is that I grew up on that line. Not down in PA, but up in New York - just over the PA/NY border. I saw the last days of the E-L, but I was too small still to really understand the railroads. I loved the sight and sounds of engines, but I was too young to leave my own backyard. I never knew where the tracks went, where the trains came from, or the fact that such impressive structures such as the Nicholson Viaduct (and Martin's Creek Viaduct) existed so close to my home.

I often wish I had been of the age to have the freedom to go exploring back then; To drive the backroads of Pennsylvania and catch the Erie pulling and pushing freight over Gulf Summit and Starucca Viaduct, or to see them racing along the banks of the Delaware River; To wander out and see the Lackawanna capture Clark's Summit; To witness the Delaware and Hudson climb Belden Hill with mulitple pushers, or the PA units. The list here is too long to compile. You'd get bored reading about my missed opportunities. We all have them don't we? And I know something else: Had I been older back then, if I'd had the chance to see all these things and to chase freight trains on the old D&H Penn Division up and down Ararat Mountain I'd still lament. I would wish I had been around to experience the days before all of that. I would regret not being able to experience what it was like when all those spots were hosting steam power.

I often remind myself that, as far as this hobby is concerned, now is the greatest time to be a railfan. I know that security concerns pressure us at times to explain ourselves more than we have ever had to do. I know attorneys and lawyers have made it difficult for railroaders to call us up into the engine for a ride.

I guess my point is this: No matter when we are from, we'll always think the past was better in this hobby. Even though we may look forward to the bulging expanse of new and heavier traffic putting more trains on the rails, even though new life is coming into the industry, we will always wish for things the way they were. Enjoy it now, take pictures, remember it.


Michael Hammond
http://www.282movies.com/