Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Backyard Train Photos

It's been almost a year since I posted this post about the backyard railroad train my Mom and Dad owned.

Today, while going through some papers, I came across several more photos of the train and nieces and nephews. The little boy and girl sitting in the train are now in their mid-thirties. Chris lives in Tennessee and Ellen lives in Florida.
The photo with the house in the background was taken in the backyard of the South Jefferson house as the same time the photo of Chris and Ellen was taken. That's me holding son Jim as he attempts to engineer the train.
The engineer in these two photos of the train full of kids is "Longrooffan" ---well it's either him or "Jeepjunkie" -- back when they were teenagers.

This is a photo of the bell that has played such a pivotal role in our family dynamics. Orginally on a steam locomotive, our Grandfather, who worked for American Car and Foundry in St. Louis, borrowed a co-worker's pickup and brought it to home. I went with him to pick it up. This would have been in 1956 of 1957. The pickup he borrowed was a light gray 1947-1953 Chevrolet with a floor shift. I remember how heavy the bell was at that time.

That bell got hauled from Granny and Man's house to the farm, to the house on Jefferson, to the house on Jewell Street in Repubic (where this photo was taken). The bell got lost after Dad died.

2 comments:

longrooffan said...

bus....thejeepjunkie says that is him in those images of the train. He knows this as that t-shirt he is wearing is from a softball team he was playing on. He says those were taken at a church in Mt. Vernon. He also remembers that train was a 1st class b*tch to set up. And you were very polite about that bell, also.

d5thouta5 said...

that train was a blast....a true test of engineering to set up so it would not jump the track....but what good is a train if it won't jump the tracks every once in a while....give a good reason to cuss and spit and such stuff...
Mt Vernon Catholic church...Fr Ralph Dufner was the pastor and Dad set this up for a church festival they had...should have been around 1978 or so....and why is the word verification tonight "insian"...Freudian slip about trains and family....????