Memories of trains

The earliest is not of the train but the train station: Pennsylvania Station in New York City. My earliest trip was to Atlantic City for a summer holiday. At the age of six, more or less, I was not too conscious of the train ride but that station! Its huge size, the light streaming through what seemed like glass everywhere, people on the move through the concourse on their way to trains--the impression is unforgettable. Much later as a young woman I enjoyed going through the station just to enjoy that size and those people. There was also a cafe, the Savarin, where I could stop for lunch when working at Macy's, just across the street. Tearing down this magnificant building was the beginning of a strong historical preservation movement, not only in the city, but nationwide.

Sometime after its destruction I traveled on the Lehigh Valley RR, the Black Diamond, on my way to college. Another journey not too well remembered, though the sound of the steam engine as it whistled its way along Lake Cayuga echoed around the campus as long as I was a student.

My first job after graduation was with Pennsylvania RR as a ticket agent. I worked in a city ticket office on 47th Street in NYC, first as a telephone reservation clerk, then promoted to the front desk as an information clerk. The next step was becoming a ticket agent, a seller of tickets, maker of reservations, planner of trips! After a couple of weeks half a dozen of us (all females as there were no newly hired men--they were all off fighting WWII) were given a tour of the Penn RR equipment which meant a trip from NY to Chicago, Philadelphi and Washington, mostly so that we could become familiar with the various types of accommodations on Pennsy trains. In Philadelphia, Pennsy's home base, we attended some classes also. This was a dream job, ended only when the 'boys' began returning from service and it became "Last hired, first fired".

Not much railroading after that until I married a man who was as rail-conscious as I was. I had my history of working for Pennsy as well as loving train travel and he had a grandfather who worked for the railroad which meant he got to take lots of train trips.