“I don’t think this is going to
be a five-star review” my wife
starts out, but I quickly cut her off
and respond “I know, we should
be able to give them six stars!”
She flashes me a well-known
look that says “that’s not what I
meant” and then we both stare
outside the window as a long
freight train rumbles by. The sun
is rising through the windows and
Harrison awakes.
Last October, the NMRA Division
went to the Chester Railway
Museum for a station tour. In
addition to some boxcars and a
tank car, they had a former Rutland caboose painted up for
the Boston and Albany that could
be rented for the night. We even
raffled away a night in it this past
spring. It’s been on my list of
places to go since then and I
finally made it over for a Friday
night. Being a train event,
Harrison had to come. Sarah
tagged along too, perhaps
because she didn’t want to miss
out on all the “fun”.
When I called to confirm with
Dave, the friendly caretaker, a
few days before I asked how
many trains he usually saw. He
told me that trackwork had led
Amtrak to bus passengers
between Albany and Boston, and
daytime freight trains were slow.
It was discouraging but sleeping
in a caboose is still good. We
arrived at 3:45 on Friday, and
within an hour an Amtrak train
rolled by. We waved to it and
walked next door to the only
pizza place in town for dinner.
While waiting for our food,
another Amtrak train flew by in
the opposite direction with two
engines, a diner, and three
coaches. Go figure.
When we got back Harrison
kicked a large ball around the
yard and Dave showed us all that
they were doing to repaint the
outside of the caboose. They
received a railroad grant and were
putting it to good use. Some
boxcars had been repainted by the
Sheriff’s Office, in a program
similar to road-cleaning crews.
After an evening of smores,
which Harrison managed to wear
as much as he ate, we went into
the now-empty station to clean
up. We literally had the place to
ourselves, and I imagined it was
just as a station master of old felt
every single night.
After reconfiguring the bunks
into a “double” bed so that
Harrison was corralled into a
corner, we sat down to watch
some Curious George. He was
sleepy around 8PM, so we turned
it off and went to bed.
What we didn’t figure on was the 8:03
westbound, but we had a blast
looking out the window as the
moon lit up the cars. The whole
caboose shook too, adding to the
experience. Harrison was
jumping up and down on the
mattress with excitement. He
wasn’t going to be sleeping
anytime soon. It got quiet again
and we heard “Are you?” over
and over as Harrison called out
asking where the train was. We
hoped he would fall back a sleep,
but he didn’t. I can’t blame him.
The 9:27PM mixed train didn’t
help either. No point in counting
cars when all it does is wake him
up more.
The next train was either
closer to midnight or 1AM, but
both my wife and I can’t
remember. She says I was
sleeping, and I say the opposite.
We may have each seen a
different train as we were both
exhausted by then. I didn’t even
bother to sit up and note what
direction it was heading. I did note that the moon looked lovely.
Around 2:30AM I had to
answer the call of nature (don’t
get old) and as I unlocked and
walked into a perfectly still train
station that morning it was eerily
quiet. Too quiet. Ghosts of trains
from a hundred years ago rolled
by. Or perhaps it was my
imagination. What was real was
the 3:00AM train that they both
slept through but I dutifully
looked out to watch.
We all remember the 5:56am
CSX train that served as
Harrison’s wake up call. There
was no going back to sleep now.
We sat on the beds and ate fruit
and then got up for the day. I
began packing while Harrison
was running around looking for
trains. We decided to wait for the
next one and then go to breakfast,
which is located on the “other side
of town”. In Chester, that means
a two-minute drive.
As we talked with Dave we
heard a train horn in the distance.
Harrison and I ran to the caboose
and climb into the cupola to wait
for it to pass. It took forever, and
we heard horns from both
directions. Confused, we watched
as one rolls down the hill at 8AM
while another train in the other
direction slowed to a stop. We sit
and wait in the cupola, hungry for
breakfast but not wanting to miss
the train. I didn’t check the track
arrangement before coming so I
wasn’t sure it was parked for
another train, waiting for a crew
change, suffering some
mechanical issue, or ran out of
fuel.
We wandered back to the
station and they started to paint it
some more. Thirty minutes later
the train finally begins to move.
Harrison climbed onto my
shoulders and we waved to it. The
engineer responded by turning on
the ditch lights and blowing the
horn several times especially for
us. As it crawls by I saw a flatcar
carrying pipes followed by two
with steel plates loaded on them.
I am writing an article for a
magazine about modeling both
so I asked Sarah to take pictures
of them for me. She agrees, but
as they come close enough to
shoot a westbound auto train
blasts through out of nowhere
and completely obscures the
shot. Oh well.
After, we went to breakfast
and when we get back we played
with Dave’s dog Major. He likes
to fetch but apparently has lost
a lot of balls in the ditch. Case
in point, I threw a red ball and
he knocked it into a gully. I dug
it out for him, but it was actually
a pink ball. The red ball is still
down there somewhere. Dave
said this happened all the time.
We enjoy the weather and watch
a 10:15 train go by, and then we
head for home.
In the course of eighteen
hours we saw, heard, and felt a
dozen trains. I got to experience
cabin camping at its finest,
Harrison got to eat
marshmallows and watch trains,
and Sarah got about four hours
of sleep. Can you believe all of
this costs only $70 a night, or
$120 for the weekend? I can’t
wait to go back!
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