Waiting for the Train

 

Waiting for the Train

Dust settling into streams of summer sweat
And pesky flies swarming for a salty drink –
Hot feet tied into unfamiliar shoes on worn planking

Patient silent waiting losing ground to time –
The distant horn that breaks the hot silence moves
The slowly beating heart to anticipating quickness.

A shimmering distant mirage of something dark arises –
Increasing shrill of steel on steel and clicks of a thousand
Wheels tripping over joints that link the shining rails

The dust, the wind, the heat, the shocking blast of air –
The speeding wall of steel metamorphoses into links of dusty
Cars and gaps and steps and windows, faces peering out.

The ground, the air, the platform, all the world vibrating –
Diesel hum and smoke and fumes above the cold steel pressed on
Cracked black creosoted timbers time-worn into the soil.

Time stops briefly… The air clears, activity suddenly quickened
By this appearance, as human sounds and feet and warm embraces
Compete above the engine’s ever-present bouncing moan.

 CN Diesel Locomotive The little station in New Hazelton, BC, was on the Canadian National or CN line, originally Grand Trunk Pacific, with its western terminus in Prince Rupert, BC. Diesel engines similar to the locomotive modeled in this fine MTH O Scale model by Railking would have pulled both passenger and freight trains into and by the small but bustling station in the picturesque Skeena Mountains. Click for more information about this finely crafted model from my friends at Trains and Toy Soldiers.

Waiting for the Train

The CN train station in New Hazelton, BC, when it was still Grand Trunk Pacific, shortly after the last spike was driven several hundred miles to the east, at Fort Fraser, BC. The last time I was at this station was to pick up my wife in 1980. The buildings are now gone. It is now a VIA Rail (CN’s passenger line) “sign stop.” We used to call such stops “whistle stops.” No longer will the station master check you in or take your baggage. No porter will take your heavy bags. If you want to get on here, today, you must be able to carry everything, personally.

 

When I was a boy, trains were the way both freight and people moved across the country.  Waiting for a train, something we most often did because someone was coming to visit, was usually when the weather was hot and humid. 

You would sweat just standing still, and the slightest breeze, while welcome, would stir up the ever present dust, which would then stick to your sweaty skin.  At the same time, there were flies that would sometimes swarm you continuously as you waited. 

But when the train appeared in the distance, well…  All the discomfort of sweat, tight shoes and go-to-meeting clothes was forgotten.  Up went the heart rate in excited anticipation!  At first in the heat, the train would shimmer in the distance like a kind of mirage, but then it would suddenly be there, rushing by the platform like it was going right by. 

Then, just when it seemed like it must be the wrong train, with startling blasts of air and tortured squeal of steel stopping on steel, the train would suddenly stand still right where it should be.  The entire area, including the very ground beneath our feet fairly vibrated in tune to the steady thrumming of the diesels.

© David H. (Dave) Cottrell