I grew up at the end of 125th Place two doors away from the Pennsylvania railroad tracks and on warm summer nights I'd get awakened by the roaring engines and blaring horns signaling for the crossing at 127th St. which literally rattled the house, then be lulled back to sleep again by the rhythmic clacking the wheels of the long freight trains running over the flexing roadbed. My Dad grew-up next to the same rail line at 79th & Beverly which is probably why he didn't mind buying so close to the tracks.

We'd stand next to the tracks when the caboose went by and yell "flare" and occasionally a brakeman would toss us one. Summers where spend playing in the RR right-of-way building scrap wood forts and digging foxholes we'd cover with wood and branches. More than once the tractors mowing the grass would get stuck in one of our holes and need to get towed out, so we'd always have and eye out for the RR cops who would chase us away if they saw us. We'd get even by putting pennies on the rails at the spot were the passing train automatically caused the signals at 127th St. to go down. If the penny flattened across the gap between the two sections of rail the gates would stay down.

Everything was diesel in those days but occasionally we'd see a steam locomotive being hauled off somewhere to be scrapped. When someone researched family genealogy in the 1970s we found out that my G-G-Grandfather, whose had the same exact name as I do, had been a master locomotive builder for the Illinois Central RR back in the late 1800s. Originally from Maine, he had served in the 2nd Maine Calvary in the Civil War, was captured and paroled twice by the Confederates before moving to Chicago.

In high school in the late 60's I was in the all city band and would ride the IC commuter line to the Loop for practice. I college I occasionally rode the train from Chicago to Galesburg but I can't recall where I boarded. By then passenger rail was on the decline so the equipment.

I'm currently living in Manassas, VA a historic RR town which my namesake grandpa wrote about passing through during the Civil War in an autobiography he wrote. If you are familiar with the Crosby, Stills, Nash album "Manassas" they are standing in front of the Manassas station which still looks exactly the same. For several years I parked there and boarded the Virginia Railway Express commuter train for an hour-long ride to D.C.. The current line follows the one from the Civil War era and looking out the window the old Civil War era roadbed and trestle pilings can still be seen in some places.

The Amtrack Cardinal line from NY - DC - Chicago still passes through Manassas and will stop there to pick-up and drop-off passengers so if you ever rode to DC by trail you probably passed through the station.