Can't You Hear The Whistle Blowing..

The other morning I woke up very early, around 4:30, to the lonely sound of a train off in the distance. Why does the soft sound of a distant train horn sound so melancholy? It got me thinking of my ancestors and the traveling that they had done and endured.  For many of us, who now live in the United States, our ancestors came here from Europe and whether it was the 1600’s or pre-1900’s travel wasn’t easy. Ships were crowded and dirty. Covered wagons and stagecoaches were dusty, hot or worse, in my opinion, cold and wet.  And let’s not also forget the infamous stagecoach robbers or the wagon train being attacked by Indians. Anyone who has ever watched a good Western movie from the 1940’s or 1950’s knows that there are always scenes were a stagecoach is held up or a wagon train attacked!

It wasn’t until the 1830’s that trains start carrying passengers. Unfortunately they were nothing more than glorified stagecoaches. The cars were poorly heated if at all during the winter and sweltering hot during the summer. For even when the weather was favorable passengers were virtually prisoners in the cars due to the cinders and steam coming from the engines. It’s not until the 1920’s when air-conditioning is added to the passenger cars that allowed for a more pleasant ride.

 In 1842 Charles Dickens wrote: “There are no first and second class carriages as with us; but there is a gentleman's car and a ladies' car: the main distinction between which is that in the first, everybody smokes; and in the second, nobody does. As a black man never travels with a white one, there is also a negro car; which is a great, blundering, clumsy chest, such as Gulliver put to sea in, from the kingdom of Brobdingnag. There is a great deal of jolting, a great deal of noise, a great deal of wall, not much window, a locomotive engine, a shriek, and a bell.”

Doesn’t sound like he was a fan of the passenger train here in the United States! But things did improve and the passenger train soon became the way to travel. Passenger cars became luxurious with padded leather cushioned seats and gaudy decorations. Sleeping and dining cars were added to the growing comfort and care given to those passengers who could afford it.

Trains for the next 85 years or so remain the most popular form of long distant transportation. With the invention of the airplane in 1902 and the subsequent first commercial passenger flight in 1914, the railroad starts to experience decline as the quest for faster travel increases. And of course there’s the car which only added another element of speed.

I’ve traveled on trains in India, Europe and for the first time here in the US this past November. My friend and fellow genealogist, Sandy Rumble and I took the train from Philadelphia to Washington DC. We were headed to the DAR library to do research. The car was fairly warm. It was quiet. There wasn’t any clickety clack, or rocking of the car, or bells or whistles. It was smooth, comfortable and saved us time. It was a nice way to travel. But sadly it was almost empty.

Maybe this is why the horn sounds so sad and lonely; each blast is a moan, a lament of bye gone days.