Trains

Trains have fascinated me since my early childhood when I was still living in Germany. My paternal grandfather worked as a conductor for the German Federal Railways (Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB for short) and before that for the Reichsbahn up until 1945. An uncle, one of my father's brothers, also worked for the railway. Before leaving Germany in June 1957 (my parents, my younger brother and myself) we travelled from southwestern Germany to Berlin and on to Bremen and Bremerhaven visiting relatives before emigrating to Canada. I was nearing 4 years old and can still remember the ride on a streetcar (Berlin, especially East Berlin, still had them) though not much of the details. Bits of the crossing by ship (the Arosa Star) are remembered too. We landed at Montreal and then it was on by train to southwestern Ontario. We ended up in Hensall, a hamlet near Zurich northwest of London. But the fascination in trains has always been strong. I received a book on the subject when we were still in Germany. My younger brother tore it to bits a couple of years after arriving in Canada and that was the end of that book.

When I was eighteen, I took quite a number of trains to get around Europe during a seven weeks stay in the summer of 1972 (Carcassonne, Paris and Strasbourg in France plus a number of places in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and on to Scandinavia, including a trip by train through the Alps from Salzburg in Austria to Basel, Switzerland). Later I took many a train from London to such places as Toronto, Barrie and even Parry Sound. In June 1974 I took the Polar Bear Express from Cochrane to Moosenee on James Bay watching the trees get smaller and the streams full up with fish. Then in October 2005 I crossed Canada on Via I from Toronto to Vancouver stopping in Jasper for three days on the way. The weather was excellent for the stay there. Then it was a mix of bus and train on the return. If you enjoy the scenery and trains, I think everyone should cross the country at least once in their lives. It's worth it!

So this brings me to the photo shown above. It's of a train in the middle of Stanley Park in Vancouver. I hope all this brings back pleasant memories of your own and if you are still in the depth of winter, that it will chear you up some.