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The other morning driving through Celoron and on to Lakewood made me recall the days when the railroads around here were strong.
When you drive along Burtis Bay, the railroad there almost touches the highway and you also have a wide-open view of the lake. I can remember taking the train west to Chicago and seeing that last view of the lake from the vantage point of a seat on a passenger train of the old Erie Lackawanna Railroad which went at least daily through our area on its route from Hoboken, N.J. to Chicago. There was also a train that ran in the opposite direction, if you wanted to go east to New York.
Because there was so much freight and passenger traffic moving on the line, the tracks were double then. Even if you didn't live along the tracks, you could hear the whistle/horn of the engines at all times of the day and night as they announced their arrival at road crossings. The railroad was an integral part of our daily lives.
When I was about 10 years old, my Dad woke me one day at 5 a.m. in the morning to go with him to the railroad terminal to pick up baby chicks. We sold eggs on the farm then, and would replace the chickens annually with baby chicks we raised starting from under a heated brooder until they were pullets and then became laying hens. There were a couple of baggage cars on the passenger trains in those days, and one was always heated. The chicks would usually come in from Binghamton or Ohio on the early morning train. They would arrive in cardboard boxes with holes punched in them, and we would go down to the Railway Express office to pick them up. The railroad knew that they were precious cargo, and I never remember a failure in delivering these baby chicks.
When you met a passenger train or were getting on one in Jamestown, you would descend to the tracks on one of the only escalators in town. (I think the other escalator was in Bigelow's Department Store.) After the train left the station, the direction of the escalator would be reversed, and it would take people back up into the terminal building on Second Street. For kids, it was always exciting to go down and then up the escalator after meeting the train.
I also recall seeing the smoke from coal-burning locomotives before the days of diesel-electric, especially on the two major railroad lines in the northern part of the county. My Dad told me that there were so many trains moving along those tracks that you could always see smoke from the trains as you came over the Chautauqua Ridge and descended to the Lake Erie Plain.
Cars, highways, buses, and air travel finally finished off the passenger train business. Trucking ramped up and rail freight was deregulated...thus, ending the Erie-Lackawanna's dominance in the Southern Tier.
But, the memories are still there. I wish there were still train whistles and passenger rail service here. Everything changes but that doesn't mean that I don't miss the old days. I wish I could still get on a train here and end up in Chicago or New York. It was a good way to travel.
Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.