7:15 I have to be on time for this. As we enter the parking lot for the Hanson Commuter Rail station I am thinking this because I live one minute from the station. After a usual night before of helping make sure we are ready we pull in with 10 minutes to spare.
Moving here twenty-five years ago there was no way to get to South Station other than driving to a connector station. Although every time I have seen the tracks, anywhere I might say, i think about where they come from and where they go. This will be the beginning of a day on the rails that starts from one minute away.
There is something. to me anyway, that draws me to the trains. Growing up on the Red Line I learned quickly that you can get around pretty good by rail. Once again having this available at a young age also lets the mind wonder.
Like many other people part of this nostalgia comes from the stories i heard from my very dearly missed grandfather about his days on the old Boston and Maine railroad. Once again it was the trains that brought that part of my family to Boston from Bath Maine. The freight lines that he spoke of readily moved so much of the domestic commerce of New England.
Riding in the coach today I think I could stay on here right across the country. The scenery that is available is second to none but it is the fact that these trains ride on the same tracks that millions have ridden before across these states. That rails allow the imagination to roam. I think everyone has the urge to roam. When you are in a car or an a plane your senses are trained to pay attention to other things. On the train you are allowed to roam, to the cafe or in your mind.
Another great thing about this ride is the whole northeast corridor. It is a rolling education of where America has been, where it is, and where its going. I love this rolling history lesson. One the about this track, it is a testament to the middle class. Places. Some old, some new, some just stuck. Looking at different sites, doing 50 mph, gives me just enough time to think about “What happened to that place?, Trade agreement, depression, no succession plan, who knows but you can’t think about these things from 35,000 feet or the middle lane of Interstate 95.
Today as we head to DC, I look at my beautiful wife and daughter and see that like everything else I see going by on the train it seems like a snapshot in time. I am not crazy about the snapshot of my daughter because it stunning to think of her when she was just my baby as to what she is now and that my wife and I were seemingly just kids when we got married. But time is just that and while seeing the snapshot of the geography of the train is nice it is the slow steady ride of my family that my has been and is the best ride.
Pipes and Wrenches 