About a month ago, I was driving back to Marshall from Sioux Falls and soon noticed all along the railroad tracks of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks that there were new railroad ties every few feet along the tracks. The ties were stacked in groups of five to seven or so. On some of the steeper slopes along the way, there were fence posts erected to keep the new ties from going all the way to the bottom of the ditch beside the tracks.

What came to my mind (imagination) was well-muscled men with sledge hammers, sweating as they alternately pounded in the tent stakes that were used in erecting the large three-ring circus tents at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton, Ohio. No, I have no memory like that for putting in the stakes for the plates to hold the rails to the ties, but my imagination is pretty good. Of course I realized that there were better, faster, and more efficient means of replacing the railroad ties.

A friend, who had worked for the railroad, supplied an answer for me by referring me to You Tube (Tie Gang Video.) So I watched several hours of some very modern, ingenious machines that sit on the tracks. The ingenious machines had been developed with metal arms that could be attached to the old ties and with the spikes pulled out, the machines were able to grab an end of the tie and pull it individually from under the plates and tracks.

Similarly one of the machines could line up the new tie at an end and push it under the tracks in perfect alignment and subsequently attached by plates to the rails. Now I hope to be able to catch a glimpse of these mechanical marvels as the train crews near Marshall.

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Coincidentally, 153 years ago yesterday was an event that marked the progress of uniting our vast country by linking the 48 states coast to coast by rail. On May 10, 1869, the “Last Spike” was driven at Promontory Summit, Utah to celebrate the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Indeed a golden spike was used in the ceremony even though it was removed immediately for fear that it would be stolen. The gold spike was eventually donated to the Cantor Arts Center (Stanford, California). The last railroad tie used at Promontory was made of Laurel, but unfortunately did not survive the 1906 San Francisco Fire after the Earth quake of that year.

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Though I had not taken my first train ride by 1948, my parents encouraged me that year to visit the Freedom Train exhibit when it visited Dayton, Ohio at its Union Station in the downtown area. The exhibit was on a train pulled by a red, white, and blue diesel engine. The exhibits included original versions of the U. S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Truman Doctrine, ant the Bill of Rights.

The exhibits were overseen by selected U. S. Marines who managed to smoothly allow 1,200 persons an hour to view the various documents and artifacts in the exhibit.

The train started its journey in Philadelphia on Sept. 17, 1947, ending almost two years later having visited all 48 contiguous states. Alaska and Hawaii did not become states until 1959.

The Freedom Train was not without a bit of controversy connected. The controversy was primarily over segregation. At the time, I was not aware of the problem, but only became aware it after the fact. The Truman administration had stated a policy of desegregation for the train. That policy was challenged in a number of locations. In particular, Memphis, Tennessee politicos subsequently announced that there would be separate visiting hours for the two races. Birmingham, Alabama also eventually canceled the train’s exhibit there, but public criticism continued during later train appearances.

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My first train ride did not occur until 1950. My brother and sister were busy that summer and I was the only one of my siblings who was around when my parents had taken a short vacation to visit Chicago. My parents had driven our 1937 Chevrolet up there for the visit, but the car had conked out on the way home and they were forced to abandon it at a service garage in Muncie, Indiana. I am not sure when my parents got that car, but I remember my dad saying that he had traded in a suit of clothes for it sometime after WWII.

I was invited to accompany my father on his train ride to get back to Muncie from Dayton to pick up the car. It was summer so I was not in school and was thrilled to finally get the chance to ride the rails. We boarded a New York Central passenger train at Dayton’s Union Station. That only took us to Richmond, Indiana.

The NYC train was very clean and modern. We had to transfer to a north-south spur that was to take us to Muncie. It was quite a contrast. I believe our coach had been in use for a good many years prior to WWII. It was ghastly hot. The one saving grace was that it had actual ice water at a fountain in the front of our car. Of course I drank enough — despite warnings of my father — that I was quite sick by the time we got to Muncie. I barely remember the car ride back to Dayton.

Until next time: Oh, Fiddlesticks!