Train Warnings

 I live in an inner ring suburb of Cleveland, yet still hear train horns day and night. The train warnings given when crossing auto roads remains a most appealing and comforting noise. Part of it could be that it is a haunting sound in the distance but it also represents stories in my life.

It probably starts with going to the various train stations in Cleveland to pick up my grandmother who traveled by rail from eastern Pennsylvania. We also traveled by train to eastern Massachusetts to visit my cousins. Traveling east by car for vacations or holidays before the time of interstates, many of the highways followed along train tracks. When you are nearby a moving train especially when you are standing alongside the tracks, the thunder and awe of the tons of mechanical beast takes ones breath away. I also have traveled to both coasts by trains following pathways long established, going to New York City to partake of the activities of that metropolis and going to Chicago and San Francisco.

Trains represent so much in Cleveland, from the manufacturing of the steel and component parts , the manufacturing and repair of the engines, the various railway track lines that intermingled through northeast Ohio. They represent all of the manufacturing that takes place here and that Cleveland is on the pathway to and from many centers of industry in its location as the southern terminus of the Great Lakes. Trains and their tracks also represent the physical connectedness of the country. I look forward to my next train trip. I also take a moment to enjoy the train warning that I hear being blown in to my neighborhood.