Mom's old train stories

The subject of trains came up while I was talking to my mother and I found out she rode the railroads quite a bit back before and during the Second World War. Here are a few of her stories.

Back when my mom was a nurse working in Chicago in 1940 and 41, she and one of her friends used to ride the Hiawatha to Milwaukee to visit their friends. They felt they could afford the luxury because they were making more money working at Cook County General than they could at any of the hospitals in Milwaukee. They had Mondays off and half a day on Sunday. At noon on Sunday they would get off duty, change, grab their bags and rush to catch the “El” downtown to get to the Milwaukee Road Station before the 2 P. M. departure. Once on board they made a bee line to the “Elegant diner and ate the best meal ever in real style with the spiffy waiters, linen table covers, fresh flowers, shining table service and even wine! Riding along smoothly for 55 minutes.” At that time Illinois was on daylight savings time and Wisconsin was not, so they got off the train about the same time they got on.

After she joined the army, she rode the ATSF from Chicago to Oklahoma City where she was to change trains to go to Fort Sill. She and two other nurses were assigned three upper births. One of them turned in early and promised to wake the others in the morning so they could get dressed before they got to OK City. Most of the lights were turned off but my mom and the other nurse were not ready to climb into their births yet. They found two GIs to play cards with by the light of the vending machines in a corner by a newsstand. The two guys were assigned the same lower birth and did not like the idea of having to snuggle up together so persuaded the two nurses to sleep together while they took the two uppers. This was all well and good until the other nurse tried to wake them in the morning.

One night, her "44th General Hospital" unit shipped out on a troop train from Fort Sill for overseas duty. They were not told whether they were going to the European or Pacific theatre. When they recognized the Royal Gorge on the D&RGW they knew they must be on the way to San Francisco and the Pacific. They ended up on the pier in Oakland for a short ferry ride to the Army docks in San Francisco where they boarded the USS West Point on their way to Sydney, Australia. They took the train from there to Brisbane. The troops had to change trains more than once as the track gauge changed in route. Upon returning to the States in March of 1944, all banged up and in bandages, she was put on a standard troop train in Long Beach bound for Iowa. She and another nurse were loaded on stretchers through the window into the drawing room of a standard 12-1 Pullman. Somewhere west of Denver the train was caught in an avalanche and unable to move until the D&RGW brought in some helpers to drag them out. When they finally got to Denver some of the more ambulatory soldiers got off and procured a few bottles of liquor so they had quite a party. The outside of the cars on the tail end of the train, where the snow hit, were still caked with snow in every knook and cranny and the roofs were piled high with the white stuff.

After she recovered and was back on duty, she made an emergency trip to visit her brother who had been in an accident in Ardmore, Oklahoma. She probably took Frisco from where she was stationed in Springfield, Missouri to Hugo, OK where she had to change trains and get on a mixed freight for the last leg into Ardmore. She was not too confident in the equipment, which from her description sounds like a caboose with extra seats for paying passengers. She was in full uniform and about passed out from the heat in the un-airconditioned car.

I just wish I had recorded all the stories my Dad had about his riding on the rails before he passed away. So, get those stories while you can.

 

So true! How many neat incidents of life have been lost?

My mother told me about her most memorable cross country rail trip. In early 1942, after divorcing her first husband, a Navy officer, she left Philadelphia. Rode the Pennsy to Chicago, then took the Olympian on back to Washington state. She couldn't remember place names, but from her descriptions, it was easy to follow the trip across South Dakota, over the Missouri River at Mobridge. The meal stop at Three Forks, Montana. The moonlit snows and occasional lights across St.Paul Pass, and down into Avery, Idaho.

If only someone could hook a camera to a human brain, we could download fantastic movies and sounds!



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I do remember my dad tell about back in the 20's when he would visit relatives in Missouri and have to change trains in St. Louis between Milwaukee and Joplin. He was just a kid but fascinated with all the big steam engines lined up on trains bound for "exotic" places like California, Texas and New York. The places you are familiar with never seem as cool as places you can't go.

 

I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of steam. Which along without being raised around many railroaders in family, and friends, may have cemented my love for trains.



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