An exceprt from Continuing Stepping Through Time by Jean Cyrus:
Railway Trains (I)
There was a kind of romance and glamour about them. People crowded at stations waiting for that puffing, steaming engine to screech to a gradual stop.
It did not matter whether they were meeting someone. In small towns curiosity often brought them to the wooden platform in front of the station. Who might be coming? And whom were they visiting?
During the war it might have been a mother to welcome home her son, or a young girl waiting for her sweetheart. In both instances the meetings were loving. Train conductors came to know some of their regular passengers and would smile as they watched the happy reunions.
But there were also tearful good byes, and then the conductors would stand aside and wait respectfully. There was a kind of romance about trains, but there was also something solid and reassuring about the way they brought passengers safely to their destinations.
