Once upon a time, trains were the way to go. Last week, my son — a longtime railroad enthusiast — was offered a rare opportunity, to travel through the Blackstone Valley by train. There are no longer any passenger trains here and even the freight trains come through perhaps once a week.
You can hear the long whistle as they approach the town. The train station is no longer a stop of the rail line. It has been saved from destruction, originally turned into a bank and now a real estate office and it is beautiful, but the train doesn’t stop there or anywhere in this part of the Valley.
The pictures were taken by my son, Owen Kraus and processed by me.
It was pouring rain the day he got to take his journey, but he has an open invitation to come back any sunny day that the train is making its weekly journey. Here is a look at the Blackstone Valley by train, places that you can’t approach by car because there are no roads.
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Categories: Blackstone Valley, Cars and Trucks, Nature, Photography, Travel
The demise of the passenger train was a lamentable moment.
I used to often take the train from Calgary to Vancouver – for 50 bucks!
Scenic, comfortable, dining car. bar car, walk around, snooze …
The way to travel.
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Owen was lucky to get a ride. The trains, except for commuter rail and superspeed Amtrak between Boston-NY-DC are pretty much gone. Even if you want to take one of the grand old lines, there are so many broken tracks, you have to detrain and take buses in areas where the trains can’t connect because the tracks aren’t safe. It’s a pity. A crying shame, actually. Lucky you have a train to take!
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I love the pictures and the stories they tell. Weather aside, I know it was a memorable day for Owen. The look on his face and the joy in his voice when he first told us about what he was going to do — was priceless!! I haven’t seen him so happy in a long time. I need to catch up with him about his experience. Meanwhile, maybe you could cue up Rod McKuen’s “The Art of Watching Trains” to go with Owen’s pictures. Would make a nice little video keepsake for him.
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Alas, I actually don’t know how to do that. But it’s a good idea.
On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 12:51 PM, SERENDIPITY
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I enlarged his pic’s and they went into a slide show, I honestly found the details in his photos very interesting. They told a story of what he saw that day. I liked the one he took looking down the side of the train a lot.
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He was up in the locomotive and it was pouring, so he had to make interesting pictures and not let the camera get too wet! It’s one of the perils of photography. But they ARE interesting. There are quite a few more, but I’ll have to post them on another day. I haven’t even processed half of them yet.
On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 12:39 AM, SERENDIPITY
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I like where you live. Landscape changes, mine goes from brown to green, your variety of vignettes is amazing, the history, am I gushing yet?
Your son inherited your photo taking ability’s, interesting photos. Really!!
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Thank you. I guess that makes 4 generations. My mother was a painter, then there’s me … started painting, then fell in love with photography … and Owen, who only shoots when he’s in the mood, and my granddaughter Kaity who is really talented and has her own photography page. The music seems to have ended with me, but Kaity writes. I think Kaity may have some serious talent and I hope she does something with it.
On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 12:25 AM, SERENDIPITY
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