Burning black rock
If you watch old movies you will be left with an impression that’s all we had in the former times were steam engines. Let me put that idea to rest. In reality steam locomotives were done before I was ever born. In fact I have only seen one running steamer in my lifetime. It came through town over half a century ago and yes I went to watch. It looked like what I’d seen in the movies and it was loud and proud. Now I have seen leftovers from that. I remember going to gather wild berries with my grandmother and in the ground there were large tanks covered with metal plates. When I asked about them she explained that that was where trains used to come to get water on the way to the boat. I wish I had asked more questions. Like; was this every day and were there many steam trains? A quick search will show me that before we had diesels everything ran on coal. Again from before my time. The system must have worked or it would have never stayed in place for all those decades. I realized that the coal came from across the water. Brought in on large ships. Used to heat our homes and run our trains. And to leave a mess behind. Believe me if you played with lumps of coal you had to go home and wash your hands. Those two ideas were inseparable. And although I realized that all things change I wish I had been around to see at least a little bit of it. There was a coal shed at the back of our local train station but I believe that was only to fuel the big pot bellied stove in the waiting room. And to make a mess. Call stoves had an interesting odor. Not something we smell anymore. The idea that you could run a train all day and all night simply by using lumps of black rock leaves me with more questions than answers.
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