At night, passengers enjoyed brilliantly lighted cars. Special observation and smoking sections provided early versions of man-caves for the male passengers. Honduran mahogany and semi-empire ceilings finished the interior walls of the cars. The Interurban’ s 53-foot-long, Pullman green coaches featured art glass transoms, plate glass windows, heavy brass work, leather seats and carpet. in History, I penned a paper about the Galveston-Houston Interurban electric railroad. My interest in trains also extended into my academic career. She seems to have inherited my enthusiasm for the conveyance, though I don’t have to be shot at to enjoy the ride. My daughter’s favorite part is when a band of animatronic outlaws attack us as we chug through an Old West town. In recent years, I’ve taken my children to the Kemah Boardwalk near my home in Houston, where we ride the replica of the famous 1863 C.P. I’m always up for a ride and have ridden trains in amusement parks, zoos, and wildlife parks. I know every word to the song, by the way. As a little girl, my family made a few day trips from our home in Birmingham to Chattanooga, where we dined at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Restaurant. So, I never got to hear his stories of trains. He passed away, at the age of 76, in 1934, long before either I or my mother was born. After settling in Bessemer, Mack left his job as a track foreman to work for Tennessee Coal & Iron’s Bessemer Rolling Mill until his retirement in 1931. You can see his pocket watch chain against his dark suit. My Mama has a photograph, one of only two we have of Mack, in which he stands with some of the men who worked for him by a handcar. My grandmother, Margaret Frances (Muzzie to me), was born in Bessemer, Alabama on January 31, 1916. Aunt Sol arrived in Ensley, Alabama in 1910. Uncle Bud joined the family in 1908 at Pell City, Alabama. Aunt Louise arrived three years later while the family was living in Potts Camp, Mississippi. Aunt Edna was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi in 1903. Little Talmadge died somewhere along the way his existence known only from family lore neither birth certificate nor death certificate ever located. If you view an atlas that shows rail-lines, you can chart the growing family’s progress as they moved along with the tracks running through Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. Thornton,” and he called her “Hon.” Babies soon followed. He has a good job with the railroad and a solid gold pocket watch.” So, Lantie, age 22, married, Mack, age 39. The widow Smith told daughter, Lantie Elizabeth, “You marry that man. When he reached Columbia, Tennessee, he boarded at the home of a widow with three daughters. Mack Daniel Thornton, son of a Confederate cavalryman and great-grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier, left Blackshear, Georgia to work for the “steam railroad.” His first wife died, leaving him with four children the youngest, Talmadge, being just a baby. My maternal grandmother was the daughter of a railroad man. I have no explanation for this effect, other than to say that it is in my blood. And to see one – headlight beaming, chugging down the tracks, rushing past, going… somewhere, just thrills me. “Listen, did you hear that? It’s a train!” I’ll say to anyone within earshot as if I’ve identified the call of a rare bird. Hank Williams concurred, “That midnight train is whining low, I’m so lonesome I could cry.” And some think the sound bears evil forebodings – “Watch out, brother, for that long black train,” so sayeth Josh Turner. I know some folks think the sound of a train whistle at night is lonely. The train tracks are a long way off from my house, but through the dark the sound travels to my ears and down into my soul. And now I raise my eyes from the page and strain my ears to listen to the whistle of the passing train. I’ve been waiting for it, somewhat distracted from the story. In my bed, in the still quiet of the night, with a good book in hand, I hear the sound.

Johnny works on railroad story