When my “exile” in Michigan ended and I returned to Illinois, the railroad still was attractive to me. When the mood hit me or I had been listening to the train whistles in the valley for awhile I would get on my bicycle and ride down to the railroad station and just hang out. If you stayed out of the way of things you could wile away a whole afternoon watching trains, things happening at the station, seeing how the railroad ran. You could learn that the arrival of passenger trains was always announced by a little bell in the baggage department and in the station masters office.
The railway express baggage wagons were usually out on the platform, ” Just in case! Painted in the traditional green and red of the company with a tin plate with the logo on it bolted to the front of the wagon. Although, Moline was not the end of the section, it was always where the the train would pick up its orders for the next section. The station master would run out just as the train pulled in and hand the paper work to the conductor or the engineer. Of course, you would have to have hung around awhile to see this procedure as it happened quickly and efficiently. If it was an “express” and did not stop at this station the transfer was done with a long pole with a wire on the end of it so the paper work could be passed off without stopping, ” On the run.”
There were hot summers days where, though forbidden, you could walk the tracks, smell the creosote covered “sleepers” and pick up old bent spikes and plates. But if you heard a whistle off in the distance, you knew to get off the tracks and clear from the right a way, fast, so as to be safe and out of the way!
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