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28
Back Porch
Steam and Dreams of the Past
by Edward E. Cox, Sr.
Steam trains have always been a big part of my life. We livad near the L&N railroad tracks in Oakdale, the southern part of Mobile, Alabama, and could hear the trains day and night. My father as well as my grandfather worked for the L&N railroad, so a lot of our time was spent at the station at the foot of Government Street. Mobile was a very busy place in the 1930s and 1940s as people used trains for traveling a lot more then than now. As one can see, the train station was a very exciting place for me.
The steam engine with its far off whine could be heard as it blew its whistie for the railroad crossing. As these engines approached the station, bells ringing and steam hiss, it was a grand sight and I greatly admired the men who ran the engines. “This,” I told myself many time, “is what I would like to do. ”
Trains were very important to America during World War II, and the five man crew had plenty to do. Tanks, planes, and other war supplies that trains carried to seaports to be shipped overseas were vital to our fighting men. Troop trains were often loaded to capacity. Many times when trains stopped at the railroad crossing the men in uniform would throw pennies to young boys waving to them.
It required two engines to pull the heavy load of long freight trains with as many as one hundred boxcars with freight in them. These iron horses would be hauling coal or metal which was needed for the war effort.
During my father’s railroad career, he had a baggage car job, which took him to New Orleans and then back to Mobile. A ride in the baggage car was very exciting for me, sitting on the mail sacks and watching as we passed through small towns on
our way to New Orleans. At each stop I would watch my father load and unload baggage and mail. Many times on the return trip from New Orleans he would push blocks of ice off for the fishermen who lived along the swamps of Louisiana. Sometimes even groceries were put off at the many small stations such as Ansley, Pearlington, Lake Shore and Clermont Harbor. In return, these fishermen gave my father fresh fish, crabs and oysters for dropping off their orders.
I still nave photos, dating back to the early 1900s, of my grandfather standing by some of the many steam trains on which he worked. His documents show that he worked for the L&N Railroad for forty years. As a young boy I would sit spellbound as he told about his working days. No one knew that he had kept a diary of all his travels and the many people he met while working on the railroad until
his death and some of his things were given to me. One of my grandfather’s last entries was written on Wednesday, September 1960, when he wrote, “I will be eighty years on November 18th 1960. I have been blessed by the good Lord. And I thank my God for all the blessings and then some.” It was signed, John D. Cox.
It has been many years since water towers were used for the steam engines, and there are no longer any coal conveyors to load coal on the tender. Gone, too, are turntables where the iron horses were turned around. Many railroad shops have been tom down, and only a few bricks and boards remain as a reminder of the past. The sound of “All aboard” is no longer heard, and red cap porters who carried luggage for the travelers have all disappeared.
L&N engine number 1506 made its last run from New Orleans to Mobile