More Adventures in Black and White: In late August 1966 I was trying to get my mind right to enter college the next month. The war in Vietnam wasnt going well, and few young males in the US were jumping up at down in wild anticipation of crawling through a rice paddy with an M-16. It was my intention to stay focused, study hard, and keep my grades up and try to eventually get a BA (accomplished in 1970, although the Army was still waiting for me not long after graduation). It wasnt just the war in Vietnam. In 1966 the health of the American passenger train was grave. You could just sense it wouldnt go on forever--and in most cases, it wouldnt. So, I made a train trip to Louisville to experience what I could on the L&N while they were still running. On this particular overcast morning, L&Ns overnight Montgomery to Cincinnati mail and express train---number 4---was changing power at Louisville. The E6-E7 duo that brought the train in from Nashville was replaced by a freshly fueled and watered pair of Es---headed up by E7 number 760. I was on foot, but during the trains generous dwell time for station work, I hoofed it as far south as K&I Junction. And, here came number 4, her dozen baggage cars, express boxes and single coach for anyone interested in riding (plus three hot totes on the rear)--rolling toward the junction at A Street, where it would veer left for street running down Gaulbert Avenue before gaining the Cincinnati Division main line north. By the end of the year number 4, and her southward companion, number 1, were deemed expendable. Back at college, my mind wasnt exactly as right as it should have been. A lack of study, focus and spotty class attendance were all going against me. Even though I knew the consequences, I seemed a lost for a few months, and clearly I needed an attitude adjustment. As a result of my lackluster grades, I was almost on academic probation. Surely things had to improve eventually. They did for me---but for L&Ns passenger trains, the end was within sight. And now, as I look at these images from so many years ago, they almost haunt me. ----Ron Flanary
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 22:27:26 +0000
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