Photography by David Robert CrewsThese train tracks are right behind the Dundalk home that I grew up in. The tracks run through Dundalk between Baltimore City and the old Bethlehem Steel Mill at Sparrows Point. The tracks sit up on a 20 foot embankment at the end of our 100 foot deep yard, and only slow moving freight trains used the tracks, so the tracks were no draw back at all to living there.
In fact, it was neat having them there. The trains were elevated on that embankment so as they went by they looked very visually exciting to me and to any kids who were visiting my family, and the embankment helped to safely separate the moving trains from us little kids. Then as soon as my family had moved into our home in 1955, my father had planted flowering sticker bushes all across the end of our yard to discourage us kids from playing on the tracks.
My family always heard the trains coming before any families who were visiting our home did, so we'd always have any visiting kids waiting at our huge six paned dining room windows when a train was coming by, and to everyone’s' delight the kids enjoyed watching those freight trains go by too. Some kids looked forward to seeing a train go by whenever they came to our house.
My sister has our parents' house now, and I have never lost my love of watching the trains go by there.
The trains don't run there very often anymore though, but they used to go by several times a day, everyday from 1955 up till about 5-10 years ago when the steel mill's production began to slow down.
In fact, it was neat having them there. The trains were elevated on that embankment so as they went by they looked very visually exciting to me and to any kids who were visiting my family, and the embankment helped to safely separate the moving trains from us little kids. Then as soon as my family had moved into our home in 1955, my father had planted flowering sticker bushes all across the end of our yard to discourage us kids from playing on the tracks.
My family always heard the trains coming before any families who were visiting our home did, so we'd always have any visiting kids waiting at our huge six paned dining room windows when a train was coming by, and to everyone’s' delight the kids enjoyed watching those freight trains go by too. Some kids looked forward to seeing a train go by whenever they came to our house.
My sister has our parents' house now, and I have never lost my love of watching the trains go by there.
The trains don't run there very often anymore though, but they used to go by several times a day, everyday from 1955 up till about 5-10 years ago when the steel mill's production began to slow down.
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