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The mystique of railway tracks

 
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Kalidor

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:12 am    Post subject: The mystique of railway tracks Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I had a bit of a strange happening today. I was at school today doing work on collecting props for the next show that we were staging (I go to an acting school, and today was a day devoted entirely to the technical aspects of the upcoming show.) For one of the items, my friend and I were sent to the offsite shop/storage facility that the school uses. This shop is down in the industrial section of the city, South Vancouver, if anyone knows Vancouver at all, right near the Fraser river. Down at this part of the town there is a railline that runs through as well, and it is right across from the building that we stopped in at.

Perhaps I need to put thing in perspective before I go any further. I'm not originally from Vancouver, a city of about 3 million people if you count the outlying areas. No, originally I am from a small community in northern British Columbia of about 15,000 people, so it is much different than the city life style. As many people who live in smaller towns know, the rail lines often cut right through the center of the town. So in that regard, I am no stranger to the railway, having driven over, along, or beside it nearly every day when I still lived back home. Here in Vancouver I can go days without seeing railroad tracks, but that's something else.

Anyway, it was the first time in a long while that I'd been down near a set of railway tracks. After we'd completed our business at the shop, my friend and I were sitting in the car again, but we didn't start going right away. It was, for some reason, a very scenic picture, sitting in a car down by those railway tracks in the industrial section of town. It was very windy, and the bare trees were swaying in the wind. There was also this huge flock of birds that was sitting in those trees and on the telephone wires near the tracks. For some inexplicable reason, it felt very good to be sitting near those railway tracks. My friend felt it too, and we started discussing it a bit, the kind of strange feeling that railroad tracks give.

For me it is mostly a warm one. I have a lot of memories of the sight of railroad tracks from my childhood. More than that though, it was almost a romantic feeling of possibility. It was like the railroad tracks were a physical embodiement of the possibility of getting away, of travelling with no end in sight. I think this has a lot to do with the way we see railroad tracks portrayed in the media; the way that wanderers in search of...whatever it is get around, jumping a boxcar and simply riding. I've read some few books with this sort of idea as well. In any case, it is an idea that has lodged in me, and looking at the scene around the tracks, the pulp mill in the background, the grey sky and bare trees was a really interesting moment for me.

I'm not really sure why I'm writing this post now that I read it over, except to perhaps ask if anyone else has had this same kind of feeling about railroad tracks, or if I'm a lone nut job on the subject. It was an interesting feeling that I wanted to try expressing anyway. Maybe I got it right, maybe not. If there are others who feel the same way I'd be interested in hearing about it. Hey, it's a rather unique topic at least, if nothing else.
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Goldy

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Railway Tracks!! I see them everyday......seeing as i am an Architect working for a Railway Company.

But honestly, i think you are a lone nut job on the subject....J/K

Well at this stage i am a bit numb as to what the scenary can offer becasue i have travelled so much on the train, i have seen it in all seasons. Now when i travel anywhere i usually pop on my MP3 player and read a paper, usually fall asleep too, because if anyone know's, the train's here take forever to get anywhere!
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Eden

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 6:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Yeah, I am stunned each time I see Railway Tracks, because I am afraid of travelling on a train. So I don't like Railway Tracks at all. They are signs out of hell... or sort of... er... yes. I'm getting nuts if I have to be on a train. I look on my ticket every 2 minutes, I ask fellow passenger if I'm on the right train and on every station I die, because I fear I could miss exit... And that's not funny, I swear.
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Geddoe

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I've always been like that - when I come to a train crossing and there's one coming by, I turn off the radio and listen to the sounds of it going past. And usually when I'm downtown and eating Tacos and an Amtrak goes by, I'm the geek that will wave as it goes past. One of my best memories is of taking a train trip with my then 3 month old daughter from here [Tampa] to New Orleans, and then to Washington DC, and then back - you see so much more on the train than you would on a plane ride. That, and I'm glad to finally find out where some of the train tracks in my city go. ^_^
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Scarlet Assassin

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Don't feel weird Kalidor, I get choked up every time I see a No loitering sign; some people just have connections to certain things.
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Masaya

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I"m not sure if this is completely similar..however I'll do my best to prove your not too crazy. Generally whenever I gaze up into the sky at long periods of times I end up thinking about how amazing it would be fly away...plane or otherwise. I've noticed for alot of people, the thought of just leaving is just sureal. My friend is going to see the Ocean next week for the first time. She's soo excited, because she's hardly ever left Wisconsin.

Or even when I"m driving..sometimes late at night with a few friends..I'll just bring up that we should just drive. They usually just ask me where we should go, and I reply with something like "I dont' know, lets drive south, east, or west...lets just go till we hit water." Ofcoarse non of can truely do that do to obligations we have here at home. But yeah, I hear ya...
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Scrooge McDuck

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I am sure that everybody have their own special scenery that click with their hearts, Kalidor. it is not just railway tracks; it could be the trees shedding their leaves, the field of grass wet in the middle of a rain, or it may even be something simple like the half-full glass in the middle of the table.

For me, it is the sight of an endless, blue sea. Not just any sea; it is the sea of a bustling harbor that mostly take my breath away. I can just sit there, doing nothing, looking at the sea waves with the ships coming and going along with all the noises around me. Is it an embodiment of my hope to get away; me longing for freedom? I don't know, but the feeling is just there and real.

There is a word in my local dialect that could describe these feelings - and I do not think that there is an equal word of it in English. It is called "wa'as": like a nostalgic feeling but you don't really remember anything, you feel like contemplating but don't really thinking anything, you wish it will stay forever but at the same time wishing that it would end so it would be special.

I am sure many of you know what I am saying. If you don't, then maybe you have yet to find your personal wa'as.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I know exactly what you mean, Kalidor. Train-tracks are a funny thing--they've had an odd effect on people for the last 100+ years. I live close enough to the tracks in my town that i can hear the freight trains coming through at two or three in the morning, and the sound of the whistle...it's heart-wrenchingly lonely and yearning, but it calls me out to join it in its solitude, in some strange way. I see train tracks and suddenly I feel this need to follow them until they end. I dunno.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I don't find anything special about train trakcks, mainly because they ones around where I live are still used and make me late for appointments. But anyway, I have a similar feeling whenever I am downtown at night and normally busy streets are completely empty. I love standing in the middle of them and seeing how far I can walk down them before I have to get out from a coming car (which is normally a pretty long time). There's a feeling of emptiness, solitude and freedom all at once. I see that there's nothing there, but my subconscious still links the streets with people being there and it's like I am in some post-apocalyptic world, wandering down the memories of humanity.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I have special memory with railway tracks. My grandfather house, located near old and unused train station. I often play near it when I was small kid. It unused so it doesn't dangerous anymore.

Now the railway track still there but the government build a market near it and it turn ugly. The train station used for a youth club and such. They painted the wall in not aesthetic way. Too bad, I feel sad when I see it.
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