[sheepherder]

I grew up in the 50's/60's. Our back yard bordered on three rail tracks; two close together, separated from the third by a long pond. There was a cherry tree on the back fence of our yard. Us kids would climb the tree and eat cherries in the Summer while the trains raced by, six feet away. We were at face level with the passenger coaches - We'd wave and grin, but of course we never saw their reactions. They'd be a hundred yards away by the time they realized three or four kids were in a tree waving at them.

The engineers of freight trains would toss us big sticks of white chalk. Nowadays you can buy them everywhere, but back then only train people had them. And happy kids.

The local grade school had bunches of 16mm short movies. Several were horror story-type films about the rail lines. Like the one with the little girl blinded by thugs throwing stones at passing train windows. Or the one with the kid walking the rails and his foot got stuck in the switch. Times were much different back then.