File:Trains! Everyone loves trains.jpg

Summary

A great photo from Frederick County miller and amateur photographer Walker R. Smith with a quote on it from his son, H Walker Smith:

"Trains! Everyone loves trains and I'm no exception. I spent the first 9 years of my life living less than 30 feet from the main line of the B&O and little more than that from the crossing at Doubs. That was when half or more of the trains were pulled by steam engines like the one in the picture. There was something magical about the steam whistle announcing the approaching train that the air horns on a diesel just can't match.

The train in the picture is nearly at the Doubs' crossing as it comes from the South, heading toward Frederick. The engine is passing over a culvert at the instant the picture was taken. The house in the lower left corner was the Milberry home and there was a second crossing close by that would be closed after an accident. Locally it was known as 'Pigeon Hill'. I suspect that there are very few still living who would remember that."

(Photo by Walker R. Smith of Doubs 1910-1999)

Phil Lowery: I lived on Walnut Street my entire childhood and loved sitting under the huge maple trees watching the trains go by. We would put coins on the rails and they were flatten you couldn't tell they were coins.

Margaret Hobson Barney: My Dad's father was a B&O engineer out of Baltimore. My Dad completed a pipe fitter/sheet metal apprenticeship in Baltimore with the B&O during the depression. But in the mid 1930s, jobs were scarce even for those skilled workers. But by 1938, the war effort had begun and Daddy heard there were jobs in Brunswick bringing heavy equipment from the rust belt via steam engine trains. He went to Brunswick, spoke with Jim Cummings who was superintendent over the whole operation: both yards, roundhouse including the mechanical shops. My mother and I moved in September, 1939. Daddy had been living with Jim & Bessie Cummings in that gorgeous home on E. A St. And Kay Lee and I became life long friends! Little bit of Brunswick history!