Attributes – Steady, Steel, and Superman December 9, 2009

Trains can take on many different meanings…

Trains are powerful. Trains make me think of Superman. What do they compare him to? Is he more powerful than an airplane..Please, like that is an accomplishment. More powerful than a locomotive…Now that is some power! Even Kryptonite can’t stop a Freight Train.

 

 

Trains are a sign of technological advancement and progress. Trains were a sign of growth, progress, and technology in the 1800s. For the first time ever, people were able to travel across the country comfortably.  That was a huge step towards connecting a nation broken by civil war. Trains helped to heal those wounds. 

 

  

Trains are steady, persistent. Trains are always on time, running like clock work. Trains are a mode of transportation you can depend on.  Trains can carry on in the rain, wind, snow, hail, anything. Trains do not get helped up, delayed, or cancelled.  Trains are just always there, chugging along.

 

Trains are classic, traditional.  Trains have a sense of nostalgia one just does not get with any other mode of travel.  Although not the most popular way to travel, trains still produce positive imagery: The Little Engine that Could, Thomas the Train, model trains…the list goes on and on. Trains are just so wholesome and so All-American.  

 

  

Trains are fast…they don’t call it a bullet train for nothing.

 

   

Trains are Metal. Steel. Strong. Streamline. Efficient.  

   

Trains are safe. Trains  are on the ground, on tracks. It is difficult to derail a train. Odds are if something is standing in front of a train…the train is going to win.  

 

 

Trains are dangerous. If you not in a train but on the tracks, and suddenly you hear  “Chugga-chugaa-chugga-WOO-WOO” then yes, you have something to fear…

 

Trains are logical and systematic. There are train tracks and train routes. You know exactly where a train will be going, no detours, and no confusion. It is a nice quality. Comforting.

 

Trains are symbolic of adventure. Think of 1930s vagabonds, gypsies, and youths, sneaking onto an empty train, off to see the country. Trains are emblematic of a journey.

The Civil War Fall Out – Part 2 December 9, 2009

At the age of 56, having spent 25 years in a distinguished public career, Senator Yulee commenced, and carried on for 20 years more the most strenuous work of his life: that of restoring to vitality that part of the railroad system of Florida in which he was personally invested.

Senator Yulee was the driving force behind The Florida Railroad, the state’s first trans-state line. It was his vision to unleashed the “iron dragon” and send it rumbling through the swamps and pine forests from the ocean to the gulf. Yulee’s railroad opened up the center of the state and planted new towns in the wilderness.

Senator Yulee was a true civil servant to Florida throughout most of his adult life.  He made significant contributions to my home state of Florida and to my little town of Homosassa. The Yulee Sugar Mill stands tall and proud as a reminded of his diligence to his state, my state.