It is not often that you get to stand in the footsteps of history. I make an effort to do this as much as I can. When I see the brick walls that say, “Cigars, 5 Cents,” I take an extra effort to stop and think.
I wonder for a moment as I pause. For instance, in the town of Radford, Virginia, where the town’s Main Street runs alongside the former Norfolk & Western mainline. As today’s Norfolk Southern rolls by, I envision the days as they were in a simpler time.
It is not that hard to do. The sound of the train horn echoes in my ear, and I think of the train rolling onto Roanoke, and think of how trains built Virginia and America so many years ago. The coal hoppers roll by, and I think of a railroad that works in the way it was intended to so many years ago.
The cars roll past, one by one, each pounding the crossing with their payload of coal. This is America’s railroad system at work, whether in cities large or small, whatever they haul, railroads work for America.
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