My dad worked for the railroad. His father worked for the railroad, and so did his grandfather. Myself, I had to settle for being a train buff.
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A view of the Milwaukee Road's buildings at Lake, Wisconsin, taken from the College Avenue overpass. Lake was formally incorporated into the city of Milwaukee in 1941, but the station name survived. The building at immediate right is where the signal maintainer (my dad) and the section gang were based. All of these buildings have long since been razed. |
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A view of the Chicago Great Western Railway station at Dodge Center, Minnesota. I first came to know and love the "Chicago Great Weedy" as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, although I can't exactly remember how and why. |
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Some of the members of Winona Cathedral High's class of 1951 enjoying a smoke (?) in front of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway station in Dodge Center. The good Catholic girl at the far left of the back row is (or, more accurately, was fated to become) my mom, Laurie Bambenek Hughes. |