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Publisher’s Corner

Riding the Rails journalofantiques.com

ike the Internet in the second half of the 20th readers on a ride aboard the elegant
century, trains were the major disrupters of the Orient Express of the 1930s, snow- Publisher
L19th century. They changed the way we brought bound in Yugoslavia with a killer on Maxine Carter-Lome
our goods to market, where we lived, and how we board. Christie’s popular novel of Maxine Carter-Lome journalofantiques@gmail.com
traveled. They raised towns around a depot stop, provided the day has gone on to be adopted Business Manager
jobs, and created wealth. They brought us closer together for film, radio, television, stage, and games. Today, the Jeffrey Lome
as a country and captured our imagination with where Orient Express is a pop culture reference to the elegant age jeffrey@journalofantiques.com
they could take us. of rail travel in the first half of the 20th century. Managing Editor
As a country, we were fascinated by their sheer Trains in movies also have deep roots, dating back to
Judy Gonyeau
size and power, and the novelty of the technology that the early days of cinema. The Great Train Robbery, a editorial@journalofantiques.com
made it all possible. Trains represented progress and our silent western film released in 1903 by the Edison
aspirations as a country. Those themes quickly found Manufacturing Company, follows a gang of outlaws who Contributing Writer
their way into the American zeitgeist of the 20th century, hold up and rob a steam locomotive at a station in the Erica P. Lome, Ph.D.
and continue as dominant themes in all aspects of our American West. The General, a 1926 American silent Art Director
life, reinforced through the songs we sing, nursery rhymes comedy film, was inspired by the Great Locomotive Lynn Cotterman
we remember, and the shows, movies, and books we Chase – a true story of an event that occurred ads@journalofantiques.com
enjoy to this day. during the American Civil War. More recently, iconic Production
Trains have been a theme in both traditional and films such as Strangers on a Train (1951), The Taking of
popular music since the first half of the 19th century and Pelham One Two Three (1974), The Darjeeling Limited Jill Montague
over the years have appeared in all major musical genres, (2007), and remakes of Murder on the Orient Express Judy Gonyeau
including folk, blues, country, rock, jazz, world, classical, remind us that trains and train travel remains popular
and avant-garde. Work songs, ballads recounting riveting movie themes. These and countless other films forever 508-347-1960
exploits, and instrumental echoes of the once familiar associate train movies with damsels in distress, hobos, Toll free:
sounds of the steam locomotive have enshrined the bandits, romance, suspense, and tales of adventure
railroad in our musical memory. and intrigue. 888-698-0734
The earliest known train songs date to two years The indoctrination of trains into our popular Fax: 508-347-0911
before the first public railway began operating in the consciousness starts at a young age. Children for Mailing:
United States, both written to commemorate the ground- generations have grown up with the life lesson of P. O. Box 950
breaking of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1828: The optimism and hard work pay off learned from The Little Sturbridge, MA 01566
Carrollton March, composed by Arthur Clifton, and Rail Engine That Could, first published in 1930. My children
Road March by Charles Meineke. Since then, songs about grew up watching Thomas the Tank Engine and Shining info@journalofantiques.com
trains have been written and recorded by almost everyone Time Station, first with George Carlin as the conductor
who is anyone in popular and traditional music, from and later, Ringo Starr. Many model train collectors will UPS and FedEx
Boxcar Willie to the Grateful Dead, B.B. King, and tell you they caught the bug as a child. Shipping Address:
Cyndi Lauper. Perhaps one of the most enduring and Our love affair with trains as a primary mode of 46 Hall Road
iconic train songs is, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, transportation may have waned in the second half of the Sturbridge, MA 01566
first published in 1894 and recorded in 1927. In the years 20th century but not our interest in all things trains. The Journal of
following its release, this American folk song has been collector market for “Railroadiana” items and collections Antiques and Collectibles
adopted as a popular children’s song and is still sung is stronger than ever, with everything from model trains is published monthly in digital
today, generations later. and signage to passenger schedules and train company and bi-monthly in print by
Trains have also been used both symbolically and as a stock certificates routinely coming to auction.
literary device in stories and novels since the mid-19th cen- In this issue we take you on a train trip into our Weathervane Enterprises, Inc.
tury. In Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, first published in industrial history with profiles on George Pullman and 46 Hall Road
1878, trains are a recurring motif throughout the story, Peter Cooper, take a look at trains on display at the Sturbridge MA 01566.
with several major plot points taking place either on World’s Fair, explore the collectability of Lionel Periodicals postage paid at
passenger trains or at stations in Saint Petersburg or Signature Gauge trains, and share the story behind rail- Sturbridge MA.
elsewhere in Russia. Trains are also used as a popular theme road pocket watches and fobs. Hope you enjoy the ride!
and backdrop in many 20th-century crime and thriller
novels. Perhaps one of the most famous is Murder on the
Orient Express, a Hercule Poirot mystery written by Agatha POSTMASTER:
Christie and first published in 1934. The story takes Maxine Carter-Lome, Publisher
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