Amy Gerstman

Because Indiana may or may not be on the verge of a new rail industry, I thought it curious to visit the railroad of yesteryear. So on Mother’s Day, the children and I went to French Lick, IN and road the train to Cuzco. Cuzco is in Dubois County. If your French is proper, as the conductor will tell you, Dubois is pronounced (do-bwah), but if you’re from Southern Indiana, (dew-boyz) works fine. The line operates as a not-for-profit part of the Indiana Railway Museum in an attempt to “procure, preserve, restore, display and operate whatever may relate to the history of rail transportation”.

http://www.indianarailwaymuseum.org/

Paige and Ethan had never ridden a train before. They were delighted and enjoyed Pepsi and popcorn from the snack cart. We passed Larry Bird’s boyhood home and road through 20 miles of Hoosier National Forest.

Much of the journey is a visitation to the discarded—abandoned train parts, piles of rotting tiles, lots of black buckets, trash, litter and rural poverty. The train itself is rusting and crumbling, covered by layer over layer of paint. The old wooden windows are--just barely--held open by sticks. A few of the passengers were old timers, men sitting alone in the back, staring out windows, possibly remembering an America of another era.

And so I thought, surely the bright, young engineers of today could craft a 21st century railroad and revive a once great economic engine. People would line up to ride it, just imagine-- zipping up to Indy (downtown or the airport) in an hour without ever dealing with 465, or a car, or traffic, or parking, or roadwork…without accidents, without gasoline. Or maybe West Baden, or Bedford, or Louisville, or Terre Haute. Build it and they will come.