Dear Friends,
One of my father’s and grandfather’s favorite hymns was “Life’s Railway to Heaven.” Modern Episcopalians, raised on The Hymnal 1940, tend to look down on old country songs like this one, but to many the image of a railroad to heaven was a comforting allegory.
The old railway provided transportation through rough terrain. There was no computer guidance system. Engineers must be ever vigilant. Missing a turn could be disaster! Trestles over open canyons and rivers were narrow, built from wood and steel rails. One missed judgment could send the entire train to its doom!
Many of those trains were serviced in the Russell Yards, then one of the largest in the country and home base for the C & O. My grandfather worked there oiling wheels, checking bearings, and getting the cars and engines ready for the next trip.
While in college my father, when he could afford it, rode the George Washington from Cincinnati to Ashland on Friday after his last class to visit his parents and his girlfriend, who would eventually become his wife and my mother. The last time the George Washington ran under steam, we all went to the Ashland station to see her come in! The huge coal-burning engines sent sparks and smoke everywhere! Modern dragons, they could run only if fed coal and water in the right ratio. Not enough or too much could result in explosions seen and heard for miles.
This hymn, now seldom sung, had special meaning to those who worked the railroads. The author, M. E. Abbey, wrote it in 1917 and noted on the music that it was “respectfully dedicated to the railroad men.”
The choir tries to bring you all kinds of music from Bach to Gospel. We hope you enjoy this one on Sunday and take a trip back in time to the golden age of the railroads and the men who made them run.
Dr. Carol Greene
The George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1932, in conjunction with the real George Washington’s birth, which had occurred 200 years earlier (but not on the same day), operating between Newport News and Cincinnati, although sleeper service was offered as far as New York City and St. Louis. The train itself followed the C&O’s super-scenic main line through the Appalachians and the George connected the Newport News/Norfolk area of Virginia in the east with Louisville, Kentucky, in the west. At the time, and prior to the railroad’s purchase of the Baltimore & Ohio, one could journey to Chicago via a connection with the New York Central at Cincinnati. (http://www.american-rails.com/george-washington.html)