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If you were a GI hanging out the train's window as it slowly
pulled into Dennison, Ohio for a locomotive servicing stop during
World War II, the scene would have looked much like it does today...
...and you would have had a lot of company.
Out of the
16,535,000 servicemen and women who served in World War
II, more than 1,500,000 passed through the doors of the Dennison
Depot Salvation Army Servicemen's Canteen on then-Pennsylvania
Railroad's tracks, to or from the war zones.
Some 3,987 local residents
from an eight county region kept the coffee and sandwiches ready for
whenever the trains came through as troop trains only
stopped for about 15 minutes--long
enough to service a locomotive--then continued on their way.
As you walk through the museum,
you feel the same sense those troops had when they descended from
the train for those few minutes and the canteen cart with the
local volunteers passed through the crowd with food and coffee,
providing a few minutes' break from war
worries. The canteen was the home of the "always on" coffee
pot as food and coffee was served around the clock from March
19, 1942 to April 8, 1946 as the troops traveled from training bases
to the departure ports for the combat zones.
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The Dennison Train Depot
museum has a few items in it I have not seen yet at any other
railroad museum, starting with the special display of women
railroader photographs.
The women railroaders, for
the most part, took the place of their male counterparts who were
drafted to run trains in the military overseas.
Before there was FedEx,
before there was Express Mail, there was the Railway Express Agency, which transported
just about anything, anytime, anywhere in the US in express
cargo railcars coupled to passenger trains.
My godfather and uncle,
William Leamy, was an "armed messenger" on Railway Express on the
Boston to New York runs, guarding high value cargo in transit.
I was surprised to see this Railway Express baggage cart and thought
of him instantly. While Uncle Bill passed on some years
ago, I felt he was right next to me when I took this
photograph.
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For more information,
please stop by the Dennison
Railroad Museum's web site
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