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