Monon Memories

A Visit To Midland With My Grandfather

  Many of the Lundy men of my grandfather’s generation were railroad workers. Most were section hands for the Illinois Central
  or the Pennsylvania. My grandfather, James Lundy worked for, and retired from the Monon. I don’t know how many different
  jobs he held, or how many different places he worked, but in my time, he was a car inspector at Midland.

When I was a kid, and Granddad talked about places like Victoria, Midland, and Vicksburg, I thought they were big cities like
New York or Chicago. Now, of course, we all know they were just little burgs on the railroad line.

When I was seven, or maybe eight years old, Granddad took me to Midland where he worked. There were a lot of big buildings there where they worked on the engines and cars, and I suppose about everything else the railroad had. Those buildings were the biggest I had ever seen, several times larger than the barn I was familiar with. Steam engines were moving cars around, and trains were coming and going. Things were constantly on the move. A very busy place at the time.

Granddad and I spent most of the day there at Midland. It was the biggest thrill of my life at the time, and a day I will never forget. It was 1935, or 36, but I remember it as though it were yesterday.

By Robert Lundy

Switz City, Indiana

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