By Norma Platt, from a conversation with Larry Yost and Ron Happ
The train still went through Vosburg Hollow when Larry Yost and Ron Happ were youngsters. They still live in the neighborhood and remember the train and Vosburg Hollow as it used to be.
Back then, this area was a paradise for kids who loved the outdoors. Adventures abounded — swimming in ‘Gent’s Pond’ in the Hollow and spearing suckers (fish) in the creek. Larry Yost says that they’d know when the freight train was coming because the ground would shake and the train would whistle. He’d jump on his bike and go down to where the train crossed Vosburg Road. Both Larry and Ron put pennies and nickels on the tracks to be squished.
The trains were powered by diesel engines and could be quite long, 50 cars or more, and moved very slowly because the tracks were in poor condition. They remember an inspection vehicle that would pass along the line to be sure that it was safe enough to be used. This was a regular street vehicle, a gold Buick, fitted with a set of wheels that could be lowered to run along the RR tracks.
It was before Larry’s time, but he wanted you to be sure to know that, in the old days, there was a passenger train that went through and that there was a wreck just down the track toward the lake in Forest Lawn. Two trains collided head-on at a curve in the track and people were killed and injured.