Bascule 

20 x 20

Oil on Canvas

Gallery Wrapped

August 2020

I’ve always had a fascination with train trestles. Not trains, or even riding on trains. It’s with train trestles and train bascules  specifically. My grandfather was a train guy. Working nearly his entire life in the train yards of Altoona, Pennsylvania – a gritty railroad town not far from the infamous Horse Shoe Curve.

My mother told me a story once about walking home from nursing school one afternoon in the 1940’s. She’d always watch for her father, working the yard – waving to him as she walk beneath and through the trestles and elevated tracks. He would always wave back and smile. “Daddy”, worked the tracks and trestles. Never in or on the trains. Ever.

Except once: On this afternoon she saw her father on the train waving vigorously to her and smiling happily at her as the train passed in front. She waved back. “Odd”, she thought, waving. “Daddy’s never on the train. I wonder where he’s going?” Arriving home minutes later, she was met by family and confusion. Daddy had passed away many hours prior that morning.

This is The Lake Monroe Lift Bridge. Built in 1931. We’re also rewarded with the pretty little “Ilex Cassine” or the Dahoon Holly that grows around it. The Ilex cassine leaves contain measurable amounts of caffeine and were used in the Native American cassena or “Black Drink”.

Now ya know.