trains Quotes

“After dinner the whole family stretched out on the benches and the floor of the depot and read, with the dictionary in the middle of the room so we kids could look up words we didn’t know...Occasionally, on those nights when we were all reading together, a train would thunder by, shaking the house and rattling the windows. The noise was thunderous, but after we’d been there a while, we didn’t even hear it.”

“It’s funny, when you’re a child you think time will never go by, but when you hit about twenty, time passes like you’re on the fast train to Memphis. I guess life just slips up on everybody. It sure did on me.”

“She waved at all the people on the train & later, when she saw they didn’t wave back, she started singing songs to herself & it went that way the whole day & she couldn’t remember having a better time in her life.”

“There are familiar faces on these trains, people I see every week, going to and fro. I recognize them and they probably recognize me. I don’t know whether they see me, though, for what I really am.”

“He was traveling (on the train that never stopped). His self, his mind, raced on and he felt he hadn’t stopped going wherever he was going because he hadn’t yet arrived.”

“That is how it seemed to young George Webber, who was never so assured of his purpose as when he was going somewhere on a train. And he never had the sense of home so much as when he felt that he was going there. It was only when he got there that his homelessness began.”

“The train lurches hard from side to side. Enrique holds on with both hands.”

“Then indeed the little train was very, very sad, and the dolls and toys were ready to cry.”

“I’m not very big. They use me only for switching trains in the year. I have never been over the mountain.”

″ I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”

“I am a Freight Engine. I have just pulled a big train loaded with big machine over the mountain. These machines print books and newspapers for grown-ups to read. I am a very important engine indeed. I won’t pull the likes of you!”

“The little train was carrying all these wonderful things to the good little boys and girls on the other side of the mountain. She puffed along merrily.”

“Please, Shiny New Engine, won’t you please pull our train over the mountain? Our engine has broken down, and the boys and girls on the other side won’t have any toys to play with or good food to eat unless you help us.”

“She tugged and pulled and pulled and tugged and slowly, slowly, slowly, they started off.”

“Then all of a sudden she stopped with a jerk. She simply could not go another inch. She tried and she tried, but her wheels would not turn.”

″ But the Rusty Old Engine sighed: ‘I am so tired. I must rest my weary wheels. I cannot pull even so little a train as yours over the mountain. I can not. I can not. I can not.’ ”

“The Passenger Engine is not the only one in the world. Here is another engine coming, a great big strong one. Let us ask him to help us.”

“They took the train to the end of the line and picked up jobs out there, working on the railways. Then people started asking questions and it was time to move on.”

“Duffy saw a tractor. ‘Halloo!’ Duffy shouted. ‘I must catch up with the runaway train!‘”

“When Duffy was ready to start, he saw an old lady running down the platform. ‘I’ll help you,’ he said. But he forgot to put the brake on and the little red train set off down the track...”

“Duffy saw some ponies. ‘Whoa!’ Duffy shouted. ‘I must catch up with the runaway train!‘”

“Duffy saw a lorry. ‘Stop!’ Duffy shouted. ‘I must catch up with the runaway train!‘”

“Duffy saw a boat. ‘Ahoy there!’ Duffy shouted. ‘I must catch up with the runaway train!‘”

“Duffy saw some bicycles. ‘Help!’ Duffy shouted. ‘I must catch up with the runaway train!‘”

“And Duffy Driver drove the little red train into the station at Sandy-on-Sea and spent a lovely lazy afternoon on the beach before he had to drive back home again.”

“Trainberry Trackberry Clickety-clackberry”

“At the railway station, the guard was about to wave his flag for the train to leave. As he lifted his arm in the air, Mr Tickle tickled him. And every time he tried to wave his flag, Mr Tickle tickled him until the train was ten minutes late leaving the station and all the passengers were furious.”

“It was on that train, shuffling toward Cincinnati, that she resolved to be on guard—always. She wanted to make certain that no man ever looked at her that way. That no midnight eyes or marbled flesh would ever accost her and turn her into jelly.”

“And in the course of those miles Claudia stopped regretting bringing Jamie along. In fact when they emerged from the train at Grand Central into the underworld of cement and steel that leads to the terminal, Claudia felt that having Jamie there was important. ”

″ ‘That’s the breakdown train,’ he said. ‘When there’s an accident, the workmen get into the coach and the engine takes them quickly to help the hurt people and to clear and mend the line. The cranes are for lifting heavy things like engines and coaches and freight cars.’ ”

“You can’t be neutral on a moving train.”

“The blackness grew grey and paler grey, and miles and miles of monotonous gum samplings lay between the train and the sky. Up burst the sun, and the world grew soft and rosy like a baby waked from sleep. Then the grey gathered again, the pink, quivering lights faded out, and the rain came down - torrents of it, beating against the shaking window-glass, whirled wildly ahead by a rough morning wind, flying down from the mountains.”

“How can I get there first and gobble her up and get all dressed up to trick you into believing I am her if we’ve got a great train journey to do?”

“They traveled 2nd class in the train and Ethel was longing to go first but thought perhaps least said soonest mended.”

“Her trips always ended near a city somewhere Way out in a freight yard with smoke clouding the air, Where a turmoil of trains made a great noisy rumble On crisscrossing tracks, an impossible jumble.”

″ ‘From now on,’ Katy promised, ‘I shall never complain, I’ll be a happy caboose at the end of a train And put up with the jolts, the train noise, and the rest, All the smoke that rolls by- or at least try my best.’ ”

“She was free of the train! At last she was loose! And away down the track went Katy caboose, On down the grade she flew faster and faster Straight for a curve and certain disaster.”

“Edward puffed off. He did have a happy day. All the children ran to wave as he went past, and he met old friend at all the stations. He worked so hard that the Driver promised to take him out again the next day.”

“Outside in the street it was snowing, but the toy-shop window was lit and warm _ it had been lit all night. The tops showed their glinting colors, the balls their bands of red and yellow and blue; the trains were ready to run round and round.”