Memories of the Rinky Dink

(story by Richard Stern)

       When I was young, (during W W II) I lived in Sayreville, NJ. We lived on the border of Sayreville and South Amboy. Everyone called the RRRR the Rinky Dink. This was of course in the days of steam locomotives. We played sand lot baseball on a field that was at the top of Wilmot Street. From deep left field you could look down on the Raritan River tracks. This was just west of the Pennsylvania RR freight tracks where they hauled hoppers filled with coal. I seem to remember that they went to a dock in South Amboy where the cars were inverted and the coal went down a chute into a coal ship. The passenger tracks were located in "downtown" South Amboy where the Pennsey and the Jersey Central shared tracks and the station. This was where the Pennsey changed northbound trains from steam to the venerable GG-1s and electric, then rolled north through the tubes and into the old Pennsylvania Station in NYC. The Jersey Central utilizing Camelbacks went to Journal Square in Jersey City.
      

      But I digress about the RRRR. As kids in the summertime we would go out in the woods and pick huckleberries. Once when a RRRR train was making a switch from the Pennsey main line to Raritan River trackage, the engineer invited my two friends and myself up into the cab of the loco. I will never forget the heat of the firebox and the thrill of being up on this massive piece of machinery. We told the cab crew that we were going berry picking. They said to stay on board and they would give us a ride out there, about a mile or two. With a blast of the whistle we smoothly started to move. The fireman kept us in a safe spot and cautioned us not to touch anything. We were fascinated, awed and scared all at the same time. Soon the hogger slowed the train and stopped. They helped us down and said, "Don't forget to get some berries for us"! We waved goodbye as they went off around the bend.
      

     My friends and I went into the woods and picked our berries. Usually we ate as many as we put into out tin pails, but today we had a mission. After a few hours our pails were full. We went back to the tracks. Do you think we would walk home? Not when we could ride in the cab of a loco. We put our ears to the track as we had seem them do in Hopalong Cassidy movies. Soon we heard a whistle and that unmistakable exhaust tone of a REAL locomotive. We stood by the tracks and the train came to a stop accompanied by the gentle squeal of brake shoes. We looked up and did not see the faces of the engineer and fireman who brought us out here. The current crew told us that the other crew had told them about us and to keep an eye out for the huckleberry boys. We scrambled up the ladders and passed our precious cargo up. Now came the moment of truth. I told the engineer that we had promised the other crew that we would give them the berries. I looked straight into his eyes and said that I trusted him to honor our prior arrangement. He assured me he would get the berries to the other crew. The best part was now we had two engine crews that would stop and give us a ride.