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 baby train spotted




From: morrand@harpo.cns.iit.edu (Andrew Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Baby Train goes by again
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 23:29:11 GMT

I hope this variation on the old "Baby Train" story hasn't been brought up yet. I read this in, of all places, "Trains" magazine (May 1997), as part of an article called "Selected Railroad Reading".

This particular piece is titled "Ah! C'est Jacques" and credited to a Victoria Brouillette, who tells it as a first-person narrative. She places it in St. Gabrielle Falls, in southern Quebec, as having happened in "the early '50s".

The core of the story is about the same as any other version I've read. The narrator notices the masses of children in town, and asks several of her relatives why there are so many children in town. Each time, she receives basically the same reply: "C'est Jacques!"

Eventually, one of her relatives explains that Jacques is a locomotive driver for the Canadian National, and then there's a twist. As her cousin explains:

"In '38 his train destroyed an auto with a group of--how you say--teenagers, drunken, on the grade crossing at the edge of town. Their families sued the railroad for much dollars and collected. After that, every morning at 5:30, as his train rolls through town, Jacques leans on the whistle from one end of town to the other--he's still doing it."

I think it's kind of interesting that suddenly there's a bit of revenge involved in the story. I haven't seen that in any of the other versions I've read.

Andrew Morris (morrand@charlie.cns.iit.edu)


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