Clickety-clack, Please Come Back.
by John Tackett

Transportation-wise, we are going back to the future. Case in point is the much-heralded Trinity Railway Express, recently presented to the public as the greatest discovery in mobilization since the wheel.

In the early 1930’s there was a railway connecting Dallas and Fort Worth. Yes, a regular train track. It was called the "Inter-Urban," meaning, of course, an inter-city connection between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth.

I didn’t write then, of course, but I always was curious about it's origin and its demise, even more so now.

As a resident of Arlington in the 1970’s, I used to wonder why the experts gave up the Dallas-Fort Worth railroad. I recall, in fact before I left Arlington, how I used to park my car under an old railroad trestle and pretend I could hear the iron horse churning over head.

Dreaming I was.

But in days gone by it was a very practical thing for the commuters in the area. It was a convenient thing - that train for people who needed a handy conveyance to get from here to there with the least amount of toil and trouble.

You could pick up the train and let yourself off anywhere in between the cities, whether it be Arlington or Grand Prairie. And in those days, before wagering on horse races was outlawed, you could get off at the Arlington Downs racetrack stop and place a few bucks on your favorite "bang tail."

The railroad tracks were mothballed as transportation science gave way to the idea of a ribbon of concrete between the two cities. Then came the Turnpike, or the Toll Rode, call it what you will.

The tracks had remained a ghostly signature of the past, until experts rediscovered their value.

And so now it's "Clickety-clack, Please come back."

Copyright © 2001 John Tackett
All rights reserved

About the Author

John Tackett holds a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from the University of Texas at Arlington and is an award winning journalist. He was news co-anchor with Jim Lehrer on Dallas's Channel 13, and his most famous articles were about the J.F.K. assassination.

Editor's note: John Tackett's daughter, Stasey Tackett, has recently released her heavily researched book on the Jon Ramsey case in e-book form. It's called "Prize Possession" and can be purchased on Stasey's website, www.staseywrites.com.