Today I interviewed Jeff Woods. He had great information regarding modern Carlisle as well as Carlisle’s history and business in downtown Carlisle. I found his understanding of the disappearance of Carlisle’s train station particularly interesting.
According to Jeff Woods, owner of the Whistlestop Bookshop, the train station “was moved out because of the pressure of the car. It was 1936 and once the cars got at a critical mass in quantity, the train became a hazard to the cars….And the cars were never a hazard to the train [laughs]. But as soon as you had the train, the wonderful mass transit mover, endangering the cars, people felt that they were being personally threatened. And so people said, ‘The train’s gotta go’ and they moved it two blocks over and it became a non-passenger entity. I hope at some point people are going to see the trucks as a hazard to the people and therefore the trucks have to go.”
ES