Closer to Home
In 1970, Grand Funk Railroad produced their Closer To Home album. The iconic song on that album “I’m Your Captain” was their most definitive work summing up a band that greatly influenced us “chronically gifted” adults growing up in that era.
The lyrics “I’m getting closer to my home” sum up the troubles and excitement of travel but also the great feeling of coming home again. In this painting, the young man with his travel companion dog is finishing a journey of towns as indicated by the travel stickers on his suitcase. The reality of his travel stickers is that he did not travel more than 10 or so miles away, but that’s a great trip for someone so young.
The Strasburg Railroad was founded in 1832 and is America’s oldest continuously operating railroad. When the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad (P&C) began construction of its 82-mile rail line from Philadelphia to Columbia, Pennsylvania, in 1831, it circumvented the town of Strasburg by nearly five miles. In response, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter in the summer of 1832 to create the Strasburg Railroad. By 1851 the Strasburg Rail Road became incorporated and soon after began carrying passengers and freight to and from the now-Pennsylvania Railroad junction in Paradise, Pennsylvania, thus fulfilling the dream that started twenty years before.
The painting’s whimsey notes actual vintage rules for riding the railroad and a very lighthearted reflection of some of the region’s uniquely named towns.
The railcar represented is car 65. The clock is an image of the clock in the main boarding area.