The Boy Who Loves Trains

Early Years

Darius was born on March 28, 1965 in Brooklyn to Elizabeth and Samuel McCollum. He is an only child. His parents are in their nineties and are no longer able to care for Darius.

At a very young age, Darius became fixated with trains. When he was an infant, his mother would often take him on the subway to calm him much like parents take their infants for car rides to rock them to sleep. By the age of 5, Darius had memorized the entire New York City subway system. His knowledge of every stop and each route of every train was flawless. He was fascinated by all aspects of the New York City transit system.

Despite his genius understanding of the New York City transit system, he did not excel in school. In second grade, he was placed in the Special Education Program of the New York City Department of Education. He struggled socially with his classmates and although the school work was not overly demanding his mind only wanted to focus on the trains, buses and large engines.

One winter day, when Darius was 12 years old, there was a heavy snowfall. School was not cancelled, but only one other student made it to class. The teacher gave Darius and the other boy each a puzzle to complete and she left the classroom. While Darius was hunched over his puzzle deep into his assignment, the other student went to the teacher's desk and removed a pair of scissors. He snuck up behind Darius and plunged the scissors into Darius' back, repeatedly opening and closing the scissors. Darius was bleeding on the floor of the classroom when the teacher returned. Due to the snow, the ambulance was delayed. Darius lay in a pool of blood, unconscious.

He spent over two weeks in the hospital and endured two surgeries to repair his punctured lungs. From that moment on, Darius hated school. The teaching staff was completely unaware of the anxiety attacks that would plague young Darius when he entered the classroom. The child that had stabbed him remained his classmate. Unable to handle his fears, Darius snuck off to the subway system to hide. Each morning, Darius would leave his home pretending to his parents that he was headed to school, but in reality he went straight to the subway.

Darius would find solace in the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) railyard. He would tell anyone who questioned his constant presence in the subway station that he was a family member of an employee. The MTA employees loved him. He would volunteer to sweep trains, clean their work areas, get them food and help them with whatever they needed. His mother would often go to the railyard herself and beg the workers to send him back to school but it was to no avail. Darius had found his safe haven. On his birthday and at Christmas, the workers gave him gifts including uniforms, keys, flashlights, hardhats, just about anything MTA.

Darius became such a proficient helper, that he would often do the work of the MTA employee, allowing the employee to absent him or herself. Darius became so adept at the tasks, that the employees quickly taught Darius how to move the subway trains in and out of the yard. At thirteen years old, Darius was operating subway trains on a daily basis.