Question of the Day

[cnwfan51]

          What is the thing that you would have liked to have seen or experienced that you didnt because you were born too late?   Foe me it was never seeing a BIGBOY under power working its way west on Sherman Hill[ Just asking   CNW FOREVER  Larry 

[MOJAX]

Steam locomotives in regular revenue service.

[Semper Vaporo]

Steam locomotives in regular revenue service.

I do remember them in regular service, but wasn't quite old enough to comprehend it all.  I kind of wish I could have also seen the days when the 4-4-0's were more common (1870's-90's).  Especially with lots of well shined brass and filigree, painted headlamp boxes, etc.

[RRCharlie]

I would like to REMEMBER my first train ride. I was 6 months old and rode the Empire State Express. That would have been in January of 1942. Wish I could rember more of the sights of NYC and PRR steam behind my house on the line from Girard Jct., PA. to Erie, PA.

Mel Hazen; Jax, FL

 

[rogruth]

I would like to have seen the narrow gauge railroad that ran from my home town,the Ohio River and Western.It closed in 1931 and I was born in 1934.Some of the cars,freight and passenger,were still to be found at least into the 1950's,possibly longer.You could follow a lot of the roadbed and much of it became highways.

[baberuth73]

Although I was born in 1950, I don't remember seeing steam in revenue service until I visited the Rockton and Rion and saw an old steam switcher moving cars about 1960 or so. I wish I had been able to see a large steamer in fast freight service.

[cnwfan51]

      Thank you all for your  replys   Larry

[wanswheel]

I'd take a round trip to Penn Station

[wjstix]

Well there are a lot of things I could have seen but didn't know about or didn't have the opportunity. I was in Harrisburg PA in 1971 but had no idea that GG-1's were there. I never got to see steam in revenue service although I was born in 1958, and some steam remained here in Minnesota until 1964.

I think going back before my time, I'd like to have experienced a pre-streamliner first-class long distance train trip, with Pullman cars and first rate dining cars and such. Maybe take the 20th Century from NY to Chicago, then the Empire Builder to Seattle c.1940.

[terry.hall51]

Not being able to ride the train from my town to almost whereever I wanted to travel. 

My wife and I have ridden the Boone and Scenic Valley and really enjoyed it !!!!!!!!!

 

Terry

[Anonymous]

Welll, I wish I had had the time and money to have ridden more secondary trains than I did, such as the Kansas City Florida Special. I spent most of my time on streamliners-no regrets there, but we have so few trains today, it makes me appreciate ALL the old trains, good and not so good. 

But also I would like to have ridden some traiins, streamlined and secondary alike, for the full trip and not  just part way. For example, I rode the Tennessean several times between Chattanooga and Knoxville, and between Chattanooga and Memphis.  But I  wish I had ridden the through pullman all the way from  NYC to Memphis and also the sleeper overnight from Bristol to Nashville which was  switched between trains and even stations  in Chattanooga.  

The Pelican, the Dixie Flyer, lots of two night out  trains I wish I had ridden for theri full two night journeys, not just part of the run.  

[AltonFan]

Steam power in regular service.

[Manamanah]

I would have liked to have seen the Empire state express no 999. It is the first man made machine to travel over 100 mph. The engine is now at the Chicago museum of science and industry. It is beautiful. I grew up about a half mile from the tracks were it reached a top speed of 112. I remember how Mr. Silliman would retell the story of that day, a great moment in our American railroad history.

[steamfanatic]

Same as others - when steam was king.  I grew up with the Pennsy on one side of the river, the P&LE on the other, with the N&W going overhead and within 20 minutes of the B&O.  I was also within 90 minutes of Horseshoe Curve and Sandpatch.  So close and yet so far.

[coalminer3]

Here's 5 more for the "time machine."

Spend the day at Buffalo (NY) Central Terminal in 1943.

Spend the day at Horseshoe Curve in 1944.

Trackside on the NYC east of South Bend when the Century (1938 version) ran in sections.

Spend an evening at Harmon, NY in the 1940s

Ride the Milwaukee Road electrified lines.

There's lots more, but...

work safe

 

 

[carnej1]

 I live near the Northeast corridor in Southeastern New England. Sometimes when I'm passing some of the more picturesque sections (such as the elevated trackage running through East Greenwich, RI) I try to imagine what it must have been like to watch a New Haven Streamlined 4-6-4 barreling through. Being only 40 that was WAY before my time..........

[coalminer3]

Re New Haven I5s - My dad was there - as he put it, "It was an inspiring spectacle."

work safe