Thanks you guys, we sure have a lot of fun when we go down to the depot in what trains. Robin generally takes him down there once a week and they have a blast. They go inside the depot and usually play with a wooden train set for about an hour then they come home and play with their own trains the rest of the day and watch training videos.Mike
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” -- John Lennon
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Oh Man!, do I ever like that video. Growing up until age 11 in CPR stations, I got to watch switching moves from the platform that would be as close as that nearest track is to the two boys. I have no idea how many moves like that I have seen.
When my brother and me were that age (he was three years younger) we had to stay on the platform so all concerned knew where we were. But as we got older we would go south from the station at Irricana, AB to the foundations of the old water tank. It was situated on the main track just north of the switch leading into the siding and the back track for the two elevators. There I learned about sorting of cars and switching moves including kicking cars through the switches. They did that so that in the final push south down the backtrack the cars were in the right order for the two elevators.
One string of cars would be spotted with the cars stretching out to the south (uphill side) with the northernmost car spotted at the south elevator chute. They would cut the cars there and move forward about a car length and then spot the rest of the cars with the northernmost car again spotted at the north elevator. The two elevator operators would then cooperate and load cars at the same time so that the cars loaded at the south elevator would move north and fill the space vacated by the empty cars waiting to be filled at the north elevator. The south elevator was owned by the Alberta Wheat Pool and the north elevator was owned by the Alberta Pacific Grain Co.
Even though the operators and the their helpers worked for different companies they all helped out when it came time to coast the now loaded cars away from the chutes and use their weight and the grade to pull the next empty cars into position.
I could go on and on but that you for posting that video.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Great Western I guess steam locos lasted that bit longer Stateside as they did over here due to other industrial needs during WW2.
I guess steam locos lasted that bit longer Stateside as they did over here due to other industrial needs during WW2.
I really never thought about that.
Mike
Many thanks Mike for your most kind comments. I am never sure how UK posts translate Stateside but, when all is said and done, we are railfans wherever we are in the world.
I have grandchildren, one of whom lives in the Far East. There are NO trains at all on his island. When he visited the UK last year, at the age of 8, he really loved and was quite excited when he visited the local Heritage Steam Railway on which I am a volunteer. He was also awestruck on being presented to Santa Claus - but that's another story.
One thing that I have realized in reading some of the wonderful Kalbach magazines and some recent tv programmes about WW2 is that contrary to what was generally believed in the UK about the USA was that you had just as much 'hard times' as over here - just no bombing!
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Alan thanks so much for sharing that great story. Those are the type of ideas that I would like to instill in my grandkids as well.I'm glad you have those kind of childhood memories!Thanks, Mike
As a child - up to school leaving age - a line of the Great Western Railway ran on a low embankment at the bottom of our back yard. This was in open countryside near the perimeter of a large city in central England. Central England was the hub of the UK industry at that time.
I recall coal trains, oil tank trains, trains with tanks and vehicles during WW2 and so on. There were also lease/lend S.160 USATC locos some of which ran briefly in the UK before going to mainland Europe. The GWR had 174 for a while and they did look strange compared with the taper boilered GWR locos. There was always excitement when one of these locos appeared with a heavy freight. It was a important and busy line linking the north and midlands with the ports of the south and south west of the UK and coalfields and steel plants of South Wales . There was also a frequent passenger service (before the days when people became commuters) .
If one train stands out it would be the Royal Train which passed by during the Festival of Britain in 1951. I had not seen this train before, as far as I knew, so it was a big highlight. I made two short flag staffs; one had our national Union Flag and the other the Festival of Britain emblem which I made using part of a cotton sheet and black ink. (Not sure whether the linen was missed ).
I have always wondered if the Royal Family saw me and my flags. The late King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (his wife) plus the two princesses (Elizabeth - now Queen Elizabeth II, and Margaret) were also on the train.
Thanks so much guys , I just love those little guys.
What ever they like , have fun dong it!
Larry sometimes its hit and miss. I am lucky mine love my job. I have two girls whoknow quite a bit about railroading lol.
It was an awesome video you have there Mr fifer.
Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train
That was great Makes me wish that my own kids were that interested in my job and hobby Larry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXDKrEnmT3c
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