What is your favorite railroad company

[Anonymous]

I am asking because I am curious

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I have several: South Shore Line, Erie Lackawanna, Indiana Harbor Belt and Belt Railway of Chicago. All have much to recommend them, although terminal roads often get overlooked in any list of favorites.

[wallyworld]

The Illinois Terminal. It combined long distance interurban service, steam and diesel motive power and managed to survive until absorbed by NS.

[Anonymous]

Probaby depends on the part of the country you are from. If you had trains
coming into your town as a kid or some such, it would probably be them.
My favorite is the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific a/k/a CRI&P a/k/a Rock Island,
a/k/a The Rock. All of the incarnations actually. Then a partner the CM&StP
a/k/a The MILW a/k/a The Milwaukee. Then The Union Pacific, Then the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe Railway a/k/a ATSF a/k/a Santa Fe. The Missouri
Pacific. I was fortunate as a kid to have a DAD who was a depot agent for the
Rock Island which also had direct interchange with the MOPac and the ATSF
and indirect interchange with the Union Pacific. As a kid I worked for the
Rock Island, The Santa Fe and the Union Pacific in different capacities.

weezerbeezergeezer
Memphis, TN

[Anonymous]

CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN

[Anonymous]

Mine will always be the old Milwaukee Road.

I rode the OLYMPIAN HIAWATHA as a teenager alone back in 1954 and still have very fond memories of it nearly 50 years later. My trip was from Renton, WA to Chicago and back. I absolutely loved it.

I used to skip school and walk down to Maple Valley atleast once a week to wave to the passengers in the dome car as it went under the road. There is something about the feeling of being near a moving train. It has always made my heart race.

Later on when my children were small, I would take them from Renton to Seattle by bus, and ride the train back to Renton.
The kids and I walked the block and a half to watch it leave Renton for Chicago nearly every day. We could watch it from the front yard, if we did not go closer!

We moved to Seattle, then back to Maple Valley. We moved into a shack that had one redeeming charactor, it sat just across the road from the railroad tracks, and I could watch my beloved train and wave to the crews and passengers every day. I was in heaven! Only a month later the last Olympian Hiawatha Passenger train went by. I was heartbroken.

Now we live at Issaquah. The rails through Maple Valley are long gone. We go by once a week or more. Every time I even look at that empty rail bed, I still feel sick and now that I am old I always take time to relive my precious memories.

I have a picture of a beautiful picture of the 'Olympian Hiawatha' if any one would like a copy of it, send me your email address.

It is a double track with the Engine facing on the left track and a rear view of the Skytop Lounge on the other.

[Anonymous]

NORFOLK SOUTHERN.

[Anonymous]

Gotta love The Chessie Route. I'll take the Chesapeake and Ohio!

[Jetrock]

favorite fallen flags: Sacramento Northern, Arcata & Mad River Railroad. gotta love those west coast short lines...

[Jetrock]

whoop, didn't realize there was a separate fallen flag thread: make that California Northern!

[Anonymous]

CANADIAN PACIFIC

[Anonymous]

My favorite has been the Southern Pacific ever since spending the summer of 1960 in Eugene, OR. I model the SP, GN and CB&Q although I grew up with the GM&O. There are so many reasons to name a favorite railroad that differenct ideas come to mind. If I were really pressed beyond my SP reason above I would say railroads because every time I see one I haven't seen or an area of the country I hadn't been in before it offers something new and exciting.[8D]

[ReimanTrainfan]

Being that I am a beginning train watcher, I would have to go with the old standby's I know. Chessie, PRR, Norfolk & Western (I love their paint scheme) and Milwaukee Road.

[Dough]

Norfolk Southern has always been the railroad that I've known. I grew up near NS territory, my grandmother lived within sight of mainline track, and my first job was even at a wharehouse on the same NS mainline.

However, I have always been interested in Chessie. This interest has been rekindled since I moved to Athens, GA. Their is a shortline that opperates a Chessie GP-9 in original paint, plus the old cars that come by on the CSX line.

[espeefoamer]

Southern Pacific.My first train ride wason the San Joaquin Daylight FromL.A.to Oakland,and back from San Francisco on the Coast Daylight in a parlor car.

[Anonymous]

The Route of the Streamliners-Union Pacific. Well, actually I like a great deal of railroads, but I don't want to use up the remaining bandwidth of this forum with my answer, so that's the shortened answer. If you want the complete answer, you'd better have an endowment grant to pay the postage.

Liking a lot of roads,
Daniel

[Mikeygaw]

I'd have to say B & O (what's not to love about the B&O?) and Conrail, cause i grew up watching Conrail

[Anonymous]

Fallen Flag - PRR - I love the history.

Current - Amtrak - I love that they refuse to give up.

-Tom

[JanOlov]

Milwaukee Road, N&W, WM, RDG, LV, NYNH&H, D&H, GM&O, GN, NP is those that I'd call my favorite railroads, probably forgotten one or two.

[Anonymous]

SAFT

[Anonymous]

SANTFE RAILWAY

[Anonymous]

Wow! A lot of them - B&O, GN, NP, CRIP, Milw, C&NW, M&StL, Soo, CP, CB&Q, DM&IR (not fallen yet, but soon very likely)

[Anonymous]

SP all the way!

[CBQ_Guy]

Don't have a clue...

[Anonymous]

My favorite railroad has been the IHBRR, which runs through Indiana and Illinois, around the outskirts of Chicago. Maybe because I also used to work for them as a tower operator, 32 years ago. Some of the things I still remember from back then, I carry deep within. I had the greatest teacher in one of the towers I used to work, but he has passed on to the Great Railroad in the Sky! I remember the B & O, the C & O,
the Monon, the Chicago, South Shore, South Bend, etc. there are so many to name and list it's hard to think of them all, since a lot of them are gone now.
Ralph Zimmer Alsip, Il