PRR Railroad Memories

[NHTX]

     I joined the Air Force in 1966 and anticipated a rail trip from Boston, MA, to Amarillo, TX.  What a ride that would have been.  No trains for me either.  TWA Convair 880 all the way.  I made up for it in the twenty years I spent in the USAF.

     Rock Island, Santa Fe and, FW&D in Amarillo.  C&O in Virginia.  Korean National including standard and meter gauge steam.  KNR had SD-9s and 18s as well as SDP-28s and 38, along with export ALCo DL535s and EMD G-8s, 12s, 22s and GT26s.  L&N and ICG on the Mississippi gulf coast.  Santa Fe, Rock Island, Frisco, and Katy in the Oklahoma City area. Japanese National Railways on Honshu.  SP, Mopac, Katy, Santa Fe and Texas-Mexican in Texas.  Espee in the 1980s gave me motive power from ATSF, Amtrak, B&O, BN, CN, CNW, C&IM, C&O, Conrail, D&RGW, FCP, Georgetown (GRR), GM&O, GTW, IC, ICG, L&N, MKT, MP, MEC(Lease turnback), MILW, N&W, NS, RI, ROCK, Southern, SOO, and, Westrern Maryland.  After everything turned yellow and, 23 of those flags fell, my interest in prototype railroading went to zero.  Modeling yes, railfanning no.  Three years in England exposed me to Class 31s, 37s,  47s and Class 101 diesel multiple units.  A trip to Germany provided a glimpse of the "Trains That Always Ran On Time" and more trains with buffers.

     So, even if Uncle Sam didn't give me the train trip of a lifetime when I joined the military, he more than made up for it in the twenty years we had a close working relationship.

[oldline1]

Roger,

Thanks for sharing that and the great AP-20 pic.

My brother joined the Navy in 1963 and left Baltimore on the Pennsy. I was really excited to have another visit to the huge Pennsy station and seeing more GG1 action. He brought me a deck or neat PRR playing cards on his trip back home after bootcamp.

SO............I enlisted in the Navy in 1969 all excited to my trip aboard the Pennsy to Chicago. When we formed up and got in our buses I notced the route wasn't going to Pennsy station. They took us to Friendship Airport and stuck us on a TWA 727-100. Yikes! I'd never flown before and was pretty scared. My fears were over  shadowed by my disappointment by not going on the PRR.

oldline1

 

[OT Dean]

Thanks for posting this, Roger, and thanks for your service.  This falls under my heading of "Nostalgia for Things I Never Did," as I grew up a few miles west of Milwaukee, WI, and later realized all the great stuff I missed.  One of these was that I never rode the North Shore interurban to Chicago and back.  I presume it was cheap enough, back in the '50s, and I certainly visited their Milwaukee facilities often enough.  As a lifelong lover of hamburgers, I also regret not taking the Electroliner down, having an "Electro-burger" along the way!

The same holds true of traveling by train.  Several friends of mine told me, long after railroads had eliminated so much of their passenger trains, of the trips they made, while I made only two, on the Chicago & NorthWestern: one before I started school and another, oddly enough, the summer after I graduated.  The Germans in Milwaukee had a saying: "Ve grow zo zoon oldt, zo late schmart."  It's the story of my life.  As Mork always said, "Heavy sigh..."  Well, at least I can ride along on others' memories.

Deano

[gmpullman]

Thank you for posting your updates, Roger. Your site has a wealth of information. Thank you, too, for your service to the U.S. in the Navy.

Regards, Ed

[Erie1951]

Great shot of Pennsy diesel action, Roger. BTW, I bookmarked your website. 

[Uncle_Bob]

Nice pic of the AP-20 diesel and her train.  :)

[rogerhensley]

PRR Railroad Memories

By

Roger Hensley

 

I joined the U.S. Navy in March of 1959 and was sent to RTC Great Lakes (Recruit Training Center) for my initial training. At that time, the passenger trains of the individual railroads were still running and you could board the New York Central for Indianapolis or St. Louis or Cleveland. You could even take it to New York if you wished, all from the Big Four station on Main Street. However, I took the Pennsylvania at the Pennsylvania Station at 9th and Fletcher to Chicago.

http://madisonrails.railfan.net/r_stations_newsppr.html