What railroad(s) did we grow up by?

[Anonymous]

Hey ziggy! I post on the Indiana Bull Session forum.We discuss the old C&EI Mt Vernon/Ft Branch line in detail.I realize this post is almost 3 years old,but feel free to add photos of the line or any input you have.I see you are a member there as well.

The Evansville Western Railway rebuilt the crossing of this line at Bellefountaine as they are building a yard there since being crowded out of Howell Yards.Even better,Im sure you have heard that the old PD&E line (Illiniois Central) is being rebuilt from Browns to Grayville (and eventually) Poseyville,as thats the name of the line. 

Needless to say,Im having a blast reading news and watching the rebuilding of Posey County rail lines.

See ya round here or there.

ah 

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by PASMITH

Harrington Park, NJ on the tracks of the NYC West Shore division. Where Herb Chaudierre first stared recording the sounds of steam locomotives , Fred Icken had his custom built locomotive shop a block from my house and Richard Stoving was president of our high school model RR club. How could you not become a model railroader ?

Peter Smith, Memphis

It is way too small a world to ignore this. I also grew up in Harrington Park and lived there from 1956 to 1979. Lived on Harriot Ave. two houses east of the West Shore and saw it go from NYC to PC to CR. My dad rode the commuter trains to Weehawken until they were taken off, my first two train rides were commuter trains behind lightning striped RS2's and I've had cab rides from Weehawken to Selkirk on both PC & CR. I distinctly remember seeing the DRGW Krause-Maffei diesel-hydraulics that NYC tested (that was my show-and-tell item in school that morning!) and my brother and I would always get up early to watch NYC E8's on the group of passenger trains taking cadets from West Point to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy football game.

Bill Wilcox
St. Louis, Missouri

[Anonymous]

Me well I didn't live right beside a railway line and the closet line is about a 15min dive but CP and CN lines are still a big part of my life.

[Anonymous]

[:p] I grew up in Cayce, Kentucky where "Casey" Jones got his nickname and his first train ride, but it wasn't on the IC. I grew up waving at GM&O engineers as they whizzed past our one little store.
On Saturday's we "went to town", Fulton, KY, where we watched the City of New Orleans rumble through town about 4:15 in the afternoon. On the northwest corner of town there was a huge ice packing plant where 100 car IC banana trains used to stop to be iced down and broken up for delivery all over the U.S. At one time every banana that came to the U.S. thorugh New Orleans came through Fulton to be iced prior to dispersal. That's why Fulton calls itself "The Banana Capital of the U.S..". The Illinois Central had a huge facility there as well. The IC tracks are still there, but the yard was abandoned in the late 1970's
Thanks for the chacne to "go home" again!

Larry Pursell

[Blind Bruce]

i WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE MY CHOICE OF FOUR ROADS TO WATCH. mY FAVORITE WAS THE ELECTRIC "cHICAGO, mILWAUKEE & sT. pAUL. tHIS WAS A COMMUTER TRAIN THAT RAN BETWEEN cHICAGO AND mILWAUKEE, WITH A SIDE LINE TO mUNDELEIN iLLINOIS. tHE c&nw HAD A ROUNDHOUSE AND YARDS IN wAUKEGAN AND WAS A FAVORITE SPOT TO GET KICKED OUT OF. Sorry, Caps lock was on. The Milwaukee road also passed by once in a while.

[e6s460]

Lived in Altoona. PRR. There are other railroads???

[Anonymous]

I grew up a Stones throw from the DM&IR main yard in Proctor which is a suberb of Duluth. I also spent several years in Duluth.Now in the 60's and early 70's Duluth was a hot spot for Rail action . Road names included
DM&IR, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Soo Line, Chicago Northwestern, Milwaukee Road, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Dul-Sup Terminal RR, Duluth and Northeastern.Hmmm I wonder if i missed any [:)]

[BRJN]

My dad worked for Penn Central, and we lived just a bit too far away to bicycle over and watch. We could hear the train whistles at night, though. Norfolk & Western was the other railroad I remember as a kid. PC owned the ex-PRR main line through town, N&W ran ex-NKP and ex-Waba***rackage.

I grew up and eventually moved into a house just 1/2 block from Norfolk Southern's Cincinnati-Chicago line. Not only can I hear the trains, if one is working hard to get up speed, I can FEEL them go by. [:)] (This is a bit hard on mirrors and light bulbs, though.)

[mcouvillion]

I was 50' from SP's Sunset Line for 10 years as a pre-teen/teenager. My mom and dad still live there. I could sleep through the noisiest train coming through, but always asked guests how many trains came through during the night. They always knew!!! Now, the crossing has crossing arms and bells and starts ringing way too early and when I am there, that thing wakes me up. When I was about a year old, my parents lived in a rental house by the tracks in Deridder, Louisiana. The window sills were very low and my mom took a picture of me on my toes watching the activity in the steam engine service facility behind the house!!! She never took a picture of what I was watching. Apparently I would stand there all day watching the trains - at age one. I've been hooked for so long!

Mark C.

[Anonymous]

Until 1956 - the IRT and BMT subways in Queens (NYC) as well as the Long Island RR, and nearby - PRR (and the Sunnyside Yards).

1956-1966 - New York, Ontario & Western, and the NYCentral in the Mohawk Valley in upstate NY. The NYCentral included the Adirondack Division around Utica, NY as well as the four tracked main from NYC thru Buffalo to Chicago.

1966 - 1971- SAL and ACL in Orlando and Tampa area (becoming SCL during that time), plus a brief time along the ex-Florida East Coast while I partied in Daytona Beach for six months.

1970 - Conrail (ex New Haven) in Connecticut along the shore.

1971 - 1972 Morristown & Erie, and the Boonton Division of the Erie Lackawanna in north Central New Jersey

1973 - til I 'grew up' - Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Felton & Big Trees RR, and BART in the San Francisco Bay area. (I moved alot within the Bay Area !)

1978 - 1994 Santa Fe (w/ UPand SP close by) in Orange County, CA. Santa Fe line was the route from LA to San Diego.

1994 - 2004 Norfolk Southern and CSX in and around Raleigh, NC (ex Southern, SAL and the 'original' Norfolk Southern tracks) Former ACL was thirty miles away, and a branch of the Norfolk & Western was in closeby Durham.

2004 - Georgia Northeastern RR - a succesful shortline using the ex Louisville & Nashville's former 'Hook & Eye Line' - also known as the Atlanta-Knoxville Division Old Line, which was overshadowed and relegated to a branch status when the L&N gained trackage rights on the NC&StL's more direct route from Knoxville to Atlanta on trackage leased from the State of Georgia. This was the route of the Civil War 'Great Locomotive Chase'. Nearby are both the CSX and NS mains, and in and around nearby Atlanta, there are remnants of the Central of Georgia, SAL, Southern, L&N, etc. Just north of me is the Blue Ridge Scenic RR on former L&N tracks and now part of the GNRR. I am but a mile from some really twisty and hilly bits of the 'Hook & Eye Line' which is the subject of my new layout. That line's worth a look by some other modelers. . .Neat stuff.
BILL

[WilmJunc]

The Milford spur of the old Boston & Albany ran about 1/2 mile from where I grew up. Owned by NYC by the time I was born. Now it's abandon.

Currently live near the old Boston & Maine tracks now owned by Guilford. Old Wilmington Junction (origin of screen name) was about 1/2 mile away.

[simon1966]

The Great Western Railway near Maidenhead in the UK. I would watch the trains go flying through Maidenhead on their way to Bristol and the South West of the UK. My grandparents used to live in Bedfordshire in Leighton Buzzard. I remember as a kid going up the hill by their house to watch the trains come thru the Linslade tunnel on the way from London to Edinburgh. I have vague memories of seeing steam trains here in the very early 60's. Now I live near the N and S heading into St. Louis, MO

[dwRavenstar]

Lived in Huntingdon, Pa (30 miles east of Altoona and the Horseshoe Curve) along the mainline between Pittsburgh and Philly.

Turning 50 this May. Conjugate the changes from the old Pennsy thru and including the Norfolk Southern buyout of Conrail. (I can still hear the local battle cry "Let Conrail be Conrail")

Spent many an hour up around the Juniata loco shops in Altoona.

On a side note: On page 114 of the MR Feb/05 issue there's a picture of a well done model of the East Broad Top. Says it's representing the Mt. Union interchange. Mt. Union is 12 miles from Huntingdon and the EBT is located in Orbisonia. Does anyone know if the EBT ever actually ran the whole way down to MU?

Dave (dwRavenstar)

[Anonymous]

I grew up a block south of the Missouri Pacific main line through Maplewood, MO. I guess I'm older than a lot of you guys on this forum. I grew up watching F3s, FA2s, GP7s, etc. on freight, PA1s and/or E units on the Eagle; and dirty black switchers shoving cars around by Manchester Iron Works. Within an easy bicycle ride there was Frisco's Lindenwood Yard. Black and yellow FA1s and other such goodies. Ah, the good ol' days!

[Anonymous]

The Southern, and I miss those hi-short hood diesels in the tuxedo black, white and gold, running long hood forward.

[Anonymous]

The MA&PA

[Anonymous]

About 100 yard in front of the old farm house I grew up in was an abandoned narrow guage track. Just this week I have been reading David McNeil's "Railroad with 3 Gauges" and learned that it was the Felicity & Bethel RR a short (9 mile) branch off of the standard guage Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth RR. The F & B died on July 1 1933, the CG&P followed 3 years later. I am considering building a layout based on them.

[Anonymous]

In Columbus Ga it was the Man of War , Central of Ga as I recall. One day in the late 60"s when picking up my mother, who had missed the train it came in with a US minute man missile unit ( two cars, luncher and control) just behind the engines and me with no camera.

[Anonymous]

bnsf / atsf
and up

I now live next to the UP container / switching yard in Fontana

oh yeah can't foget about the narrow guage steamers about 45mi away.... Disneyland RXR

nearly forgot about Metrolnk and Amtrak

[jim h]

I GREW UP AND STILL LIVE IN PERU INDIANA. GROWING UP I SPENT MANY HOURS AT THE WABASH ROUNDHOUSE AMOUNG THE STEAMERS. THERE WAS THE NICKLE PLATE AND ALSO THE C&O TO WATCH . THE THING I REMEMBER THE MOST WAS THE RIDE ON THE WABASH CANONBALL. MY WIFE'S GRANDFATHER WAS THE CONDUCTOR. I STILL MISS THE STEAM WHISTLE IN THE NIGHT AIR.
JIM H. [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

I grew up about 17 miles northwest of Evansville,In. next to the IC/ICG Browns,IL.to Evansville line.
I remember most green diamond geeps and later Paducah rebuilds. later vists included gp38-2s before
Indiana hi-rail took over the line.
-
Ralph Cheaney, Evansville

[PASMITH]

Harrington Park, NJ on the tracks of the NYC West Shore division. Where Herb Chaudierre first stared recording the sounds of steam locomotives , Fred Icken had his custom built locomotive shop a block from my house and Richard Stoving was president of our high school model RR club. How could you not become a model railroader ?

Peter Smith, Memphis

[jextra]

I live and grew up in Delavan, WI where a Milwaukee Road line came thru. A few times a week big long freights mostly eastbound would come thru, and just about every M-W-F afternoon a short freight would serve some businesses in the area. In the summer all the time I would ride my bike to the tracks and just hang around and wait for it. Some people must of thought I was crazy. One time when they were switching cars they let me come up for a ride in the engine. It was a GP-30. The swItch guy even gave me a Milw Rd hat pin. It was the biggest thrill by far that any kid could have. The train crew guys were always the same ones and always recognized me and knew I was train crazy. I tried to collect everything I could when I could afford it, of the Milw Rd, for my model train collection. The tracks eventually deteriorated after the RR went out of bus. A few years back the Wisconsin and Southern RR refurbished them and they come thru a couple of times a week, and now me and my son rush up to the tracks whenever we can when we here one coming, and even drive to the nearby towns on nice days to watch them shuffle lumber and grain cars. Now he is a WSOR fanatic! My dad told me he did the same thing when he was a kid. He remembers and likes steam of course. So I guess you could say its in our blood!

[PennsyHoosier]

As a kid, I used to ride the Chicago and Northwestern from Geneva into downtown Chicago to go to the hobby and guitar shops. Best times of my life.

[Sunset Limited]

I live in El Paso, Texas. Grew up watchin the Southern Pacific. The neat thing at the time was seeing Mopac/Texas & Pacific screaming eagles going through the freight yard. Further downtown you would see Santa Fe and their freight yard. In Northeast El Paso, I used to see Southern Pacific-Rock Island lash ups! Rock island engines made SP engines look 'Brand new'. (Unless it was painted in 'The Rock' colors).

[Anonymous]

As a boy in the early 50's we lived about a mile from the Florida East Coast mainline in Biscayne Park, Florida. A buddy of mine and I would hang out by the track, placing pennies in the rail, and so forth. The only steam we'd see would be an occasional 2-8-2 or 4-8-2 pulling a work train, although there were still 0-8-0's in the Miami Buena Vista yard. In the summer of '55 I visited the boneyard in New Smyrna Beach, Florida- long lines of 4-8-2's and 0-8-0's. Very sad sight! They were all scrapped shortly thereafter.

[BRVRR]

I grew up in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan.
The first road I remember is the Milwaukee Road. I had an uncle who was an auditor for them. I remember seeing the steam powered Hiawatha's when I was about 6. Then came the NYC, IC, MC, IHB and other NYC subsidiaries. Now it is NS, CONRAIL(CSX&NS) CSX here in Northeast Ohio.
I remember seeing the Santa Fe Chief ( or at least a red & silver liveried diesel) when traveling with my dad as a kid.
I'm sure there were many others that I saw, since I traveled the lower 48 States with my father from age 4 to about 13.

[Anonymous]

C&O (former PM) just west of Detroit, MI. My family used to go to the cider mill in Northville, sit in the parking lot eating candy apples while watching 4-unit GP9 consists thundering by (THOSE were the days![:p]).

Moved to suburban Washington DC (actually Rockville, MD) in winter of 1968, had a birds-eye view of the B&O's Metro Branch. Lotsa F- and E-units. I remember being totally amazed when I saw a C&O geep pulling a work train (at 13 yrs old, I didn't know much about mergers and acquisitions). 6 months later, moved to Annapolis --- ZERO trains[:(].

After getting my drivers license, did lots of railfanning on the B&O and Western MD in Baltimore, Brunswick and (occasionally) Cumberland.

[johncolley]

I grew up in Oakland, CA with the SP and the wobbly (WP). My stepdad was a 22 year conductor on SP til he passed away in '48. Then I rode pass until I was 18. I worked on SP oiling freights at night my last year of HS, then went apprentice car knocker for 2 1/2 years. tried firing until we were eliminated. Got into the food industry in plant engineering and retired from that in '98. Now live in Port Townsend, WA and model GN in '47/'48. I might entertain the possibility of modelling the WP-GN interchange at Beiber,CA. Go figure?