I have a Great Grandfather who was an Engineer for the Erie, based out of Jersey City. He died in 1890 while operating engine #109, having the misfortune of leaning out the cab window and being struck by a signal post.
The only reference to engine 109 I have found is from the book Erie Power which lists it as a Brooks 4-4-0 built in 1872 or 1875 for the Buffalo & Southwestern RR, later renumbered by the Erie.
My father grew up in Carbondale (Scranton area) PA, and told me the story that an out-of-town visitor was surprised in seeing a camelback locomotive, to which my father replied..."Is there any other kind?"
No suprise then that I model an anthracite line c. 1910 and my RR's HQ is Carbondale.
Jim
Great story, Howard!
I guess I was extremely lucky....my dad had a huge O gauge (yup, 3 rail) pike and I had two uncles who ran steam on The Erie and Pennsy-Reading Seashore lines. I was a guest several times from 1946 to 1950 on Uncle Ike's K-1 4-6-2, and then in 1953 my dad and I rode with Uncle Ed in his K-4 and hung on for dear life. I'll never forget the roar and the fireman constantly shoveling with out the safety chains hooked...and Uncle Ed relieving himself on the coal pile at 80 knots only holding on to little Uncle Ed...all while dad and I were grabbing at any thing we could find. I did get to shovel some coal and I'll never forget the powerful draft damn near sucking the coal from the scoop.
I eventually got into avaition as an airplane driver, but I would have traded all of my air time in a minute to have a career running steam.
Today, I relive these times in my basement.
HZ
It was my dad who got me interesting in trains, but it's my mom's side of the family that has the ties. At least 2 of my 6 uncles on that side worked for the C&NW in Fairchild, WI in the late 70s and early 80s. The mainline also ran through the back yard of my great grandfather's farm (now owned by an uncle) in nearby Humbird and my mom remembers my great grandma always waving as a train went by, getting a short horn blast and a wave from whoever was in the caboose in return.
Modeling the C&NW in northcentral Wisconsin, late summer 1976
I never noticed before, but you're right!
JOHN C TARANTO "Rosies on the railroad" My mom (R) and her sister returning home from working the night shift on the Illinois Central Railroad, New Orleans, Louisiana. Circa 1944. "Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep 'em rolling..." John.
"Rosies on the railroad" My mom (R) and her sister returning home from working the night shift on the Illinois Central Railroad, New Orleans, Louisiana. Circa 1944.
"Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep 'em rolling..." John.
Your aunt sure bears a strong resemblance to Hilary Swank, or, vice versa!
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Yes, good thread. My grandfather on my father's side was a chef on which RR I don't remember but my father was a stationmaster at Grand Central Station in Chicago. he retired when the B&O moved to the CNW station in 1969.
That same year, I hired out in engine service on the B&CTRR.
Rich
Great thread, my grandfather was a fireman for a while at an iron mine in MN, both locomotive and steam shovel. My dad was a model railroad fan and had a short stint with the Detroit Terminal as a crossing watchman during the construction of an overpass of Woodward Avenue; sometime in the 30s.
I had an Uncle that hired on with the Missouri Pacfic during world war 2 working as a fireman and then as an engineer.
His run was from St. louis Mo. to Popler Bluff Mo. and passed my house in the country were I lived as a kid 70 years ago. We could see the track about half mile away. He would often give us a special whistle as he headed by. As a grade schooler I lived just south of a grade called Gads Hill. It was said that this was were Jesse James robbed his first train. A north bound train would be down to a crawl and easy to ride up to and jump on. I remember at night when it was quiet you could hear a train crawling up this grade with a slow chuff chuff and then the rapid chuffs of wheel spin, drop some sand , and then back to the slow chuff chuff.
My first model train was a wind up, with a few feet of track and a car or two.
My first love was airplanes, which was an itch I did manage to scratch.
aah boy hood memorys.
Have a good day.
Lee
My paternal Grandfather tangently helped lay out the trackage at the former Badger Ammunition Plant.
My maternial Grandfather was a cattleman and for 20 years rode the rails using a modified automotive boxcar. 15 to 20 head on the lower level, where the lower level of side boards had been removed (think nose level of a browsing cow). The upper level was constructed on the autoracks. Feed, water tanking, bunking and equipment went on the upper level. The doors would be anchored closed on one side and on the other the door would be closed half to 3/4 with three boards anchored across it to prevent accidental overboarding. He and two hired men would travel with the cattle in the car and as such would be placed at the head end of passenger trains that they would be shuttled with.
I don't have much railroading history in my family, but I do know that my father and my grandfather hitched a ride from Toronto to North Bay in the cab of a locomotive. This happened somewhere in the late 1920s or early 30s.
As the story goes, my dad and my grandfather had been in Toronto and were headed back to Calandar, ON. which was just south of North Bay. My grandfather had a cousin who happened to be an engineer on that particular route, and they had arranged to meet at the station in Toronto to say hello. It so happened that my dad and my grandfather were booked on the same train that my grandfather's cousin was going to be running. The cousin told my grandfather to go back to the ticket booth and get a refund, which he did. They were then ushered into the locomotive cab for a free ride north! Try that today!!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
My Grandfather started working for the railroad in 1906 in Brownsville Texas. He retired in 1939 as the Yardmaster for the Missouri Pacific in Brownsville, and was recalled in January 1942 due to the war, and retired again in January of 1946. He would take me with him when he went down to the yard, and I spent a fair amount of time on 2-8-0s, and 4-6-0, they are fond memories.
herrinchoker
dknelson jk10 My great-grandfather came over from Ireland and worked on a railroad on the east coast for awhile. He later moved to the Twin Cities and worked in the Omaha Shops. I believe this was for the Minneapolis, St. Louis Railway or something like that. Don't have the exact name in front of me. He lost his eye from a spark while on the job. Was some sort of welder/repairman on the steam engines. My mom has all the information on him. Doubt he had any impact on my interest in trains, but hopefully I can find some items from the railroad. The Omaha Road was an affiliate/subsidiary of the Chicago & North Western. Official name Chicago, Minneapolis, St Paul & Omaha. It was a surprisingly large and extensive railroad in its own right. The main shops were in Hudson WI but that is not far from the Twin Cities. They also had shops and facilities in the Twin Cities themselves. The C&NW Historical Society might have information about him in their archives. There is an excellent book on the Omaha Road by Stan Mailer, and the C&NW Historical Society regularly has Omaha Road stuff in their quarterly magazine, North Western Lines. Dave Nelson
jk10 My great-grandfather came over from Ireland and worked on a railroad on the east coast for awhile. He later moved to the Twin Cities and worked in the Omaha Shops. I believe this was for the Minneapolis, St. Louis Railway or something like that. Don't have the exact name in front of me. He lost his eye from a spark while on the job. Was some sort of welder/repairman on the steam engines. My mom has all the information on him. Doubt he had any impact on my interest in trains, but hopefully I can find some items from the railroad.
My great-grandfather came over from Ireland and worked on a railroad on the east coast for awhile. He later moved to the Twin Cities and worked in the Omaha Shops. I believe this was for the Minneapolis, St. Louis Railway or something like that. Don't have the exact name in front of me. He lost his eye from a spark while on the job. Was some sort of welder/repairman on the steam engines. My mom has all the information on him. Doubt he had any impact on my interest in trains, but hopefully I can find some items from the railroad.
For Christmas, my mom bought a book on the railroad through the C&NW Historical Society. I grew up 20 minutes down the road from Hudson, too. Somewhere, my mom has a postcard or some sort artifact item from the shops in St. Paul. I may have to do some digging into the railroad's roots in western Wisconsin. Are there any available maps for the railraod? Maybe through the historical society. My mom does a lot of research on the area and has ties to different historical societies back home.
I'd be curious to know if my wife's family has any ties to railroading. I doubt it, though.
My great grandfather Eddie Stahl was an engineer on the PRR. Early in his career he had the Lewistown to Sunbury run. When that line was severed he transferred to Shamokin and ran some of the mine runs. I have some of his books including a USRA engineman's handbook.
Another relative worked for the Reading as a ditch digger. Apparently he was very good at it and could produce a straight and properly sloped ditch just by eyeballing.
0-6-0 Has anyone else done this? What kind of railroad history do you have?
Apparently there is or was some faux marbling inside the 1931-32 Erie Station at Jamestown, NY. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown_Gateway_Train_Station My grandmother told me my grandfather did all the marbling. He was a painter; not a mason, so I'm guessing faux marbling is what she meant. That's as close to RRing my family gets, as far as I know (nearly everyone was an artist/structural engineer/architect of some sort).
My Grandmother's Dad was a Fireman. He lost his arm right above the elbow when he accidently fell from the cab. IIRC the train severed his arm. The family moved from Harrisburg, PA to Altoona, PA. Since he could no longer fire, the PRR gave him a job as a grade crossing guard operator. This was before automatic grade crossings. Since I was born and raised in Altoona, PA, most of the town was employed for the railroad in some capacity. My grandfather worked in the shops briefly sometime during the thirties or maybe the war years, with the assembly of GG-1 electrics.
Chris
My Moms dad worked for the Michigan Central as a station agent, Mom was born in the Pontiac Depot. Dad was always facinated by the railroad. His brother was a hobo who spent years out west following the planting/Harvesting work. I grew up next to several railroads, The CGW then the CNW also the EJ&Ewas close and the CB&Q.Last but not least was the CA&E I remember picking up Dad from the station near us.
Hello there sure is some cool railroad histroy here. I am not real srue who got my dad started in the hobby. I know he grew up by a set of actvie track's in Toledo. He did have one uncle and a cousin the were modelrailroader's. And he was the one that got me started. My search for family railroad history is going to be pretty tough with out some info I my never find. But I will keep searching. Thanks for the help and sharing your history Frank
We had family members who were machinIst who made parts sold to N&W and I assume otehr RRs.
YGW
No known railroaders in my family, but I married into a railroad family. Most notably, my father in law worked for the LIRR through his whole adult life. He started off as a gopher in the engine shop, about 1930. He retired in '73, at that time he was general foreman of the diesel shop at Morris Park.
His son in law, my BIL, worked as a diesel mechanic there, and later for the NW and NS. In turn, his son currently works there. My wife's sister took a job with the Long Island, that's where she met her husband, who also spent his career with the railroad.
Today, my son works in the rail division of NY DOT. They're involved with grants and project management, mostly on short lines. But all things come around; one of the roads he works with is the NY & Atlantic, the freight road on Long Island.
I joke that my wife is not a railfan, but it's in her blood. When the kids were little, we were visiting the family in Bellevue. I'd heard that NKP765 was going to be in town. I was watching the kids, when we heard the whistle. I said, hey you guys want to see the steam train? Sure! Then I went looking but couldn't find either my camera or my wife. Turns out she was already at trackside.
Genesee Terminal, freelanced HO in Upstate NY ...hosting Loon Bay Transit Authority, run through Amtrak and CSX Intermodal
CP/D&H, N scale, somewhere on the Canadian Shield
Dad worked as a clerk for the Erie RR while in high school. As soon as he graduated he was drafted and sent to Italy during WWII (after he finished training of course).
So far the only person in my family who actually worked on the railroad was my great great grandfather from mexico. My Grandma told me he was an engineer for a certain road down in mexico in the 40's/50's and he used to count the number of cars on freight trains including the caboose.
Hi Guys,
This has been quite interesting, all the various roads that some of us have a connection though distant , to.
I had a Uncle and two of his sons working for the CPR at one time. The Uncle was a Station Agent at several placesin Alberta and one in Saskatchewan. One of his sone was a Station agent for awhile as well. The other son was a Fireman for them until he passed early in a car accident.
Another Uncle had been a Carman for the CN out of Winnipeg early in his career.
My Dad and I, and one of my sons have been bus people in our careers. My Dad and I drove for Greyhound, 21 years for him and 34 years for me. My son is 17 years into his driving Career with a provincial carrier.
Lets hear more history,
Johnboy out............
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
No RR workers in the family that I know of. One of Mother's first jobs involved riding around the country on trains, from what I can tell she loved it. Took a friend of mine and I on a regularly scheduled steam passenger train, as she knew they were going out. Always enjoyed excursion trips, especially if they were steam powered. When Lionel came out with their pastel train, she said, "I don't want one of those, steam engines are BLACK!" I think now that if I had done much layout building, she would have been a great help. She liked arts & crafts and would be great help today, now that I am really doing some scenicking. Dad evidently liked my first model train, as Mom said he'd get upset with me, he wanted to lay in bed and watch the train go round and round. I kept stopping it and backing it up."
Do have one step-nephew, that since his retirement, has gotten into model railroading. Not sure if it is based on the barely scenicked Lionel layout I had while I was in HS, out in a back building or not. Belongs to a club and is building a module now.
Have fun,
Richard
OK, cool, just thought I'd ask, since I live about 2 hrs. away, and going there anyway.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewiKevin, we are taking the grandson up there this summer. If you would like, I can find out about your family members.
Thanks for the offer, but I visited there about twenty years ao and copied everything they had. They even had an envelope of counterfeit coins that were received at one of my family's concession stands. An amazing collection of artifacts is kept there, but 99% of it is in archives out of public view.
.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hello I new you guys would have some good stuff
Bmmecnyc I check out the RRB and they might be able to help with a couple guy's because they have unusual last name's. If I had there ss# then they could.
Dave I will look for a copy of that Trains mag, city directories I used a lot in my searching some are a big help some are not. I will also look in to the CNW archive's.
John,Rodger,Southpenn Great photo's I would love to find a something like those.
Kevin I have always like the the old time circus trains and to have family to have been there. It make's one look at history a bit different.
Well this is what I have found so far that I know where they worked This is on my dad's side and are his step dad,uncle's and cousins.
Step dad ststionary steam engineer Interlake Iron, uncle conductor PRR, uncle ststionary steam engineer Nickel Plate, uncle engineer Wheeling & Lake Erie, cousin maintence Nickel Plate, cousin dock engineer Chesapeake & Ohio. I still have 4 more that just list there job but not where.
I was only able to find two on my mom's side they would be cousins and they worked at Norfolk & western Railway maintence of way.
Thanks for the help and sharing some of your history. Have a nice day Frank