In the diner of the afternoon PRR Congressional Limited on the corridor pulled by GG1 #4907 in pristine Tuscan red sipping a glass of Chardoney when done eating.
Where would I spend Thanksgiving?
Well, given the gift of a time machine, probably in the morning at one of three locations in northern New Jersey around 1950.
Tenafly, River Edge, or Ridgewood, watching the parade of steam powered trains bringing visitors coming for Thanksgiving dinners at the various towns in the area.
Then after the rush is over, pushing the "return" button so I can get back to the present for Lady Firestorm's turkey! She knows turkey!
Her stuffing's great as well, she seasons it with Mt. Scio Farm savoury. Lady F calls it "Newfoundland Crack." Really kicks it up a notch!
If time travel was real with my husband and go back about 30 years so I could be introduced to his grandparents. Also so he could meet my mother whom died before him and I even met.
I could be in any one of these places:
aboard the 1927 Orient Express
aboard the 1938 Twentieth Century Limited
aboard the 1948 Super Chief
aboard the 1955 Canadian
aboard the 1936 SS Normandie
aboard a Pan Am Boeing 314 China Clipper
behind the wheel of a 1931 Packard boat-tail roadster
behind the wheel of a 1930 Duesenberg Model SJ- (I could go on here)
At the 1945 premiere of "The Outlaw" where Jane Russell makes a personal appearance. My father was at the Chicago premiere when he was in the USAAF. She was there.
At Wrigley Field where Babe Ruth called his home run.
The subject of this thread leads me to a question re: the Thanksgiving Holiday, although not where I would like to spend it.
Do the freight carriers optimize their schedules over Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas, to make it possible for the maximum number of operating personnel to be home with their families?
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
PJS1The subject of this thread leads me to a question re: the Thanksgiving Holiday, although not where I would like to spend it. Do the freight carriers optimize their schedules over Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas, to make it possible for the maximum number of operating personnel to be home with their families?
Different years, different managements, different holiday plans.
Some years service is shut down to all practical extents - some customers require switching services through the holidays - that service gets provided. Amtrak routes are protected - even when the carrier is otherwise shut down.
During my career, Thanksgiving was normally worked through - jobs servicing customers that were working the holidays would protect the customer. A minor shut down may take place - or it may not.
Christmas during the past decade has been a freight service shut down - normally from Midnight Christmas Eve morning to 0700 on the day after Christmas. Efforts are made to deadhead crews home from away from home terminals. There are defined shut down plans of where specific trains are to be secured for the holidays. There are also defined start up plans of when which trains are to be started from which terminal and when, to support the start up plan there are also plans to deadhead crews from home to away from home to be in position, rested, to support the start up plan.
New Years holiday plan resembles the Thanksgiving plan.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I remember going up to Quincy OH, in the early 60's where my wife grew up. Visiting the tower where the D.T.& I. crossed the NYC. Learned that the tower would be closed for the hoiday and the D.T.& I. would not be running any trains. Signal maintainer was putting wiring in to "fleet" the trains through th plant. Thus, no operators for the holiday. Passenger trains would get the signal just as if it were a regular block signal.
Electroliner 1935I remember going up to Quincy OH, in the early 60's where my wife grew up. Visiting the tower where the D.T.& I. crossed the NYC. Learned that the tower would be closed for the hoiday and the D.T.& I. would not be running any trains. Signal maintainer was putting wiring in to "fleet" the trains through th plant. Thus, no operators for the holiday. Passenger trains would get the signal just as if it were a regular block signal.
A few of the towers I worked had a switch that could be operated to place the tower's absolute signals in automatic operation during periods when the tower was closed. Not all towers operated on a 24/7 basis. When opening the tower after a shut down you had to contact the Train Dispatcher to get authority to return the absolute signals from automatic operation to Operator controlled operation.
On the Denver Zephyr leaving Chicago Thanksgiving evening. Enjoying a holiday feast in the diner.
The first "adult" book on railroading I ever got was David P. Morgan's "Diesels West" about the Burlington Route. I had to get it hardcover by snail mail using my paper route money. But when it arrived I read it cover to cover in one night.
He included a chapter "Overnight Every Night" about the DZ. He chronicled a trip leaving Chicago on Thanksgiving. Of course, there was a special menu in the diner for the holiday feast.
I did get to ride the DZ as a young teen, but not at Thanksgiving.
PJS1 The subject of this thread leads me to a question re: the Thanksgiving Holiday, although not where I would like to spend it. Do the freight carriers optimize their schedules over Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas, to make it possible for the maximum number of operating personnel to be home with their families?
No evidence of that where I was over Thanksgiving- Kansas City, MO. My wife's high school friend lives down there, where she works with the KC police dept. Every year she serves a Thanksgiving and Christmas meal to any and all on-duty police and EMS employees who can get to her house. My wife and I went down this year to lend a hand. Her house sits in a wooded area on the southeast side of the city overlooking a valley where KCS, UP, and BNSF all traverse out of town to the south. KCS is the closest, although we can't see it from the house because it runs below a steep wooded slope between the house and the valley. We sure can hear it (and feel it), though. I noted many trains passing by during the course of the day yesterday, both near on KCS and afar on the UP line across the valley.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
UP didn't shut down this Thanksgiving. Some locals were annulled, but most yards and junk manifests that usually aren't run were run. I came home on a work train of empty tie cars.
Now crew availabiltiy may not be 100%. Sometimes they have to go deep on an individual board to find an available crew member.
Jeff
My ideal Thanksgiving would be riding the dining car of B&O's Capitol Limited with my paternal Grandparents (Grandad was Supt. of the Dining Car Dept.), My parents and my family as it exists today, My daughter, her husband and daughter as well as my son, his wife and two daughters, even including my ex. Just so the family I have known throughout my life to date could all get to know each other. Oh what a Thanksgiving that would be.
Of course my Grandfather would be 136, my Grandmother would be 133, my Father would be 105 and my Mother 108 - but one can dream.
In reality my Mother got to meet my now ex but she died before the wedding. My Father got to know of my ex's pregnancy with my daughter but he died before she was born. My Grandfather got to attend the funerals of his wife, my mother and my father, meet both my daughter and son and be a part of their baptism and learn of the divorce between me and the ex before he died at the age of 98.
A good family is so very rewarding. Where would I spend Thanksgiving is just where I did, at my son's house with all my family: wife; son; daughter; their spouses; and grandchildren (except one granddaughter who we talked to via Skype). I am now the patriarch and it was wonderful to be with them all. So much to be thankful for. Unlike he who shall not be named, I have empathy for all of those who are in the military, or have been affected by the wildfires and other calamities that have occurred this year.
I guess I didn't do too bad. I spent Thanksgiving with the family with a view (very limited) of the tracks to watch what was still rolling. I'm going to have to think long and hard to come up with something better.
Ride the Texas Eagle on Christmas Eve, it is unbelievably fast and the padding to it's schedule is most noticeable (increased dwell times at some stations). So I can't speak to Thanksgiving but the number of trains on at least one UPRR line is significantly reduced, so much so that the Texas Eagle runs like it should the rest of the year.
54light15 I could be in any one of these places: aboard the 1927 Orient Express aboard the 1938 Twentieth Century Limited aboard the 1948 Super Chief aboard the 1955 Canadian aboard the 1936 SS Normandie
You have good taste in a top-notch transportation.
My perfect trip would have happened in 1938. Boarding the new Broadway Limited of PRR designed by Raymond Loewy at Chicago Union Station, enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with my wife on the newly built dining car. Arrive New York City the next day, boarding the SS Normandie to Le Havre, France. Take the Autorail Bugatti Triple from Le Havre to Paris, experience the cutting-edge technologies of the 1930s......
Jones 3D Modeling Club https://www.youtube.com/Jones3DModelingClub
Thank you Jones 1945! And once in Paris, what to take to the Riviera? A type 57 Bugatti coupe or the Blue Train?
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