50 Years of reading Trains

[tree68]

BLS53

...at the corner drug store.

Other than the chains, those are getting pretty scarce, too.

Many of my early purchases of railroad magazines were at the bookstore at Chanute AFB (the base is now closed), or at the "Slot and Wing Hobby Shop" just outside the gate in Rantoul.  Some of those may not have survived the moves since, especially while I was still in USAF.

[rrnut282]

Let me be the first to say, "congratulations." 

After this long, I assume you have no regrets.

[saguaro]

I am at 45 years. I starting to read Trains every month starting in 1972. Been a subscriber for most of those years, though I missed a few years in my early married days.

Regarding the art and poems mentioned here, I thought I remembered a brief story explaining that the ads were placed by the daughter in honor of her mother, who had passed away. The mother loved trains and did the drawings and poetry.

[BOB WITHORN]

[quote user="erikem"]

I picked up my first issue of Trains magazine (June 1967 issue) 50 years and a few days ago, spotting it when picking up the June '67 issue of MR (June 1964 was my first issue of MR). The cover photo of a GG-1 was what first attracted my attention, but the article that made the biggest impact was the one on the D&H high pressure compounds. My next issue was May 1968 and I really got hooked with the June 1968 issue (Steffee Speed Survey), started collecting back issues shortly after and have been a subscriber since January 1970 (age 15 at the time).

 

1970, got ya by 3 years. Not much for magazines then, busy playing base guitar in a rock band and VERY interested in a Polish/Assyrian girl, 5'7", with long dark hair and well you the idea. Didn't get back to trains until the late 70's then three kids started to show up in 1980, so, reset to trains in 1986 and have been hooked since.

[erikem]

Mike: No regrets is a pretty safe assumption. Picked a lot of tidbits on civil, electrical, mechanical and petroleum engineering along business practices, economics and law.

Bob: Polish/Assyrian is a pretty interesting mix, met some Assyrians running "The Real Texas BBQ" across the street from MCAS Miramar and they were a friendly bunch.

My now late father-in-law was a charter subscriber to Trains and he gave me the first three volumes that he had bound himself. A couple of pictures stood out from the first volume: The LARy car "Descanso" which I've seen on display at OERM and the Timber Transfer crane on the East Broad Top which was in the June 1967 issue of MR (article on the Sugar River & Ridgefield track plan). The next two volumes were a bit weird to read as wartime censorship limited what could be published.

 - Erik

[schlimm]

tree68

 

 

BLS53

...at the corner drug store.

 

 

Other than the chains, those are getting pretty scarce, too.

Many of my early purchases of railroad magazines were at the bookstore at Chanute AFB (the base is now closed), or at the "Slot and Wing Hobby Shop" just outside the gate in Rantoul.  Some of those may not have survived the moves since, especially while I was still in USAF.

 

Chanute?  Maybe you were there while I was at U of I down US 45?

[BLS53]

Chanute closed in 1993 I believe. In it's final years it's main role was as a school for aviation weather forecasters, for both the Air Force and Navy.

They established a nice little aviation museum there after closure. A hangar full of old Cold War birds. But they couldn't make a go of it, and the airplanes were moved to other museums.

The airfield is still open as a civilian airport.

[desertdog]

My first copy had to be 1947 or thereabouts. My father would buy it at the local office supply store. I remember TRAINS offered a lifetime subscription for $50. Despite my pleading, I was politely turned down--that was a huge sum at the time, but 70 years later, it would have been quite a bargain!

 

John Timm

[Princeton Jct. Yardmaster]

erikem

I picked up my first issue of Trains magazine (June 1967 issue) 50 years and a few days ago, spotting it when picking up the June '67 issue of MR (June 1964 was my first issue of MR). The cover photo of a GG-1 was what first attracted my attention, but the article that made the biggest impact was the one on the D&H high pressure compounds. My next issue was May 1968 and I really got hooked with the June 1968 issue (Steffee Speed Survey), started collecting back issues shortly after and have been a subscriber since January 1970 (age 15 at the time).

 

My first issue of Trains was the September 1950 issue, which was given to me by a neighbor, along with another 12 or so issues stretching up to 1952.  I devoured them.  My next contact with Trains was when I was 12 and my mother, knowing my interest in railroading, purchased the March 1959 issue to keep me occupied during a brief illness.  It was a low point in Northeast railroading, and I was absolutely enthralled by David P. Morgan's optimism and great prose on the industry.  I started buying most issues at the local hobby shop on my own.  But the thing that really hooked me was the February 1963 issue.  There were two articles that grabed me: "Stuart Saunders and His Money Making Machine," and "Railroading Needs a New  Price Tag," by Herb Harwood.  I knew at that point I wanted a career in railroad management and I needed to get subscription to Trains.  I mean how many teenagers have Stuart Saunders as a childhood hero?  Of course laterI learned my "hero" had feet of clay!