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What museum piece makes you feel like a museum piece?

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Posted by Cris_261 on Sunday, October 30, 2011 3:11 PM

Although it doesn't make feel like a museum piece (yet), the Rio Grande SD40T-2 preserved at the Ogden Union Station brings to mind a lot of memories of SP T-2's pulling sugar beet trains through Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s.

From here to there, and back again.
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Posted by garyla on Monday, October 31, 2011 8:27 PM

erikem mentioned the century-old PE blimps.  I remember those things running to and from San Pedro, on a route which is now a trench for port trains, more than half a century ago.

If I ever met a train I didn't like, I can't remember when it happened!
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Posted by 4501steam on Thursday, November 3, 2011 11:55 AM

The cab forward in Sacramento CA. I remember going to  Southern Pacific's shops in the Los Angeles area(early to mid 50's) when I was very young and watching repairs to the running cab forwards at that time. Also the PE tracks that ran on the boundary between Lynnwood and Compton CA. We could ride our bicycles (early to mid 60's) to the Pike in Long Beach CA. from South Gate CA with not a worry in our heads.

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Posted by narig01 on Thursday, November 10, 2011 8:07 PM

I've only seen those blimps in museums. I would have liked to have seen them in the East Bay or on the Northwestern Pacific.  All I can do is watch videos of.  Thx IGN

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Posted by narig01 on Thursday, November 10, 2011 8:14 PM

Cris_261

Although it doesn't make feel like a museum piece (yet), the Rio Grande SD40T-2 preserved at the Ogden Union Station brings to mind a lot of memories of SP T-2's pulling sugar beet trains through Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s.

 One of the places I deliver loads to is next to UP's storage line in Houston. For a long time there was a collection of the rebuilt SD's T-2's both patched and repainted UP.

  Thx IGN

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Posted by wallyworld on Friday, December 9, 2011 6:13 PM

A better question at my age is what doesn't. One thing I noticed in my reaction is that the trains seem out of place in most museum settings, taken out of their natural environment in "the real world" ..and even if they are operational they seem like wild animals in a zoo. Not that this is a complaint, just an observation in seeing thing preserved in aspic that were once a part of the larger work-a- day environment

..Like the old CTA .."baldies" I used to ride on the Evanston Express swaying, grinding and squealing along.the Loop..no AC  just open windows.A great tactile experience.

Even the old CNW bi-levels without their snoozing business types ( LOL) missing the pre PA announcement of the conductor walking down the aisle " Win-net -ka.....Winnteka..Next!" Endless gates sounding..

Some stuff cannot be preserved except in memory.

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

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Posted by narig01 on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 11:33 PM

wallyworld

A better question at my age is what doesn't. One thing I noticed in my reaction is that the trains seem out of place in most museum settings, taken out of their natural environment in "the real world" ..and even if they are operational they seem like wild animals in a zoo. Not that this is a complaint, just an observation in seeing thing preserved in aspic that were once a part of the larger work-a- day environment

..Like the old CTA .."baldies" I used to ride on the Evanston Express swaying, grinding and squealing along.the Loop..no AC  just open windows.A great tactile experience.

Even the old CNW bi-levels without their snoozing business types ( LOL) missing the pre PA announcement of the conductor walking down the aisle " Win-net -ka.....Winnteka..Next!" Endless gates sounding..

Some stuff cannot be preserved except in memory.

Like the sound of a cylinder type compressor on rapid transit cars or streetcars. Now they use screw type air compressors. 

     Or the whiring sound of an R-1 NY subway car.  Newer equipment uses a different gear arrangement that is much quieter.

Rgds IGN

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Posted by vsmith on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 1:09 PM

narig01

What about Amtraks F40's?  or FL9's I can barely remember the latter at Grand Central and 125th St in the McGinnis scheme.

Thx IGN

When the tourist line the Grand Canyon Railroad began using refurbished F-40's, thats when I started to feel old.

   Have fun with your trains

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Posted by Modelcar on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 7:04 PM

....Well....what is now rare, such as street cars back about just before WWII that were the normal scene {such as}, in Johnstown, Pa.  Can still hear the flanges squealing negotiating those 90 degree corners in the city, and the "banging" noise of wheels passing over switches, rail joints, etc.

Then right after that war, the much newer PCC cars with the "insulated" wheels making a mutted sound doing the same thing as the earlier units on the same routes.

And.....During the teenage years....the "normal" engines in our area pulling coal trains, of course were steam engines....Just normal to see them...because, that is what they had to do the job. {B&O, Somerset & Cambria} branch in Pennsylvania.  Those engines {if any remaining, are museum pieces now}....!

Quentin

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Posted by erikem on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 9:48 PM

vsmith

 

 narig01:

 

What about Amtraks F40's?  or FL9's I can barely remember the latter at Grand Central and 125th St in the McGinnis scheme.

Thx IGN

 

 

When the tourist line the Grand Canyon Railroad began using refurbished F-40's, thats when I started to feel old.

F-40's? I remember when the SDP-40F's were new! Remembered them as being quieter than the E's and classic F's. My best memory of the SDP-40F's was seeing the ones pulling the Coast Starlight around the horseshoe curve just north of SLO while seated in the dining car.

- Erik

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