Do you remember ?...

[Tracklayer]

Do any of you guys recall seeing your first real train when you were a little kid ?.
I'm nearly 42, but I remember when I was about three or four standing in the front seat of the car between my parents while sitting at a crossing waiting for the train, and how much the rumble of the locos and horn scared the ---- out of me... Sometimes I'd dive over into the back seat and hide on the floor board with my hands over my ears until the locos had passed, then slowly get up and watch the rest of the train go by until the caboose came along, which was the best part because I got to wave at the cabooseman.

Tracklayer

[howmus]

Oh yeh! I was about 3 years old and was at my Grandmother's house. Grandma's yard had the NYC tracks curving around at the back of the yard (a small one at that). Her house was only a couple hundred yards from the Canandaigua, NY Station. I was playing out in the yard when this steel monster came into the yard blowing down the cylinders and gaining speed for the mainline pulling a long string of passenger cars. What a show!!! Of course, I was terrified and started to scream. Grandma was crippled with arthritis, but she hustled out to save me from the monster! I was actually well away from the tracks as I had been warned several times about the monster that could "run over me" and kill me (nobody said that it stayed on the tracks). Got one of the worst spankins of my life that day. Grandma would not believe me that I wasn't near the tracks! Been fascinated with big steel monsters ever since.... especially when they belch steam and coal soot and stuff...... [:D]

[Eriediamond]

Yep, I remember. Iwas born in a town called Silver Creek, NY and lived my first 5 years about three blocks from the main lines of the NYC, NKP,PRR that ran together along Lake Erie. That was back in the early 40's. My mother passed then and I was taken in by an aunt and uncle in Angola. Lucky for me because my uncle knew I was a train addict and he knew th crossing watchman ( the grade crossing gates were manually operated and had red kerosene lanterns on them back then) and he often took me to see him and watch the trains. I even got to help lower and raise the gates! A year later I was Taken in by my grand parents in South Dayton on a large dairy farm where I basicly grew up. I was lucky enough to be in town one day when I was about 8 years old and the local Erie had stoped there. Was put up in the locomotive by the engineer and was shown the throttle, reversing gear lever and all that was in the cab of that steamer. He had me blow the whistle and then set me down off the loco and when I was a safe distance away he waved goodby and pulled the train out of town. I'm 64 now and trying to model that era and area and of coarse the Erie. Just trying to relive some of the good times and memories from back then. Sorry, didn't mean to ramble, Ken

[Billba]

Good afternoon all,

I remember seeing U.P. 9000 4-12-2 three cylinder beasts when I was between 3 and 4 years old. At least Dad called them "9000"s, so I looked up the details in high school. This was on U. P.s Marysville subdivision. My Dad's and Grandfather both had farms that backed onto U.P. tracks in the Marysville area.

I thought that trains were moving houses, which got a laugh from Grandpa, Dad, and several uncles.

[Nieuweboer]

I do remember very vividly and it's not a pretty story. I was 7 years old, our country was occupied by Germany and we lived in Arnhem (remember the movie "A Bridge too Far?"). My mother, my little brother and I were going to visit my aunt who lived in another city about 100 miles away. There were still some trains running and it often happened that Allied fighters on their way to Germany or on their way back to England strafed trains in Holland. Later I was told that the fighters aimed to destroy the locomotive so it could not be used to haul troop trains and not consciously at the passenger cars but WWII fighters were nowhere as sofisticated as todays fighters so often they missed and there were civilian victims. Anyway, my mother grabbed my brother under her arm and me by the hand and ran from the train into a cornfield and hid in a cornsheave. Soon the locomotive was hit and hidden in a cloud of steam and we had to wait hours before another locomotive came to take the train to its destination . That was my first experience with trains but I still love 'em.

[Billba]

Hans, Thank you for sharing your story.

It helps keep a good perspective on our ability to enjoy hobbies when so many people have not had that luxury.

[Curmudgeon]

I recall a steam swither just north of El Segundo switching the Northrup plant across Crenshaw.
I recall driving up to Lancaster to visit my uncle in the 1940 Ford Tudor we had, coming down off Sierra Hiway and dropping down to track level and looking stright into the cab of a Cab Forward we were keeping up with.

I also remember Sierra Hiway as being different than it was in later years, as we corssed the tracks several times at crossings like you see in old movies, where you parallel a line, then jump across and parallel on the other side.
Big one like that just south of Mojave.
TOC

[Anonymous]

One of my first memories was when my parents and I would go to downtown Chicago on the commuter trains usually from Cumberland Station in Des Plaines, IL. This was when steam was still being used, and this line still had long distance passenger trains. I especially remember while waiting for our train, sometimes an express would come through at speed. Not more than 10 feet away, Noise! and the ground would shake, cool! I remember noting that the cars on those trains had three axle trucks but our trains had only two axle trucks. I remember when getting off the train in the Chicago terminal, you had to walk past the locomotive (steam) only a few feet away!

To give you a time and without looking it up, I think the C&NW quit using steam in the spring of 1956 which was a few months before I turned 7.

My parents have told me, although I have no personal recollection of this, that the first words that I learned to read were the railroad names on box cars in trains that we watched go by.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Billba

Hans, Thank you for sharing your story.

It helps keep a good perspective on our ability to enjoy hobbies when so many people have not had that luxury.

Yes, Hans' story does put eveything in a little different perspective.

[Seamonster]

My earliest memories of trains was when I was probably about 10 y.o. give or take a bit. The place where my parents had a summer cottage had a train station. Some of the passenger trains (pulled by steam engines way back then) stopped at our station and some went straight through to larger resort towns farther on down the line. During July and August, My mother and I would stay at the cottage for a few weeks at a time and my father would come out on the train for the weekends and I'd meet him at the station. I loved watching those huge noisy hissing smoke-belching engines pull into the station and pull out again.

My friends and I sometimes played around the tracks and we did some pretty stupid things. You don't have to tell me how stupid we were and how dangerous the things we did were, but when you're a kid, you just don't think about it. We'd put pennies on the track so they would get flattened by the train's wheels. That's not too bad. But one time we greased the tracks right where the locomotive stopped. Boy, did the engineer have a hard time getting started and sure used a lot of sand! (Reminds me of the tales that, I think it was John Page used to tell a number of years ago in MR.) The most stupid and dangerous thing we ever did was to cling tightly to the outermost wooden posts supporting the platform roof while the express thundered through. A passenger train at full speed can sure create a lot of suction. Must have scared the s**t out of the engineer. We're lucky to be alive to tell the story. Too bad we don't have the same common sense as kids as we have as adults.

[edo1039]

I remember New Haven Steam loaded with freight cars going thru center of town and at each intersection there was a gate keeper who manually lowered the crossing gates,those big steam engines were something to see,oh by the way the town was New Britain,Ct back in the 40's.

[Tracklayer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Seamonster

Too bad we don't have the same common sense as kids as we have as adults.

Now Seamonster, why did you have to bring that up ?... It reminded me of all the stupid things I did when I was younger too, as well as all the money I wasted that I wish I had now... ([:p][:(])

Tracklayer - Graduate with honors of ULTHW (University of Learning Things The Hard Way)

[rexhea]

I don't remember any specific train as being the first because trains were the main mode of transportation (circa. 1945) and just part of the scenery. That doesn't mean that I wasn't fascinated. On the contra. I loved every one that I saw.

A plus was visiting my Grandparents home in Princeton, Indiana. They ran a rooming house for railway workers and it was located right across the tracks from the depot. The railworkers use to give me all sorts of goodies. Guess they were lonesome for their children.

Ahhh, the days gone by. [^]

REX

[BRAKIE]

Yup..And it scared me too! The first train I recalled seeing was a PRR J1A ..The reason I can recall that it was a J1 every time I see a model of a J1, I recall that monet..I was four years old.

[loathar]

We had a big yard up in Cleveland Oh. my dad would take me to when I was 4 or 5. (right by Cleveland Hopkins Airport.) We had two mainlines right across from where I lived. My dad and me would go for farther/son walks down the tracks every Sunday. Came across an idleing F unit coal train one day fight as the new crew was boarding to take over. My dad asked the engineer if I could see the inside of the loco. Told him how interested in trains I was.The guy said sure and gave me a tour of the loco. Took me back inside and showed me the engine and drive motors.When we told him we lived 10 miles down the tracks in the direction they were going, he let me sit on his lap and drive the train home to where we lived.Showed me how to work the throttle and drop the sand and brake her to a stop when we got to our house.Pretty sweat expeiriance for a seven year old!

[Tracklayer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by loathar

We had a big yard up in Cleveland Oh. my dad would take me to when I was 4 or 5. (right by Cleveland Hopkins Airport.) We had two mainlines right across from where I lived. My dad and me would go for farther/son walks down the tracks every Sunday. Came across an idleing F unit coal train one day fight as the new crew was boarding to take over. My dad asked the engineer if I could see the inside of the loco. Told him how interested in trains I was.The guy said sure and gave me a tour of the loco. Took me back inside and showed me the engine and drive motors.When we told him we lived 10 miles down the tracks in the direction they were going, he let me sit on his lap and drive the train home to where we lived.Showed me how to work the throttle and drop the sand and brake her to a stop when we got to our house.Pretty sweat experience for a seven year old!

loathar, you lucky dog you!... The closest I ever got to the cab of a real engine was at the train museum at Fair Park in Dallas back in the early 90s, and it was for display only...([V])

Tracklayer

[espeefoamer]

I was born in Indiana on the PRR main line so I was probably a week or so old when I saw my first train. The first train I remember was when I was living in Alhambra,Ca. on the SP main.I was about three and my mother and I were walking across the tracks,and I saw the silver nose of an engine.This would have been a black widow F unit. It was an extra as I remember seeing the tiny class lights lit up showing white. The main headlight was also shining. I thought the class lights were eyes and the headlight was a mouth. I thought to myself,"The train has a face".

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the Sussex (GB) countryside and at the end of our garden there was a twin track mainline in a cutting. Twice a day there was an express usually headed by a West Country or Battle of Britain Bullied Pacific.

There was also a branchline that I could see from my bedroom window. Later I travelled that line to get to school, some 15 miles usually behind a little Terrier or a BR standard tank.

According to my Mum I was 4 when she in a total panic found me on the footplate of the engine of the train that had brought us to our local station.

[SpaceMouse]

I had a what was probably the SP main in our back yard when I was 4-5. Where are yard ended there was a very narrow dirt road and ballast. This was in Yuba City California. This would have been '57-'58. I couldn't tell you what the engines were, but they had a node like an E or F unit.

I do remember my Dad taking me on a ride from Yuba City to Orville and my mom driving us back. My mom also about that time talked about the Skunk, which I am going to model.

[GN-Rick]

My earliest recollection of trains and railroading was when I was about
3 or 4. My folks and I lived in Lynnwood, Wa, and my dad was an avid
fisherman-and tried to make me one! (didn't work). At times, we would
go to a place alongside of Puget Sound called Picnic Point. This is right
on the Great Northern's mainline between Everett and Seattle. There was
a pond there formed by the seawall that the GN had built to protect its
track where my dad would fish for cutthroat trout. The location was right
between the pond and the tracks-about 7 feet clearance. Every time
we went (in the early morning, of course) we would see the morning
Empire Builder come by on the last part of its trip to Seattle. For a very
young boy, it was the most impressive sight imaginable-the Builder
in about 1963 or 64, passing by about 5 feet away, traveling at 60 mph.
That has to be what got me started-not only interested in trains, but
also the GN-an addiction which has never left.

[fiatfan]

I remember my first train ride. It probably wasn't my first but it's the earliest train memory I have. My mother, older brother, and I were traveling from Omaha, NE to Roswell, NM in 1949. I would have been 4. I don't remember anything about the trip except going from one car to the next. The cars must have been Pullman standards because the walkway between the two cars was noisey, the cars were rocking back and forth, it felt like I was outside the train, and I was terrified. I remember my mom holding my hand and soothing my fears. As I think back, it's also the earliest memory I have of my mother.

Tom

[CP5415]

Actually, no I don't.

It's weird that I don't remember, but my Dad was a railfan long before I was born.
So I'm sure we were probably sitting on the front steps watching trains go by.
The house we live in when I was born was a stones throw from CN's Kingston Sub in Scarborough & the house we moved to when I was three, we could see Canadian Pacific's Agincourt marshalling yard from our house, about a 10 minute walk.

Gordon

[trainboyH16-44]

Don't recall the first, but my earliest memory is of 3 CP Rail SD40-2s pulling a loaded coal train up the Roger's pass, with 2 mid- train helpers. That memory will never fade.
Trainboy

[Isambard]

My first strong memory of a train is of when I was about seven (1942) , riding in the cab of a Royal Hudson 4-6-4 as it headed from the CPR station on Cordova Street in Vancouver, to the locomotive depot on False Creek. The route ran under the city via a 4,608 ft long tunnel. It was a memorable ride! The tunnel was used by the CPR until 1982 and is now part of the SkyTrain system.
[:)]

[Pruitt]

I don't remember the fist train I ever saw (I think), but I do remember seeing the long strings of tank cars waiting outside the Standard refinery on the west end of Casper, Wyoming. The refinery was great, and those strings of cars seemed to go on forever.

I'm building a model version of the refinery on my layout, and have a bit of an affection for the 10,000 gallon black tank car. I'll have many on the layout. Go figure!

[Attaboy]

Don't remember the very first, but when I was about 3 years old I had a love/hate relationship with the trains on a branchline that ran right past the house. The tracks a our yard were on oppisite sides of the driveway. I loved watching the trains and when one was coming would run into the driveway to watch it. Until it got too close, that is, then is seemed so huge and so noisey I would run for the yard, as far away as I could get.

My best memory is from about the same time. There was a water trough between the tracks at the local station for steam engines to pick up water on the fly. I was at the station with my parents one day and what must have been one of the last steamers to come through went past and used the chance to pick up some water. Water went flying everywhere. It was quite a sight.

[Anonymous]

First off I want to say I hope with God's speed you and your family are well after RITA came through. As to the first train, I must of been only a few weeks old. My grandfather was Chief Draftsman for the New York Central and I rode the train all the time. I remember the Pullman cars and putting a penny in your shoes and they would be shined for you as you slept. I am 46 years young...and I still love watching and taking photos of trains. My dad and I have been building a train layout now for 5 1/2 years where it will run 6 to 7 trains at once. I have fond memories of riding up in the engine, in the caboose and even when I would ride the trains at night with conductors collecting tickets as a child. I can go on and on as to the years of my train experieneces!

[electromotive]

My dad worked for the C.P.R. in Winnipeg Man. (Weston shops) where all the engines were overhauled..
My dad took me there one day, I was around 6 or 7. There in the yards and in the shops were steam engines..BIG steam engines for a little guy...WOW.. This was around 1936..
In 1939 we went on a holiday from Wpg to Vancouver, through the rockies. C.P.R.had open observation cars at the end of their passenger trains. I remember standing , leaning on the railing looking at the track roll by, having to run inside the car when we went through tunnels....smoke, noise of the engine.WOW!!!
The greatest days of my life!!!
Yes, I have a layout........all diesels now............

[Anonymous]

Unlike certain other life experiences[;)], I can't remember the very first time I saw a real train. But the ones I saw regularly from age 4 and beyond were the C&O geeps that ran throughout Southeast Michigan near Detroit. Like one of the earlier posters, I was scared out of my seat when a 5-chime blasted at a crossing. And I was totally awestruck when I saw a lashup of [at least] 4 geeps thundering upgrade thru Northville. Yeah, those were the days...![:P]