What do you miss the most?

[Anonymous]

Pittsburgh steel mills, (only saw the last years of them) and good ole' B&O CPL's

[ValleyX]

Cabooses
Interlocking towers
Train orders
Small town depots with semaphore order boards
Covered wagons.
GEEPs.
For you regular railroaders on here, I miss stretch braking as an ordinary accepted practice.
"I don't need no stinkin' dynamic." (Well, some of the time, anyway.

[Anonymous]

i'm not really old enough to miss much. the rock and milwaukee were gone either by the time i was born or shortly after. however, what i would like to have seen is the rock in it's full glory, or nowadays as a robust railroad, through illinois. double track, high speed mainline through my backyard. that would be the cat's meow...lol i guess i'm still lucky though, as it's still being used...one train each way a day over some pretty rickety looking tracks. can't say that much about a lot of fallen flags....

[pat390]

The other day I say a train carrying what i though to be parts to a generator that had an old "red 'n ready" caboose on the end

[Anonymous]

There was a time when older people were envious of youth. Considering what I've seen in railroading since 1950, and what I was able to experience as a railroader, I wouldn't want to be even 15 minutes younger than I am. I miss the "Thoroughbread" on the Monon. An Alco Century with high hoods, an express box car, a heavyweight rpo and baggage car, and 2 or 3 coaches. All in black and gold. I miss the "Maple Leaf" on the Grand Trunk. Two passenger geeps, nose to nose, a little bit of head end, a parlor diner and some coaches. All clean and running at about 110 mph. The "City of New Orleans" comes to mind. Three matched E9s, in an A-B-A lashup with 22 cars in tow, with a round end obs on the back. I've seen it go by at 110mph as well. The units were on the crossing before the gates landed.
Mitch

[Overmod]

All sorts of things... personal things, tied to memories:

RS3s and Stilwells on the old NJ & NY through Tenafly; I still miss the 1870s-era valances that were removed to restore that station to 1836 condition...
Three-chime horns and exhaust in the night, running up the West Shore
GG1s anywhere, with or without keystones and stripes, but especially good when being signed like artwork by Raymond Loewy
"Am-and-cheese" sandwich and invididual can of Coca-Cola enjoyed in the open vestibule of one of the NY-Philadelphia trains going upward of 80mph
E44s and E33s and Jets and M636s and Baldwins of all sorts, and all the other interesting stuff that lived on the PRR lines around Philadelphia
The fascinating line-up at Reading Terminal in Philadelphia (and the stainless-steel flying saucer ticket booth!)
Metroliners, which brings up thoughts of the ex-PRR passenger enginemen I've met, all long gone now together with their wisdom and experiences: where else could you talk at length with an engineman (motorman on PRR Metroliners?) while going 100mph+ and watch the ties blur under you, for the price of a simple ticket? I also miss Buster on the PJ&B, who gave me his PRR vest and buttons when he retired, and the day of the Conrail takeover, when the Transportation Program 'Farewell to the PC Dinky' party went through three cases of Korbel Brut in about 9 minutes, I got to start the first Conrail train ever, and, when (at the other end) I asked if I could have the PC sign off the side of the MU car as a souvenir, Ed Jordan said "get that thing off my train!"
E7s and E8s at Manasquan and other places on the Jersey Shore, in Tuscan with stripes pulling solid tuscan consists of P70s
E8s and classic stainless consists (ATSF 1938 vintage, if I remember correctly) in COMMUTER service on EL
The U34CH honorary steam locomotives that replaced the E8s on EL
Matched F units on EL north of Port Jervis
Parade of NYC equipment as viewed from Macombs Dam Bridge (not a cussword, btw) on the way from the Flash over to Yankee Stadium for a Giants game;
Jersey Central RSDs in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania... heck, Jersey Central in Wilkes-Barre... just about *anything* in Wilkes-Barre.
Lightning-stripe NYC paint, including FAs running parallel to the West Side Highway at highway speed bursting out of the 'tunnel' below 125th Street northbound, and on an electric locomotive ... neatly lettered "ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE" with a big GE 'can' emblem between the words ... heading up the Twentieth Century Limited with the red carpet rolled out
Later... not much later in absolute terms but an eternity to a young man... watching P-motors give trains over to Es at Harmon, and hearing the distinctive sounds of then-rickety FL9s accelerating southbounds, and discovering antique S motors quietly running like ghosts in the trackage at GCT
MP54s on the PJ&B and the line to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
Anything in '70s Chessie System paint
George Pins and PRR 120
Catenary on the Port Road
Catenary... ANYTHING... on the Atglen & Susquehanna
More recently: The flowering of operating restored steam in the '80s
Five-unit matched consists of 567-engined power on MidSouth
New SP Dash-9s on SP between Shreveport and Benton, Louisiana

I sympathize with the item about 'real' railroad watches... but then again I have a few since the days in school I learned to work on them. Only one with the antimagnetic features required post-1942 or so -- but it's a 950 with Elinvar (bought when $125 was a lot of money to pay for a watch!) Interesting that the cheapest quartz wristwatch you can buy at Wal-Mart is more reliable and about a hundred times more accurate AND precise than the best of the Hamiltons, Illinois et al.! More accurate, too, than the Accutrons used by PRR (and then PC) to time the Metroliners -- which could gain or lose 2 seconds a day depending on which side of the wrist you wore them! Interesting how many people I meet down South who have 'their grandfather's old watch' that are Model 92s, often grade 845s... wish I could buy 'em but it wouldn't be right.

I swore, up and down, that I would NOT miss SDP40Fs, when the ugly things were first introduced... strange how time changes your perceptions, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

I sympathize with the item about 'real' railroad watches... but then again I have a few since the days in school I learned to work on them. Only one with the antimagnetic features required post-1942 or so -- but it's a 950 with Elinvar (bought when $125 was a lot of money to pay for a watch!) Interesting that the cheapest quartz wristwatch you can buy at Wal-Mart is more reliable and about a hundred times more accurate AND precise than the best of the Hamiltons, Illinois et al.! More accurate, too, than the Accutrons used by PRR (and then PC) to time the Metroliners -- which could gain or lose 2 seconds a day depending on which side of the wrist you wore them! Interesting how many people I meet down South who have 'their grandfather's old watch' that are Model 92s, often grade 845s... wish I could buy 'em but it wouldn't be right.

Overmod... You must be a watch collector. I think I miss the dicipline of time associated with railroad watches. I would enjoy seeing a modern quartz movement in a 16 size pocket variety, in a gold filled case with a railroad , a la Hamilton late Elinvar bold dial. I ralize that modern watches are more accurate.
Mitch

[Overmod]

I agree that the high-grade railroad watches (whatever Webb C. Ball might have said about 'smokestack jewels') qualified as ceremonial implements in a ritual that made timekeeping significant. To me, they also represent a high-water mark of the kind of United-States-American manufacturing that culminated in the '30s and '40s, where perfecting the details of production was part of the design process. I suspect that some of the Record-movement Balls were actually the 'best' railroad pocket watches (Incabloc on escapement and first wheels, as well as balance, for example, which is excellent detail design) but I *like* damaskeening, gold jewel caps and train, and elegant lettering on the plates, and the other 'marketing' paraphernalia associated with classic RR watches.

I completely concur with your desire to see a 'modern' 16s pocket watch, with appropriate enamel dial and plum or blue hands -- but the movement should be one of the current generation of radio-set quartz movements. This can be 'programmed' to reset itself regularly to railroad standard time (which presumably is itself set to accord with Internet stratum 1 or 2 time basis, if not via WWV and NTS) and would therefore be absolutely precise and almost absolutely accurate with respect to time standards, without any need for intermediate setting (perhaps even for changes such as standard/daylight time). I'd put the second hour hand on there (useful when figuring out what time it is in Arizona at a glance during the summer!) There's enough room in the case to put a "self-winding" generator, a la Casio or Citizen, which would make battery changes quite infrequent. You've got me thinking now...

[lonewoof]

Steam whistles
Coal smoke
Freight trains that actually STOPPED at small out-of-the-way sidings and ACTUALLY did drops and pickups
Cabeese
Green locomotives with "The Southern Serves The South" logos on the nose
Water towers / water stops

[jokestre]

For me..... California Zephyr-Rio Grande
Trains going up Tennessee Pass
The menus BEFORE, amtrak's standard swill
ATSF red caboose's or for the matter all caboose's
F-7
F-9
E-9
Steam
Turntables
Days when you could enjoy a fun day of railfanning,without having to explain to law enforcement as to why you are taking pics of trains.
PRR

[Anonymous]

Overmod,
That's the watch I'm speaking of. We could find something to put damaskeening on. A Fort Wayne hour hand is a good touch. Shall it be gold or red? I know which dial I'd use. Are you a member of the NAWCC?
Mitch

[mike-65]

What do I miss the most?

This'll probably sound kinda lame -
I never worked on a RR, so what I miss just about the most is probably what the track workers hated the most - the kah-tunk Kah-TUNK of the cars going over the joint ends of the rails...

When I was a little (really little) kid, and was sick or just couldn't sleep at night, Mom would pray for a train to come by - we lived right next to the WP tracks in Hayward, CA.

When the horn was still pretty far-off, just barely discernable, Mom would say "Just close your eyes, baby - and ride the train when she comes by. Close your eyes, and hop on, okay?'

( I warned you it would sound lame)

An' it worked just about every time....

When I got older, I'd try my hardest to stay awake through all of it: After a few minutes of the sound getting louder and louder, it would get to that crescendo of blurry grey-white noise, and then slowly fade again, until all that was left was that sound of the wheels on the rails...you can fool yourself to where you think you still hear it, when it's really long since gone away....


Well, that, and cabooses

[Jordan6]

I guess I mostly miss conventional cab locos (i don't know why but they do seem cool[%-)])


P.S. I'm only 19 so my (miss) list is just starting!

[snakespol]

I miss- being able to stand where I want on a moving train, to be allowed to stand on the platform, by the rear window on a passenger car just to watch where we'd been. Being allowed to watch wht I wanted in a yard, at a station, without being profiled, prosecuted, or harassed. I miss being able to strike up a converstion with a train crew and not be looked at as a potential threat. Although I know and understand why these things have changed, it doesn't mean that I have to like them![V]

[passengerfan]

Miss sitting in the eastbound GN EMPIRE BUILDER in the upper Lounge area of the Great Dome Lounge as the train climbs Marias Pass getting acquainted with fellow passengers. :ooking out the windows seeing Elk, Deer, Goats, and on one trip a Grizzly about twenty feet from the passing train. The superb meals in the diner and gentle rocking motion at night in the comfort of your private Roomette as you read for awhie before turning off the light and being overtaken by restful sleep.Remember one time missing the CITY OF PORTLAND in Omaha by minutes and catching the later CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, CASCADE and UP pool train to reach Seattle arriving the same time as if I had rode the next days CITY OF PORTLAND only a railfan would understand.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by adrianspeeder

Hmmmm, bygone for me, uhh Conrail?

Adrianspeeder

Careful there Adrian, you wouldn't want to give away your age. [;)] [:D] [;)]


As for me:

Mars or Gyralites

Cabooses

Passenger Trains (ran by the railroads themselves)

E Units

(might have more later)

[espeefoamer]

1.The Southern Pacific.
2.E& Funits.
3.GP9s& SD7s&9s.
4.SD 45s.
5.F45s& FP45s.
6.CF7s.
7.Cabooses.
8.Pre-Amtrak passenger trains.
9.GG1s.
10.E60s.
11.Being allowed to ride in the vesibule.
12.Pennsylvania Railroad.
13.The Santa Fe& Chico .
14.Litttle Joes.
15.The old cars on the South Shore.
16.U Boats.

[Anonymous]

Watching Santa Fe psrg trains Tex Chief and the Chicagoan passing by my house in KS back 35 yrs ago when I was a litte crum cruncher. Also the the Mopac blue engs are missed to.

[espeefoamer]

1.Watching the Pacific Electric Red Cars running down Long Beach Blvd.
Oops, I guess I'm giving my age away on this one[B)]!
2.ALCo switchers on the Santa Fe.
3.Trainmasters and Harriman coaches on SP commutes.
4.Baldwin switchers on the SP.

[dwil89]

I miss Cabooses, the sound of trains on mainline jointed rail, and first generation and second generation diesels on mainline freights! Compare the sound of a slew of Geep 7's or 9's, or Early GE U-Boats, E, or F units pulling a train up the East or West Slopes around the Altoona, Pa area with the sound of the modern quieter diesels....I miss that older sound! Dave Williams [e-mail]

[dharmon]

A fruitcake-free forum........

[Mookie]

My mind!

[CSXrules4eva]

Lets see I miss the days when their wasn't so manny people harrassing u at local rail yards when u go out railfaning. I miss the days when GG1s ruled the Northeast Corridor in PRR dark green. I also missed the days of the C&O FOR PROGRESS!! Allegeheny 2-6-6-6 RULES!

[espeefoamer]

Being able to walk through a railroad yard without getting hasseled .
Getting cab rides from friendly crews.
My youth[:(!].

[railman]

I second everything...it was so...american. Now all we've got is corporate America. The odd, the somewhat quaint, the strange things that made you scratch your head, but everything seemed to work out. Today it works, but the regionalism, the neatness, is gone.

[Anonymous]

The pre-BN days, when railroads' personalities were more diverse, or probably more accurate -- there were more diverse railroads.

MILW, CV, SP&S, etc. were still around. Train order stations and semaphores. Antiquated? Sure. Endearing? Always.