Have you ever driven a train?

[TrainFreak409]

I have only operated a locomotive in my dreams, and on simulators. I am still young, I plan to make it happen!



[8]TrainFreak409[8]

[Allen Jenkins]

Ooh wow. However, ... but....anyway......and........so! Have you ever driven a train, In Georgia, I went with the Ferries, to McDonough, GA, to the NS Training Center. I posted on the www.auran.com forums. Would anyone like to here my trip? I got it all on video. acj.

[wabash1]

Mookie calm down there is no need to think there is a war going to happen . I know this is going to be difficult for him to do but look back at my statement. there is not one mention of forcing in my statement. And will in tyron ( or where ever) you did a perfect example of taking things out of text to justify your needs. Not one word of forcing someone to let you ride was mentioned and if you go back and read the statements it says that the reason you was there is because the trainmaster was not there. admitted to by yourself. and that he invited you to go onto the engine ( which is how you got there in the first place by invitation everyone knowing where the trainmaster was going to be) If you dont want to read the statement and just take things out of text for your own porpose ( which is what you have done) then go right ahead. I will hold true to my statement of its people with attitudes like you that i wont let stay on the property ( turn you in to the law) and wont give the chance to come up on a engine or run a engine. there have been plenty of buffs who i have let on my engines. and some who wont be given the time of day . its attitude. and all that was said was dont post a pic of this because there is the chance of him being fired.

error
this might be a shock to you but i didnt see any improper english used( other than a whole box of exclamations) I am not in school or english class and dont care. I must be doing something right as you understood me and what i said. ( oh wait in proper english would that have been understand me. heck who cares) the point i am making is it will take more than you trying to bash me over engli***o get me mad.

The fact is this was and is a great subject. My statement was made because (Will) was alittle over board ( my opinion) on posting something that would and could get someone in trouble. That is the reason i said something to him about it. with out the pic its all here say and they cant fire nobody for that.. I applaude him for being able to have a friend in railroading and being able to do something other wi***o do. I know it is a great feeling to go up on a engine ride and run( in the 70s i did the same thing i just didnt tell anyone Now i do it for a living) just think of what it can do to that person if caught. Now has anyone else run a engine?

[wabash1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Allen Jenkins

Ooh wow. However, ... but....anyway......and........so! Have you ever driven a train, In Georgia, I went with the Ferries, to McDonough, GA, to the NS Training Center. I posted on the www.auran.com forums. Would anyone like to here my trip? I got it all on video. acj.

On your trip did they let you in the simulator building . Did they give you a chance to run a simulator?

[JoeKoh]

Matt and I have been in the cabs(invited )of locos but never driven a train.We like to mostly just smile and wave.
stay safe
Joe

[Anonymous]

When I was 13 I was a member of the Branford Electric Railway Museum. I got to do a lot of dirty work (I was small enough so that I could get to the grease doors on the traction motors and not get stuck) and also helped "restore" a big ol' Lake Shore heavy interurban trolley. I got to run it about five feet forward and five feet back. I also caught an invitation up into the cab of an ALCO diesel with the New Haven Railroad (on their way freight); about all the "operating" I was allowed to do was blow the whistle for a crossing. Still and all...pretty heady stuff for a kid...or an adult!

Erik

[Allen Jenkins]

Yea, Wabash1, I got a chance to run the motion sim, on a helicopter base, however, I had a video cam, and allowed that another member of our group could do as good, so I took video on my run on #6692, "The Southern Crescent," a quarter cab sim, and the fan on the motion sim, for my 7 mile loop. I'm satisfiied with my video. I ain't greedy. As an aside, the trainers, suggested a Friday Night, with a case of Bud would do the trick, Never done, as the trip was a hundred miles away, and I would have to had a motel room. Damn.

[Anonymous]

I was told from an engineer that Microsoft Train Simulator is nothing like operating a real freight train. Even though its has the same controls as a real the ones youèll find in a diesel locomotive.

[CShaveRR]

Oh, I almost forgot...I did have about a 15-minute session on CNW's simulator once, hauling a Falcon with three GP50s. This was just before the GP50s had been delivered (and CNW's GP50s were the first anywhere, so that was significant!). I didn't foul up, but saw some horrendous slack action when other people had their turn.

A few years after that, I was the leader of a field trip for PALS (which was a support group for gifted education, locally based). We had a few boys and girls of middle-school age, and some parents. Several of them, including my elder daughter, got a chance to handle a simulated ore train with SD60s over CNW's ore line in the Upper Peninsula (the simulator was based at West Chicago by this time). The same daughter, thanks to a benevolent engineer now deceased, was able to operate the throttle on an SD38-2 at Proviso, as was her visiting cousin.

[wabash1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Allen Jenkins

Yea, Wabash1, I got a chance to run the motion sim, on a helicopter base, however, I had a video cam, and allowed that another member of our group could do as good, so I took video on my run on #6692, "The Southern Crescent," a quarter cab sim, and the fan on the motion sim, for my 7 mile loop. I'm satisfiied with my video. I ain't greedy. As an aside, the trainers, suggested a Friday Night, with a case of Bud would do the trick, Never done, as the trip was a hundred miles away, and I would have to had a motel room. Damn.

On the crescent they have a run that has a truck pull in front of you then backs up. is that the run they had you on? if so that run is started south of danville ky. they have others like the one on the n&w line across hannible mo. where you cross the mississippi river on a draw bridge and you are on restricted blocks come thru a very dark tunnel and just as you come out the bridge is open and most people go into the river. or the one where you are comming down hill overloaded on bad blocks and at the bottom of the hill is a siding and a train stalled trying to get into the siding with a cabose and flagman . hes flaging you to a stop just as you hit him. Oh the joys of running a simulator. its better to have the wrecks on them than in real life.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wabash1

QUOTE: Originally posted by Allen Jenkins

Yea, Wabash1, I got a chance to run the motion sim, on a helicopter base, however, I had a video cam, and allowed that another member of our group could do as good, so I took video on my run on #6692, "The Southern Crescent," a quarter cab sim, and the fan on the motion sim, for my 7 mile loop. I'm satisfiied with my video. I ain't greedy. As an aside, the trainers, suggested a Friday Night, with a case of Bud would do the trick, Never done, as the trip was a hundred miles away, and I would have to had a motel room. Damn.

On the crescent they have a run that has a truck pull in front of you then backs up. is that the run they had you on? if so that run is started south of danville ky. they have others like the one on the n&w line across hannible mo. where you cross the mississippi river on a draw bridge and you are on restricted blocks come thru a very dark tunnel and just as you come out the bridge is open and most people go into the river. or the one where you are comming down hill overloaded on bad blocks and at the bottom of the hill is a siding and a train stalled trying to get into the siding with a cabose and flagman . hes flaging you to a stop just as you hit him. Oh the joys of running a simulator. its better to have the wrecks on them than in real life.

FOFLMAO. I have run that caboose one many times. Naturally they put the damn thing at the bottom of a grade right behind a stop and proceed (actually, I understand that is a restricting in former Southern territory) they let us run it as a restricting. It was hilarious 'cause as I was recertifying I was with the instructors after my run and they had an LET class in on their first run and I watched. You could always tell when they got to the caboose part because they'd have hilarious reactions, everything from "Jeeezus, who put that there?!?" to "Oh ***" and every imaginable variation thereof. Those sims are nice because they show you the in train forces and how it affects your train, but it is definitely NOT like running. You can't effectively use your most important Engineer sensory organ on a sim. Your Butt in the seat. Sounds crazy but it's true.

LC

[daveklepper]

Erik, it wasn't a Lake Shore interurban. The Lake Shore ran from Cleveland to Toledo. The car you ran was 1339, bought from the Connecticut Company by Julius Stribie (remember the old codger?) and painted to resemble a Shore Line Electric car, which has similar railroad roof interurban cars like the Connecticut's inter-town cars, because Julius Stribie lived at time along the Shore Line Electric and also along the New York and Stamford, which connected New Rochelle, NY with Stamford, CT. The car was green with yellow or white stripes and lettering when you ran it, but it was originally yellow with red stripes and lettering. This car has been sold, I believe to the Charlotte, North Carolina, vintage trolley operation, because their are other wood Connecticut Company cars that were duplicates in the collection. I often served as conductor when Jules ran the car, then ran it as motorman. Oh, the Shore Line Electric connected with the Connecticut Company both at the far end of the Branford Line at Stoney Creek, and at Guilford CT., and I believe through cars were run over the Connecticut Company at one time to downtown New Haven. Both it and the New York and Stamford were part of the trolley route from New York to Boston, or if you prefer, from Wilmington Delaware to Waterville, Maine, interupted by some ferryboat crossing of rivers. Remember Parlor car 500? It was reputed to have made the complete Boston to New York trip on a charter, ending at 129th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, because farther towards downtown there was only conduit trackage (power rails in a slot between the rails) without overhead wire.

[Anonymous]

BJK:

Microsoft train simulator is nothing like running the real thing. Yes the controls are all the same, and the graphics are pretty good, but nothing can simulate a few thousand tons rolling down a hill while you try and control it.

[AlcoRS11Nut]

I OPERATED two, and CNW GP7 on a local, and a ALCo S6 in a museum. (I don't work for a Railroad either).

[wabash1]

L.C.

the full motion simulator is ok getting hit with slack from it isnt the same as the real world but you can tell it.when it happens. the funniest thing i heard of was the guy who big holed his train because the deer jumped in front of his train. ( on the simulator ) I wonder how his conductor is doing now????

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wabash1

Mookie calm down there is no need to think there is a war going to happen .

Bummer! Maybe a teeny one?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by daveklepper

Erik, it wasn't a Lake Shore interurban. The Lake Shore ran from Cleveland to Toledo. The car you ran was 1339, bought from the Connecticut Company by Julius Stribie (remember the old codger?) and painted to resemble a Shore Line Electric car, which has similar railroad roof interurban cars like the Connecticut's inter-town cars, because Julius Stribie lived at time along the Shore Line Electric and also along the New York and Stamford, which connected New Rochelle, NY with Stamford, CT. The car was green with yellow or white stripes and lettering when you ran it, but it was originally yellow with red stripes and lettering. This car has been sold, I believe to the Charlotte, North Carolina, vintage trolley operation, because their are other wood Connecticut Company cars that were duplicates in the collection. I often served as conductor when Jules ran the car, then ran it as motorman. Oh, the Shore Line Electric connected with the Connecticut Company both at the far end of the Branford Line at Stoney Creek, and at Guilford CT., and I believe through cars were run over the Connecticut Company at one time to downtown New Haven. Both it and the New York and Stamford were part of the trolley route from New York to Boston, or if you prefer, from Wilmington Delaware to Waterville, Maine, interupted by some ferryboat crossing of rivers. Remember Parlor car 500? It was reputed to have made the complete Boston to New York trip on a charter, ending at 129th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, because farther towards downtown there was only conduit trackage (power rails in a slot between the rails) without overhead wire.

Hmm. I remembered that particular trolley car as being numbered 709, and I worked with a 16 year old named Marcus.
The BERA was a very tolerant organization at the time and I got to indulge in a lot of "railfanning" by hands on experience. They got me started on museum membership which allows one to do and see things the public normally doesn't get to do or see. While you may not get to operate a museum train carrying passengers, I've been in the cab of some of their locomotives while they were on a run. And you can get "licensed" to operate a locomotive on the museum grounds, usually at no cost to yourself except time and work. (I doubt the license will get you anywhere with a Class I railroad human resources rep.)
At least you can get a feel for what running a locomotive, or in my case, a trolley car, is all about.

Erik
PS. Thanks, Dave, for the information. I revisited the BERA about a year ago and was stunned at the huge progress y'all had made. Good job!- and a must see (and ride) for all.