What do you miss the most?

[OldArmy94]

We like to reminesce about the days of steam and other more "general" topics of bygone days of railroading but what are some of the smaller things you miss? For me, it's probably the following:

1. Cabooses (duh!)

2. Open-sided auto racks

3. Pulpwood cars with 5 foot logs

4. Pyle gyralights

What else, guys?

[cherokee woman]

For me, it's:

1. steam engines

2. cabosses

[adrianspeeder]

Hmmmm, bygone for me, uhh Conrail?

Adrianspeeder

[MP173]

Towers and orders being "hooped" up to trains. Just dont see it much anymore.

ed

[Anonymous]

The Rock

[Mookie]

Steam whistles

[cstaats]

Taking the Erie Lackawanna to Chicago from Hoboken. Watching the industrial eastern New Jersey give way to the bucolic Western New Jersey and then the rolling hills of Pennsylvania. Those were the days.

[BaltACD]

Taking the B&O through Pittsburgh at night and getting the light show to end all light shows from the steel mills located along the Mongahela and Ohio rivers between McKeesport and New Castle operating on the P&LE.

[JoeKoh]

Gotta be the caboose.
stay safe
Joe

[vsmith]

Variety.....

Today a real freight train is a rare sight, its almost all double stack container trains, pulled by visually inter-changable safety cab engines, and out here we only got a few flavors, UP Lemon, BNSF Orange, and Metrolink White.....with occasional left over SP grey.....

Train spotting out here is pretty damn dull![V]

[choochin3]

For me it would be. #1 The B&O. #2 GG1s. #3 Cabooses.

[choochin3]

PS.Real Class 1 Passenger Trains!!!!!!

[wcfan4ever]

Even though it wasn't that long ago, I miss the Wisconsin Central the most. The part about the WC that I miss the most would be the variety of motive power along with the colors of them. Also, the employees of the WC and how nice they were to the railfans. Sure, they are still the same employees today but under different rules of CN. Sure doesn't seem the same anymore.

[UPTRAIN]

Everything!!!

[Anonymous]

I miss Conrail.

[Anonymous]

I miss the Chicago & Northwestern...mostly the great Yellow and Green commuter trains being pushed and pulled by E and F units, some at very high speeds.

[Hugh Jampton]

I miss my ex-wife.


But my aim is improving.

[gbrewer]

Small stuff:
telegraph
extention bracket phones
proper railroad watches

Not so small:
steam engines
cabooses
nice passenger trains
depots
roundhouses and turntables
water tanks
...

[locomutt]

I miss most everything said before(except ex-wives)
Especially miss the caboose.
Also the C&O

[Anonymous]

passenger trains that DONT have half eaten candy stuck to them

[ericsp]

Southern Pacific diesels.

Class 1 branch lines.

[Modelcar]

Passenger trains that seemed to have an aurora of importance of time and schedule.

Cabooses.

Manned with operator, depot's and stations.

The feeling of time and importance with the operation of railroads.

Big coal drags being pulled out each day, [back in home area], and starting to market.

Pennsylvania Railroad...!! Seemed like it should have lasted forever...with all that multiple track mileage.

[eastside]

To a little boy: waiting at the rail crossing while freight cars slowly rumble past with names of railroads euphonious beyond belief, each with its unforgettable color, slogan, and logo, hoping the train continues forever.

[Anonymous]

I'm too young to miss most of the stuff people miss. And the local in these parts still uses a caboose, so I don't even get to miss that.

I guess I miss the cascade green BN locomotives.

[Randy Stahl]

I miss honest and ethical buisness practices, it was nice to believe what your company told you . Now the lies are too obvious.
Randy

[domefoamer]

My screen name says it all. The last time I lucked into a dome, it was the Capital Limited heading out of D.C. back in 1992. I was so delighted, I took a seat upstairs and stayed in it till Chicago, the next day. Maybe my eyelids fell a few times, but I didn't really sleep. By night, with a bright moon overhead, the train was a serpentine line that wormed its way up the Potomac between the silvery river and the bare January trees.
That was the best, except for the night I watched the California Zephy's F7 punching its way through spring snowdrifts on the tunnel district, its headlight making a halo of the snow it was plowing.
Maybe it's just me, but if I knew Heaven was like a dome car, I;d go th church every Sunday...

[Anonymous]

Bravo Heartland Flyer...........The Rock indeed..

[daveklepper]

Pennsylvania Station, NYC
Budd and similar dome cars
GG1's and EP3's, EP4's, and EP5's
K4's, J3a's and I-5's (Shoreliners)
E3's - E9's and PA's
Brooklyn PCC's and Manhattan, Bronx, and Westchester Huffliners and Convertables
Real observation cars, from round-end to brass rail

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

Variety.....

Today a real freight train is a rare sight, its almost all double stack container trains, pulled by visually inter-changable safety cab engines, and out here we only got a few flavors, UP Lemon, BNSF Orange, and Metrolink White.....with occasional left over SP grey.....

Train spotting out here is pretty damn dull![V]

Oh Vic - come to Lincoln - we have good freights back here! And when they get going we have lots of them. Airplane bodies, containers, pigs, UPS...(gotta throw that in)
real boxcars, and fun engines, since they put the 70's and 9's on the coal trains! Lots of SD39s and 40's, some Dash 8's and our usual unusual ones.

Of course, you have to come during the spring (no that's heavy construction), the summer (no it is humid and hot), the fall (no that is too much football and lots of people), the winter (no, we get a lot of ice and really cold temps) - oh....never mind - stay home and be dull. It might be better!

[sigh] Mookie

[Hugh Jampton]

1> locomotives that don't all look the same
2> more than 6 paint schemes