What do you miss the most?

[Modelcar]

....Oh I forgot to mention Pennsylvania Station NYC that was destroyed mid 60's....

[Richard A]

Riding the SP Sumset Limited from one end of Texas to the other. My father worked for the SP/TNO so my family had a "pass" which allowed me to ride free after I was a teenager in the mid and late 50's.

Even when I didn't have the pass, a friendly conductor or two would always let me aboard as long as there were open seats. I used to spend many Summer weeks riding back and forth between El Paso and Houston, Texas.

Sometimes I even went out to Los Angeles. After I turned 16, I even road on freights in the caboose several times. Those were the days! Full of excitement, adventure and fun!

[CBQ_Guy]

Classy, upscale passenger trains.

[mudchicken]

- message phones & the octagonal timber phone booths

-M-19 motor cars

-branch line depots & agencies

-the old concept of railroad "family"

-125T & 250T wrecking cranes (almost gone now)

-motor car indicators

- T1 & T2 semaphores ( & staff system for tunnels & interlockings)

- wig-wags, pole lines

-rail rests, The Pueblo "hump", turntables & transfer tables

-RCE cars, peddler cars, 4600 Class GP-26's, RSD-15's, " Alco/EMD Buffaloes"

- Dispatchers who cared and knew their territories, train orders, line-ups

[Anonymous]

I miss seeing the GG1 and E44 running on the northeast corridor.

[Anonymous]

I miss the fact that the railways seems so much more "less elegant" so to speak.

You almost never see the RTE's in uniforms anymore and hoggers never seem to wear the striped hats anymore (though I do see one every now and then).

It seems like it's more of a "come as you are" setting nowadays..... just not as fun to see.

[MP57313]

Amen V Smith

Also:
1. Rail cars without graffiti (a little dirt or rust ok)
2. New (or old) rail bridges with the corporate herald clearly displayed (last ATSF Harbor Sub bridge built with a Santa Fe herald - El Segundo Blvd 1974-5; later bridges were blank)
3. Amtrak's Desert Wind (on a daily schedule via Pasadena)
4. Team tracks and sidings where one might see foreign road or fallen flag boxcars

MP (also from smoggy LA County)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

I miss my ex-wife.


But my aim is improving.

LOL,...ask santa for a scope for Christmas

[Anonymous]

Foreign flags as vital entities, not hollow memories

[fuzzybroken]

Yep. Cabooses, the Rock, Milwaukee Road, Chicago & North Western, Wisconsin Central, even GB&W and FRVR!

vsmith, time to move to Wisconsin! We still run plenty of "real freight trains" here!

-Mark
Milwaukee, WI
http://www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken

[Dayliner]

1. Riding The Canadian along the south shore of Shuswap Lake and over Notch Hill, over Rogers Pass and up through the Spiral Tunnels.

2. CN (and CP) trains on Vancouver Island.

3. BC Rail. If ever a railroad had heart . . . .

[cpbloom]

1. Conrail

2. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe

3. Chessie System

4. CP Home and......

5. CP Bloom (both in Pittsburgh but I'm not anymore)

[espeefoamer]

1.Southern Pacific Railroad
2.Pre Amtrak passenger trains
3.Santa Fe RY.
4.Real freight trains.
5.PRR.
6.F units.
7.ALCos.
8. Cabooses.

[cherokee woman]

I forgot to mention the depots, the watchtowers, the lines before merger: L&N, C&O.

I wish I could have known my paternal grandfather: he was a watchman for L&N.
But he passed away before my brother & I were born. Imagine the stories he could
have told us!!

[tree68]

Some days, my mind....

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

Some days, my mind....

Just wanders[?][:D]

I would LOVE to see some of the things everbody
has talked about![:)]

[Trainnut484]

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]

[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][V]

I miss the ol' GP7s, GP20s, and any other dogs' breakfast of power lashups bellow out their guts on a mixed freight.

Roundhouses and turntables.

Red and Silver Warbonnets.

I'd go another round with the good ol' days [:)]

Take care,

Russell

[enr2099]

Canadian National's Cowichan and Tidewater Subdivisions.

[coalminer3]

Here are a few based on what I remember (in no rank order)

Heavyweight passenger cars
NYC 4-8-2s
The Boston and Albany
P Company electric locomotives
New Haven EP4 and EP5 electrics
Sunnyside Yard (in the day)
Mott Haven
The New England States
Chicago Union Station (before Amtrak)
Central Station in Chicago
F units, E7s and E8s
Steam-heated passenger cars
"Off-brand" diesels such as FM, and BLW.
Honest-to-God Pullman cars
The Merchants Limited
Parlor cars
Breakfast/lunch/dinner in a real diner (especially when it was snowing outside)
Mail trains
Ice-cooled refrigerator cars
Steam locomotive shops
Penn Station (as it was)
Louisville section of the George Washington
Interline strip tickets
Interline tickets reading "Via Hell Gate Bridge"
The Southern Crescent
Set-out sleepers
Holiday travel (before it became an ordeal)
Having a choice of more than one passenger train a day on one route
Having an envelope full of tickets to go cross country and just thinking about the upcoming journey
Wooden box cars
Marker lights (on cabs).
Fallen flags.
Most important - the "old heads" who had pride in what they did, took the time to show a young kid what the railroad was and what it did and had the patience to answer endless questions.

work safe

[Anonymous]

Riding PCC cars in Newark and Philadelphia.
The Redbirds of the NYC Subway. R.I.P.
Conrail.
I miss the loud GP's pulling the Long Island Railroad.

[Anonymous]

I miss the days when you COULD watch trains from anyplace,and not to give a care in the world to what you were doing, as long as you were left alone to take pictures and enjoy the trains. Mostly though, I miss the Chicago Northwestern and Milwaukee Road in Wausau,Wi. I grew up with both and I enjoyed seeing the GP 7 and 9's running through town,along with Milwaukee's GP38-2 locomotives running up north to the paper mills.Wish i had taken many pix,but alas was too much involved in just seeing the trains,and not getting the photos. I'm happy that at least I can recall what I saw and where I had been to in my mind.......thats one thing no one will be able to take away from me.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by gentlegiant

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.

[#ditto]
Metra F40s just don't make it.

Also Baldwins and Fairbanks-Morse.

[Anonymous]

Norfolk Southern hauling up Saluda Grade. It's too quiet now.

[garr]

A. Georgia Railroad and its mixed trains.

B. Station Agents and hooped-up orders.

C. Cabooses and the local's crew who regularly invited me, as a youth. to visit inside.

D. Older railfans and railroaders, who are dying out quickly, who lived and worked
during the steam era, i.e. "the golden era" of railroading, and their reminences.

E. Racheal's resturant in the Georgia Railroad depot in Camak, GA.

F. Southern Railway and its steam program.

G. The smell of a pulpwood and woodchip train as it passes.

Jay

[Anonymous]

Unquestionably. . .the sound of a multi-chime steam-powered whistle "wailing" away as it's played by an engineer who's "signing" with his own sound. It was unique and brings back memories that I can't even describe as I waited with anticipation as the sound got louder and louder the closer it got.

Diesel-electric horns give a thrill. . .for similar reasons. . .but they're not in the same class. The steam whistles, in the hands of an "articstic" engineer, were great music !

[agentatascadero]

I can't say whether I'm more depressed or inspired by this thread. I agree with, and have experienced most all of the above, and feel fortunate indeed. Let's add semaphores, RPO pick ups at speed, changing out of power, diners, and lounges on interline passenger trains. Small things like the UP(never saw it on another road) logo imprinted on the butter pads in the diner, which, of course graced the excellent pancakes with Maple syrup. The UP wasn't so bad in the 40's-50's. Clickity-clack, especially aboard 6 wheel truck heavyweights. The former RR prominence in the everyday social "fabric".

[Modelcar]

....The feeling of supreme urgency of the operation of railroads.....If a delrailment occured it was emergency personal all over the place and equipment on the scene...such as railroad {steam}, cranes being brought to the scene and the work was accomplished right now...and track put back together and traffic moved as soon as possible, etc.....

[Anonymous]

For one thing I miss real railroads and railroading. I miss when a small passenger train was an E unit, a baggage RPO car, 3 coaches and a parlor-dining car, with real china, real food, and real parlor seats with linen head cloths. I remember some of them going 100mph or better.
I miss real railroad uniforms before they became "Career apparel," or "Concepts." I guess I just miss reality. You know, before the bank became a clothing store, the gas station became a video store, and the depot became a silly restaurant called "Choo Chew Junction." It was the '70s that did it.
Mitch

[Anonymous]

If I could go back to the era in which Southern Railway A-7 0-6-0s still worked in my home town -

We'd have just won World War II, and most of that good stuff would be around, but -

I'd be too young to drink.

Old Timer

[Anonymous]

Blue and yellow Santa Fe SD40-2s coming up edlstien hill on a late summer night on there hands and knees with a piggy back train , all 45 ft trailers on 89 foot cars with a caboose.........