Why it is worse to be a young rail fan

[Anonymous]

Dave and friends riding the South Shore.
I wouldn't bother with riding the head end. The South Shore is about the last railroad running with train orders and the conductor and engineer are pretty busy up on the head end. On a normal trip there are also several employee in charge lines to call plus speed restrictions, and the Shore is quite strict on safety. The conductor's office is also on the head end where he or she may stand, call signals, and do their cash fare figuring. You can stand behind the bulkhead door but try not to get in the way. The Shore is still very much an interurban, but it's changing every day into a contemporary road, and it's worth a visit.
Stay tuned for my further comments on this very interesting thread tomorrow.

Mitch (former South Shore engineer)

[West Coast S]

I miss SP trainmasters on the commute route between SF and San Jose. My one and only commute ride resulted in me being ejected from the train in the middle of nowhere due to a misunderstanding between myself and the conductor!

I miss the beet runs using Geeps and SD9s and wooden gondolas, all had cabooses which passed by my algebra class window on a regular basis and proved far more interesting then the teachings of Sister Mary Margret .

I lamant no more Western Pacific on the steel run to the mill at Pittsburg, Ca.

No one will even again tour the SF San Bernadino shops and witness RSD-15s and SD24s being rebuilt.

Yes ,I have my memories, enjoy the hobby and create your own memories.

[CopCarSS]

Gabe,

I share your pain, man. Probably the hardest thing for me to accept is the fact that I never got to see regular, workaday steam. It existed for ever so brief a time in my lifetime (I was born in 1980, I think Northwestern Steel and Wire dropped the fires from their 0-8-0's for the last time in 1981 or so).

When I was in my pre-teen and teen years it was a thrill to see an unmodified Geep 7 or 9. Making a trip out to Clinton, IA and seeing the CNW Geeps out there was as good as it got. I also remember thinking that the world was over-run with SD40-2's and GP38-2's. Now I find myself relishing anything trackside with a standard cab, and thinking the world is run by 70MAC's and -9's, and AC's. But I've also learned to appreciate the later generation stuff.

Think about it. GE's service lives aren't the greatest, and who knows what's going to happen to EMD under their new management. I'd hate to see myself in 20 years saying, "Man I wish I had shot more of those 70MAC's. Who knew EMD would be out of business by 2025?"

The late Don Ball Jr. had some interesting comments about the same type of thinking in his books. As he said in one of them (America's Railroads, the Second Generation maybe?), and I paraphrase since I don't remember the exact quote, as long as it's a steel wheel on a steel rail it's good.

There may no longer be SD9's on Madison hill, but for me, there's still AC's, and 9043MAC's struggling with the tonnage up the Moffat line.

There may not be many ALCO's, but there's some Pumpkin GP30's that make it out on the Coors line every now and again.

There may not be F units, but there's still the Ski Train F40PH's painted in a lovely shade of D&RGW yellow.

There may not be regular steam, but there's the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic that comes awfully close.

The 1950's may not be around anymore, but there's still railroading, and that's good enough for me![^]

Chris
Denver, CO

[AlcoRS11Nut]

(6) I think ALCO is a discount store.

GABE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW COULD YOU..............I'M CRUSHED!!!!! [:D][;)]

[mustanggt]

Basically all i have seen are 4 axle engines. All F40's, GP40's and GE P42's. Makes me wish I lived out west. I have never seen an SD in person. I have never seen several things. Like an auto rack, or even a well car. Or a CSX train. Is anybody else deprived of trains like me?

[Sterling1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz

The same can be said of the railroaders of today compared to even 25 years ago. Although in many ways railroading was much more difficult then, it was also much more interesting.

I remember how thrilled we (the crew) we were when our locomotive actually had a radio! No more trying to find in the darkness lineside phones to call the dispatcher.

I remember how nice it was to get a SD40-2 with dynamic brakes in my train.

I remember the interesting combinations of power we were expected to get over the road with (6 unit consist, 3 of them working with 2 of those not making transition).

I remember trying to grab the floppies (train orders) at 50mph in the middle of the night (and what we had to go through if we missed).

I remember thinking nothing of it to let some train fans up into the cab, and take them for a ride around the yard.

I remember 5-man train crews. And cabooses (cabeese).

I remember how much more challenging it was operating a train when you had two men in the caboose that you had to be concerned about when considering the various ways to handle a train, so as to not injure the men in the caboose.

Were they the "good old days"? I'm not sure; in some ways yes, in some ways no.

And just think, 25 years from now, you younger folks will be telling similar stories to the next generation of fans and railroaders.

I'm only 51, but I remember my parents had only one tv, and it was black & white. The fridge had to be defrosted every month. The milkman came daily. There was no central air. What's a computer? What's a remote control? Gas was 29 cents per gallon, and you could actually see the road under the car if you looked in the engine compartment.

In 1985 I bought my first computer. It had a 4.77mhz clock speed, with a whopping 20MB hard drive, a 5 1/2" floppy drive, and EGA graphics. And it was nearly top-of-the-line at the time! Only 20 years ago!!

Time flies when you're having fun.

True, true, True

My parents lived pretty much the same way.
My father was an architect who used a slide rule before that became obslete
Did most of his math by hand because calculators weren't cheap.
Computers were run with punch cards, a chore my father says when doing it overnight and the system screwed up for some reason and you yourself had to figure out the problem.
I may only be a transitioning teen with high tech plans, but I still enjoy the old stuff from 1950s-present and some steamers and electrics famous or not.

Matt

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth... I remember the last of the F-7s pulling passenger trains as a kid. I also remember SD-9s when they ruled the rails, and when GP-40s first came out. Where did the time go ?.

trainluver1

[Anonymous]

Gabe-
I'm not that old an old timer but I do remember the walk to school...with snow... both ways... bare foot (us Connecticut folk are hardy).

I guess what I miss nowadays is stuff that younger fans wouldn't miss because they won't get exposed to it. That is the human side of railroading. I was a pest to the stationmaster/tower operator in Guilford, Connecticut in the late sixties. He coerced the local way freight crew to let me up in the cab of the aging (even brand new stuff on the NH was aged, it seemed) ALCO road switcher. My dad and the conductor (who worked out of a caboose) even conspired to let me take a trip with the way freight... but it ran on school nights and fell through.

Now the tower is gone. The century old station has been replaced by a very nice bus stop type thing. There is no way freight any more. There is no brakeman, no switchman, no fireman. No stationmaster, either. Engineers were guys that had been doing this stuff for millenia, it seems, and conductors- passenger or freight- sat on the right hand of the Lord.

That's why I like these forums, and why I subscribe to TRAINS. There's an Ed, or a CSXEngineer, or a Mark Hemphill, who put the human side of railroading back into what would otherwise be a large industrial operation. There's a reason why they do what they do... besides money... and it's folks like that that are a vanishing breed of people. Trains are bigger, faster... cleaner... but they are now big machines run by a couple of guys (or gals) who are often too busy to wave... or too suspicious of what it is you are doing.

That's part of my youth I miss, and I wonder how I can get my grandchildren interested in railroads when there aren't people around to add a human touch.

Erik

[gabe]

Originally posted by AlcoRS11Nut



(6) I think ALCO is a discount store.

GABE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW COULD YOU..............I'M CRUSHED!!!!! [:D][;)]
[/quote/]

I was being sarcastic, not sardonic

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