Who are you?

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

I live down the street from the BNSF Mile Post 76 in Houston. Been a railfan since I was a kid. Now Im a big kid at 40.:)

I have lived near the BNSF since 1976. Always enjoy seeing the trains go by.

I do miss the old CRIP and the Burlington Northern. But times change.

Any other railfans in the Houston area? Also am modeling in HO scale.

Mark in Texas

[Teditor]

Worked on the NSWGR's in Eveleigh depot in Sydney NSW, Australia as a fireman/acting driver (Aussie terminology?), so I fit the former employee/current railfan/modeller category. Am heavily involved in the modelling aspect now and can relate to my time on the real thing. I left because steam finished and the job got boring, maybe that was a mistake.

[vsmith]

Put me down as "enthusiast".

My primary interest has always been history of and modeling trains, narrow gauge and the like. The only time I watch trains is if I'm waiting at a grade crossing ( I will make time for live steamers though) and the only time I photograph is when I'm looking for details for my loco roster. Avidly looking for new books and information to add to my library.

[oltmannd]

How about adding an "US" and "THEM" category? Since that is how labor and mgt view each other......

I'm with "US".

-Don

[Anonymous]

I come from a line of Rails that dates back several generations. My Dad worked for the Espee in the days of steam. Got to work with plenty of Cab Forwards..( Lucky bum.) I currently work for a shortline in Northern California. Believe you me, railroading isn't the same as it use to be. In some respects....Thank God!!!!!

Apparently some of you guys didn't see the issue of Trains Magazine a year or so ago.
The the article was intitled " The Second Best Day Of My Life Was When I Hired On With The Railroad. The Best Day Of My Life Was When I Quit." At least I think that's how the title went.

At any rate, for all you would be or wannabes, all I can say is make Good and Sure that's what you want to do for a living. It's not and easy job by no means. Odd hours, bad weather, bad equipment to deal with not to mention a really lousy social life. And railroading has a bad effect on marriages. And that's just some of the good things.....LOL

Sorry, hate to harp like this but it's not a job for everyone.

Rip

[Anonymous]

I am both employee and railfan. Why can I not vote for both? I am employee of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (= Dutch Railways) and I am (of course) railfan of my company.
So, what am I doing at this American website? Well, I am also very interested in US railroads, especially New Haven.

[Anonymous]

What if you were once a Hobo?? Where do I fit in? Should I be a Railfan or an UNPAID Employee??[8D]??

[Trainnut484]

Pinball Wizard [:p][:o)][:o)][:p][:D]

How was that?? LOL

Take care[:)]

Russell

[Anonymous]

My name is Chris Hughes,Im 30 years old and have been a railfan since i was a little boy. My grandpa worked for C&O for 40 years and did everything from general labor to yardmaster in Russell,KY. I grew up in Marion,Indiana near the old C&O(Later Chessie Sytem) Cinci to Chicago mainline(this line is no longer there..its now a Rails to Trails path) and the Conrail(now NS) line. I have many fond memories of watching the trains growing up. And my grandpa has many great stories to tell me from his years on the railroad. I now live in Chicago and enjoy getting out and seeing all the differant R/R's that pass through here...UP,BNSF,NS,Etc....

This definetely isnt CSX country up here : )


Chris

[therailnut]

Hi my my name is Jack Doran. I live in Galesburg, IL and I am a railroad nut. Although I hope to work for the railroad some day. I will model and admire them until I work for one someday. then I will still be a railnut till the the i die.

[brilondon]

I was forced into railroading by my grandfather who gave me my first train set for Christmas when I was five. For the next thirty years I have been hooked on this wonderful hobby. Even when I attended the University of Windsor I had the great fortune to become freinds with a fellow railroader. He introduced me to the wonderful past time of train watching and the rest as they say is history.[:)][8D] I am so grateful to my [:)] grandfather [:)] who had an interest in railroading as a shipper for Lacmac in London.

[Anonymous]

Been having a great time working as a Signal Maintainer for Conrail, NJT, and now CSX. Boy show a little intrest and you would be surprised what you might get to do. Head end rides with the inspection train, traveling the division facilitating safety training, rebuliding signal equipment and seeing the improvements make a difference, recieving signal training from three different roads. Oh yea, I also worked on a couple of short lines as a maintainer and a member of a train crew. I've got about 30yrs to retirement, can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring. UP?

[Anonymous]

Been following the rail history and hobby off & on since 1965. It's one way to stay connected to what's good about our America and follow the example of it's hard working people. I enjoy the old issues of the hobby mags, the early kits, the pike kits like "Alturas & Lone Pine" caboose and stories by our hobby masters. Keep those personal accounts coming for us who didn't work on the RR but want to hear anyway.
WCVRR - Pat Tracy, Chief Superintendant

[Anonymous]

I think I've been a railfan since I was in the womb! I've loved trains all my life and have been railfanning for most of it. I'm 17 now.

[Anonymous]

HI,
I was born & raised in Northwestern PA. near a branch line of the Pennsylvania running from Pittsburgh to Erie, which was also near the Bessemer main line which ran (runs?) from Lake Erie to Bessemer, PA. My Dad worked for both these lines finishing up his career on the Nickel Plate out of Conneaut, Ohio.
Thus always interested in trains!!

[Anonymous]

My parents thought my brother (8) and I (4) were old enough to travel by ourselves on a train through Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. So they put us on a New York, New Haven and Hartford "Montrealer," told the conductor to put us off at a town in Vermont and our cousins would pick us up. My parents arrived the next day. This was back in 1946, when you could do this without ending up in prison. We had a great time and I think that's what hooked me.

[Anonymous]

From age 2 to 10, my dreams and the events of my life were punctuated with the passing of the last of New York Central steam, and then the earliest diesels, right past my back yard on the main line east of Rochester: bigger and more powerful and awesome than anything I could yet imagine, great Niagaras came down the line, smoking up as they accelerated out of the yards, pulling wooden cars with catwalks, sometimes with a brakeman walking on top; the silver clad Hudson flashing by in the afternoon at the head of the gleaming Empire State Express, so distinct from the dingy passinger trains that chugged on by every hour; an occasional glimpse in the night of that gray ghost, the Twentieth Century Limited, its signature logo illuminated at the very rear of the rounded observation car carrying sophisticates from one mythic place to another, its light diminishing into the silence, expanding my imagining of the world. These visions forever hooked me on trains.
Now I live behind a plate glass view just as close to the BNSF main line into the heart of Chicago, right by Halsted St. before the wye, the Metra and Amtrak yards and Union Station. At all times there are trains passing trains: dozens of Metra trains to or from Aurora, occasionally stopping out front for the little excuse of a station at Halsted; the long-distance western Amtrak trains just starting or ending their several days journey, often meeting right in front of me!; the City of New Orleans backing out of Union Station, stopping out front and pulling ahead on up over the St. Charles Airline to the IC along the lakefront; BNSF coal drags from Wyoming to some eastern power plants, their engines colored green, or warbonnet, or fresh orange; NS freights bound for the first BNSF yards to the west; UP container trains going in or out of the old CNW Wood St. yard to the west. Over the past 19 years that I've lived here I have seen locomotives in every livery of just about every imaginable railroad, even the Alaska Railroad! If trains were my whole life, I'd have already died and gone to heaven!

[Anonymous]

My name is Paul Johnson in Jefferson City, Missouri. I am a great railfan and love to go down and watch the trains go by. We are on U.P.'s main line from the west coast to the east coast and have 60 trains a day. We are on Amtrak's line from St. Louis to Kansas City. Amtrak pulled the agent's across the state. I am one of 40 volunteers who go down to the station and meet 4 trains a day. We open the station for the people to get in out of the weather and just to help as much as we can.

[Anonymous]

at age 56 i was hired by BNSF- last year , as driver, currently a machine operator on the TRANS-CON. working between pampa tx. and waynoka, ok. double track constuction between cimarron river and miami, tx. going well. best job iv'e ever had-look foward to going to work each day! check out careers at BNSF.COM .lots of oportunities for a young person with a degree! always been interested in railroads-have a atsf collection and garden rr. have a grear day! Z TRAIN [nothwest ok. area]

[Anonymous]

I am a life-long steam enthusiast, and after 1998 cross-sountry trip on Amtrak, a supporter of saving the passenger system in this country. For being a world leader in so many areas, I cannot understand why we lag so far behind in passenger transportation technology and support. All during the crisis of September 11, 2001, while the airlines were grounded, the trains, both passenger and freight, still ran, keeping the country connected. What is we didn't have these modes of transportation? Now, our "illustrious and all-wise" leaders in Washington give David Gunn a nightmare when it comes to getting funds for Amtrak, a service which all Americans can afford at one time or another for travel, while airlines, available to the select few who live near an airport and have the available funds to fly, can just hint at having to stop work and congress simply asks them "how much do you need?" "Oh, and don't worry about paying it back-you're an airline".
I certainly hope our legislators will open their eyes and see that a passenger rail system such as Amtrak can and will benefit this nation, and give them the same consideration as the airlines.

[LehighVic]

O.K., deal me in as a railfan. Like many RR fans I've been afflicted for as long a I can remember, from my earliest days in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (served by Lehigh Valley, Jersey Central and the Laurel Line) to falling asleep to the comforting whistles of steam from the GTW tracks four blocks from my home after my family moved to Detroit, Michigan.

One quick story! I couldn't have been much more than 3 years old when my Pop consumed boxes and boxes of Kix breakfast cereal (until his gums bled, according to my Mom) so that I could have the cardboard models of RR rolling stock which were printed on the packages (assembly required!). Mom and Pop were so proud that I could name every railcar that passed along the tracks at the foot Brewery Hill as we often stood behind the black and white-striped crossing gates. Just learning to talk, my first words were reefer, gondola, flatcar and, of course, hopper (filled with mountains of antracite) cars ... the caboose.

Oh, I could tell stories of my life's interface with trains and the railroads. Maybe some other time. Yep, I'm a rail fan.

LehighVic

[Anonymous]

I'm a machinist working for Amtrak in Wash., DC. I work on the high-speed trainsets.

[Anonymous]

I spent 40 years of my life working on a small Eastern railroad,retired and now I chase them.

[rblystone]

My maternal grandfather was a signal maintainer on the New York Central. My father and his father operated a farm machinery and new car business and in the early days, most of the equipment was sent to the New York Central depot (that is now part of the museum of which I am Treasurer). Additionally, my dad would take me to the station and/or nearby crossing gate tower when I was about 3-6 years of age. Add S-gauge model trains and a good portion of my life has been spent connected to rails.

[Anonymous]

I agree that there should be more catagories I worked at the shops and yards for C.N. and enjoyed the work, but not the company. Working for a large company is not for me. I have always had a fascination for trains. I grew up near several lines. Though we moved quite often, there always seemed to be a line near us. I have been interested in trains alll of my life. Now even though the nearest line is almost 200 miles away, I have a model railroad and enjoy reading magazines [model or real]

[Anonymous]

Worked for the Rock Island Railroad Chicago in office 1948-1953. Worked for C&NW railroad RapidCity, Casper and Chicago until 1979 - retired. Been model railroad enthusiast all my life. Get much enjoyment from Trains magazine. Helps me keep in touch. Britt

[Anonymous]

I worked for a major railroad in Southern California as a trainman. I won't mention their name but they like the color yellow alot.

I enjoyed the work when I had it, however I disliked the B.S. they dish out to their employees. I decided to leave because I did not want to spoil the railfan in me.

I am now back in the profession where I came from and have many stories to tell. People find it very interesting that I once worked on the railroad.

I do not regret making the move to the railroad and I have enjoyed the experience.

[Anonymous]

I've been wanting to work for the railroad since I was a kid. But, what i do miss seeing is the BIG BOY and the CAB FORWARD, runned by UP, we have one here in Sacto., CA. ( Cab Forward). I would love to these these 2 Big Steamers, run.

[Anonymous]

I'am a conductor for the CN formerly the WC. I've been switching cars for ten years now and still love it. It's a whole different life compared to any other job. I started out as a diesel mechanic working out of Shops Yard at Fond du Lac Wi. turned in my wrenches for a lantern and set of switch keys!! Changes in this industry are upcoming which kind of scare me, but I'll keep pluging on for know.

[lionelman]

I have been watching trains as long as I can remember the Soo Line ran through my parents back yard south of Steven Point, WI. As a kid I would go watch the local switch
the local customers. I rember my brothers coming home and telling me they got a ride in the snow plow one winter when they cleared the siddings. I watched the WC
and now watch the Canadian National.