All Aboard

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This thread is bringing back so many memories of all the train travel I did as a young kid!


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66340SEDAN, your pic of the F7 gave me a flashback to one of the cross-country trips my mom and I took, and what was later a funny story. I was about 10 years old on this trip and one night I had to get up and use the bathroom. Our sleeping berth was toward the end of the car and I remembered that the closest bathroom was in the next car to us so I headed that way. What I didn't know was that we were in a trainyard at the time - don't remember what city - and the train was being reconfigured before continuing its trip. When I opened the door to go to the next car I found myself staring into the headlight of a F7 diesel locomotive rather than the expected door of the next car! I almost forgot what I needed to do.
 
This thread is bringing back so many memories of all the train travel I did as a young kid!


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66340SEDAN, your pic of the F7 gave me a flashback to one of the cross-country trips my mom and I took, and what was later a funny story. I was about 10 years old on this trip and one night I had to get up and use the bathroom. Our sleeping berth was toward the end of the car and I remembered that the closest bathroom was in the next car to us so I headed that way. What I didn't know was that we were in a trainyard at the time - don't remember what city - and the train was being reconfigured before continuing its trip. When I opened the door to go to the next car I found myself staring into the headlight of a F7 diesel locomotive rather than the expected door of the next car! I almost forgot what I needed to do.

Wow, that would scare the $hit outtta me! LOL The picture I posted wasn't one I took but I did see tha very same one in Duluth here in MN, it was my favorite one in the museum. When I was there this engine was inside and my pics didn't turn out so great. Glad I could bring back an old memory for you!
 
Rani, I'm loving your pics of some of the great train stations. It's a crime that some of them have been torn down rather than preserved for all to see as so many of them were true massive artwork.
I did a lot of train travel as a young kid since my dad was an engineer on Union Pacific RR. Most of the travel was between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City since both my mom and dad were from SLC and still had family there. Because of all the travel to SLC, Union Station became one of my favorites with the huge murals on each end of the main station area depicting early western history of Salt Lake City and the driving of the golden spike celebrating the completion of the transcontinental railroad.
The station is still standing today and now serves as one of the cornerstones of the "Gateway" shopping and concert venue.

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The main station area is now a grand entrance lobby and is also used for wedding receptions and special occasions.


Union Station here in Los Angeles is still in use as a railroad station. It opened in 1939 and is know as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Being here in Los Angeles and close to Hollywood, it's served as a backdrop in about 40 movies over the years and over 8 current television shows. I hope your station tour will also include it as it's a step back to a grander time of travel once you walk inside.
 
Glad I could bring back an old memory for you!

This thread has brought back a lot of memories!
Another favorite memory was from one of the two cross-country train trips we took back then. This was 1958 and we were on a train on the east coast. It was the summer before I turned 10 years old, the Dodgers had not yet moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and my dad had died almost 2 years prior after a very short illness so I hadn't yet developed my love of baseball.
Just before bedtime that evening on the train my mom and I had gone back to the club car to get a soft drink because the dining car was already closed. I remember there was a group of guys laughing and having a great time next to where we were sitting. One of them turned to me and said something like, "Come here son, I want ot introduce you to somebody." That "somebody" turned out to be Casey Stengel, manager of the NY Yankees who were on the train travelling to their next series of games! I remember he talked with me for a few minutes and signed his autograph for me (my mom put it someplace for safe keeping when we got back home and I've never been able to find it). Walking back through the cars to our spot, we opened the door to one of the sleeping cars and there was Mickey Mantle standing in the aisle in his boxers and t-shirt just getting ready to climb into his sleeping berth. Remember, this was 1958 and my mom was extremely embarrassed but I had a story to tell when I started back to school the following September.
Wow, I haven't thought of this stuff in years!
 
Well, time for me to join this party!!

Heres one of the few pics I could find of just a small portion of my Grandfathers collection of Lionel trains and Train-abilia!! After not setting it up for over 30 years, my brother and I decided to get it out and set up a layout for my son to enjoy on Christmas 2007.

This collection has so many memories for my brother and I, as our Grandpa would take an entire month off over the Christmas season and set up the entire collection down in his basement for us kids to enjoy. He would make us all wait at the top of the stairs, peeking over the dutch door, and give the "all aboard" for us to come down, and come down we did!! We were (and still are) in awe of a lot of the pieces, from the little guys running the switchyard car, to the streamliner train partially seen in the picture, and the crossing gate that dinged and flashed when the train was coming!!

Our Grandpa was very special to us, and this collection is something that everybody in the family can agree on that his soul is in that set, and it comes to life through us when we see it run!!

Thanks for bringing up this thread, I'm sure a lot of memories were made the same way as ours!! Geof
 

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This thread has brought back a lot of memories!
Another favorite memory was from one of the two cross-country train trips we took back then. This was 1958 and we were on a train on the east coast. It was the summer before I turned 10 years old, the Dodgers had not yet moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and my dad had died almost 2 years prior after a very short illness so I hadn't yet developed my love of baseball.
Just before bedtime that evening on the train my mom and I had gone back to the club car to get a soft drink because the dining car was already closed. I remember there was a group of guys laughing and having a great time next to where we were sitting. One of them turned to me and said something like, "Come here son, I want ot introduce you to somebody." That "somebody" turned out to be Casey Stengel, manager of the NY Yankees who were on the train travelling to their next series of games! I remember he talked with me for a few minutes and signed his autograph for me (my mom put it someplace for safe keeping when we got back home and I've never been able to find it). Walking back through the cars to our spot, we opened the door to one of the sleeping cars and there was Mickey Mantle standing in the aisle in his boxers and t-shirt just getting ready to climb into his sleeping berth. Remember, this was 1958 and my mom was extremely embarrassed but I had a story to tell when I started back to school the following September.
Wow, I haven't thought of this stuff in years!

Awesome.. see thats what I was talking about, when I mentioned my love for passenger trains.. up until the early 60's traveling by rail was THE way to travel.. I was born 10 years after your story.. I totally missed the days of passenger rail being just as important as rail freight.. But it has always fascinated me.. in old movies, books.. and like I said, with my toy trains.. I have gone through countless hours in my lifetime ejoying any bit of 'back in the day' passenger rail travel stuff I can find.. thanks for sharing these stories...
 
Well, time for me to join this party!!

Heres one of the few pics I could find of just a small portion of my Grandfathers collection of Lionel trains and Train-abilia!! After not setting it up for over 30 years, my brother and I decided to get it out and set up a layout for my son to enjoy on Christmas 2007.

This collection has so many memories for my brother and I, as our Grandpa would take an entire month off over the Christmas season and set up the entire collection down in his basement for us kids to enjoy. He would make us all wait at the top of the stairs, peeking over the dutch door, and give the "all aboard" for us to come down, and come down we did!! We were (and still are) in awe of a lot of the pieces, from the little guys running the switchyard car, to the streamliner train partially seen in the picture, and the crossing gate that dinged and flashed when the train was coming!!

Our Grandpa was very special to us, and this collection is something that everybody in the family can agree on that his soul is in that set, and it comes to life through us when we see it run!!

Thanks for bringing up this thread, I'm sure a lot of memories were made the same way as ours!! Geof

Geof... Great stuff.. love the excitement on his face.. I see some cool stuff in the picture.. I have one of those yellow trolley's.. My dad used to run it on the layout at Christmas time, and I would use my hands as bumpers to get the trolley going the other way.. lol.. And I recognize those passenger cars, as i have a set of those lol... do you still set the layout up at Christmas time? (didnt you also participate in my Christmas layout thread?? lol)
 
Thanks for bringing up this thread, I'm sure a lot of memories were made the same way as ours!! Geof


Ok, now im Happy ...great to see you stopped in Mr. Geof sir.

glad if brought up some memories of goods times for you.

this stuff is reminding me of days gone by too, i guess its the little things that life beautiful. All things Rail has kept me captivated for years, and even though now im getting sad about having all my stuff out in favor of mopar stuff, its still in my heart. LOL :toothy7:
 
Hey Speed -
There's still some great passenger train travel to be had. It's not quite as grand as it was back "in the day" but it's still pretty good. Like I mentioned back in post #9, my wife and I took a long-weekend train trip from our home in SoCal to Seattle about 10 years ago on the Amtrak's "Coast Starlight". I splurged and got us a sleeping compartment as I'd never travelled that way before and had always wanted to - plus they don't do the old sleeping berths like they used to years ago.
We had an absolutely outstanding trip! We got on a train at the little old station in Fullerton and rode it in to Union Station in Los Angeles. The "Coast Starlight" was on the next track so it was just a matter of walking across the platform. We had a little time until the scheduled departure time so my wife walked into the station (it's still a great reminder of the grandeur of rail travel) and I walked up by the engine just to look around.
The engineer was down on the platform so I said "Hi". We got to talking and I told him that my dad had been an engineer for Union Pacific and one of my fondest early-childhood memories was how my mom used to take me to the station in East Los Angeles to wave at him as he came back on his return run. Several times he stopped the train and I'd get up in the engines cab with him and the fireman and ride the rest of the way in to the railyards in downtown Los Angeles with them.
The Amtrak engineer looked both ways on the platform and then said, "C'mon up and take a look". So I followed him up into the cab of the locomotive! Wow! What a thrill and what a difference! Everything was computerized - not at all like the "good ol' days" of hand throttles and dead-man's peddles. Gotta say I absolutely loved it.
The overnight trip to Seattle was great! The train is configured with the sleeping cars in the front directly behind the baggage car, then a club car just for use by the sleeping car passengers, then the dining car, then another club car for the coach passengers. Our club car was originally from the early '50s but had very recently just been modernized but still maintained its original wood paneling and vintage light fixtures. It had several booths and tables where you could sit and play cards and just watch the scenery go by. It also had several large comfortable swivel chairs set up by large windows that gave you a great view of the passing countryside. The price of a sleeping compartment included all of your meals in the dining car and also included snacks and soft drinks in the club car. It was like a "land cruise". Between lunch, the afternoon cheese/crackers/wine-tasting, dinner; then fruit & pastries in the morning before breakfast, breakfast, snacks, lunch, and afternoon snacks, it seemed like all we were doing was eating!
We left LA mid-morning and hit the coast and a great view of the Pacific Ocean just below Santa Barbara. The tracks run right along the ocean through Vandenburg AFB with a good view of the missile launch sites and continue next to the ocean before turning inland just below San Francisco. We stopped for about 15 minutes in Oakland then headed north again. In the morning, we woke while the train was winding its way through the Cascade mountains in Oregon, travelled through some beautiful northwest scenery and arrived in Seattle that evening.
The return trip a couple of days later was equally as good. I'd recommend this trip for everybody that loves rail travel or is just thinking about it. The really great thing about it is you're not strapped in and confined to an airplane seat so you're able to walk around as you want, watch the world go by outside your window, take a nap (or whatever you might want to do in your little private "sleeping" compartment) and RELAX. Yes, it takes longer than flying but it's SO much more relaxing.
Sorry for the long post but you gotta know how great this way of travel is.
 
Hey Speed -
There's still some great passenger train travel to be had. It's not quite as grand as it was back "in the day" but it's still pretty good. Like I mentioned back in post #9, my wife and I took a long-weekend train trip from our home in SoCal to Seattle about 10 years ago on the Amtrak's "Coast Starlight". I splurged and got us a sleeping compartment as I'd never travelled that way before and had always wanted to - plus they don't do the old sleeping berths like they used to years ago.
We had an absolutely outstanding trip! We got on a train at the little old station in Fullerton and rode it in to Union Station in Los Angeles. The "Coast Starlight" was on the next track so it was just a matter of walking across the platform. We had a little time until the scheduled departure time so my wife walked into the station (it's still a great reminder of the grandeur of rail travel) and I walked up by the engine just to look around.
The engineer was down on the platform so I said "Hi". We got to talking and I told him that my dad had been an engineer for Union Pacific and one of my fondest early-childhood memories was how my mom used to take me to the station in East Los Angeles to wave at him as he came back on his return run. Several times he stopped the train and I'd get up in the engines cab with him and the fireman and ride the rest of the way in to the railyards in downtown Los Angeles with them.
The Amtrak engineer looked both ways on the platform and then said, "C'mon up and take a look". So I followed him up into the cab of the locomotive! Wow! What a thrill and what a difference! Everything was computerized - not at all like the "good ol' days" of hand throttles and dead-man's peddles. Gotta say I absolutely loved it.
The overnight trip to Seattle was great! The train is configured with the sleeping cars in the front directly behind the baggage car, then a club car just for use by the sleeping car passengers, then the dining car, then another club car for the coach passengers. Our club car was originally from the early '50s but had very recently just been modernized but still maintained its original wood paneling and vintage light fixtures. It had several booths and tables where you could sit and play cards and just watch the scenery go by. It also had several large comfortable swivel chairs set up by large windows that gave you a great view of the passing countryside. The price of a sleeping compartment included all of your meals in the dining car and also included snacks and soft drinks in the club car. It was like a "land cruise". Between lunch, the afternoon cheese/crackers/wine-tasting, dinner; then fruit & pastries in the morning before breakfast, breakfast, snacks, lunch, and afternoon snacks, it seemed like all we were doing was eating!
We left LA mid-morning and hit the coast and a great view of the Pacific Ocean just below Santa Barbara. The tracks run right along the ocean through Vandenburg AFB with a good view of the missile launch sites and continue next to the ocean before turning inland just below San Francisco. We stopped for about 15 minutes in Oakland then headed north again. In the morning, we woke while the train was winding its way through the Cascade mountains in Oregon, travelled through some beautiful northwest scenery and arrived in Seattle that evening.
The return trip a couple of days later was equally as good. I'd recommend this trip for everybody that loves rail travel or is just thinking about it. The really great thing about it is you're not strapped in and confined to an airplane seat so you're able to walk around as you want, watch the world go by outside your window, take a nap (or whatever you might want to do in your little private "sleeping" compartment) and RELAX. Yes, it takes longer than flying but it's SO much more relaxing.
Sorry for the long post but you gotta know how great this way of travel is.

That is soo cool... I have been thinking about looking into a rail trip for my wife and I sometime in the next couple years.. kids are getting close to being out of school and all that, so I think it would be fun.. Keep the stories coming!
 
So the passenger train that I have always been the most interested in was the Broadway Limited... Pennsylvania Railroads train from New York to Chicago.. It was their premiere passenger train... and up until 1967 it shared a rivalry with the New York Central's '20th Century Limited'... Both these trains battled it out to be the best on the New York to Chicago route.. I love both trains, but obviously the Pennsy's is my favorite.. I have all kinds of books and whatnot on the Broadway.. It used to boast the trip from one point to the other was just a 16 hour trip.. It was also one of the longest running passenger trains.. The Broadway started out in 1912 and went on until Amtrak killed it off in 1995... here are some pics of it, both real and art renderings, in many differant configurations.. from steam, to diesel, the GG1's in the electrified north eastern corridor, to the brief Penn Central days, and even an Amtrak pic thrown in...
 

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last couple of the Broadway
 

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Last thing for now... It should be pointed out that I forgot to mention that the Broadway Limited actually started out in 1902 (same year as NYC's 20th Century Limited) but under the name 'The Pennsylvania Special'... it was renamed in 1912, The Broadway Limited... here is video I stumbled across on youtube that showed a celebration of the Broadways 85th year... In Strasburg Pa... (Yep... I was there.. I was one year out of high school.. video'd it... tape got lost YEARS ago LOL ... pretty happy I found this lol) .. enjoy

[ame="http://youtu.be/J-Z6N1MEgmQ"]302 Found[/ame]
 
This is a great thread. All my HO stuff is in storage, but hope to get it out for the grandsons soon.

I have a couple of pics, but I need to re-size them to upload.

Also took Amtrak from Grand Forks, ND to Rochester, NY recently.
 
and this morning we come from Kansas City, Mo (page 3) on Rani railways. we took an un-expected turn north and after a long road of travel and using our rotary plow we arrive in Duluth, Minnesota this morning.

So far the Stations covered were the great big grand spectacular stations, Endion Passenger station in Duluth is a small building. very symbolic of early rail travel through the mid-west and west in lower populated citys, these small stations were vital to the growth of the country.

built in 1899 Endion Station would have been quite a sight to see, though small, it served its purpose well. when rail travel was at its peak, Endion saw up to six trains a day.

for further info http://www.historic-structures.com/mn/duluth/endion_depot.php

stay tuned to see our next destination
 

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Id like to add a station.. it has always been one of my favorites. (one I always say im gonna do a model of, but have never gotten to it yet) Greensburg Rail Station.. Greensburg, Pa.. This was an important station for the Pennsylvania Railroad for Westmoreland County.. it had the passenger portion on the left, and the freight house on the right.. tracks are behind the station at a higher level... The station changed hands several times since it was closed.. came close to the wrecking ball.. eventually became a restaraunt.. Its a pretty building, and one Im glad still survives today... the last pic shows the Penn Towers (Formally the Penn Albert Hotel) which opened just across from the station in 1923.. it was quite the hotel in its day... today its a retirement high rise..
 

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Id like to add a station.. it has always been one of my favorites. (one I always say im gonna do a model of, but have never gotten to it yet) Greensburg Rail Station.. Greensburg, Pa.. This was an important station for the Pennsylvania Railroad for Westmoreland County.. it had the passenger portion on the left, and the freight house on the right.. tracks are behind the station at a higher level... The station changed hands several times since it was closed.. came close to the wrecking ball.. eventually became a restaraunt.. Its a pretty building, and one Im glad still survives today... the last pic shows the Penn Towers (Formally the Penn Albert Hotel) which opened just across from the station in 1923.. it was quite the hotel in its day... today its a retirement high rise..


noted and the Rani railway series will prolly make its way through there......from Duluth im headed east to make my way all around the U.S. :laughing:

beautiful station there .....glad you see importance in stations as i do :prayer:
 
noted and the Rani railway series will prolly make its way through there......from Duluth im headed east to make my way all around the U.S. :laughing:

beautiful station there .....glad you see importance in stations as i do :prayer:

I love train stations Rani.. from the grand and large, to the small town stations.. they are all cool in their own rite..
 
Here are 2 stations not far from where I live in St. Cloud, the first one is made of granite from local quarries and the other is now an Amtrack station. The 3rd is another old pic I found, this building is long gone now.
 

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Few more in MN
 

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More in MN
 

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