3 Hours in Classic Trains Time

Ummmmm…Houston, we have a problem. [:S]

Okay…first time all I saw was a dark image of a cooler sitting on a table in front of a ladder. Now I see a locomotive outside. Something goofy going on with my server I think…

Penny Trains- Nothing wrong with your server…everyone got that image…guess the garage door opened and viola…steam!

I would go to downtown Toronto on a sunny spring day in 1956. Wander around the Spadina (CN) and John St. (CP) roundhouses for a while, seeing everything from Royal Hudsons and CN’s green & gold passenger steam engines (and FP9’s of both roads) to the wide variety of yard goats, diesel & steam still in service then. Not to mention all the steam-hauled freight, and CN’s 4100-series 2-10-2’s (most powerful engines in the British empire) on transfer runs. I would finish the visit off by leaving Union Station in the dome car of CP’s Canadian.

A shame it’s only 3 hours, would have loved to fit in a night’s stay at the Royal York. Maybe if I tinker with the time machine, worst that could happen is I get stuck back here right?..

It’d have to be somewhere busy or you’re likely to get skunked for such a brief period of time.

I will go with the East Slope of the Alleghenies on the PRR main line.

May as well make it Horseshoe Curve on August 29th 1947, 10 years to the day before I was born. That way I’ll have a chance to see T1s and J1s in addition to the ubiquitous K4s and I1s etc, plus 1st generation diesels from EMD, ALCo, BLW, Lima and FM.

I’d be there with my late father (although Pop would probably rather be somewhere along the New York Central, but it’s my fantasy, right?)

Now I just have to hope that something didn’t derail somewhere else on the line and foul all four mains, preventing me from seeing any trains during my three hour window.

I was going to leave this one alone but put my rusty Texas brain (what little is left of it) into gear. Gads, just listen, it’s grinding away!

My three hours would be spent with my grandfather at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, shortly after Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 638 was placed on display in 1953. Papa, as I called him, took me with him as he crawed up into the cab of this magnificent steam machine. He then took me by the hand and on top of the tender we went.

I was six at the time and just knee high to a Texas grasshopper. When I looked down and saw mother earth far below it didn’t even make me dizzy. Of course my grandfather had a good grip on Little Joe that day!

Not properly protected from the public, she was “vandalized” and scrapped by the dirty no good low life degenerate State Fair of Texas officials. Hey, so what if the headlight and gauges were busted; they couldda been replaced! Depite the fact a sister Texas Type, the 610, survives, my big Lone Star Heart still belongs to the 638 to this day and to a loving grandfather who introduced me to “The World’s Greatest Hobby” even though he wasn’t a railfan or model railroader.

Thanks Papa. I miss you and the 638! RIP

Mid 1950s Elizabeth New Jersey where the PRR crosses the CNJ. I’d pick the afternoon rush hours. Well over 100 trains per hour, GG1s, P5s, MP54s the R1 if I’m lucky. All the vegetable soup of locomotives CNJ had including steam. Reading and B&O also, both ususally diesel but sometimes steam.

Just a little earlier and you would have the CNJ 4-6-0 “Mother Hubburd” Cemelbacks.

SD70M-2Dude- Your’s is the first trip back in time wish that I’ve actually done.

One could go up to the platforms on track level in Toronto and simply walk up to the front of the trainshed and out into the yards and both John St and Spadina Roundhouses. Yes there was steam and Diesel everywhere. No one ever said a word to me …did this maybe 5 times. In fact there was a fella at the John St. Roundhouse who had a locker full of glossy’s and recording’s and other things selling them to railfans so I could not have been the only one.

The Dominion ( with heavyweights!) was still running back then, in addition to the Canadian, and one heck of a lot more passenger going in every direction. It seemed to me Canadian Pacific had a much stronger presence than CN but that would change by the time 1960 rolled around.

Stayed in the Royal York many many times because that is where the Prospectors and Developers Convention was held each year, the worlds largest Mining show by far, which incidentally is on this week. Some functions are still held there.

Leaving on a long distance transcontinental train from its originating station, especially one with domes, is thrilling. The sense of purpose and adventure from the crew and passengers is unmatched and fortunately can still be experienced today.

I feel your pain! There was a C & O Kanawha here parked near the Cleveland Zoo that got vandalized too. Don’t know what ever happened to her as it took me a very long time to even confirm that yes, in fact there was a steam locomotive on display in Brookside Park. I saw her way back in 1976 when we boarded the Cuyahoga Valley Line behind Ex-GTW Mikado 4070 for a trip to Hale Farm and back.

Anybody remember which loco that was, the Kanawha by the Zoo? 2700? 2707?

C&O 2-8-4 2707 was displayed in a Cleveland Park for many years and allowed to fall into disrepair. She is now in the collection of the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL.

Tom

Being a fan of the New York Central, but born too late to witness her Steam Glory days, I would choose the Harmon yards and locomotive servicing facility. Here, Hudsons, Mohawks and Niagaras would turn their most precious cargo over to electrics for the final leg into Grand Central Terminal. After spending about an hour watching this exchange, I would walk over to the roundhouse and backshops and coaling dock to observe the steamers being readied for their next assignments.

If I could have a second choice, the location would be along the 4-track mainline at Breakneck Mountain.

Oh, and the date? How about Sunday, December 7th 1941. I know it’s too early for the Niagaras, but I would be able to see the newly streamlined and equipped Empire State Express on her maiden run.

“Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep 'em rolling…” John

Me, I’ll join David P. Morgan and Philip Hastings in their quest for steam. Early November 1953. Travelling across frozen Quebec riding Quebec Central No.1. Enjoying that filet mignon and good coffee with them in the buffet coach.( See CT "In Search of Steam, vol. 1)

Just 3 hours!

Riding the B&O’s Capitol Limited with my parents, dinner in the diner (my grandfather was Superintendent of the Dinning Car Dept.) crossing from Maryland to West Virginia and back (WV was dry and B&O had to adhere to WV law when in the state - waiters would warn customers so they order and receive their drinks before entering WV - staying on the legal side of the law). The B&O’s ‘Great Big Salad Bowl’, handwriting the order on one’s check, and the finger bowls to clean one’s hands after dinner. Arriving in Cumberland for operating crew change and attachment of a steam helper to take on Sand Patch grade. Sitting in the dome car, it’s lights illuminating the passing countryside, with my father explaining the whys and wherefores of what I could see taking place, explaining the operation of the B&O’s CPL signals, watching the signals go from Clear to Stop as the engines passed the signals (the relays taking about 3 car lengths to register the change). Seeing steam and diesels working all they were worth to maintain speed, following the head light bending right and left as the train encounted the the curves that were raising it almost 2 feet every hundred feet of travel.

To a six year old it was all wonderous - wonderous enough that I ended up making the railroad a career for over 51 years. Sadly, my parents and grandparents have all passed on as has the glory that was the Capitol Limited of the early 1950’s. Amtrak maintains the name, but it isn’t the same.

Thanks!

These are all really great trips. Everyone’s descriptive narrative puts you right there. Very nice cross section.

Dave is the only one who has ventured out West! How about some California Dreaming!

I really enjoyed Balt’s post, but I am going to have to ask for three trips back in the time machine, along the CPR transcontinental line.

  • Stephen, BC at the the top of the continental divide to watch my Dad work as an Operator any time around '51-'52. Because every train as well as every light pusher engine movement reqired train orders, it was the busiest train order office in Canada.
  • That being said, my Dad said the busiest single shifts he ever worked as an Agent or Operator were when we lived at Hatton, SK, from '53-‘56, during the fall grain harvest rush. Water is scarce between Maple Creek, SK and Medicine Hat, AB. They would do things he had never heard of before or since, like putting crack passenger trains in the siding to move wayfreights ahead so no engines would run out of water. The laws of physics have no respect for class or superior direction. Thursdays were a nightmare, because that was the day the Golden Prairie Mixed ran up the Hatton Sub. on its’ way from Medicine Hat and back. Hatton had a siding and two back tracks, and there were times he had trains standing on all of those, as well as the mixed standing on the Hatton Sub., waiting to get back on the mainline. He said he just never stopped copying train orders
  • The 1939 Royal Train Tour of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, riding in the cab, between Brooks, AB and Calgary. Every bridge and culvert on the trip across Canada and back was guarded by Canadian and British millitary veterans of WWI. My Grandfather, British veteran, and another man, a Canadian and Vimy Ridge survivor, were assigned to guard a bridge between Lathom and Bassano over the Springhill Irrigation Canal. This was really open country then, as the present alignment of the Trans-Canada Highway wouldn’t be built for another 20 years. They went out the night before, camped out under the stars, and the next morning stood at attention as the Royal Train went past. I would have loved to ha

I went back for another look at pajrr’s link to the Lincoln Depot Museum, and I don’t know how I missed this first time around, probably because the picture’s so small, but the lead photo in the “Gallery,” the one showing a Civil War soldier standing guard on what looks like Mr. Lincoln’s coffin, that’s no soldier, that’s a MARINE!

Well OOOH-RAH brother! Semper Fi! There’s no telling just where we’ll turn up!