At 64, I continue to be amazed by trains.............

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Hi!

I’ve been a train nut (confirmed) since I was 8 (1952), with heavy exposure to the C&NW and IC as a child in Chicago & southern Illinois. I’ve had layouts in O, N, and mostly HO gauge. My love of trains is as strong today as it was as a kid…

What continues to amaze me about trains are many things…

For instance, isn’t it amazing how such large and heavy locos and cars stay on those relatively small rails? And isn’t it amazing that long and heavy trains stay coupled together? Oh, and how amazing is it that long trains can go around curves without the front end cars being pulled off the tracks? And how can a couple of locos, albeit large and powerful, pull long strings of heavy coal or gravel filled cars? And the list goes on and on …

Of course there are exceptions to the above - trains do derail and do break apart - but those exceptions are unusual.

I guess these amazing things help hold my interest in railroads, and keep me watching in wonder as that train rolls by…

ENJOY!

Mobilman44

2

…I join you in wonderment on the rails supporting the heavy equipment phenomenon…Just watching a heavy engine {and train}, pass makes me always wonder how those rails support the action and weight on them without pushing out and laying down, etc…Add the forces of loadings on a curve and it really makes one wonder how the system stays together. {Just a personal observation}. Especially track equipped with light rail and questionable ties and ballast.

3

Great post! As far as trains go for me, as long as they shake the ground, make noise and stink, I love them! Whether or not I realized how long I’d been a railfan, I came across my baby book, and one of the things my mom wrote was that I liked to take my blocks and make them into trains.

Been to Flatonia?

m

4

Hmm, Southern Illinois, CNW & IC. That has got to be pretty close to my stomping grounds (Mt. Olive, Illinois). Where are you from?

Gabe

5

Mike,

Yes, I took a day trip to Flatonia, and it was good. However, living near Old Town Spring (just north of Houston off I-45), I frequent the UP (formerly MP) tracks there by the yard, and see a fairly high frequency of trains and switch action. When we go to lunch/dinner at Wunches, I always get a window seat and almost always get to see a train or two!

ENJOY!

Mobilman44

6

I’m 73 and am amazed when I hear the whistle blowing for the crossing. I run to the window to see a CN freight, two or three locos pulling 120 or 130 cars, with only one operator at the controls of the leading loco. I also wonder how they stay on the rails when you look at the size of the flange and wonder why the flange is not five or six inches.

7

I was going to ask that same question Gabe. I’m 4 years older than he is. I was born and raised till I was 12 in Benton, Ill. I spent many a summer day sitting on my grandparents front porch watching the IC trains on the other side of a vacant lot accross the street. There would be two steam engines pulling from 100 to 150 coal cars from the Peabody mines, up a grade, (don’t know what percent), with at least one or two engines pushing. Those were some of the most fantastic days of my life.

Dick

Texas Chief

8

I was going to ask that same question Gabe. I’m 4 years older than he is. I was born and raised till I was 12 in Benton, Ill. I spent many a summer day sitting on my grandparents front porch watching the IC trains on the other side of a vacant lot accross the street. There would be two steam engines pulling from 100 to 150 coal cars from the Peabody mines, up a grade, (don’t know what percent), with at least one or two engines pushing. Those were some of the most fantastic days of my life.

Dick

Texas Chief

9

Great post, “Mobilman44”! Here’s wishing you many more years of railfanning happiness. It’s a great hobby!

Along the lines of what you wrote, here’s what amazes me: I can look at an O-gauge brass Northern, painted to scale colors, and when I look through the wheels and motion work and compare the size of the locomotive to the gauge of the track, it’s a ho-hum event. But make the same inspection at “12-inches-to-the-foot” gauge (such as with SP 4449 or UP 844) and I just marvel at the fact that these locomotives don’t tip over due to their high centers of gravity.

/s/ Bob

10

Hi!

I was born/raised in Chicago (northwest side about 2 blocks from the C&NW “racetrack”). I spent my youth in the mid-50s by the tracks - with an RC Cola and bag of Jays! There was a lot of steam, mostly commuter trains, but that was fine by me!

Vacations were spent in Anna, Illinois at Grandmom’s. Anna is about 50 miles north of Cairo, and the town fathers convinced the IC to run their line right thru town. Grandmom’s house was on the east side of town, across the gravel road from the tracks - two mains, one passing siding, and one freight siding.

The fast IC orange/brown streamliners would fly thru town, and the long steam powered (later with black GPs) would lumber along. My favorite memory was being “that close” to an 0-8-0 switching the grain elevator. It was a monster, and I swear it was a living thing!!!

Anyway, the whistles and horns were the best music to be had - especially at night! And frankly, my most peaceful memories in my life were sitting on the porch, waiting for a train. Sadly, Grandmom passed in 1961, and the house (still there, now with indoor plumbing) was sold. And, I never took any pictures as “the trains would always be there” and taking pictures was expensive.

Today I live just north of Houston, after stints in Louisville, Joliet Ill, and Dallas. Working at edible oil refineries in Chicago, Louisville and Joliet, and petroleum refineries in Joliet and Beaumont Tx, I managed to crawl around a lot of rolling stock and switchers. I retired two years ago, and continue to model the ATSF (with a minor in the IC). And whenever I get the “itch”, the UP yard in Spring is very close, allowing me to see the prototypes “whenever”.

ENJOY !!!

Mobilman44