Thanks, Rich! Got my dad to thank for that. All the hours we stood on the wooden stairs leading down to the yard office at Collinwood and the countless trips on main line steam excursions and nearly all the tourist/museum rides, too. A real kick-start to a great hobby!
Cheers, Ed
I’d like to hear about you at Collinwood. That’s where I had my first cab ride–in a SW1 switcher about 1958.
Ha! I had MY first cab ride in an ex-NYO&W SW-9 #9512! Standing on the landing of the same wooden stairs the engineer hollered up to me “Hey kid, you wanna go for a ride?” I was down those stairs in three seconds! My dad about a minute later.
The engineer let me move the reverse lever and notch out the throttle.
“OK, kid, now we’d better get 'er stopped!” In a panic, I shouted “You never told me HOW to stop!” I’ll bet he was winking at my dad the whole time! This would have been about 1962 or so. I was about eight.
This was our view from that landing:
Collinwood Back shop and car repair by Edmund, on Flickr
Collinwood_shanty by Edmund, on Flickr
The roundhouse (on the west side of E. 185th St.) had been torn down just a year or two before:
Collinwood_roundhouse by Edmund, on Flickr
Great memories. Practically nothing left there now. How the mighty have fallen!
More later, I’m off to bed…
Cheers, Ed
Ed,
I just want to say I love hearing your stories and reading all the wonderful information you provide. Thank you!
Had my first cab ride on my 4th birthday, in the cab of a Jersey Central RSD4 (a triple-unit consist) which we took up the ‘backtrack’ from downtown Wilkes-Barre. There was a little SW parked next to the street when we arrived, and I thought that was going to be what I rode – I still remember the thrill and astonisnment of seeing those three six-motor units starting to roll by.
I remember the little ‘windows’ near the cab roof because I could clearly see the stack, and the amount of ‘Alco smoke’. On the other hand I was scared of the airbrake, which was impossible for me to move, and which blew straight down against the cab wall with a tremendous roar. My father actually got part of it on 16mm film, but it was lost in a flood a few years ago…
Going to shift gears a bit and get back to Grand Trunk discussion.
I moved to Valparaiso, In. in 1977 and quickly discovered the GTW. Valpo was at the top of a 5 miles grade (about 1% max). The eastbounds often struggled, particularly the underpowered trains and would occasionally stall on the hill. Great drama as the train would be cut apart and double the hill, or get a push from a following eastbound.
Grand Truck ran about 20 trains a day with a mix of auto racks/auto parts trains and general freights. There was (is) and interlocking west of town in which the GTW crossed the Conrail (ex PRR mainline) and the NW (ex NKP)…all three were mainlines at the time. Currently the ex PRR is the Chicago, Ft. Wayne and Eastern regional.
My favorite memories of the GTW was in those days they would occasionally run GP7/9s long hood forward. Other power was GP 40s and quite a bit of foreign power (CNW, Milwaukee).
Today the line is CN with about 20 trains daily. Very few stalls on the hill these days as CN will run DP.
GTW maintained a depot here in town which was used by MOW personnel until about 10 years ago when the depot was moved about 2 blocks west and donated to the high school for vocational training. It is trackside and still in good shape as future craftsmen and craftswomen learn trades.
Ed
That’s a great story, MP173. I love to learn about these railroads. I wish more members would contribute meaningful stories about these railroads.
Rich
This is Grand Trunk Railroad locomotive number 6325 in the roundhouse for servicing.
Source: Wikipedia
One thing that I find so fascinating about the photo are the exhaust hoods above the steam locomotives smokestacks. I have built a Walthers Cornerstone 9-stall roundhouse, but I skipped the installation of the exhaust hoods, mainly because I had never seen them inside a roundhouse. So cool!
Rich
@richhotrain the roundhouse in Scranton (I believe part of the Lackawanna railroad, now Steamtown National Historic Site) has the same exhaust hoods. It was an eye opener for me as well.
Som great photos. Thanks for posting. Shame on me, when I was building my roundhouse, I skipped right over the exhaust hoods not even caring where they went or what exact purpose they served. 
Having the smoke jacks visible was one of the reasons I ‘upgraded’ my roundhouse to the Walthers Modern Roundhouse.
The above is a test-fitting during construction. Your photo shows the 6325 at Jerry Jacobsen’s Age of Steam Roundhouse. I remember seeing photos during construction when the steel-fabricated smoke jacks arrived. I was pretty impressed with the level of accuracy and ‘spare no expense’ mantra for the construction of the roundhouse in 2010-11.
Smoke Jack, Large by Edmund, on Flickr
Some towns were very strict about smoke abatement and there were a few roundhouses equipped with smoke collection and scrubbing systems. It is really tough to find information on these.
https://crestlineprr.com/Crestline-Rndhse-stack.jpg.html
Good Luck, Ed
I grew up on the west side of Detroit and the GTW was always the “east side” railroad. In those days, that was the other side of the world. My railroads were the PC and C&O.
That is interesting. The photo was silent on the location.
Rich
Oh dear! 
Rich
Found this cool old photo.
The Broad Street crossing in Griffith Indiana, just a few miles southeast of Hammond, was quite a junction in its heyday when five railroads crossed 11 tracks forming 14 diamonds - the Michigan Central, Grand Trunk, Erie, Elgin Joliet & Eastern and the Chesapeake & Ohio. The photo is from the 1930s.
Source: NWI Times
Here is the color version:
Source: NWI Times
Yeowza! And I thought station approaches had complicated track geometry!
You’re right about that. What amazes me about that crossing junction is the number of changes in the track work over time.
Rich
No plans to get her operational any time soon since AOS has no excursion plans at the current time.
Yep, gpullman recognized the scene and the location.
Rich
Here is a neat little GTW system map.
Source: michiganrailroads.com - Grand Trunk Main Line - and how it got that way, The
