Wow, I just noticed that I have passed the 3,000 post mark and am the eighth most prolific poster on this forum, which is an honor for me to be able to say. I guess such a statistic is a true sign that I have been at this a long time, hey?
Congrats, Jim- I’m not so sure how that ranking works though. I couldn’t believe that I was ranked 16th, so I started looking at some of our more senior members’ profiles, and discovered alot of ties. For instance, both Mookie and Modelcar are ranked #1, and both LM and CW are ranked #4.
Looks like they go by age…
OUCH, that hurt!
Looks like I’m just second-rate.
Congratulations, Jim!
I would never expect to see you in any position below #2 Carl, giving the circumstances.
Carl and I must be pretty close to a tie…
…Watch that age stuff…ha
What?
…Have a comment of how to know one is a railfan compared to many folks around him…
A few days ago I was in one of our local business waiting rooms and big windows face right out on rt. 32 here and parallel CSX double track line. The typical run of several container and TOFC trains {in the morning}, started to pass thru and after watching it for a bit I turned around and out of 9 people in the room, I was the only one paying any attention of the train{s} passing rather close by outside…
Right down to our birthdays, Larry!
…I have another indication of being a long term rail fan…I remember back about 1942 at a small depot, I heard a train coming and hurried outside to watch it and my mother came hurrying behind me calling to me “not to get too close”, etc…the danger of getting pulled into the train and so on. So believe that qualifies as “long term” fan…60 years plus.
By the way, I remember of the train mentioned, to be a steam engine pulled {fast}, passenger train…Really flying to my eyes…Somewhere in Maryland.
I know exactly where you are coming from. One of our large national customers has their headquarters offices in E. Dubuque, IL way up on a hill overlooking Rt. 20, which parallels both the BNSF C&I mainline and the CN line as well at that point. The customer’s main conference room has large glass windows which afford one a perfect view of the mainline action down on the bottom of the hill. I will frequently stand up to “stretch” when I hear the familiar music of EMD or GE turbos and can’t help wondering if anybody has figured the connection between my need to stretch my legs and the sounds of the trains below during such meetings.
Couple years ago I was on a project that put me in Burbank, right by the Metrolink Ventura Sub. Every time a train came by, I’d hop out to look. I tried to get my coworkers interested. Might as well have been a bus or truck going by. Best I could get from them was a quick glance up and then back down again.
My birthday looming up tomorrow is a shocking reminder that I have been a railfan for over half a century![:O]
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Let me be the 1st to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY [bday] tomorrow!!
And a MERRY CHRISTMAS to you also!
Jared
Congratulations and Merry Christmas to you, too! - a. s.
Happy Birthday!
Been a railfan for about that long myself.
How to know? You see an ad in the paper looking for Engineers and wonder offhand if “Northrop Grumman” is a new short line. [:D]
[#ditto][bday]