I’d like to see some electric interurbans in their brief moments of glory.
As for stocks, Ross Perot invested a couple of million in Home Depot in 1980, but pulled out after disagreements with the founders. Had he kept that investment, it would have been worth 50 billion around 2000.
I’d like to see some electric interurbans in their brief moments of glory.
As for stocks, Ross Perot invested a couple of million in Home Depot in 1980, but pulled out after disagreements with the founders. Had he kept that investment, it would have been worth 50 billion around 2000.
Ive already traveled around the USA and in some cases went back to the colonial times, Civil War and old west etc.
That is quite enough for a life time.
Down in Little Rock are some Federal Installations dating back to 1880’s serving as Mule Barns holding about 100 Mules for the Military back in those days. The idea of living down there without a single auto in sight is rather alien to me. I can manage horses fairly well but not for very long distance.
One of my family members spoke of working for the Railroad in the Northeast as a track crew man laying rail, spikes and ties. When he was 14 years old. That was prior to world war two.
That really drives it home when one thinks about back then versus now.
I’d get a good video camera and go back to the early years of the first transcontinental railroad for movies of the trains climbing Donner and some of the grades in Nevada and Utah. Then I’d go back to the 1600s or so and net me a few pair of passenger pigeons and dodos to rent to major zoos. [C):-)]
“If I had a time machine I would go back and ask Red Standefer what he would want to tell you about becoming a railroad engineer. He was that brave soul who was in charge of running the steam locomotive when that particular machine was at its zenith. Red Standefer saw his share of diesels in the later part of his career. He started out as an Engine Watchman, then became a Fireman and finally was promoted to Engineer. Since I don’t have a time machine this story will concentrate on what we can actually find out about Red Standefer from his family, from records, and from fellow railroaders that knew him.”
The above is from the introduction to Cotton Belt Engineer. C. W. “Red” Standefer worked for the Cotton Belt in engine service from 1917-1967 and retired as a #1 on the Seniority Roster of the Southern Division (Texas) of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway.
I’m spoiled by most modern comforts, so I’d only go back far enough and for enough time to enjoy some rail travel like the following:
Los Angeles to Crucero (UP), where I’d transfer to the T&T and take a ride to Tonopah, Nevada, with a side trip on the Death Valley RR. (summer travel not preferred)
Los Angeles to Mojave (SP), where I’d transfer to the Jawbone Branch, and ride to Owenyo, transfer to the SP narrow gauge, and ride over Montgomery Pass to the end of the line in Nevada.
SP’s Imperial over the long-gone lines between Yuma and Mexicali, and between Tucson and El Paso via Douglas.
MKT & Frisco from San Antonio to St. Louis, with a side trip to KC on the Rock Island.
ATSF’s obscure subsidiary branch lines in the California/Nevada desert.
This is more than enough dreaming for now.
Sometime prior to 1971; or maybe even 1955 when you could still ride the “Cities” Streamliners on the CNW portion of the Overland Route. Of course, I’d still have to be true to my fav RR, the Milwaukee Road and take the Midwest Hiawatha back from Omaha. Oh, not just sure when it would have ended but would have loved to have been able to be on a mixed train between River Junction (La Crescent) and Savanna/Sabula.
And somehow, I’d have to be sure to ride either the “Land O’ Corn” or the “Hawkeye” on the Illinois Central.
Better watch who gets the keys to that Time Machine…I’m concerned that some of the guys from the “Could Steam Make A Comeback” thread might use it to go back to the late 40’s and kidnap/kill Dick Dilworth!!!LOL
I do have a time machine. I use it regularly. Sometimes though I forget to wind it.
I wish I could travel to about 1915 and watch the Denver and Salt Lake struggle over the Front Range just west of Denver at 11,660 ft in the middle of winter. There would be blizzards (available nearly every month of the year), plow trains, 2-6-6-0 true mallets coupled with low wheeled 2-8-0 hogs struggling to push the rotary and haul a few cars of coal or other revenue freight while keeping the line open. Blocades and avalanches, men working until they were bone tired and getting up and working more. Railroad men who knew how to run a single track mountain railroad on 4% grades and 20 degree curves. No signals, just timetable, train orders and telegraph only. Ice frozen between the rails, lots of tunnels and snowsheds dark as night and filled with smoke and gas, and spectacular mountain scenery.
Just as long as I don’t have to rerail the mallet in the snowstorm with no wrecker.
What if I could travel back one point of time at a time and take videos of every train movement. I would also take a digital picture of every important even. Then I would come back to reality and sell all of my orginal photos for a very high price.
I’d go back to the Union Station in Washington, DC a few years ago. I know I know, it’s still there and functioning, sort of, as a passenger terminal but it ain’t the same since it has been overtken with commercialism. Thank goodness however that the attempt to turn it into a visitor center failed and the original station was restored. I remnember when Dad took me there to see me the new GG1s Guess I’m dating myself ewith that one.
Gotta get back to add just one more great memory. The hustle and bustle of Union Station in Washington during wartime was great but that slow mixed train that ran on the Pennsy between Elmira, NY and Williamsport, PA was something to experience.
If I had a time machine? Trains-Shmains!
Ever see Rowan Atkinson in “The Blackadder Goes Back and Forth” [8)]
Its Good to be King! [;)][:-,][(-D]
would love to go back to the early to mid 50`s , norfolk & western , roanoke . would love to refresh my memories of growing up next to the n & w yards . very special times , sadly to never be repeated . RON
If I had a time-machine, I’d like to go back to a lot of the places of my childhood with a high-resolution camera, camcorder, and lots of high-def quality audio recording equipment. I’d like to revisit a lot of the areas near Newark DE that my grandparents took me to see the trains: GG1’s, E44’s, Metroliner, etc from the Pennsylvania RR, and more from the Bristol VA/TN area where I grew up: passenger services on the N&W & Southern RR’s, and Roanoke VA to see the operations back in the 50’s and early 60’s. I’d like some up-close and personal time with the J’s and Allegenies… I’d like to visit locations along the Virginian and photograph those beautiful E33’s in action. And I’d like to ride first-class all the way on the Broadway Limited. And I’d like to see some E & F units close-up. And photograph a K4 under steam. And sit in a lawn chair for a few days (my butt would hurt) watching the traffic go by at Horseshoe curve. So many places to see, so little time…
I would go back to 1968 and tell the New York Central and the Pennsylvania not to screw it up!
or
go back a little further and tell the NYC to merge with the C&O when it had the chance!
or
go to 1971 and somehow someway get funding for Amtrak the way it should have been funded, what a differance it would make now.
or, go back to the late 1800’s and expand the eastern railroads westward, imagine, PRR to la! or New york Central to san francisco
I can dream can’t I?
If I were to go back in time, and live my life on…
1945, Cass, WV. I could have possibly saved Shay 12 and 13 from the scrapper, and “scrapped” them for myself, putting them away in a shed. No one would know about it until 1985 when I would donate them to the state of WV. I could also have saved the skidders and cabooses and log cars the same way, as well as the log loaders when the business went OOB.
I would have pushed the state into saving the mill, being able to tell them what would collapse.
I would have stood in the shop in 1972 with a fire extinguisher, knowing that the shops would be destroyed by fire. Shay 3 would have been in better shape, the Climax would have been restored way back then, and the 1900’s era buildings would still be there today.
I would have stopped the depot from being lit by arson in 1975…
I could have prevented the mill fires in 78 and 82 by stopping the suspected arsonist…
Heck…Cass would be the best example of a logging railroad left ANYWHERE if I could have been there then…
Oh well…
Phil
Hummmm…
Atrip back in time to the heyday of SPs Taylor yard in LA would be interesting
Or mabee to watch a local on the Burbank branch. Or to watch the PE in Santa Monica (or anywhere else for that matter)
Perhaps back to watch the cab forwards working there last years on the Modoc.
It would be neet to visit the Bullfrog mineing district in Nevada in it’s prime too.
Wow, I could go on and on, but those are a few.
Well, assuming the operating costs aren’t too high on the time machine, I’d really like to spend a lot of time in the late 40’s and early 50’s experiencing the steam motive power of as many railroads as I could. Steam locomotives are incredibly diverse creatures, and I think it would be fun to start forming some opinions on my “favorites.”
Seeing the occasional 1st generation diesel would be fun, too, especially given the much greater diversity in paint schemes.