I admit I usually glance at Tony’s column and move on, but his latest is a classic. It’s the first time anything in MR made me laugh out loud. Great little story Tony and, having spent a lifetime around jet engines, I feel your pain!
I always enjoy Tony’s column, but i agree, his December column was a classic story of kids being kids. I love to hear the stories of what others did when they were kids. Things that they would have never made mention of when they were young but somehow the passage of time makes the ‘confession’ of the story that much more funny.
I’ll third this motion. Made me remember stupid stuff I did and also answered the question as to what that black device was on the water tower in Bill Darnaby’s layout. Jamie
Yup, me too! The story made me smile, and brought back some memories of “daredevil” stuff I did or witnessed as a kid growing up in '50s Chicago near the C&NW racetrack.
Yikes, when I recall crouching next to the plate girder on overpasses as an Atlantic powered commuter train roared by, it gives me shivers. And then there was the time I dared myself to walk a steel beam over an open storm sewer (roaring towards the Chicago river). Man, the good Lord must have took pity on this kid and let him make it across!
I know my 4 grown kids did some foolish stuff too - but frankly I just don’t want to know about it.
Anyway, I truly did enjoy the article, and it made me realize there were others that dared fate too!
My son is in Dallas, troubleshooter for a software company, my other son is in California, I know little of their tales and antics and that is fine. But my daughter lives here in Kansas City, makes more money than Ft Knox has, and still does dumb stuff. Maybe the sons do also, I just don’t know about it.
Bob
Personally, I found it boring, off topic (model trains?) and was barely able to finishing reading the whole page.
The bad judgement of young people has been rather tragic in my life, not funny at all. And my own experiances as a young person did not include anything quite so stupid.
So there is no humor or fond/funny memories in such a story for me.
BUT, as per the previous thread on Tony and his column, I defend his right to publish whatever dribble Kalmbach will print.
Sometimes I like it, sometimes not so much so.
Sheldon
I enjoyed Tony’s column this time. It gave me a few good laughs and brought back memories. I worked for a few years at a number of hydraulic (water) generating stations. Two of them had sirens. They were used during the 50’s to indicate lunch break and the end of the work day. On a cold crisp clear winter day those sirens could be heard for miles. When we had technical type visitors from Head Office we would try and arrange a meeting with them under where the sirens were located. Of course, we always showed up late, after the visitor had been scared out of his wits. Now they use the sirens to warn people who are fishing near the station that the level of the water is about to change so that they can move back from the river’s edge.
As a child I spent all my summers at my parents’ beach cottage. There was a rail line which went through the village to other cottage areas and towns further down the line. This was back in the days of steamers (1950s). Once my partners in crime and I obtained a bucket of grease and greased the rails at the place where we observed that the locomotive always stopped. It was fun watching those big drivers slipping in the grease, but a liberal application of sand by the engineer got the train going again. That may have been relatively harmless, but we once did something incredibly stupid. The passenger shelter at our beach community was just an open air structure supported by heavy wood beams, probably 8X8’s or bigger. On the weekends, an express train roared through on its way to a resort area, not stopping at the communities on its route. This one time we decided to wrap our arms and legs around the wood beams closest to the track as the express came through. We never imagined how much wind and suction a speeding train generates. It was the ride of a lifetime being buffeted by the slipstream from that train, but it also scared the jelly out of us and we never did it aga
I am a big Tony Koester fan and his is the first article that I read (after I have paged through the pictures in the other articles). His columns are always well thought out and make me THINK. I agree that the December article was particularly good. I would like to see more about his new Nickel Plate RR layout. I admit to being sadden when he tore down the Allegany Midland layout. I love mountain railroading in West Virginia, particularly coal hauling routes. I am pleased that there is a book out featuring the old layout.
When I was a kid the Key System’s B Train ran from Lakeshore Ave to Underhills Station in Oakland CA. The route took the train through a dense eucalyptus forest for about four miles. Us kids used to wait until the train was about to depart Underhills and jump on the back of the big multi section electrics and ride with our hands clutching a grab iron and our feet braced on a solid pilot like fender. The train would speed along and at every curve our butts would swing out over space. The first time I rode I was unprepared for the speed and whiplash motion. I almost paniced and let go but remembered that I’d seen other kids successfully complete the ride and reasoned that letting go would certainly get me hurt but holding on should see me through, At the end of the adventure I walked away on shaking legs. Sometimes the conductor would check to see if we were hitching a ride so we perfected the art of jumping on at the last second as the train started to move. Now that the frontal lobe of my brain has fully developed, I look back on this stage of my life with thoughts that you can well imagine!