- My first cab ride. It was on a UP GP9 switching an industry near my home.
- I got to ride in the cupola caboose of an SP local.
3.I ran an ALCo S4 at a railway museum .That was totally awesome[:p].
Que Pasa? I smell a TROLL…
The “coolest railroad thing,” so far, was riding a deadhead equipment move on the Nostalgic Orient Express (the restored 1920s/1930s equipment) from Zuerich, Switzerland - across the Alps - to Milan, Italy. The year was 1988. My traveling companion and I were guests of the company. We had a complementary 12,000-calorie lunch in the very elegant 2nd class dining car along with our very comely lady escorts (also provided by the company). The Italian State Railway electric locomotive that powered our train into Milan was older than Benito Mussolini!
The scariest “cool railroad thing” was riding the caboose of ATSF train no. 100 from Barstow to Needles, Calif. This train, of course, was “The Super C,” an all trailers and containers hotshot that was, in 1971, the fastest regularly scheduled freight train in the world. Cleared for 79-mph, the engineer drove that train around some of those mainline curves like he was playing a really serious game of crack-the-whip. At times I thought we were about to get launched into low orbit around Jupiter. And of course it was in the summertime, every window in the caboose was wide open, and the dust we kicked up along the right-of-way for 150-miles was enough to choke a mule team. By the time we reached Needles I looked like I’d been working in a coal mine all day. Those 25-cent schooners of Coors Beer at the nearby Couple Up tavern never tasted so good!
Got a cab ride in a Baldwin 2-8-2T in Port Alberni, Vancouver Island. I had promised to 'stay out of the crew’s way" when I arranged for the ride, so I did my best. The engineer, George Williamson, turns out to be, not only an accomplished steam loco rebuilder (8 of them), but is an astounding artist in his own right. He is a member of the Royal Heritage Railways Artists Guild, and he showed me several paintings in prints at the gift shop at the end of that afternoon’s excursion. He has done a superb oncoming SP Daylight, and several of Shays and the tanker he was driving.
Not sure if any of you have heard of him, or if he has a website, but you could try a search.
In the 50’s I received a few invites into the cab of the 2-8-0 on the King City Local as it switched the house track and spur at Atascadero, it was a thrill lasting a half hour or so, nothing ever tasted so good as the ice water from the cab. There was a cab ride in a diesel helper over Cuesta Grade, I thought my ears would never stop ringing. My only caboose ride was on EBT in 2000, what a kick. Saving perhaps the best for last, I was in Penn Station in NYC, in my Army uniform, Foaming the platforms, when the engineer of a GG-1 invites me in to the cab… it looked more like the inside of a submarine than a locomotive, but I was in hog heaven, especially when he invites me to run out to Sunnyside. There, I visited some of the great Pennsy and Florida streamliners, and, when I was done, I rode back in the cab leading the Broadway Limited. That fine engineer offered to take me to Harrisburgh on his run. It kills me that I turned him down due to what clearly were Not higher priorities that day. As I recall, even between the yard and the station we got up to 60 or so.
The coolest RR thing I got to do was work 20 years with out a major injury or accident. Hopefully I’ll retire with all my bits and pieces.
Blow the horn on VIA’s westbound CANADIAN in 1980 and watch the prairie dogs go a-scattering!
RETIRE.
Virlon
save your ticket…the P.E. will rise again.
Oh, this is easy!
This past Tuesday I spent the entire morning riding in the cab of the Wisconsin Northern’s (ex-Frisco) GP-15 #1500 while the crew worked from Chippewa Falls WI to Chetek WI, with stops at Bloomer and New Auburn. About 3 hours total in the cab. Totally coolest thing ever!
Paul August
Back in 1996, riding on the open platform of a Wisconsin Central business car between North Fond du Lac and Schiller Park, right behind the GP40 on the point and savouring the noise and the view every time it accelerated from a signal check - heaven !
(and thank you to all at WC at the time - I know it was the highlight of the vacation for our group of British and Spanish railfans).
Tony
OH YA! ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO, CSX DERAILED A FREGHT ON THERE MAN SINGLE TRACK OUTSIDE OF COILER FREIGHT YARD EAST OF PETERSBURG VA. BEHIND THIS FREIGHT WAS THREE AMTRAK, THE AUTO TRAIN, PEIDMONT AND (THE NAME FAILS ME KNOW), THE TRAIN FROM MAIMI TO NEWYORK. THEY WERE ALL STOPPED ABOUT SIX MILES APART. SO WE WENT IN SEARCH OF THE AUTO TRAIN AND FOUND IT STOPPED AT THE VA/NC LINE. IT JUST HAPPENED THE ENGINER WAS OUT WALKING THE TRACK AT THE CROSSING. WE STOPED AND WAS TALKING TO HIM AND FOUND OUT THAT THEY HAD NOT EVEN TOLD THEM OF THE REASON FOR THE DELAY. HE ASKED IF THERE WAS A CONVEINCE STORY NEAR BUY AND IF WE WOULD GIVE HIM A RIDE TO PICK UP SOME FOOD FOR THE COND. AND HIM. SURE. WHEN WERE GOT BACK, HE ALLOWED US TO GET UP INTO THE CAP OF THE P32 GENISIS ENGINE. WELL ABOUT THAT TIME THE WERE GIVEN THE ORDER TO BACK DOWN TO ROCKY MOUNT NC TO SWITCH OUT TO THE NS LINE TO GET AROUND THE DERAILMENT. SO HE POWERED UP AND LOOKED AT ME AND SAID DID I WANT TO GO FOR A RIDE. SURE! THE FEEL OF THE ENGINE AS I SAT IN THE COND. SEAT WAS BEYOND WORDS. THANK-YOU AMTRAK …US IS MY SON AND I.
Ain’t THAT the truth! It feels so good just to stop moving let alone packing your grip.
Mitch
2 months ago I Joined the NMSL&RHS, now I get to tear in to the biggest 4-8-4 ever built. We hope to be running in about 6 more years, and I have a shot at running the Throttle as desinated crew.
http://www.nmrhs.org/
Gunns
Make switching moves for my company with the loco that my company leased from Conrail[:o)][:p][:)]
[quote]
Originally posted by railfan619
Feels so good I thought I died and went to Heaven…
Virlon
save your ticket… the P.E. will rise again.
Ride a detour move across the Erie-Lackawanna from Marion, Ohio, to Huntington, IN, in about 1973. Today, it’s not even a good cowpath.