What city is the best railroading town in America? What is historically and currently the best railroading town do you think?
My choices
Altoona, pa
Chicago, il
St. Louis, Mo
Reading, Pa
The heart of Steel country…Pittsburgh,Pa.
Promontory Utah?
Council Bluffs, IA —Try driving anywhere through that 'berg and not encountering a railroad…
…In general category I’ll have to vote for Chicago. But Altoona sure has a bunch of history around it…
It is pretty tough to beat Chicago for being one of the best railroading towns.
If by railroad town you mean a place built by and for a railroad, then you mean a town like Altoona PA. If you mean a town that is or was served by a lot of railroads, then you could pick just about any major city.
I’d nominate a place like Durand, Michigan, where at one time everybody lived and breathed railroads–especially GTW.
My favorite (the place I grew up): the Twin Cities of Minnesota, an area with many railroads and a place much more photogenic than Chicagoland. Also, it is within a few hours drive of Duluth-Superior, another photogenic area with many railroads meeting each other.
But oh the weather!
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Chicago, IL
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Kansas City, MO and KS
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Minneapolis/St Paul, MN
If you mean “today”, how about North Platte, NE
I agree with MP57313 that North Platte is a great railroad town, but like all the rest the railroad is not quite the force it used to be in the town when the UP passenger service still ran.
How about Galesburg? I have never been there, but I hear that they have trains going in all directions to and from that place.
Historically, we all have our favorite places. Durango, Colorado was quite a hob nob of activity for the narrow gauge (D&RG and the Rio Grande Southern).
Railroads built Chicago.
I think railroads built America in general, and most towns could be considered railroad towns.
Adrianspeeder
Chicago but my thinking is what about Lima Ohio where they built so many of the best locomotives?
stay safe
Joe
[quote]
Originally posted by cspmo
Railroads built Chicago.
[/quote
Essentially correct in “modern” times, and since the original question of which is the “best” railroad town can be answered by literally thousands of answers, it will be virtually impossible to find consensus here. I will offer that since the CB&Q “made” just about every town from Chicago to Aurora along its tracks you could pick just about any one of these, but I vote for my hometown of Aurora, which was the birthplce of the first “pattern dome” car built in the Q shops here.
Altoona PA or Fostoria OH.
There are lots of cities with an interesting variety of tracks and trains, but for a town really dominated by railroading I’d put my two cents worth in for Galesburg Illinois.
Dave Nelson
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan
Yes, but allmost all railrods led to Chicago
“A hog can pass through Chicago without changing trains, but you can’t.”