Edit In Entry: Think of this a place to reminisce and post memories.
The other day I was reminiscing with my wife about trains(her grandfather worked for San Francisco’s Municipal Ry) and I couldn’t help but think about some of the trains we’d rode in High School. And about what was new then.
So here is the idea what trains do you remember from long ago that are now museum pieces and why do you remember them.
I’ll start with 2 examples: 1. San Francisco’s Boeing LRV’s . SF’s 1st new railcars in 25 years. Now at least 2 have gone to musuems 1 to the Western Ry Museum in Rio Vista, and the other to Oregon(I’ve forgot which museum). These were being delivered when I was in high school and went into service just after I graduated
NYCTA R-21’s. (I think) If I remember correctly these were also nicknamed “red birds” and on the #7 line(for the 1964 Worlds Fair) “Blue Birds”. The reason I remember these cars so well was at 5 years old I could stand on my tippie toes and see out the front door on the #1 line. All the other IRT cars at the time had higher windows. Also for the many rides to see the 1964 Worlds Fair & the Mets.
Now these cars (the ones not saved) have been stripped and the shells dropped in the Atlantic Ocean to make artifcal reefs. Oooh how the mighty have fallen!! (pun intended)
I rode the NYCTA’s Myrtel Ave open cars and all NYC subway cars of the 40’s and 50s which the Red Birds replaced, the LIRR and DL&W MU’s as well as behind steam on the DL&W. trolleys along Jamaica Ave, and the SIRT when it was still under B&O control. Bye the way, the buses of S.I. were something else again back then, even older than the pint sized PCC’a Public Service ran on the 72 line from Morristown to Dover and Lake Hopactcong. Know what was fun? A ride in a wooden caboose on a regular freight train and not on a tourist line. So many pieces never made it to the museums only to the cobwebs of my mind! I am not a museum piece, just ancient.
Does seem hard for me to grasp that a (GN) SD-45 and (Soo) GP-30 are now operating out of museums here in Minnesota. Seems to me anything I can remember shouldn’t be old enough to be in a museum!!
During my high school days I would catch a bus in downtown Des Plaines to go to school in Niles. Watching the commuter trains while waiting for my bus, I got to see the last of the green and yellow C&NW bi-level cars, some F-units, and Crandall cabs (UP E-9 B-units fitted with a cab). At the same time, I watched the introduction of F40PHs in RTA colors, and the repainting of the bi-levels in RTA colors. It wasn’t long before RTA colors gave way to Metra colors, and the old bi-levels gave way to stainless steel cars.
I’m listening to a song from 1978, and I feel so old…
The Myrtle Av El’s last nite. My introduction to railfandom lunacy.(The conductor was selling his door switch key for$10. One made of aluminum.He eventually got $20 for it!! Railfans with camerasgalore & flash bulbs. My mother was (think of a word between astonished & horror). Thx IGN
The R-1-R-9’s of the subway system that opened the IND 8th Avenue subway about the time I was born, Jan. 1932. And occasionally are still used on fan trips and “Nostalgia Specials.” I rode all the pre-WWII New York subway equpment, gate cars on the Manhattan-Bronx and Brooklyn elevated lines, Q’s, C’s, BMT steels in all their variety, the Little Zephyr on Franklin Avenue shuttle, the Multi-s and Clark-St. Louis Blue Bird on Canarsy and 14-thSt-Lefferts, the D’s on both Brighton and Sea Beach, composites on 3rd Avenue and MUDC converted gate cars on all four Manahttan els, all varieties of pre-war IRT steel cars, only missing the Green Hornet experimental and the BMT first steel car which became an instruction car. But the R-1-9 standard IND cars were the ones I rode most often. The fact that they are museum cars today reminds me how old I am. But they can still carry passengers safely and keep up without delaying regular trains. And the one at the trolley musuem where I am a member, with trolley poles yet, occasionally carries paying passengers. So if they can keep going, so can I!!
Oh, yeah! I rode the 3rd Ave El and the trolley car across the Queensborough Bridge, too. I’ve gotta stop this before they come to tanquilize me, tag me, and put me on display in the Stone Age Room.
I would start with CTA’s 6000-series PCC rapid transit cars. They were the mainstay of CTA’s operations in my youth and now they’re at the IRM. There is also a C&NW SD40-2 at the IRM and I remember when they were brand-new on the C&NW racing west through De Kalb.
The N&W J’s. While in college, I would often go into town after supper just to look at the J that would take the Pelican out of Bristol on its way to Washington. Ten in the morning (sb Pelican and nb Tenneseean) was not a good time to be away from the college, nor was 5:30 in the afternoon (sb Tenneseean) because I could not make back to dining room when the doors opened at six for supper. Once, I rode the Birmingham Special from Radford to Bristol, and watched as the train came into Radford. Occasionally, I would watch the southbound Birmingham Special come into Bristol (what was I doing in town at one in the morning? watching a J arrive). What a beautiful engine!
For me it was the day they replaced the K4s on the Horseshoe Curve with a GP9, first generation diesels are what I mostly grew up with, steam was fading out and only witnessed the very end. These new contraption diesels were the mainstay of my railfan youth. Now I am chasing PRR E-8s across Ohio to get a “rare” photo. Like I tell many new young railfans today complaining about GE widecabs, once upon a time we were bored with F units.
I remember well Nickel Plate Berkshires and Hudsons operating along the lakeshore, so now when I see a Berk on display it brings me back a long time. Come to think about it, I also remember NYC, Pennsy and Bessemer steam in Erie, Pa, where I grew up. There are dozens of fleeting.vignettes of steam in my memory bank. I wish I could extract a few and print them.
I remember DAD taking me to the yards in Roanoke and watching As , Ys , Js , Ms , and many others . I sure wish I could relive those days . Growing up in Roanoke was great for a railroad fan . RON
For me it is the Comet 1 coaches built in 1970 for the Erie-Lackawanna for use in commuter service. These beautiful cars were built by Pullman and were heated, cooled and lit using Head End Power (HEP) provided by the new GE U34CH locomotives, the first diesels to provide HEP from the constant speed prime mover. The U-Boats were retired in the mid 90’s, the last of the Comet 1s were retired only a couple years ago. 3 are on the roster of the Whippany RR Museum here in NJ and they are used in excursion service. Every modern passenger car out there uses the technology introduced by these cars. I saw these cars enter regular service and I have seen them all retired.
I probably misnamed this thread. It is still nice to reminesce about times past.
Other things EMD SD 45’s. SP In their last years was reengining them with 16 cylinder engines. The last time I was down in Houston UP had a bunch on the dead line behind a warehouse were I was picking up a load.
While it may not be exactly on topic, Orange Empire’s PE blimps 418 and 498 will be 100 years old next year. What is a bit disconcerting is realizing that they will have spent half their lifetime in Perris on their 100th birthday.
As for something a bit more on-topic, I remember when the SDP40F’s and Amfleet’s were new.
The F40PH becoming a rarity. The largest fleet of F40PH locomotives is running on Metra, and they’ll probably have a longer career than the BN E units.
I rode a regularly scheduled passenger train (Southern Railway #4 Asheville - Old Fort) pulled by #6141 when I was a teenager.
Now 36 years later #6141 is in semi-retirement with a different number and a newer paint scheme at RJ Corman’s Old Kentucky Dinner Train. I’ve been there to ride behind her again… and had a pretty nice prime beef while I was at it.
Every railroad museum I go into makes me seem old to other people, but it is just the way it was for me. My younger sister who never had the experience of living in a station used to say I was the youngest eighty year person she had ever seen!
There are simply too many items and pieces for me to list.
