[:-,] Now there’s a good rationale, similar to one I ad thought of earlier - discouraging freeloading relatives and other visitors from overstaying their welcomes - unless they’re railfans too, in which event it doesn’t matter as much . . . [swg]
Oh Yeah, I would like nothing more than to live along the Pittsburgh Line. Watching the trains come by all day, listen to the scanner. I’d have an open yard policy for any railfans.
Plus, probably be cheaper to buy a house next to the tracks because only railroad buffs like us would want to live by a railroad. Coarse I suppose the insurance rates would be high. lol.
I would LOVE to live as close to the tracks as possible. Now of course, I can’t tell my parents where to buy a house, but when I buy my own house, I’ll be sure to find somewhere near the tracks…
Up to age 6 my parents first farm was 1 block south of the Milwaukee Road line through Grand Meadow Mn. I learned how to count up to about 68 watching the train go by. We moved to another farm 3 miles west of Racine Mn in 73. The CGW went through Racine until I think the early 80s but I only saw trains on those tracks on rare occasions along highway 63 before we sold the farm in 81. We moved to Rochester Mn about 2 miles south of the CNW which turned into DM&E in 86. I worked at a grocery store called Barlows (at that time) in 88 which was right next to the DM&E and then started working at the Napa store right next door. I then worked at a Pizza Hut across the tracks to the north of the Barlows & Napa until early 94. Now the unused Zephyr train tracks is right behind the house.
I live with my mom and have no kids. We will see if we can find something near tracks but its not a priority. I think after reading all these posts I’d like to be at least a block from active tracks. With all of the bank owned, foreclosure and short sales out there if we happen upon a steal I can always drive to see trains.
I’d love to live fairly close to the tracks. I don’t know about almost right on top of things,but it’d be more interesting than what I’ve got now. I live about 3 miles from the R.J. Corman Bardstown Line,and about 20 miles from CSX. I have the Kentucky Railway Museum about 15 minutes south of me,and NS’s Rathole and Louisville Divisions are an hour’s drive. In one sense,I’m in a good spot for a fairly quick drive to these places,you can also add PAL,LIRC for some variety,and don’t forget the BGRM in Versailles,too.
I live within viewing and hearing of the busy 4 track railroad between Rotterdam and Dordrecht here in Rotterdam, the Nehterlands. I bought my house deliberately, though it didn’t come with a railfan.
Luckily, it is well insulated even though most modern Dutch passenger trains are relatively quiet. Out of the 11 or so passenger trains per hour and direction (fewer between 4-7 am and after 10 pm) only 3 are noisy enough to have a chance to be noted, they are loco hauled long distance trains. Further, there is timetable capacity for 2 freight trains per hour and direction during daytime, of course more during night time. It wasn’t used to full capacity in the daytim even before the current economic crisis. Only after 11 pm do they become noticeable. With a hospital nearby and a policestation across the tracks (and thank god they moved the fire station), they usually produce more noise than the trains during the night.
The park in fron of my house was once part of a hump yard, the remainder now is a six track storage yard, there is a running track for locomotives going to the 2 shops to the north of me, then 2 freight only tracks to the harbour and new humpyard. Then there are 2 southbound passenger tracks, 2 platform tracks for the station serving the soccer stadium (home to Feyenoord), 2 northbound passenger tracks and the northbound freight track joins the passenger tracks at the north end of the platformtracks. See pictures below.
Next time I buy a house near the tracks though, I will take a folding chair with me. My windows are just high enough from the floor that watching trains from my comfy chair is not comfy at all…
View from my second bedroom on the second level of my appartment during winter:
Looks like you have quite the nice location–just a short walk to lots of railroading.
Those photos show a rather involved railroad operation, and from your text, I would say you have lots to see.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank You.
Phoebe Vet:
PERFECT! [8D][8D][8D][:D]
TO Marc : You need to sell tickets, and maybe install extra seating! [wow]
TO Kootenay Central:
Thanks for sharing, very vivid picture and a reality that we all can appreciate![bow]
Talk about your ringside seats![tup][tup]
Beautiful Kootenay Central, Beautiful!
Wow, what a small world…I grew up on the same NYC Harlem Division that you did and my parent’s house was about 1/2 mile from the tracks roughly between Tuckahoe and Bronxville stations. I fondly remember warm weather nights with my bedroom windows open and listening for the Hancock whistles on the NYC FL9 units coming through Bronxville station on longer distance commuter stations (at that hour they would have been northbound for the northernmost stations on the Harlem Division). Do you recall those whistles? When I graduted college I worked in Manhattan for a time and commuted from Tuckahoe on the M3 trains into GCT. That was a very long time ago!
I enjoyed the three years I lived in Wesson, Mississippi, with the Mainline of Mid America across the stret in front of the house. Three manifest freights and four passenger trains each way every day, plus the local, which I seldom saw. Some people complained about #25’s whistling off at 3:30 in the morning, but I seldom heard it, or #8 at midnight. If a freight came through during a church service, I would have to stop until it was gone.
The most disturbance I remember came about ten one night when I heard a great BANG; I went out to investigate, and found a manifest freight stopping so it could back over onto the wrong main to let the City of New Orleans go by. When the rear end passed the crossover switches, the conductor or rear brakeman threw a lit fusee into the air to let the engineer know he could stop and begin backing. By the time the engine was in the clear, the City was right by the crossover switch; I do not know if he had stopped at all since I was on the east side of the tracks. I had talked with the conductor, offering to line the switches back once the caboose was in the clear; he took me up on it, and told the engineer that I would take care of them.
When I was called to Reform, Alabama, I had the AT&N just outside my backyard. It was not quite as busy as the IC was in Wesson, nor was it as busy as the GM&O, which ran about three blocks north of my house. There was no more than one train a day in and out. I did have more interaction with the crews, at times working with them as they ran the engine around the wye and did some switching.
Here, I seldom hear any train, unless the wind is just right.
Family moved to Eastchester in 1942. I was 4 y-o-a. We lived close to the Tuckahoe High School until 1947. I would watch the NYC switcher do its work on the Tuckahoe Marble spur while my mother shopped in the A & P. After two years in CA, on the Petaluma & Santa Rosa and the Northwestern Pacific, we moved to Scarsdale. Lived near the defunct NYW&B. Great exploring, even to this day. Katonah: '49-'50. The crossing tender, Pike Pender, was a friend, as my father shot pheasants on his place. Got a good collection of NYC lanterns from him. Next: New Rochelle. Next: Fleetwood (Mount Vernon) until ''65, with time out for college and the army. Rye next, on my own. Commuted on the NH. Then to Rye Brook, '66-'68. Commuted on the NH from Port Chester, but mostly on the NYC from North White. Never rode an “M” car. 4300/4500 MUs, or loco-hauled only. Better bar car service on the NYC in the morning! Moved to Vermont in '68 (St.J&LC/Lamoille Valley, CV, etc.)…Did you live on “the wrong side of the tracks”, in Yonkers? Had some Yonkers kids in my Boy Scout troop, #4 Bronxville.
Hays wdh@mcn.net Shelby, MT
In 1951 my father paid $4,000 cash to the Nickel Plate Road to buy one of the houses it was selling in East Cleveland, Ohio. Until 1961 we lived about 75 feet away from the NKP’s double-tracked and elevated main line. So I saw every Berkshire, Blue Bird, freight and passenger train the NKP had, and at speed, too.
The first night we slept in the house a train full of cattle cars stopped for the signal nearby and we watched, and inhaled, the full spectacle. After that, we never were awakened by trains again. They did interfere with TV reception, especially when the windows were opened. Can you imagine feeling bothered by several steam-drawn freights rolling by at maybe 50 mph or more?
Because there were no grade crossings in East Cleveland I never knew what the whistle of a Berkshire or the horn of an Alco PA sounded like; it wasn’t until I started going on 765’s fan trips as an adult that I heard the whistle!
Every freight train was a geography lesson because of the advertising and railroad names on the sides of the passing cars. Where is Lehigh Valley, I’d ask my dad, and he would tell me. Why is there a goat on that car? And I’d learn. The passenger trains awakened in me a desire for train travel which I’ve not yet fully satisfied.
In 1960 my dad sold that $4K house for $13K and we moved about two miles away. Our family loved our house and “our” railroad but we never took any photographs of any of it; after all, “it’ll always be there.”
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The next knock on the door will be from the RCPCP (Royal Canadian Politically-Correct Police). You really should say CLC (Canadian Locomotive Company) instead of the American “FM” (Fairbanks-Morse), eh? Beautiful locos, them. I do love J. F. Gordon’s book “The Crow and the Kettle”! Sounds like you worked in the boondocks. Merritt? Brodie? Brookmere? I sure wish I had traveled the route. Could have taken the Pullman from Calgary (High River, that is), but thought it would always be there. My great uncle was a Conductor, and his son ran the RPO service on the KV. I still enjoy driving the route and tracing the line.
Hays
NKP: Excellent post! I like your “style”. Keep posting!
Hays
I lived in railway stations until age 11, and then for 10 years I lived on the 34 floor of an apartment building a half block from the CPR mainline through downtown Calgary, with a trackside view.
A total of 21 out of my almost 56 years and I much prefer living away from the tracks. I miss not being able to see the trains, and I never once was concerned about the possibility of derailments, but I grew to hate hearing them at night.
I suppose if the opportunity presented itself, living above and back from the tracks but of of easy earshot might be nice, but I prefer to pick the times and places I interact with the railway.
Bruce
I spent much time during the first decade of my life at my aunt’s house directly across from the SF trks in Wichita. That was a great time in my life during pre school/grade school era. They moved away in 1972, lived there 24 yrs and never took any pics of trains passing by. They could have had enough material to make a Morning Sun book. Would I wish to live at a location like that now? No. My house I live in now I purchased in 1987. It sits 1/2 west of the SF yard in Wichita. That is close enough for me in terms of living near any trackage. The house was built in 1956. Prior to 1942, the old Ark Valley Interurban passed two block east of my home until that trackage was taken up for war scrap after AVI shut down.