The Enduring Romance of Trains

[Brad]

If you like train as opposed to air travel, particularly train travel in Europe, which is more glamorous than in the US, please read Anthony Lane’s The Enduring Romance of the Night Train

I’ve enjoyed a few train trips myself. 

[ejp626]

I've generally not minded train travel from New York to DC.  Train travel from Detroit to Chicago used to be pretty good, with the emphasis on "used to."

I've done the train from New York to Boston and it takes far too long, but isn't too bad.  It's quite frankly ridiculous how long it takes to get between Toronto and Montreal on train (it doesn't help that virtually all the time you are routed up through Ottawa first ).

But I lost my love of trains on the Chicago-New York route, which I did a couple of times (almost always coming in 4-6 hours late) and the New Orleans-Chicago train ride was truly terrible.

There are all kinds of reasons train travel in North America is worse than the European experience, but the number one factor is that freight railroads are a much, much bigger player in North America and they own all the rails (except for Amtrak's Northeast Corridor) and thus passenger trains are always put second and quite literally are shunted to a side track while waiting for a freight train to go by, losing hours along the way for a particularly long train ride.  The on-time performance of trains in the US is very poor outside a very few exceptions, including the Chicago-Milwaukee run interestingly enough.  This is a structural (and political) issue that I do not believe will ever be resolved.

[clifford_thornton]

Haven't been on a long train journey in a few years (last one was DC to NY) unless you count semi regular Metro North jaunts. I do love Amtrak though it can be a slog. Lifelong railfan here so I always try to keep up with what's happening in American railroad news. 

[Teasing the Korean]

Now reading "All Aboard with E.M. Frimbo."

[Dave James]

When my twin brother and I were kids, our Mom travelled to Chicago four straight Summers in pursuit of her masters degree from Northwestern University.  Our Dad's father was in charge of the legal department for the Burlington Railroad, so he would arrange for us to travel from Portland to Chicago by train.  We always had a room on one of the Pullman sleeper cars.  This was in the late 50's when train travel was still pretty high end.  When you're an eight or nine year old kid, it was like the world's largest playpen.  Great memories.  It fostered a life long fascination with and interest in trains.  I still get sucked into watching railroad related videos on YouTube on a regular    basis.  What a way to go.

[Teasing the Korean]

23 minutes ago, Dave James said:

When my twin brother and I were kids, our Mom travelled to Chicago four straight Summers in pursuit of her masters degree from Northwestern University.  Our Dad's father was in charge of the legal department for the Burlington Railroad, so he would arrange for us to travel from Portland to Chicago by train.  We always had a room on one of the Pullman sleeper cars.  This was in the late 50's when train travel was still pretty high end.  When you're an eight or nine year old kid, it was like the world's largest playpen.  Great memories.  It fostered a life long fascination with and interest in trains.  I still get sucked into watching railroad related videos on YouTube on a regular    basis.  What a way to go.

Everywhere West! The Way of the Zephyrs!

[catesta]

Not quite along the same lines of romance and nostalgia but here is my story.

In 2011 we had a bid opportunity with the a certain rail system in New York City. At that time we had some railroad herbicide application experience but using hi-rail trucks not with mounting our equipment to a flat car pulled by a diesel locomotive. Anyways, we figured out the engineering side of it, submitted the bid and were awarded the contract.

Pretty cool to say I traveled throughout four of the five boroughs on an open flat car on mainline road, elevated track and in the deep bowels of the city, during both day and night. At times it was some scary shit but definitely an experience.

Here are some pictures....

 

[catesta]

[ghost of miles]

Very cool!  I've always wanted to ride with an engineer on a freight train... and as a kid thought being a crewman in a caboose would be a really cool job.  (My father, who is a great lover of trains, dampened that career desire by correctly assessing that caboose crews and cabooses in general were on the way out.)  

My girlfriend and I have been talking for the past couple of years about taking the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle as part of a vacation in the Northwest.  Hoping to do that either next summer or the summer after.

[Teasing the Korean]

Pre-Covid, I wondered how a passenger line would do if the train itself were the destination. Restore a classic Budd streamlined passenger train to its 1930s/40s splendor, use old EMD E units for engines, serve high-end cuisines and cocktails. A Zagat-rated restaurant on wheels. Have a dress code. Run it on the weekends for a few hours to and from wherever. You get to look at the scenery and hang out and drink in style. 

It probably would not have been feasible even before Covid. It will never happen now.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[porcy62]

I read a couple of books about the construction of railroads in US after the Civil War and the Railroad Barons, what a titanic enterprise. Later there were the hobos, W. Guthrie, etc.. American Railroads story is fascinating. And Goodman's City of New Orleans is a great song.

Edited June 4, 2020 by porcy62

[jazztrain]

This thread brings this album to mind:

 

[jazztrain]

When I was a kid in Cincinnati, my dad would take me many weekend mornings to watch the trains pass through Winton Place station.  It's one of my fondest memories.

Here are a few pictures that I found on line:

 

[Teasing the Korean]

I see myself much as I look in my profile pic, an obese gentleman in a suit with a bowler hat, riding in a mid-century Budd aluminum streamlined passenger train, EMD E7 A&B units dragging my massive girth from Manhattan to Chicago, while I drink one old fashioned after another. Life is good. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[clifford_thornton]

On 6/2/2020 at 7:55 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

Everywhere West! The Way of the Zephyrs!

CB&Q, yes -- an interesting railroad indeed. 

Why not an E6? Always liked that gentle shovel-nose.

great shots, jazztrain.

--

to add to catesta's story, when I was a kid watching trains with my dad in Topeka, we were photographing a Cotton Belt engine sitting in the small ex-Rock Island yard. The engineer came on duty to do some switching and invited us to visit him switching sometime after my school was out. So the next week I did not only a ride-along but also got to drive the B23-7 locomotive on my own, which was very cool and very illegal! I know that the engineer was well aware that making such a memory was more important than the laws and regulations at the time.

[Teasing the Korean]

On 6/5/2020 at 11:36 AM, clifford_thornton said:

CB&Q, yes -- an interesting railroad indeed. 

Why not an E6? Always liked that gentle shovel-nose.

great shots, jazztrain.

--

to add to catesta's story, when I was a kid watching trains with my dad in Topeka, we were photographing a Cotton Belt engine sitting in the small ex-Rock Island yard. The engineer came on duty to do some switching and invited us to visit him switching sometime after my school was out. So the next week I did not only a ride-along but also got to drive the B23-7 locomotive on my own, which was very cool and very illegal! I know that the engineer was well aware that making such a memory was more important than the laws and regulations at the time.

Any of the E or F units are fine with me. They are among my favorite locomotives. 

I never warmed up to the ALCO PA units.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[clifford_thornton]

never actually saw one in operation; they sure are funny looking.

I'll go for a DL109 over a PA.

Or a DR6 Shark, for that matter.

[Teasing the Korean]

Slogans on some of my boxcars and livestock cars:

The Katy Serves the Southwest

The Peoria Gateway

The Silver Meteor

All the Way on the Santa Fe

Ship It on the Frisco

The Route of Phoebe Snow

The 400 Line - Route of the Streamliners

Everywhere West! The Way of the Zephyrs!

The railroad enthusiast will note that I run trains dating from the postwar steam-to-diesel transition era. 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[Dave Garrett]

2 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Slogans on some of my boxcars and livestock cars:

The Katy Serves the Southwest

There is an abandoned M-K-T rail line near where I live that cuts right through the heart of the neighborhood that grew up around it. At some point within the last 15-20 years it was converted into a hike and bike trail. We walk our dog along it frequently, and whenever we do so I always think back to its origins and imagine trains running on it back in the day.

[Teasing the Korean]

17 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

There is an abandoned M-K-T rail line near where I live that cuts right through the heart of the neighborhood that grew up around it. At some point within the last 15-20 years it was converted into a hike and bike trail. We walk our dog along it frequently, and whenever we do so I always think back to its origins and imagine trains running on it back in the day.

Is that the Katy Trail State Park?

The MKT lasted pretty long, until 1989. It was absorbed by the Union Pacific.

[Dave James]

I guess I got a little closer to the business end of trains than most, having worked for the Union Pacific during the summers I was in college.  Two years on gangs replacing track in Portland and two in Eastern Oregon putting up telegraph poles (trust me, you haven't lived until you've climbed a 50-footer in the rain or dug out post holes in 110 degree heat).  To say the regulars who work for the UP were an interesting bunch would be putting it mildly.  A real cross section.  A bit stand offish at first but once you'd earned their trust, a great bunch of guys.  You really learned the value of a hard day's work.  And the pay...OMG.  The first two summers we earned $1.65 an hour and the last two, $1.89.   

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, Dave James said:

I guess I got a little closer to the business end of trains than most, having worked for the Union Pacific during the summers I was in college.  Two years on gangs replacing track in Portland and two in Eastern Oregon putting up telegraph poles (trust me, you haven't lived until you've climbed a 50-footer in the rain or dug out post holes in 110 degree heat).  To say the regulars who work for the UP were an interesting bunch would be putting it mildly.  A real cross section.  A bit stand offish at first but once you'd earned their trust, a great bunch of guys.  You really learned the value of a hard day's work.  And the pay...OMG.  The first two summers we earned $1.65 an hour and the last two, $1.89.   

Maintenance of Way!!!

At that time, did they still refer to the guys who laid track as gandy dancers?

My first train set as a kid was an HO Pennsylvania RR maintenance train. This was a Tyco set dating from the era when Mantua owned Tyco. These were heavier cars with metal bases and metal trucks, not the cheap plastic cars that defined Tyco in the 70s and beyond. 

There are a lot of great railroad industrial films on the intertubes. My favorite is the Southern Pacific film, in glorious saturated color, with some beautiful footage of trains against scenic backdrops. Also great footage of trains operating in snow storms. 

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[Dave James]

2 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Maintenance of Way!!!

At that time, did they still refer to the guys who laid track as gandy dancers?

My first train set as a kid was an HO Pennsylvania RR maintenance train. This was a Tyco set dating from the era when Mantua owned Tyco. These were heavier cars with metal bases and metal trucks, not the cheap plastic cars that defined Tyco in the 70s and beyond. 

There are a lot of great railroad industrial films on the intertubes. My favorite is the Southern Pacific film, in glorious saturated color, with some beautiful footage of trains against scenic backdrops. Also great footage of trains operating in snow storms. 

 

Yes...Maintenance of Way.  Even though we were temporary workers we had to join that union.  

Thanks for sending along the video.  I had not seen it before.

The nicest train was ever on?  The Canadian Pacific.  We took it from Vancouver to Montreal one summer.  Talk about silver service.  Traveling through the Canadian Rockies was eye popping.  Along the way, we traversed a tunnel that was seven miles long.  Great memories.

[Teasing the Korean]

12 minutes ago, Dave James said:

Yes...Maintenance of Way.  Even though we were temporary workers we had to join that union.  

Thanks for sending along the video.  I had not seen it before.

The nicest train was ever on?  The Canadian Pacific.  We took it from Vancouver to Montreal one summer.  Talk about silver service.  Traveling through the Canadian Rockies was eye popping.  Along the way, we traversed a tunnel that was seven miles long.  Great memories.

Do you happen to remember how far apart from each other the Union Pacific spaced their telegraph poles at that time?  I know that this varied based on a number of factors. 

Some railroads spaced them 100 per mile - one every 52.8 feet - so that miles could be calculated by counting the poles. 

[Dave James]

10 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Do you happen to remember how far apart from each other the Union Pacific spaced their telegraph poles at that time?  I know that this varied based on a number of factors. 

Some railroads spaced them 100 per mile - one every 52.8 feet - so that miles could be calculated by counting the poles. 

Wish I could help you out with that one.  To be honest, I was so focused on getting through the day, it never even occurred to me to consider spacing.  Also, we were working mostly on sidehills so the spacing might have been dictated by the terrain.    

Edited June 8, 2020 by Dave James