Do You Have a Souvenir of your First Train Trip?

Very nice!  Not sure of my first trip, but think it might have been the NYC el to 1964 World's Fair.  I do have some subway tokens from that era.

BANDOB I wish I did. All I know was it was on the Lackawanna behind steam from Newark, NJ to Scranton, PA in 1950.

Bob,

I have the envelope from the Santa Fe passenger office on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.  Inside are the tickets, schedule and advertising brochures for our 1955 trip on the San Francisco Chief from Chicago to San Fran, the Daylight from Frisco to LA and the El Cap back to Chicago. Ten days in California and four days on the Santa Fe.

When I'm in the ground, the kids will probably burn that packet.

John

I don't have a souvenir - I was only 2 years old at the time - but every time I'm in Chicago I can go over to the Museum of Science and Industry and give my first ride a pat on the side - The Pioneer Zephyr.

YES!!!  The love of my life, sweetest Lady in the world... my wife, Deanna.

Although trains (Lionel, Marx, KMT) had been my father's and mine hobby

since I was 5 yrs old, I had never rode on a 1:1 scale train.  Since 1976

when my father and I got back into trains (high school, career, etc.) in a

BIG way (still had all of my childhood trains in attic), we built huge layout

in his garage.  But, my father passed in 1978 at young age.  So, years later

when managing job in Great Lakes Naval Center, took train home to Houston,

Texas from Milwaukee/Chicago to visit my grown-up kids for Christmas. My

future wife got on in St Louis.  We didn't speak, but both had Houston as

destination.  I left early back to Chicago due to my kids being grown and had

plans for New Years.

Same with Deanna, she planned to stay longer, but had to also leave early and

back to St Louis.  Neither of us planned this, just happened.  So.. we talked on

the way back, all night, to St Louis where she disembarked at 09:00 hr, I rode

on the Chicago area.  We did trade business cards and stayed in touch starting

with New Years 2003/2004 call and many more to make in the future. 

Long story short, we became engaged and married Dec. 27, 2006.  We always

advise others to take Amtrak, The Texas Eagle in our case, to find your perfect

mate in life.  Best Lady in the world, we both love trains.  In fact, while I was

managing job in Terre Haute, she had a 36 ft by 28 ft train room built for me

over the 3 car garage !!  Now retired, I am still working on the final (?) layout

and running trains my father and I both enjoyed, plus what has been added to

the roster over the 18 yrs since we ran them together.

 

THAT, my friends, is Fate and the best gift God has given us both, for an eternity

of love and wonders.  And running trains with meaning and love that has been part

of my life unending.

 

Jesse

I was too young to think about keeping souvenirs. I barely remember the trip between Minneapolis and St Paul. I was about 4 years old. I want to say it was on the North Coast Limited.

 

I have a lot of other ticket stubs from trips I've taken, mostly on Amtrak though.

Yes - Deck of playing cards.

     Belt buckle....

Gary - Cheers From The

When I was young we use to camp in Maine and go to the seashore trolly museum.  We sold our pop-up camper a few years back and while cleaning it out I found some wooden nickels good for a discounted return admission to the museum. 

Yes,  Many years ago I rode on the Clinchfield from Elkhorn city KY to Spartansburg SC.

 

During the photo runby, everyone was behaving and staying behind the safety line.  I got real low to get a shot of "One Spot".  Just as I pushed the shutter release, some woman in bright pink pants with a Kim Kardashian rear end squared stepped over the line and I got a shot of he great big BOOMBA!. 

Not to worry, Instant Karma struck and she dropped her expensive camera and it broke.

That sight of her whinning about her broken camera will be with me forever! ( along with that enormos moon)

 

Larry

The only "souvenir" I have from my first rail trip is the memory in 1965 as a University of Florida freshman travelling back to NJ for Winter break.  For reasons I don't recall, I missed my flight from Jacksonville to Newark (there was no airline service from Gainesville to NY/NJ back then) and booked travel on the first train I could get.  It must have been a mail train since it made too many stops to count.  Nevertheless, I remember it was a great Christmas holiday with the family, and especially the girlfriend.

 

I don't remember the train trip but I DO remember the girlfriend!!!

Bandob, just like a couple of others, I was too young for souvenirs but I do have something that cannot be lost, stollen, mis-placed nor lose its value and that as a youngster, less than 7, I have memories of my first trip via rail over night to Grand Rapids, MI from Atlanta on L&N during the War years. Don't remember the equipment other than we were in a pullman coach and a night we slept in bunks with curtains that pulled shut for privacy. I also remember the many soldiers that were on the train. Those were special years for many reasons, and unknown at the time they became known as the greatest generation.

All I have from that first trip is a flash memory of the interior of a Pennsy diner.  This was in '53.  Just waaaay too bad I was not old enough to remember or appreciate what all was going on ! 

Someplace around the house, I have my fist souvenir from our Cub Scout trip on the Jersey Central Railroad from Cranford to Jersey City and a complete tour of the steam locomotive roundhouse and back shops, in 1948. I was fascinated by the boiler shop, and asked if I could have a nice new rivet. The tour guide told me to pick out a good one from one of the parts bin. When in high school shop class, I polished it then had it chrome plated, along with a brand new, unused track spike. I still have both.

Sadly, other than subways or mass transit, I have never ridden on a real train.

I do enjoy the smaller ones however.

My first train ride was when I was 12, I rode from Elmira, NY to Salt Lake City, UT.  From Chicago to Salt Lake we rode the Challenger, I really liked the dome car, first time I'd ever seen one of those.  I spent a lot of time up there, the scenery was great.  All we got by our house was freight trains.

The first time I ever rode a train that I can think of, I was about 3 or 4 and it was at Tweetsie RR in Blowing Rock, NC (behind ET&WNC 12, as I have a photo of me standing in front of its running gear). Anyone who's read all my previous posts on 3-footers here won't be shocked to find that out.

They didn't issue paper tickets, so no, I got nothing.

No souvenir; at least not any longer.  I'd kept the ticket jacket from my first train trip on the PRR throughout my childhood but, it disappeared in one of my mother's house cleaning purges when I was away at college.

That first ride would have been in 61 or 62 when Dad took me and my older sister from Lewistown to Harrisburg, PA for a visit with an ophthalmologist.  Not sure whether it was down or back but, I think one of the trains we rode was the Duquesne. 

About the only memory I have of the round trip was that the train back to Lewistown was completely full and I had to sit next to an older woman.  She took a liking to me and kept buying me soft drinks.  The train ride home was probably only a bit more than an hour but, I think I about floated off that train.

Curt

Cool story about the BIG little railroad.  I always love a trip over what's left of the CNJ,usually go from Raritan or Dunellen... too bad the Aldene plan did away with what could be the best part of it.    AND the dowdy little CNJ 4-6-4t is my favorite steam locomotive, hands down. 

I've got my first train ride souvenir, a RDG timetable with the Budd car on the front captioned "Fast Modern Air Conditioned".  As a kid stepping off of the train and into the cavernous Reading Terminal trainshed,  it's one of the most awesome memories I have.

My first train trip was from Long Beach, CA to Minneapolis in 1951. The souvenir I got was a Strombecker UP passenger train, around HO size.

 

Unfortunately, a wood and paper train cannot survive the play of a two year old boy, even a careful one.

I don't, but I have the memory. 1958. Macy's Thanksgiving parade. (BTW....I an not counting trips on the EL/subway)

 

My family was having dinner that day with my Dad's family in Larchmont NY. My dad and I (5 yo) took the Number 6 down to Grand Central and walked over to see the parade. My mom drove the car to my grandparents in Larchmont with my 5 month old sister. 

 

After the parade, I remember taking a New Haven "washboard" to Larchmont to meet them.

 

 

Here's a picture of a "washboard";

 

 

 

Peter

One of my first train trips was a weekend one-day excursion on the CB&Q from Chicago to East Dubuque, utilizing Zephyr equipment. This was in the late 50's, and I was nine or so. Dad took me and my younger brother. At East Dubuque, they put us on buses and took us on a tour of historical sites in Galena, IL and Dubuque, IA, as well as a steamboat ride on the Mississippi River. On the after dark return to Chicago, I remember being mesmerized by the locomotive headlamp swinging back and forth  across the ROW, and by the signals dropping green to red when the train hit the circuits. It remains one of my most vivid childhood memories.

Years later, I found this trip brochure at a memorabilia show.

 

Nope

Was one year old

PRSL probably behind a PRR K4s,  before WWII, to Atlantic City to visit my Aunt Claire

 

First train ride that I can barely remember: Rode the Missouri Pacific from KC MO to Van Buren, AR sometime in the mid-1950s.  I can remember some scenes onboard and a scene looking out the window: The train was curving to the left and I can vaguely remember, what I now know to be an Alco PA, the blue/gray engine on the front of the blue/gray train.  No souvenirs of this trip other than memories.

 

First time onboard a locomotive: This happened in 1957, I think. (I was in 1st or 2nd grade.) I was friends with a boy my age named "Lee" from up the street. We played trains together. (Lee had a Lionel set with a black diesel switch engine, no doubt one of the earlier NW2's). Lee's dad worked for the Rock Island in some capacity. Asked if we two boys wanted to "go see the trains" the upcoming weekend. Mom/Dad said "okay"... so off we went to the Rock Island's Armourdale Yard in KC KS.

 

We got to climb all over, and in, various Rock Island engines, and I vividly recall riding in at least one (possibly more) of the engines as they were hostled about the roundhouse/service area. For sure one was a Geep of some type. I distinctly remember the loud air hissing of the independent valve and other things.  Again, the only souvenirs are memories.

 

 

 

My first train ride was the ATSF California Special #76 between Clovis, NM and Temple, TX.  I rode it from Lubbock to Snyder, TX.

While I don't have a ticket envelope or a swizzel stick, etc. from that trip, I do have what is pictured below: two electric lighted switch lamps from the downtown Lubbock ATSF tracks.

  My next door neighbor was an ATSF Roadmaster in Slaton...he always drove one of those dark blue (same as a freight F) pickups with a bed full of track maintenance tools.  One evening he came home with a truck load of these switch lamps which had been replaced with reflective targets.  He gave me two of them; one for a mainline switch and one for a secondary track.  The mainline target is converted to a desk lamp while the yellow/green one is untouched.

This may be a stretch for what this thread calls for, but these are Lubbock departure souvenirs for me.

This Joe McMillan photo below is probably the best photo of the 76 ever taken:

My first train trip was in August 1932 to Dennison, Ohio when I was 6 months old. So, my only souvenir is an old photo of being held by my maternal Grandfather while my 3 year old sister was held by Grandma. I later made the trip several times,once by myself in 1944 when Grandma lived in Columbus. 

 

Always the same trains, the Atlantic & Yadkin from hometown of Summerfield, N.C. to connect with the N&W at Madison, N.C. and on to Roanoke, Blufield and beyond.

 

Obviously I remember the first trip well? 

My dog tags from my trip to Fort Leonard Wood, MO.

 

LOL! That was a good one Brian!

 

By the way, thank you for your service to our country.

All I can find from my first trip is the following video, behind NKP 765 from Youngstown to Pittsburgh in '85.

 

 

My second trip - also behind NKP 765, but in 1987 between Orrville and Bellevue - was a little better documented.

 

 

 

 

 

Dewey,  I have something for you.

 

Email me, my addy is in my profile.  I couldn't get my email server to accept your email.

Oh, my 1st train trip...Only memories.

 

I was 5 and my British uncle put me on the wrong train in London.  I was suppose to be going back to my grandparents house in Chester and he put me (and his Cocker Spaniel Juno) on a "non-stop" train going to Scotland, while he went to get the tickets.  When he came back the train was GONE!!!

 

They radioed ahead and got them to stop it (can't recall where) and when he got there I was sitting in the station eating cookies and drinking milk.

 

I've been on other trains (school excursions) but I can't recall anything of the trips (we did go to a turkey farm on the outskirts of town on one of them), but I'll never forget my 1st trip on the (English) train

Mine was to the 1963 Worlds Fair via Reading RDCs from Reading to Phila, then a GG1 from Phila to Long Island. No souvenirs but remember  that the headrests said "Thank you for Riding the Pennsy"

LLKJR:  Weird coincidence....I was just in Elkhorn City, Ky., at their poor decrepit train

museum, with two C&O/Chessie cabooses and a steam water stand pipe out in front of

it, Sat.  The CSX, I guess, rolls by it, but just down the hill is an abandoned bridge that I suspected once belonged to the Clinchfield.  On down the road is the Breaks Interstate Park (Kentuck and Virginia line) where CSX operates on the old Clinchfield line.  Several interesting coal mines in the area with a long line of CSX hoppers at one, and one mine with the siding ties pulled and stacked.

Souvenir of first train ride, which in 1957 was on the real D&RGW up to Silverton

from Durango, were the narrow gauge spikes my brother and I collected then in our

teens as we walked the tracks around Silverton.