Seeing Your Toys in "Real Life"...Or...Tales of a Closet Foamer

Mike...I know exactly which yard you are talking about as I grew up minutes away from that location. As a kid (70s and 80s) that was one of my favorite spots to eyeball from the road as the D&H used to operate that yard (adjacent to the Port of Albany). In fact, seeing those D&H engines so many years ago had a strong influence on my purchases today for the few D&H items out there (including the recent Lionel Sharknose in D&H colors). If memory serves I believe Guilford bought out the D&H with subsequent acquisition by CP. I believe that's why CP is spotted there in the land of CSX (former Conrail territory). I agree with you that it is kind of surreal to see something in real life that up to that point has only been observed in model/miniature form.  -Len

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Have any of you ever had one of these moments where you see something on the rails for the first time and you just want to pull off the road and stare at it?? 

 

I frequently drive by those yards. There have been many times when I wished I could pull over and take a picture. Of all the things I've seen there over the years, my favorites were the various pieces of MOW equipment and the giant flatcars from General Electric (Schnabel?) I've also seen flatcars loaded with tanks.

I had a moment like that back in 1993 or so. I found my way to Horseshoe Curve, but the area was under reconstruction and there was no access to the top. It was a crummy weather day, but I did get to see the Conrail E units and business train roll down the curve. It rolled through the fog like a Flying Dutchman. I don't have it as a model, but I think we all appreciate when some fabled train just presents itself to us especially when we don't plan for it.

Sounds like the CSX Philly yard off i95. There is always a ton of cool stuff there but it's not exactly like you can just stop.

I have had moments like that. There is a railroad bridge that parallels the highway that connects the NY State Thruway with the Mass Pike, trying to remember the area (I think it is over the hudson river, or maybe it is just a deep,long valley), the bridge looks old and quite frankly doesn't look in the best shape, we kind of thought it might be abandoned, but we were driving one day on there, and saw this long train going over it (this was once conrail, now CSX trackage I believe), it was exciting, in part because we kind of both expected the bridge to collapse or something (which of course it didn't).

Now that I think of it, this yard was also the site of another exciting "real life" moment.  I think it was the year before, we were making this same trip, and as I was driving North (or east, whichever the direction is where youre on the same side as the yard itself) I saw my one-and-only "real-life" TankTrain" car!   Again, it was one of those things where I wanted to pull over and stare at it..."so that's what they look like."

 

I remember seeing a diesel there with what looked like the letters "D&St. L" or DS&L," something like that.  It was a dull reddish color if i remember correctly.  Couldn't slow down enough to see it more clearly, it was set back from the road a bit.  And when we made the return trip a few days later, it was gone.  

 

- Mike

Probably St.Laurence & Atlantic.

 

http://gwrr.com/operations/rai...atlantic_railroad.be

 

For me it's normally been the other way - buying engines for the layout that I've seen in real life first. I do remember the first time a saw a BN "cow and calf" set of switchers, having seen models of them before but never real ones.

I knew I had a photo of this unit in my collection, but I thought it was better. The second unit in the above photo is GP38-2 no. 7306. In the late 90s, Canadian Pacific came up with the plan to market its eastern lines as the St Lawrence and Hudson RR.  The marketing plan went as far as painting this unit, and the idea fell by the wayside.

As far as I know, only this unit gained the StL&H markings.  

Mike, I have it every time I go to the US.

Seeing trains in the flesh, gives my models a whole lot more meaning. Last time I was there, Eliot and I did some train spotting up along the Hudson. I got a thrill seeing regular Genesis hauled commuter trains. The visit to the Danbury Museum and seeing all the old New Haven stuff too was amazing for me.

Wow, that was it!  Thanks for posting this picture, Tim, and for the little back story.  Now I realize seeing this diesel was even more unusual than I thought, considering this was the only one in this lettering.  I had no idea at the time what RR this was...figured it was some obscure short line that I had never heard of.