Trains have a rich history. This is evident from the various historical societies in which many Forum members (not me) participate, as mentioned in their profiles.
Almost all of us love steam engines, diesels and railroads that no longer exist. Wouldn’t you love to go back in time in a time machine and experience these trains and railroads of yesteryear?
We can take a stab at this on this post by using our imaginations.
I shall begin.
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It’s 1920. There is a phenom, born in Baltimore, who has demonstrated his great prowess in Boston, and now he is heading for New York on the Twentieth Century Limited powered by a Dreyfus Hudson:
His name is Ruth and you can see the house that he built at the end of the above video! He will set the world of baseball on fire!
Arnold
The time on the railroads I'd love to go back and see wouldn't look like much from a model perspective - just a bunch of rock but if I could go there
Summit Tunnel ..."at one in the morning on May 3, 1867, a great, noisy crumbling took place at the east facing, and light from torches in the west could be seen flickering through the dust. No longer silent, the men from Shanghai, Canton, and Macao, and their American bosses, almost stunned, rent the icy caverns with a new din: a wave of bellowing cheers. The Summit had been pierced. The Sierras had been bested. There was awesome work yet to be done, months of wearing toil before the first track could be laid within the tunnel, but in that one ecstatic moment in 1867, the “Pacific Railroad” had become a reality. American would be bound, east to west, by iron. "
- From A Great and Shining Road - Williams
There is only one GOAT....He and Colonel Jacob Ruppert (Yes!!! We all want a brewery on our layouts) created the greatest sports franchise in the
history of any sport, and created the greatest stadium since the Flavian Amphitheater. If anyone (Menards?) is going to make a brewery for our layouts, why not the Ruppert Knickerbocker brewery?
Jerry
Bloody right I'd love to travel back to the heyday of American railroads! And I'd bring my vintage Leica and a duffel bag full of film with me. Don't want to get discovered in 1940 carrying a digital camera!
I have personal interests in the Pennsyvania coal country, so I'd want to spend some time in Mount Carmel, PA, documenting traffic on the PRR, LV and RDG trackage converging there. Then I'd camp along the 4-track mainline of the PRR, getting pictures of every bit of motive power that thundered past. After that, there'd be a long spell along the PRR's electrified lines.
From there, I'd head to New York, to photograph all the NYC operations I could find. I'd even be willing to venture to New Yok City, to see the Central's electrified lines in action.
And after that, well, maybe I'd take the PRR (behind a GG1) down to the Philadelphia area, to study the Reading in full steam.
I'd probably have used up all my film at that point, so I'd have to return to the present to plan the next leg of my journey. Hey, just where is the nearest Time Portal, anyway?
Arnold,I dream of it all the time....I would love to go back in time. I would sit near the Collin-wood yards in Cleveland and wait for my Grandpa to go by in his mighty NYC Hudson headed for Buffalo NY. The only problem is we would be hoplessly torn and heart broken between then and now.
I have attached a picture of the Collin-wood yards.. It was taken east of the massive coaling tower built in the early 40's due to the war. Nick
Robert S. Butler posted:The time on the railroads I'd love to go back and see wouldn't look like much from a model perspective - just a bunch of rock but if I could go there
Summit Tunnel ..."at one in the morning on May 3, 1867, a great, noisy crumbling took place at the east facing, and light from torches in the west could be seen flickering through the dust. No longer silent, the men from Shanghai, Canton, and Macao, and their American bosses, almost stunned, rent the icy caverns with a new din: a wave of bellowing cheers. The Summit had been pierced. The Sierras had been bested. There was awesome work yet to be done, months of wearing toil before the first track could be laid within the tunnel, but in that one ecstatic moment in 1867, the “Pacific Railroad” had become a reality. American would be bound, east to west, by iron. "
- From A Great and Shining Road - Williams
Love the history and the great writing. Thanks for sharing the quote, Robert.
JerryG posted:There is only one GOAT....He and Colonel Jacob Ruppert (Yes!!! We all want a brewery on our layouts) created the greatest sports franchise in the
history of any sport, and created the greatest stadium since the Flavian Amphitheater. If anyone (Menards?) is going to make a brewery for our layouts, why not the Ruppert Knickerbocker brewery?
Jerry
What a great idea: a Ruppert Knickerbocker brewery for train layouts.
I will Google Colonel Jacob Ruppert, but I believe he may have been the original owner of the Yankees or it’s predecessor team.
By the way, the tall building in Jerry’s photo behind the old Yankee Stadium still stands. It’s the Bronx Courthouse, and I went there today to file papers for one of my law clients. The building is run down, but still has some nice features. If they fixed it up and cleaned and polished the marble inside, it would be a beautiful historic building.
Balshis posted:Bloody right I'd love to travel back to the heyday of American railroads! And I'd bring my vintage Leica and a duffel bag full of film with me. Don't want to get discovered in 1940 carrying a digital camera!
I have personal interests in the Pennsyvania coal country, so I'd want to spend some time in Mount Carmel, PA, documenting traffic on the PRR, LV and RDG trackage converging there. Then I'd camp along the 4-track mainline of the PRR, getting pictures of every bit of motive power that thundered past. After that, there'd be a long spell along the PRR's electrified lines.
From there, I'd head to New York, to photograph all the NYC operations I could find. I'd even be willing to venture to New Yok City, to see the Central's electrified lines in action.
And after that, well, maybe I'd take the PRR (behind a GG1) down to the Philadelphia area, to study the Reading in full steam.
I'd probably have used up all my film at that point, so I'd have to return to the present to plan the next leg of my journey. Hey, just where is the nearest Time Portal, anyway?
Many of us would be thrilled to join you on the time machine trip you describe. Let’s include a ride with the engineer or in a caboose traveling around the horseshoe curve in the autumn.
rockstars1989 posted:Arnold,I dream of it all the time....I would love to go back in time. I would sit near the Collin-wood yards in Cleveland and wait for my Grandpa to go by in his mighty NYC Hudson headed for Buffalo NY. The only problem is we would be hoplessly torn and heart broken between then and now.
I have attached a picture of the Collin-wood yards.. It was taken east of the massive coaling tower built in the early 40's due to the war. Nick
Great picture of the train yard. If your granfather was an engineer on one of those steamers, he must have been one rugged guy.
When I watch some of the films taken of steam trackside on the PRR, how I wish I could have seen a T-1 or Hippo working a train. I can't.....so I run my scale models and lean down to where I am at 1/48 eye level.....and pretend. A big part of 'why' I do this....
AMCDave posted:When I watch some of the films taken of steam trackside on the PRR, how I wish I could have seen a T-1 or Hippo working a train. I can't.....so I run my scale models and lean down to where I am at 1/48 eye level.....and pretend. A big part of 'why' I do this....
PRR: The Standard Railroad of the World.
Such a rich history: the GG1, the Broadway Limited, Penn Station (arguably the most beautiful train station ever), the horseshoe curve in autumn, the hardworking immigrants that helped build the PRR, the rugged railroad workers who built, maintained and ran the trains.
PRR: the consummation of the greatness of our country.
Arnold - Your topic ideas are always mentally stimulating!
If I could go back in time my first stop would be Baltimore, Maryland circa 1830 to ride the historic train that raced the horse pulled by Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb locomotive.
The second stop would be to ride the short lines in and out of Baltimore and Washington DC. I would have loved to ridden the Washington Baltimore and Annapolis trains between those three cities. The WB&A was an electrified railway and ran trains ( Inter - urban ) every hour on the hour. They also ran steam trains as well. I would have loved to have ridden the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad from Baltimore to York, Pa and back.
My next stop would be to have hopped a ride on the B&O steamer that service the Patuxent Branch of the B&O. The Patuxent Branch is now a rails to trail walking/bike trail. I often walk/ride it and wonder about the kinds of locomotives and rolling stock that once traveled this route. The dominant commodity was granite; for this branch of the B&O serviced granite quarries from 1902 - 1926 approximately. Some of the bridges are still intact. I would love to have witnessed the operations of this branch.
My next stop would be Pennsylvania Station Baltimore to witness all the steam and electric locomotive action .... and to take a passenger train to Harrisburg, Pa via the Pennsy's Northern Central Railroad. I would have loved to have seen the Pennsy steam locomotives that moved freight trains to and from the port of Baltimore. Wow what a thrill that would be! Again the Northern Central is now a rails to trail bike and walking trail. Whenever I walk it my mind is full of wonder and my imagination goes wild at the thought of Pennsy's trains that traveled the double track line, mostly a continuous upward grade from Baltimore to Harrisburg.
Next stop would be Grand Central Station NYC to ride the 20th Century Limited pulled by a Dreyfus Hudson to Chicago. What a thrill that would be!! Once in Chicago I would take the CB&Q Zeypher to Denver and back.
Ahhhh the imagination..... what a time machine!
trumptrain posted:Arnold - Your topic ideas are always mentally stimulating!
If I could go back in time my first stop would be Baltimore, Maryland circa 1830 to ride the historic train that raced the horse pulled by Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb locomotive.
The second stop would be to ride the short lines in and out of Baltimore and Washington DC. I would have loved to ridden the Washington Baltimore and Annapolis trains between those three cities. The WB&A was an electrified railway and ran trains ( Inter - urban ) every hour on the hour. They also ran steam trains as well. I would have loved to have ridden the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad from Baltimore to York, Pa and back.
My next stop would be to have hopped a ride on the B&O steamer that service the Patuxent Branch of the B&O. The Patuxent Branch is now a rails to trail walking/bike trail. I often walk/ride it and wonder about the kinds of locomotives and rolling stock that once traveled this route. The dominant commodity was granite; for this branch of the B&O serviced granite quarries from 1902 - 1926 approximately. Some of the bridges are still intact. I would love to have witnessed the operations of this branch.
My next stop would be Pennsylvania Station Baltimore to witness all the steam and electric locomotive action .... and to take a passenger train to Harrisburg, Pa via the Pennsy's Northern Central Railroad. I would have loved to have seen the Pennsy steam locomotives that moved freight trains to and from the port of Baltimore. Wow what a thrill that would be! Again the Northern Central is now a rails to trail bike and walking trail. Whenever I walk it my mind is full of wonder and my imagination goes wild at the thought of Pennsy's trains that traveled the double track line, mostly a continuous upward grade from Baltimore to Harrisburg.
Next stop would be Grand Central Station NYC to ride the 20th Century Limited pulled by a Dreyfus Hudson to Chicago. What a thrill that would be!! Once in Chicago I would take the CB&Q Zeypher to Denver and back.
Ahhhh the imagination..... what a time machine!
Patrick, you have many train dreams and great knowledge of the B&O, PRR and the other railroads mentioned in your reply, which is very interesting and informative.
Thanks also for your kind words,
Arnold
Careful. According to my meticulous calculations, unless you don actual apparel from the period, you will show up in your birthday suit .... and unless your time machine's destination bearings are precise, your trip could end like this:
What, me worry?
The Ruppert Brewery. Perfect for a layout, with those elevated tracks. Too bad I don't have room to model this scene. I'll bet someone a lot better at research than me can come up with much better stuff. A simple Google search didn't yield many photos.
Arnold, the Yanks were founded in 1903 and purchased from two New York politically connected (Tammany) and shady characters in 1917. Colonel Ruppert (NY National Guard) and Colonel Huston (Army Engineers) ran the team together until a falling out over the hiring of Miller Huggins. Ruppert finally bought out Huston in '22 or '23. The Stadium was finished in '23. Ruth's contract was purchased from Boston in '19.
The best book on the Yankees is "Pinstripe Empire" by Marty Appel, who tells us that the NY Yankees, Ford and Buick, Harley-Davidson, and LIONEL TRAINS were all founded in 1903.
It was Huggins' unexpected death in '29 that led to the Yankees erecting a monument in centerfield. Most people don't realize that monument stood alone until the Gehrig monument was added following his death in '41. Also, lots of people grew up thinking that the bodies of Huggins, Gehrig, and Ruth lay under their monuments.
I would love to see someone build that brewery on their layout, but, it can't be me.
Jerry
JerryG posted:The Ruppert Brewery. Perfect for a layout, with those elevated tracks. Too bad I don't have room to model this scene. I'll bet someone a lot better at research than me can come up with much better stuff. A simple Google search didn't yield many photos.
Arnold, the Yanks were founded in 1903 and purchased from two New York politically connected (Tammany) and shady characters in 1917. Colonel Ruppert (NY National Guard) and Colonel Huston (Army Engineers) ran the team together until a falling out over the hiring of Miller Huggins. Ruppert finally bought out Huston in '22 or '23. The Stadium was finished in '23. Ruth's contract was purchased from Boston in '19.
The best book on the Yankees is "Pinstripe Empire" by Marty Appel, who tells us that the NY Yankees, Ford and Buick, Harley-Davidson, and LIONEL TRAINS were all founded in 1903.
It was Huggins' unexpected death in '29 that led to the Yankees erecting a monument in centerfield. Most people don't realize that monument stood alone until the Gehrig monument was added following his death in '41. Also, lots of people grew up thinking that the bodies of Huggins, Gehrig, and Ruth lay under their monuments.
I would love to see someone build that brewery on their layout, but, it can't be me.
Jerry
Thanks, Jerry, for sharing with us Yankee history.
It occurs to me that baseball and railroads have a rich history in common. The history of the Yankees is comparable to that of a great railroad like the New York Central or the Pennsylvania with respect to its greatness.
I have posted photos of my ballpark before, but will share them again because they take us back to Yankee Stadium in 1956. That is around the time I first got hooked on the team, watching games on TV with my dad as Red Barber, Mel Allen and a little later Phil Rizzuto did the play by play. Father, son and trains; father son and baseball; sound familiar?
The monuments in center field in the field of play, about 450 feet from home plate! How cool was that. Mantle, with his great power and foot speed, hit inside the park homeruns out there. The ball would rattle around the monuments as the opposing center fielder frantically tried to chase down the ball,
And you are so right about many of us believing as children that the monuments were grave stones and Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth were buried out there. The comedian, Billy Crystal, has a very funny skit about this.
I did not know that further back in time there was only one center field monument for Miller Huggins.
Arnold
trumptrain posted:Arnold - Your topic ideas are always mentally stimulating!
If I could go back in time my first stop would be Baltimore, Maryland circa 1830 to ride the historic train that raced the horse pulled by Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb locomotive.
The second stop would be to ride the short lines in and out of Baltimore and Washington DC. I would have loved to ridden the Washington Baltimore and Annapolis trains between those three cities. The WB&A was an electrified railway and ran trains ( Inter - urban ) every hour on the hour. They also ran steam trains as well. I would have loved to have ridden the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad from Baltimore to York, Pa and back.
My next stop would be to have hopped a ride on the B&O steamer that service the Patuxent Branch of the B&O. The Patuxent Branch is now a rails to trail walking/bike trail. I often walk/ride it and wonder about the kinds of locomotives and rolling stock that once traveled this route. The dominant commodity was granite; for this branch of the B&O serviced granite quarries from 1902 - 1926 approximately. Some of the bridges are still intact. I would love to have witnessed the operations of this branch.
My next stop would be Pennsylvania Station Baltimore to witness all the steam and electric locomotive action .... and to take a passenger train to Harrisburg, Pa via the Pennsy's Northern Central Railroad. I would have loved to have seen the Pennsy steam locomotives that moved freight trains to and from the port of Baltimore. Wow what a thrill that would be! Again the Northern Central is now a rails to trail bike and walking trail. Whenever I walk it my mind is full of wonder and my imagination goes wild at the thought of Pennsy's trains that traveled the double track line, mostly a continuous upward grade from Baltimore to Harrisburg.
Next stop would be Grand Central Station NYC to ride the 20th Century Limited pulled by a Dreyfus Hudson to Chicago. What a thrill that would be!! Once in Chicago I would take the CB&Q Zeypher to Denver and back.
Ahhhh the imagination..... what a time machine!
Thank you, Patrick. I got very excited when I first thought of this topic. The rich history of the great fallen flag railroads has great appeal to us.
Isn’t it great to have such wonderful models of B&O, NYC, and PRR trains and trains from the other great railroads? These models fire up our imaginations and keen interest in the history of trains.
Arnold
Alfred E Neuman posted:Careful. According to my meticulous calculations, unless you don actual apparel from the period, you will show up in your birthday suit .... and unless your time machine's destination bearings are precise, your trip could end like this:
What, me worry?
LOL
Balshis posted:Bloody right I'd love to travel back to the heyday of American railroads! And I'd bring my vintage Leica and a duffel bag full of film with me. Don't want to get discovered in 1940 carrying a digital camera!
I have personal interests in the Pennsyvania coal country, so I'd want to spend some time in Mount Carmel, PA, documenting traffic on the PRR, LV and RDG trackage converging there. Then I'd camp along the 4-track mainline of the PRR, getting pictures of every bit of motive power that thundered past. After that, there'd be a long spell along the PRR's electrified lines.
From there, I'd head to New York, to photograph all the NYC operations I could find. I'd even be willing to venture to New Yok City, to see the Central's electrified lines in action.
And after that, well, maybe I'd take the PRR (behind a GG1) down to the Philadelphia area, to study the Reading in full steam.
I'd probably have used up all my film at that point, so I'd have to return to the present to plan the next leg of my journey. Hey, just where is the nearest Time Portal, anyway?
I too, would love to go back to that period and also to the decade of the '30s. About the Mt Carmel area, my grandmother's family on my mother's side came from Girardville. We still have some relatives up there. I remember visiting as a kid a few times. They are fond memories.
Yes, take me to 1927 to live in the city I love, to ride the rails out of Grand Central and Penn Central, to see the Caliph of Clout play alongside Murderer's Row with a record of 110-44, to ride the subways, to visit the theatres of the Great White Way. That would be marvelous.
Let’s go back in time in our time machine and change a few things to make a Field of Dreams story.
It’s 1927 and Shoeless Joe is allowed to return to the major leagues; he gets traded from the White Sox (Black Sox) to the Cubs.
Shoeless Joe hits 410 during the regular season and leads his new team to the National League pennant; Babe Ruth has hit 60 home runs and the Yankees totally dominate the American League.
Shoeless Joe is taking the Broadway Limited from Chicago to New York, where he will soon arrive at the glorious and gleaming Penn Station and then take the NYC subway (another Wonder of the World at the time) to the equally glorious and gleaming Yankee Stadium to play in the greatest World Series of all time. Somehow they manage to squeeze in 100,000 fans to see the opening game in the Stadium with a capacity of 60,000 fans.
Ruth built it and people came!
The music is the glorious beginning of Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, popularized in the movie 2001 ASpace Odyssey:
Arnold
Amazing: PDXTrains and I were on the same wave length, reminiscing about 1927.
I did not see his reply until after I posted mine!
Arnold,
Great topic. Who among us hasn't dreamed about going back in time to participate and enjoy the glory days of American railroading. For me I'd sell my soul to the devil if I could travel back to the 1920s and 1930s and ride the Great Northern Empire Builder headed up by a magnificent Baldwin Great Northern 4-8-2 class P-2 from Chicago to the Glacier National Park and spend the rest of my days at Louis Hill's marvelous Glacier Park Lodge.
OKHIKER posted:Arnold,
Great topic. Who among us hasn't dreamed about going back in time to participate and enjoy the glory days of American railroading. For me I'd sell my soul to the devil if I could travel back to the 1920s and 1930s and ride the Great Northern Empire Builder headed up by a magnificent Baldwin Great Northern 4-8-2 class P-2 from Chicago to the Glacier National Park and spend the rest of my days at Louis Hill's marvelous Glacier Park Lodge.
Sounds like you are willing to sell your soul to the devil to be in a place that would be heaven for you. Well, that’s not a bad deal!
Thanks for telling us about Glacier National Park. Never been there but I will make it a bucket list item.
rpmcobra posted:
Late 1890's early 1900's ride the MA & PA to the farm in the back round that my great grandfather owned and just talk to him for awhile.
Get back on and ride York to Baltimore several times.
That’s a beautiful picture of your great grandfather’s farm, and what is even more beautiful is your wish to be with him.
Arnold D. Cribari posted:By the way, the tall building in Jerry’s photo behind the old Yankee Stadium still stands. It’s the Bronx Courthouse, and I went there today to file papers for one of my law clients. The building is run down, but still has some nice features. If they fixed it up and cleaned and polished the marble inside, it would be a beautiful historic building.
I did jury duty there when I lived in the Bronx, it is an interesting building, classic Beaux Arts I believe, marble in the lobbies. Might end up getting renoved because believe it or not the South Bronx is rapidly gentrifying (never thought I would see that), so might end up part of a renewal project
One place I would like to visit is the Lima Locomotive Works during its heydays. I grew up about a half hour southeast of Lima (at Indian Lake), but too late to see any locos being built. I'd like to see the Shays and Super Power Berks posing for their builder pictures!
And before leaving that time make a run down to Indian Lake and check out the old Sandy Beach amusement park at Russells Point. Fun house, rides, and a wood roller coaster in its prime, nearby interurban line and maybe slip over to Lakeview and see some of my relatives that were gone before I was born! LOL
Then maybe a visit to the N&W Roanoke shops...
1850s and the following 3 decades in Missouri to watch the birth and growth of the Pacific RR (eventually MoPac & Frisco). I want to see and photograph the first locos on the line, the drilling of Barrett's tunnels, the failure of the Gasconade bridge, Sesesh governor "Fox" Jackson fleeing St. Louis on a train in terror of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, the postwar expansion of both branches across the state and their separation.
handyandy posted:One place I would like to visit is the Lima Locomotive Works during its heydays. I grew up about a half hour southeast of Lima (at Indian Lake), but too late to see any locos being built. I'd like to see the Shays and Super Power Berks posing for their builder pictures!
And before leaving that time make a run down to Indian Lake and check out the old Sandy Beach amusement park at Russells Point. Fun house, rides, and a wood roller coaster in its prime, nearby interurban line and maybe slip over to Lakeview and see some of my relatives that were gone before I was born! LOL
Then maybe a visit to the N&W Roanoke shops...
A common theme is emerging: that both real and model trains are a link to our past and to our love ones, both alive and deceased.
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