My childhood home in North Aurora Illinois was about 100 feet from the Burlington tracks I saw Chinese Red & Grey, Black & Gray then after the merger with Great Northern, Green. Across the Fox River 500 feet west was the Chicago North Western. Also do you model what you saw as a youth. My layout is 1970 so I can keep young in my mind.
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Grew up near the SP Torrance and El Segundo branches which were former PE lines. First serious job (same place my dad worked) was near the ATSF Harbor subdivision, so I saw a lot of SP and ATSF traffic growing up. I currently live near the remnants of the ATSF Redlands Loop and have acquired quite a bit of data on the area over the past several years.
Back in Newark NJ there was a Lehigh Valley railyard about a block from whee we lived. Spent many a day trying to derail boxcars and general messing around in the yard with my friends.
The railyard had a spur to the Lionel factory on 21st street. Lionel had moved out a long time before I lived there.
The PRR. In 1952, my family moved to a small central Pennsylvania town, right on the PRR 4-track main line. I spent many an hour down there watching trains.
I grew up, first in Cranford, NJ on the CNJ, and in 1956 we moved to Chatham, NJ on the DL&W. I departed for college in 1960.
C&O, DT&I, and GTW in MIchigan.
Growing up in Niagara Falls New York it was a little bit of a melting pot. CN, CP, TH&B ,NYC, Lehigh Valley and Erie Lackawanna. Also a small electrified line called The Niagara Junction Railway.................Paul
N&W. I was born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia. My Grandfather, Father, and Brother were all employees of Norfolk and Western. I can remember seeing the Shaffer's Crossing smoke stack from our backyard in the far distance.
Gilly
Pennsylvania Railroad late 70's then Penn Central, Conrail and now the trackage is owned by the Allegheny Valley Railroad.
Running through the back of town was the Bessemer and Lake Erie Now Canadian National.
I grew up very near the Riverside Repair yard of the B&O Railroad.
I grew-up/lived within a couple of miles or so from the B&O, Erie, Pennsy, NYC, P&LE, and probably a couple of others that don't immediately come to mind.
Chicago and Northwestern, IC and Burlington
I grew up around B&O railroad then went to Chessie System and now CSX. Also there is a main and siding track 1500 feet from my house. I see trains alot and hear different horns and plus the trains will vibrate my house sometimes.
NYC...then PC....then Conrail.... grew up in Peekskill on the Hudson Line. It is still going strong as the Metro North Hudson commuter line!
In my twenties and thirties lived in Norfolk very close to the main NS line into Norfolk International Terminals. I could here the horns all night long!
Now live less than a half mile from the NE Corridor Line of Amtrak (Old PRR main line) and I still hear the NJ Transit and Amtrak whistles at night!
It is kind of comforting to hear the whistle/horn!
PRR, P&WV, B&O
My home town in northeastern NJ is a stop on the PRR - PennCentral - NJTransit mainline. Also, a CNJ - Conrail line (Chemical Coast).
I used to model that Conrail Chemical Coast Line in HO.
Growing up in Kearny, NJ, the then Erie-Lackawanna Newark Branch, and Boonton Line (former Greenwood lake branch) passed through town.
This also put us near the NEC, PATH, CNJ, and other rail lines.
Today, I live right by the LIRR's "Main-Line" in Peconic (hence my handle).
There hasn't been an actual stop in Peconic since the early 70's.
Ken
In Jacksonville, FL: Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Airline, and not so much Florida East Coast, because I lived on the north side of town
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Part of the time I grew up just south of San Francisco. I lived within walking distance of the Southern Pacific Bayshore Yard...which was a pretty good sized facility. My dad's best friend was yardmaster. I used to go down and have coffee with him. I also grew up with the Union Pacific and Western Pacific in that area. As a teenager we moved to the North Bay (across the Golden Gate Bridge). I was near the Northwestern Pacific and...again...the SP. Matt
KCS, MKT, Santa Fe, Frisco (Later BN), and MoPac.
Now we have KCS, BNSF, UP, SKOL, MNA. Mergers and Spin offs.
I lived in three small towns outside Louisville, Kentucky, on the Southern, and in
Louisville 1/2 block from a crossing over the Louisville and Nashville, and very
near a train shop on the L&N whose owners recently retired. A relative I used to visit frequently had her farm divided by a branch of the L&N.
Pennsylvania Railroad and B&O. Both lines ran through the edge of town and crossed the Susquehanna River. Saw GG1's and Metroliners on a daily basis. Now it's Norfolk Southern, CSX and Amtrak. Most of the cool freights go through at night. Long coal drags, whole trains of John Deere farm equipment on flat cars heading to a distant port.
Well for me it was the Milwaukee Road and C&NW and I model neither. The N&W caught my interest at and early age along with the UP and NKP.
The DL&W ran a couple hundred yards from my home in Hillcrest, NY, and the D&H a few hundred yards beyond that. Then a few miles into Binghamton was the Erie with its freight house.
But I have very little Erie or D&H in the collection. Erie-Lackawanna and DL&W combined are more prevalent.
The LIRR Port Washington branch ran in a cut behind my backyard fence, between the Murray Hill and Flushing Broadway stations.
My dad and I used to spend some Saturday mornings at Sunnyside Yard watching GG1-led trains arriving and departing. Our two favorite spots were near the wash rack along Skillman Avenue and on the Honeywell Street overpass, overlooking the motor servicing pit. The GG1s received sand and fuel for their steam boilers and minor servicing between runs.
As I got older sometimes rode my bike to Sunnyside.
The Atlantic & Yadkin in my very small rural hometown[formerly the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Ry.].
The N&W, which I rode many times to Ohio, was 14 miles north in Madison and the Southern was 12 miles south in Greensboro.
They were connected by the A&Y, Greensboro to Walnut Cove, and had Depots side by side in Madison where the A&Y had an "armstrong turntable".
Houston Area:
SP, Now UP
MoPac, Now UP.
Katy, Now UP.
HB&T, Now between UP and BNSF.
ATSF, Now BNSF
FW&D, to BN, Now BNSF.
CRI&P, ROW to FW&D, to BN, Now BNSF
TX CHIEF passenger train, AFSF, to Amtrak 1971, renamed LONE STAR disc. 1979
SUNSET LTD. passenger train, daily to tri-weekly, by SP, to Amtrak 1971, still running
Southern Railway, Statesville North Carolina
I grew up in Richfield MN, across the street from the "high line" branch line of the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Ry. I lived there from 1958 to 2006, and saw the line go to the Soo Line, then Canadian Pacific, and now is run by Progressive Rail. In the early sixties, it only ran Fairbanks-Morse and Baldwin diesels.
Thing I miss most is the MNS used Hancock Air Whistles, which sounded like steam whistles. When the Soo started running the line with high nose GPs, that booming BLAT airhorn was quite a shock!!
The Reading
This is an interesting blog.
I grew up in north Alabama. My home town had Southern, Illinois Central, Frisco, and Alabama Central. My grandparent's farm had the L&N on the back forty.
I could see the Southern tracks from the boys bathroom of my grade school. When I heard a train approaching I would ask to be excused and go to the bathroom. This caused my teacher to reccomend I get my bladder checked. When my doctor heard the real cause of the problem he laughed and wrote me out a note for my teacher saying I needed to go.
The Illinois Central had 2-8-2 steam engines until about 1960. On several occasions the crews would let me climb into the cab and look around. I still vividly remember these visits.
I was reading before the second grade. One of my learning tools was reading the side of passing trains. I could read most of the names before grade school and if the name had a state in it I would go home and find the state on my US Map. The map was a jigsaw puzzel that had a different color and part for each state.
Reading
Lehigh Valley
Jersey Central
I was a disadvantaged Youth growing up on an Island in Puget Sound.
The only times I would see real trains was when the family would travel to Seattle and go to the King Street Train Station to meet my Grandparents coming in on a train.
At that time GN & NP were the trains I'd see.
Dave
The Norfolk Southern Railway later Southern Railway.
Grew up across the street from the PRR Pavonia yard. Plenty of action with both the steam and the electrics. My favorites the streamlined GG1 electrics.
If lucky could get a ride in a GG1 cab from 36th street signal to just west of the 28th street bridge.
"keep your head down kid"
B&O
New York Central-New Haven....commuted 32 years on the Harlem and Hudson lines..
B&O
EL
The Brooklyn Eastern District, BEDT which operated the last Steam Engines in New York City in regular revenue service . This wa October 1963.
Also nearby was the LIRR in Long Island City and Bushwick/Williamsburg Brooklyn
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