What railroads did you grow up near?

Two blocks from the CNW office and line in Chicago. The elevated tracks of the CTA went through my back yard.

alongside the mighty Pennsylvania RR mainline in Metuchen, NJ.

...with the added interest of Lehigh Valley and Port Reading drills.

ERIE

Back in the 50s the Seaboard Air Line, Atlantic Coast Line, and N&W are the ones I remember in and around Portsmouth VA.  Others too, but those were the main 3.  They also had the Norfolk & Portsmouth Beltline that served all 3.

 

Others were A&D, Southern, AC&Y, PRR, old Norfolk Southern, and Virginian.  C&O was across the James River.

Grew up in Bound Brook,New Jersey
CNJ
LV
READING

Grew up in northwest Iowa and the Milwaukee Road and the M & STL went through town.  I am modeling Milwaukee and Up/BNSF.

 

Art

Originally in Pittsburgh, Pa.  The P&WV was closest, followed by Mr. Beano, and the Penn.   We arrived in Summit, NJ. in '58 and that meant DL&W M&E....and later forays to the CNJ, Penn at Newark, and all the stuff operating out of GCT !  Don't remember seeing Mr. Hot Water, but it was the right place and time !   Still lots of dead and stored PRR steamers over at the Penn in Kearny !

Fairview PA..Norfolk southern and conrail,also Penncentrial..

As a preschooler, the CB&Q, B&OCT, CTA Elevated. Later, CB&Q, IC, and IHB, with a touch of C&NW.

Born, raised and matured in a steel town.  In fact the second largest producer in the USA.  Consequently was surrounded by railroads.  Five class 1's, the Pennsy, NYC, B&O, Erie and last but not least "The Little Giant" P&LE.  And then there were at least 10 or 12 Short lines mostly subs of some of the biggies.

I forgot to add the L&N ran thru my Grandparents driveway in Kentucky.  The train hauled timber and coal and always stopped before trestle to cut the consist in half so they could make it up the mountain.  I remember the Mars lights flashing through the night.

LIRR - Atlantic Terminal - Vanderbilt Yard

I grew up in Allentown, PA; the local roads were the Lehigh Valley, Jersey Central, and Reading. I sometimes also saw L & HR, B & O, Chessie System, and occasionally Penn Central engines coming through town before Conrail.

Richland Center WI. Was serviced by  MIL RD . The train came 5times a week. Now Idont know if it has any train service any more. I live in FL. now near CSX.

As a youngster 1/2 block from the station and yard at Patchogue on the LIRR.

I remember we  couldn't have a TV antena on the roof as it was slippery from the soot--had to put it in the attic.

Scotie

Living in Havre de Grace Maryland where the North East Corridor crosses the Susquehanna River abd the Old B&O crosses a mile up river we are starting to see BNSF locomotives pulling crude oil trains.

 

Grew up in Baltimore, so:  PRR, C&O, B&O, Western Maryland, Canton RR, and a few other short lines.

PRR.  I grew up in Lewistown, PA, which was the mid point on the PRR's Middle Division between Harrisburg and Altoona.

Given the four track main and near constant parade of trains, it would have been difficult to grow up in Lewistown and NOT be a railfan.

Curt

I grew up in Livonia and Dearborn, MI. Lived very close to the C&O tracks for a while, and I remember being in a barbershop in Livonia as a teen and hearing one of the men talking about working on the Pere Marquette when he was young. I had no idea what he was talking about.

 

Jeff C

Used to skip school and ride P&LE to Pittsburgh. I think it was 50 cents one way

Central of New Jersey, Pennsy, Lehigh Valley, D&H and Lackawanna ran in the Wilkes-Barre area. Jersey Central two track main was about two blocks west, and another four track line a few hundred feet from that. On the way home from school, some of us would climb up to the gate house, and the gateman would let us pump down and then raise the crossing gates. No automatic gate mechanisms then! My grandmother's house was just feet away from the tracks and a few blocks south of the crossing, and it was a treat to see a steam loco sitting on the tracks by the house.

Don

Two blocks from the Southern Pacific Coast Route.

lackawanna, lehigh & new england, and lehigh & hudson river.

"Near which railroads did you grow up?" 

 

C&O for Progress 

Mine was the Collinwood Yard of the New York Central.   This was a fairly large operation with a repair shop, dormitory for train crews, turntable, coaling tower, etc.; it is also the site where the westbound  steam engines were replaced by electric engines prior to entering the Cleveland Union Terminal with passenger trains.  The local neighborhood high school, Collinwood High School, had the nickname of "Railroaders".  (At one time Collinwood was a city separate from the City of Cleveland prior to annexation.)

Western Maryland & B&O.

Delaware and Hudson, then Guilford, then CP Rail.

I grew up near the Capitol Yard of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio RR in Jackson, MS. We would hear the sound of the switching and banging of railcars going on day and night. The IC RR was somewhat more distant, with their mix of steam and diesel locomotives at that

time. Now it's the CN and the KCS, and the Capitol Yard is abandoned.

Penn Central/Conrail's Rockport Yard (now Norfolk Southern), West 150th and Brookpark Rd, Cleveland, Ohio

I can remember my mother pushing me in a stroller.I lived less than a block from the Brooklyn Docks.I can only remember seeing switchers all the time my street was cobble stone with the tracks flush in the road. I can't remember any road names,I was to young to read.

Within earshot of the Panhandle in East Columbus/Bexley, OH. I used to love hearing the grade crossing at Cassidy Ave. summer nights when the breeze was right. Never forget laying in bed hearing the Freedom  train T-1 blasting her farewell out of town in the early morning in May '75. I get chills remembering how they let the whistle wide open all the way out of town. I was only eleven and it choked me up. Still does...

Elmwood Park N.J.   Erie Lackawanna/Conrail

Along the Conrail (former PRR) Pittsburgh Line in Greensburg, PA.  I have faint memories of ex-Penn Central units in black, and can still hear the SD40-2 helpers shoving heavy eastbound freights long after they were out of sight...

Nobody has mentioned the "original" Union Pacific.  I grew up in Omaha about 8 blocks away from the mainline. I recall climbing between the plate girders on a large trestle and wait for the train.  It was so loud you could not hear yourself scream.  What a rush!!  Always had to watch out for the conductor in the caboose that had the shotgun with salt pellets.  At least that is what I was lead to believe.  Remember,  I was just a kid then.  

born and raised in curtisville pa,,18miles north of pgh pa,,,,main line of the Bessemer and lake erie,,had a weight station and they would cut the cars at night,,bang,bang,,got used to ,,lived next to the crossing,,,could shake with the conductors ! of course lived on the "right " side of the tracks!!!

....Conrail.

I was born in 53. I grew up in the northeast Bronx.

 

I remember the Harlem Division of the New York Central whenever we traveled to the central Bronx.

 

I lived within a mile of the Harlem River Division of the New Haven.......the portion of the NH that connected the **** Gate Bridge to New Rochelle Jct. This was a freight line and the conduit for through trains from DC to Boston for the Pennsy and the NH. My relatives lived in southeast Westchester County. I watch NH MUs and NH jets (EP-5s) fly by my entire childhood pulling fast passenger trains.

 

I went to Cardinal Spellman HS in the Bronx. I traveled on the Dyre Ave subway. I always wondered why this part of the IRT was so different from the rest.......In the late 90s I learned of the New York Westchester & Boston RR.....an ambitious project in the 1st half of the 20th century to add high speed commuting to the Bronx and eastern Westchester. It was closed down in 1937 and part of the Bronx portion(with its ornate stations)exists as the Dyre Avenue subway.

 

....and of course, the #6 IRT was 5 blocks from my house.

 

I could talk about this stuff for hours, but will stop here......

 

 

Peter

About 5 blocks from a YVT interurban electric and 1.5miles from BN main line.

Now I see why there's hardly any Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line O scale on the market, only 2 of us (out of nearly 80 replies) grew up in the area

As a kid, the closest line was the Grand Trunk, on the southwest side of Chicago. It ran steam until 1960, so I got to see some great trains.