Your earliest RR memory...real trains

This should be an interesting thread.

 

Coming along just a bit late to see a lot of steam engines, my first impression was the huge, beautiful EMD DL&W streamliners at Binghamton, NY.  Wow, what a sight to see close up when you're not much taller than the coupler!

My earliest memory is of the Reading Crusader, westbound through Cranford, NJ in 1944 or 1945. My dad had taken me down to the CNJ Cranford freight yard on the south side of the CNJ main line, and we were parked in the parking lot of the Yard Office, in our 1940 Ford coupe. I will always remember that streamlined Reading locomotive with it's rods flashing, and that silver stainless passenger train speeding westbound!

 

From then on my entire working life and hobby has always revolved around railroad motive power, both steam and diesel.

My earliest memory is taking the Hudson River Line from Yonkers to Grand Central Station in 68 or 69 to see Ringling Bros Circus I was 3 or 4 at the time.  I guess the line was being run by Penn Central (a former NYC line) at that point in time.

In the early 50’s my older brother John drove me (then about a 6-7 year old whipper-snapper) up to the Central Vermont RR yard in Willimantic, Ct in his 39 Buick sedan. There my Uncle Bill, who had been working for the CV all his life made sure I got aboard one of their 0-8-0 switchers for some afternoon shunting activities…MUCH TO MY DELIGHT!

In this same era my family lived about 200 yards from the Old New York, New Haven & Hartford Worcester branch, which ran up through Eastern CT.  I always made sure I was a trackside witness to as many freights as possible, mostly all Alco FA powered. I can still remember watching the rails rise and fall under the weights of loaded gondolas…totally fascinated and probably much to close for my own good.

 

Bob

Yeah... that would do it, lol.

 

The Crusader is one of my all time favorites, though I'll have to settle for memories through photos and watching my HO brass version on a future layout.

 

Got pics?

 

As for my first memory(s):

 

Let's see...

Started off with a Lionel circle laid out on a carpet, then via a photo from EBT from my parents and then early visits to nearby New Hope.  What solidified my interest?  Well, say what you will, but a special thanks must go out to Ross Rowling in his success rebuilding and running the C&O #614 in a series of excursions between Hoboken, NJ and Port Jervis, NY in the late 90's.

 

/Mitch

Stopped at the Cove Road railroad crossing in Weirton, WV probably around 1958-59 with my father.  Watching hot slag cars (about 20) go by being pulled by a Weirton Steel Alco S-2 painted in that Columbia Gas Meter green.  Caboose on the end.  Heat shimmering off the pots. 

 

Also (at that same crossing), my father would tell me the type of each car as long freight trains entered Weirton Steel.

 

He turned 97 yesterday.

 

George

I'm a diesel baby, born in 1961. Steam was all gone for my earliest memories (circa 1965).

 

Almost every Sunday, Dad would take me to visit his mother. On that 6 mile trip we would cross 5 different sets of track. First it was under the Milwaukee Road tracks, then at grade over the C&NW, then bridge over the GN, bridge over the MN&S, and finally a bridge over a different branch of the GN. There could be trains on any of those tracks, and often there were.

 

There was one spot in particular, just after the first GN tracks, where we turned onto a side street, at the end of which was a large vacant lot with a big white sign with red letters. The curious me, asked what it said. Dad the lawyer replied, "that's to keep the bad men out". Of course I had no grasp of the concept of trespassing.

 

This location was forever known as the "bad man sign". It was situated on a small bluff overlooking the GN main and a C&NW yard which I believe was ex M&StL. There was a roundhouse at the east end, and even on Sundays there was action. I had no idea what I was seeing. All I knew was they were trains, and I liked them.

 

Today, the lot is totally built up with houses, the yard and roundhouse are long gone, and all that remains is a single track BNSF main and the ex C&NW branch, now TC&W.

 

 

When I was 4 years old (1955), my aunt lived in a triplex on North 6th street between Franklin Avenue and Ross Street in Steubenville Ohio.  The Pennsy main was in her back yard about 3 feet above her yard.  There was a stone wall and the tracks (double track at that time) were right there.  I was inside and heard the train whistle.  I flew out the back door and ran to the wall, my dad right behind me and my mom yelling at him to grab me (In later years, my dad filled in that part) I stopped at the wall and waited.  The whistle grew louder and louder and I could hear the chuff-chuf-chuf-chuf...  Then the beast appeared - Eastbound and by my dad's description I believe it was a 2-10-4.  Boy was it loud and BIG!  I mean really BIG.  And the racket that the train made was deafening.  About 10 minutes later a passenger train westbound pulled by a K-4?  I was hooked at an early age.

 

Larry

 

 

 

 

My earliest is being in Baltimore's Harbor and my Father picking me up and carrying me across the street to a steam engine with a boxcar. It smelled like a combination of my Mother's steam iron and my Grandmother's coal furnace. I remember wondering where was the 'coal car' (tender). I also remember waving to the Engineer until he waved back. When I was in Cub Scouts, I built a Varney "Little Joe" Docksider kit because it was that same engine. I have a MTH model of it for the same reason.

You was bitten by the Big Jay !   Congrats !!

other than riding on the Erie-Lackawanna this is the only photographic proof i have...

 

Edaville RR (Carver, Mass), circa 1958.

 

cheers...gary

Well, I was born much later than all of ou do here's one that is in most peoples recent memory. My dad was driving home from work one day and he saw a couple of old Milwaukee road cars under a bridge over the TC&W tracks in Hopkins. He told my mother about it, and we decided to have a look with my close friend at the time. When we arrived, we saw a huge droid of people hovering around the track. Mostly focused around the old Milwaukee cars. I heard an odd sound in the distance, which I didn't yet recognize as a whistle. All of a sudden, all of the people cocked their cameras and pointed down the tracks. Of course, I couldn't see because I was knee-high to a grasshopper at the time. Then, out of nowhere, comes the big black beast that we all know as Milwaukee Road 261. My mother didn't really have a clue what it actually was in detail, but nonetheless, we got a closer look. This was my first time seeing a big locomotive under steam. This solidified my obsession with the iron horse.

Minnesota, late 1959, CNW F units on a daily freight mid morning.  I remember standing on the couch looking out the trailer window.  Kindergarten pictures of CNW F units in crayon is how I deduced the kind of train I watched at about 2 yrs of age. 

 

Greg

For me it should have been riding the PRR mainline on old MP54 electrics into New York City. But at age 4 my recollection is of arriving in old NY Penn Station and being awed by the space and ironwork of the main concourse room.

1948, UPRR roundhouse, East Yard, Los Angeles, with 4-8-2's under steam on the garden tracks.  I did not know wheel arrangements then, but remember the round, plain smokebox which extended prominently.

Interesting question. I can remember both Grandpa and Dad in overhauls coming home from working. Both worked for Clinchfield RR here in Erwin TN. I also remember the toy trains Dad had but I was very young and when we moved South no more trains. As I got older there was always train pictures in the house and  Dad always telling stories about his 10 years of working the railroad and Grandpa retiring from Clinchfield.  Some how when I retired and moved back here I just went nuts with O gauge trains and watching CSX going up and down the mountains. Go figure.

My grandfather was a train nut, through and through (I inherited it from him.) so I grew up going to a local city part that had an approximately 1/4 scale 15" gauge railroad in it that he worked at.  He actually had a major hand in it, and after his passing they named their new machine shop after him.

 

Anywho, when I was 4 or 5, in the early early 80's, #4449 in her fresh Daylight colors came into PHX.  Grandpa was going to be a conductor from PHX to where ever in Cal it was headed (Grandpa had the connections in the railroad world.  I've never met a person that had the hookups like he did.  Sadly he died when I was 12 so I never got to have him transfer these connections to me.), so we went to see him off.  What I remember the most was the bright colors of the locomotive, and the size.  My dad is 6'-6".  He was the tallest person I knew, and the wheels were bigger than he was tall!  I still need to get me a Daylight to run at home.

My memories always go back to waking up early in the morning, raising the shade in our Pullman bedroom and watching eastern Colorado fly by as we traveled from Chicago to Denver on the DZ, then on the Zephyr connection to Boulder to spend the summer with my Grandmother.

 

ChipR 

SP Glidden Yard along US 90 in Texas when I was about 5.  Still had this huge black water tower up.

Had to be an el in the Bronx. Or perhaps the New York Central barrelling through Bronx Park by the Botanical Gardens.

I grew up by a Conrail main line which is now NS. In Allentown and we would try to jump the cars and put coins on the rails . Plus listening to the rails to see if and which rail a train was coming. It was active line so there was always excitement.. Looking back we were lucky to not have gotton hurt but we had lots of fun on the rail. They also had a lookout tower? It was 60 ft+ in the air and we climbed up that . Thought I was going to dye trying to get down.lol..BuT I aways loved to see the engines coming...

My uncle who worked for the B&OCT had my dad bring me to the Roby Street roundhouse in Chicago in the mid to late 50s, as the last steam engine in the terminal was about to be retired. It was an 0-8-0. I liked it because it sat there quietly sizzling, not rumbling away like those noisy diesels in the adjacent stalls. And I do recall being told not to touch anything because everything is dirty. Which after my own 33 year railroad career I realized early on my uncle and father were right.  

I was 4 and remember being in the car with my father as he paced Reading 2101 pulling the freedom train on the ICG tracks throughthe far south suburbs of Chicago.

 

    

Mid 1950's; Lewistown, PA.  Dad and I would go by the old Royal Dairy, pick up milk shakes and then head to the PRR station where we would watch trains, hoping to see a diesel.  If only I could roll back the clock and change my focus.

Curt

Ah yes, the "T Hog" enroute to Chicago in sumer 1975

I was 4 and my Dad took me to see the Soo wreck just south of Devall tower in DesPlaines, IL. Wreck power was a 2-8-0 I think as it had a big wheel under the cab.

Riding the Kempton, Wanamaker, and Southern at about age 4

And my first memory of an active train was **also** riding the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern at about age three. I remember being impressed by the 250 and her steam, yellow handrails, and bright red number plate. So impressed that when I got home I tried to color up the handrails and number plate on an American Flyer Atlantic with crayons!

 

At age 3 or 4 watching a green Southern switcher work the American Tobacco Company in Reidsville, NC. (around 1954 or 55)

 

George Lasley

When I was little (probably between 5 and 8) my Dad and my Grandpa would walk me down to the tracks about 10 minutes from my grandparent's house. We would sit and watch the freight trains roll by. This was in the 80's in Dedham, MA. I seem to remember Conrail trains. I also remember going to Edaville Railroad in Carver, MA as a kid. We used to go a couple times a year, but especially around Christmas when they had lots of lights and decorations. I remember riding the steam train they had there. My best memories of trains as a kid always involved my Dad and my Grandpa.

My first memory would have to be riding the #7 line from Flushing, Queens to Times Square at Christmas time to go to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas movie and show. First diesel I ever saw was on the Long Island RR- one of my uncles worked as a brakeman in the Sunnyside Yard, I'd visit him during the summer once or twice. I have vauge memories of seeing operating steam engines, but can't pin down where or when---

My grandmother lived half a block from the Conrail Pittsburgh Line, so I was watching "Big Blue" practically from birth.  Earliest memories are some black diesels mixed in, most likely re-stenciled Penn Central units, and the business train heading east.  Until then I'd only seen pictures of EMD E-units, so it was a thrill to see them in person!

Fixing a Derailment at the camden yards before they built the stadium along Fort Ave in Baltimore long ago.

 

Strasburg 1223 4-4-0 train rides. It was remarkable that the engineer usually spent a moment to gather in the slack before getting it stopped at the station. bom bom bom went the cars.

Growing up in the 50's and the Boston & Albany RR at the end of the street I grew up on, I was influenced by the lighting strips of the New York Central and all the Alco's you could ever wish for. Eastbound out of Springfield, Mass was a grade of about 1%, I think. I do remember seeing the smoke from an eastbound freight rising above the houses that lined the street that ran parallel to the tracks, but that was the closest I can remember of getting close to a steam locomotive.

 

Chester

Larry,

Wasn't the Imperial Hotel on 6th Street?  My sister's baptismal reception was held upstairs (I remember the white baby grand piano near the windows).  Any way, I'm relocating it to a seedy section of 4th south of the tracks.  Lots more interesting things will be going on there!   

 

George

Growing up in Milwaukee, I'm not sure just what my very first memory of a real locomotive was, but I have a distinct recollection of watching a Class A Hiawatha crossing a high trestle over a south side street.  It was so amazing to me because I recognized it as the one locomotive that I had seen that Lionel made and was for sale at Schuster's Department Store where we usually shopped.  Man, the sight of a real engine in place of my favorite model was just wonderful.  Probably capped my interest in railroads and models in general.

 

Paul Fischer

Hard to say exactly, before I was born my parents built a house across the street from the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern's "high line" so I saw trains from the time I came home from the hospital. I remember there were usually two trains a day, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. When winter came and the afternoon train came by after dark (and it was too cold out to go out and wave) I used to open the front door and reach up to the light switch and flash the porch light on and off. Just before I turned five, they stopped the train in front of my house one day and the crew gave me a railroad flashlight, one with a long red "cone" to use in signaling. That was quite a thrill !!

The Reading ran behind our house in Manville, N.J. Around 1950 a locomotive with full steam up was sitting directly behind us. My dad took me to see it and of course the crew

pulled me up into the cab and showed me the workings! The open firebox was neat and I got to blow the whistle! A huge thrill when you are 4 or 5 years old. I think the loco was

a Pacific. That's my earliest memory!

I was brought into trains more through model trains than real ones.  I was always perplexed than none of the trains I saw looked like my Lionel General set or UP silver Alco AA set!!  Even though I lived fairly close to what is now the Northeast Corridor, the only trains I remember as a kid in the 60's & 70's were rows of black tank cars on sidings near the slaughter houses and factories in Philly (boy, the air stunk to high heaven) and some slow moving PRR box cars on bridges over the roadway.  I don't recall ever seeing a locomotive.

 

I do remember seeing people at trackside for RFK's funeral train.