When did you see your very first train?

[KCS-221987]

Tell me when you saw your first train.   Open to anyone.


I saw my first train when i was about 4yrs old and it was in Augusta,gerogia in the down town next to the savannah river. the railroad was NS passenigner but for some worry reason i cant remeber the rest. 

[Jim Banner]

I don't know when I first saw a train but I do remember the first time I rode on one.  I was 4 years old and the year was 1947.  My parents took my sister and I, plus our cousins, on a day excursion from Calgary to Banff on the CPR.  The CPR had some old, wooden colonist cars which they kept around for such excursions.  My most vivid memory of that trip was riding home in the cold and dark.  The cars were unheated, the gas lights were out of gas and the seats were hard.  But that never turned me off train rides.  I still enjoy them.

Jim

[jettrainfan]

cant remember. either near the yard near the airport or the Ex. nickle plate road ns line.(i grew up with it you might say ) It's down the street from me. I used to live next to it!!! not anymore.
I still like going their!

[Pacific Northern]

I grew up in a CPR townsite. I can not remember the first time I saw a steam locomotive, but I can remember seeing my first diesel engine.

[jward]

i am a third generation railfan and modeller. can't say where or when i saw my first train but i do know my parents took me to sturgeon, pa on a pennsy commuter train to visit my grandparents. i was born in august 1964, the train was discontinued in november the same year.

[pdlethbridge]

I was young enough to remember the steam locos of the B&M. I saw pacifics and consolidations on the commuter runs to Boston. Our house was a block from the tracks and my schools play ground was right next to the tracks so I saw them every day from 5 years old and more.

[Terry Toenges]

Can't remember the first I actually saw. My dad had a model railroad layout when I was born. He used to be a city driver and drove trucks to the rail yards to pick up trailers and I know we used to go downtown a lot, over the bridges that were over the rail yards in St. Louis
My first real experience on a train was going to Colorado when I was 4 with a friend of my aunt's. My uncle was stationed there (in the Army) and my aunt was there with him. Strange that the thing I remember most is the ham sandwich in the dining car.

[jonathan]

I believe my first train ride was also my first look at a real train.  I was, well let's just say it was in the 60's... went from DC to St. Louis.  I remember the view from the window... it was like magic.  A gentleman in a nice uniform brought me oatmeal and freshly squeezed orange juice in the dining car.  I hate pulp!  Loved the ride, though.

I remember my first look at a layout.  I was seven years old.  It was my grandfather's layout, which took over gramma's dining room.  I was hooked for life that day.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.  I'm going to go get my manly tissues now...

R,

J

[RAM]

I grew up in New Jersey with the CRR of NJ high bridge line right in back of our house.  As soon as I was big enough to look out the window.  My first train ride was on a DL&W Electric MU train from Dover to the Hudson river.  The first diesel locomotive that I saw was when we moved to Oklahoma in 1944.  I was on the Santa Fe train from Chicago to Oklahoma City.   

[Jhanecker2]

I was a little less than two years old , my parents & I had landed in New York City before Easter in 1952 . We had spent a good deal of time flying between Iceland and Gander, kept having engine trouble. After landing ,finally got everything straightened out with Immigration we ended up being Sent to Chicago where we had relatives from Mom's side of the family.  That was an wonderous time , first airplane ride , first elevator ride, first time in a skyscraper and first time riding in a train . That was truly long ago.

[Terry Toenges]

JH- Are you from Iceland? Really beautiful country over there. When I worked at the UN, I knew quite a few Icelanders. I spent Christmas and New Year in Rejkavik back in '73 I think. One of my good friends at the UN (Thor) was Icelandic and I dated his sister when she came to visit. Then Thor and I flew to Iceland that year.

[simkon]

When I was 4 I rode in the cab of several diesel powered locomotives. 2 of them were Youngstown & Austintown and one was in Erie Lackawanna livery, but belonged to some industry and was used for switching. I have a video tape of it that my father took, my brother was 8 or 9 at the time and got to sound the horns at the railroad crossings and got to do other stuff too. A year or two later my dad's friend died and I never got to ride in a cab again. Just think of how much trouble my dad's friend would have gotten into if he would have done that with all the strict regulations in place these days. The first one I saw was what I later found out to be the last train to run on the line, until just recently when Ohio Central System was operating some scrap & refuse trains over 2 decades later. The train was headed by 3 either Conrail or EMD lease Ex Conrail units, my dad's not sure, and I only remember them being blue, which doesn't help, but my dad said it took over 4 hours to pass because the speed limits in place because of the poor condition of the track. The track was ripped up a few year later, and had to be replaced in several areas when OHCR began its operation a few years ago, the line is now operated by a subsidiary of Wheeling & Lake Erie I think.

[ebtnut]

First train I remember got me written up in the local paper.  It was 1948, and I was two.  I somehow escaped from the back yard to go look at trains and planes.  I had to cross the trolley tracks and the B&O Baltimore-Washington main line to get to the small airport.  While I was out "exploring", my Mom had called the police and fire departments to look for me.  Somewhere in that episode, the B&O's "Cincinnattian" with a bullet-nose P-7 stormed past.  A neighbor finally saw this toddler wandering on the tracks and corralled me.  The episode made it into the old Washington Star.  

For several years shortly after, I got farmed out during the summer to my grandparents in Warren, PA, where Pennsy steam still reigned.  At that time it was an important double-track main line out of Erie.  A few blocks from their house, the line split, with one headed up the Allegheny River towards Olean, and the other up the mountain to Kane and on to Renovo and eventually Harrisburg.  Today, the Olean line is under the Kinzua Dam lake, and the rest is single track operated by, I believe, the Allegheny Valley RR after being spun off when Conrail was created.

Terry:  I was staioned in Iceland in the Navy in 1970-71.  I agree - beautiful country.  I had my own car, so was able to get around quite a bit.  Always reminded of how Middle Earth would have looked, back in the days when Tolkien was popular the first time around.  Did you ever see their one preserved steam loco?

[Cody J]

I don't remember when I saw my first train. It was probably on one of the trips North on State Route 7 along the Ohio River where all the industries are. My first train ride (I believe) was October 5, 2008 (I'm only 13). It was on the Byesville Scenic Railway in Byesville, Ohio. They had gotten an ex CP or CN steam locomotive from Ohio Central.

cody

[Jhanecker2]

To Terry : No I am not an Icelander , though I am told it is very beautiful in a Volcanic sort of way.  Ethnically I happen to be a Danube -Swabian although I was Born in Bavaria in Chieming near Munich . My parents were displaced persons who fled to Germany during & after the Second World War . Their ancestors were from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire , their provinces had been divided  between Yugoslavia & Romania after WW I . They met in Bavaria after the war , their home cities were about 60 miles apart.  I am told that Germans had settled in that part of Europe before and after the Turkish expansion .

The only reason we got to see so much  of the area between Iceland and Gander was because the airline Flying Tigers was doing the flying and kept having an engine go bad on the flight. It took some days to either get repairs or another plane up there. I am told the boat got there to New York City faster than we did.  You know the old saying about getting there is half the Fun.  John II.