You Only Live Twice

[Guilford Guy]

According to The Strokes, you only live once.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vKoIw_THvQ

[boomertom]

I am content with the time frame of my life and the place.  I was born July 1, 1945 in Covington, Virginia on the mainline of the C&O. Just west of Covington the westbound assault of the Allegheny Subdivision began in earnest.

Steam was still common on the Allegheny in the early 50s and I saw the H-8 the mighty 2-6-6-6 in action as well as the cream of passenger power the J-2 (like the Bachmann model) and the J-3. But the diesel was rapidly over taking steam power and I was thrilled by the streamliners.

Later the GP-9s replaced not only steam but much of the F7s.

I was also only 60 miles from Roanoke and traveled there frequently for various doctors appointments. Js.As,Ys' ex C&O 0-8-0s on both the N&W and Virginian. The VGNs' big Trainmasters. and near the end of the 50s Southerns green,white and gold E-8s exercising trackage rights between Roanoke and Bristol, TN with crack passenger service.

Additionally, as my mother had relatives in the Bluefield, WV area that we would visit I saw the N&W and VGN power in action in coal country.

Trains have been an important part of all of my 64 years and I have "played with trains" for most of those beginning with a clockwork steamer, progressing to Lionel, changing to HO, switching to N when apartment living restricted space and now back to HO,

What would I change? Absolutely nothing.

Tom

[PRRThomas11]

I would do anything to live in a small house in the Pennsylvania countryside along the PRR main line. Somewhere in the transition era.

Ya know... my philosophy is that 50 years from now, rail fans will look back at 2000-2009 and say, man I wish I lived to see the trains then. So I try to live with the trains we have now. Some day they'll be gone and there's going to be different ones. And another thing, we need to save some of today's locomotives and rolling stock. We don't think much of them now but some day we'll look back and wish some of those trains had been saved.

[jettrainfan]

I would do anything to live in a small house in the Pennsylvania countryside along the PRR main line. Somewhere in the transition era.

Ya know... my philosophy is that 50 years from now, rail fans will look back at 2000-2009 and say, man I wish I lived to see the trains then. So I try to live with the trains we have now. Some day they'll be gone and there's going to be different ones. And another thing, we need to save some of today's locomotives and rolling stock. We don't think much of them now but some day we'll look back and wish some of those trains had been saved.

Conrail is one of those rails.They got one on display somewhere in Penn. I am lucky to have berea and see at least 2 Conrails a trip. They diapered temporarily for 2 months! I only saw one at Wendy park helping a coal at rock port yard. I thought they were not dieing. But that was a sign that may come to them. We are lucky for CSX for not repainting/scrapping the last 4 operational Cheesie diesels. I look at railroading differently ever sense that temporarily disappearance... knowing it might come true.

[jward]

prr,
i live in an apartment in pennsylvania about 100 feet from the prr mainline, and halfway up a 1% grade to boot...

as for the 2000-2009 era, i don't think anybody realizes just how much changed during this period. 2000 was the year after the ns takeover and the railroad was a shambles. ns management knew how to run this railroad better than the men who'd nursed it back to health from the penn central debacle, or so they thought. ns was losing entire trains for days.....

to-day, though the recession has really killed traffic, things move along pretty well, and a humbled ns management realizes what went wrong....

trackside, many of the old prr signals have been replaced by more modern tri light ones. gone are probably a dozen different types of locomotives, mercifully most were GE dash 7s......

on the way in: ns is at the forefront of using electro pneumatic brakes on coal trains, and we see them in the area all the time. ns has also seen fit to rectify their bizarre practice of ordering locomotives set up to run long hood forward. various locomotives have had their control stands turned around so that the engineer can actually SEE where he's going. and they now have toilets!

as an explanation of the last 2 comments: ns was sued several years ago by engineers who got black lung from breathing diesel smoke while operating long hood forward. the class mentioned in the lawsuit was the c39-8. wonder if that had anything to do with their retirement? on the former pennsy lines this was not an issue because the long hood forward locomotives were not equipped with cab signals and thus were not allowed to be the lead unit on our trains.

the toilet issue came to a head (no pun intended) right after the takeover when ns ran afoul of pennsylvania's law mandating a working toilet on the lead unit of any consist. conrail's all had them, many of the ns did not. alot of shuffling of consists, and turning of locomotives, occurred until ns wised up.

[BestSnowman]

If cost and time were not an issue I don't think my layout would change much... just be a lot bigger.

My layout is set in moder time but there is no limit on what I run. I primarily run diesel as I grew up longer after dieselization, but I run steam when I want to. I also run railroads that no longer exisit (or have never existed outside of books and movies) such as PRR, DM&IR, PM, and of course Hogwarts Express (one of these days probably Thomas too).

So I guess to sum up my answer, I would love to run long DM&IR coal trains behind diesel consists and Yellowstone class steams alike.

[PRRThomas11]

I didn't know CSX is saving those, thats cool.

And some very interesting stories jward, your'e lucky to live there. Its weird to think that just 10 years ago, bright blue locomotives still criss-crossed the rails where I live. And the NYS&W still ran stack packs!

By the way, do you live near Eighty four? What a funny town name. I just heard that on Letterman.

[grumpy]

I can't change what is . I would like to have a good night's sleep and a day without pain so that I could put more time into my layout. During the late 40's my family lived very close to a marshalling yard in the north end of Winnipeg . I could lie in my bed and listen to switchers moving the cars around . It was all steam in those days and there was not a better sound.. as a result I model mostly steam .
Don

[pdlethbridge]

That B&M commuter line near my house was close to the Franklin St station so I could here the engines accelerate on their way to Boston. There were 2 road crossings with in a mile of the house so I could hear the whistle clearly. The franklin st. crossing had 4 gates and a crossing tender to raise and lower the gates. On the outside of his shack was a warning buzzer that gave 2 warnings to lower the gate. His location was about 200 feet south of the station on the SE side of Franklin St. The station was on the NW side. This gave the operator (tender) an unobstructed view of both north and south tracks for safety.
   If you went up early in the morning, he would be removing the kerosene lanterns from the gates and they were counter balanced by round weights. Taking them off the gate would help make it easier to crank up and down.   Behind the shack was a barrel of kerosene for heat and lanterns.
For safety at a double crossing a couple of miles north of Franklin St. in Greenwood there is still a gate tender but the gates at both roads are automatic.
  A number of years ago, Model Railroader had a construction article about this station. It was a classic design with gingerbread trim that got moved to Pleasure Island in Wakefield. When the park closed the station was burned. By the way, Pleasure Island was a theme park created by F Nelson Blount the same man who stated Steam Town.

[Guilford Guy]

http://www.g-m-e.com/gme_laser_structure_kits.htm
You mean this station Paul?

[pdlethbridge]

Don't think so

[WGL]

 The only trains that ran through my village on the western Mesabi Iron Range were iron ore trains pulled by Oliver Iron Mining &, possibly, DM&IR locomotives.  Outside of town, there were DM&IR & Great Northern freight trains.  I liked to see how many different railroads were represented by the cars.  Born in 1944, I don't quite remember seeing steamers.  I wish I'd been near passenger trains.  My dad loved his Fords; we never travelled by train.  I've never lived where travel by train was practical.  The only train I ever rode was a children's train at the Duluth Zoo.  My interest in trains began with Marx 027 train sets circa 1949-1952.  

[Guilford Guy]

Looks almost identical to me...

[pdlethbridge]

THERE YOU GO, THAT'S THE ONE!!

[jward]

By the way, do you live near Eighty four? What a funny town name. I just heard that on Letterman.

eighty four is about 30 miles from me. it is home of 84 lumber, a regional lumber chain that predates the home depots and lowes in this area by many years. there is also a mine 84 near ellsworth, which loads a significant number of coal trains, many of which travel east over horseshoe curve.