When did you see your very first train?

[Santa Fe buff]

According to my mom's memories, it was a freight, "You saw a yellow one, that's all I can remeber... the Blue Island District in Oak Lawn." Oh dear, oh dear, I wonder what railroad that was:

The Union Pacific...

Joshua

[Rickenbacker 325]

the first time I road a train was the first year of Day Out With Thomas

[Paul W.]

I grew up with model trains as my Dad had worked for both Pennsy and Santa Fe. So when I was young we used to ride downtown and watch trains at the crossing in town. The first train I ever rode on was a steamer up at Strasburg, PA. To this day Strasburg is my second home. My Dad used to work with steam engines when he worked for the Pennsy, and even though I don't have anything against diesels, steamers are my thing 

[glennk28]

My mother claims my dad had a train for me when he picked us up from the hospital back in 1941.  On those occasions he was driving (WWII, gas rationing) he did manage to have to stop for a lot of crossings mainly in San Francisco.  At the ripe old age of 3 my grandfather would take me to the SF Zoo every Friday--we'd take the Muni streetcar and I usually rode up front where I could watch the motorman.  At the end of the day at the zoo, there was a steam train to ride--the engineer was a friend of my grandfather's, so I had the equivalent of a cab ride--in his lap--and I got to blow the whistle and ring the bell. 

gj

[az2rail]

I don't remember seeing my first train, but I must have been very, very young. My father was an engineer, and we lived next to the railroad tracks.

Bruce

[renniks]

From as far back as I can remember pre WW2, the family would catch the GW train from Snow Hill station in Birmingham to Portsmouth for our yearly weeks holiday in Southsea. This always included a day on the Isle of Wight, travelling to and fro on a side paddle steamer. Can still remember standing in the doorway of the engine room watching the inclined engine. Still have a photo of grandpa and me aged about 7 (1934?)walking to the beach,taken with a box Brownie. Also have photos of a 1950 mountaineering holiday in Norway taken with same camera.

Eric UK

[Terry Toenges]

Iceland - My first impression of Iceland was the same as Nut's - Like stepping into the past.
Germany - My Ahmann ancestors came from Meckelege -
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mowarren/schake/part1c.html

[jbsmith]

Sir, I no recall of that.
I remember that main line that ran through town was, and recall seeing most often was Chessie System C&O , late 1960s thru 1980.
and sometimes varoius others like GTW, once in a while The Rock,and
Penn Central/New York Central.

1st Train ride? Do amusement park trains count? The engines were scaled
down steam engines that even used real coal,,at the House Of David park
in Benton Harbor MI.
Then in due course the trains at Disneyland in Anaheim,and Knotts Berry Farm.

Subways Count?  Washington DC Metro and then the BART in San Francisco.

REAL Train ride,Electric,Last summer,,South Bend to Chicago Millenium station on
the South Shore Line then took the "EL" to Addsion Ave for a Cubs game. [Cubs won, beat the Marlins.]

[Santa Fe buff]

These are all my major (Or worth mentioning.) train rides:

My first train ride was at the Illinois Railway Museum on their Coach Train pulled by the Metra E unit (Leading) and the Milwaukee Road E unit (Second unit) pulling a train of Pullman and normal coaches. I rode "The Green Hornet" as well.

My second ride was on the Washington D.C. Metro system from Maryland to Washington D.C. It was an enjoyable, underground, trip. It gave me a better, and more experienced, respect towards rapid transit by means of third rail, elevated, or third rail.

My third train ride was at the Monticello Train Museum. I road their "Ghost Train" during the day, pulled by their Canadian National ALCO FA-1. Pulled where Pullman coaches with one Budd coach at the end, then a caboose with an air horn when backing up.

My fourth train ride was at the Illinois Railway Museum on their coach train pulled with five or four Pullman coaches with their Southern Pacific EMD SD7 pulling alone. It was nice, but the custom Nathan 5 chime horn kept startling me over and over again.

Then my most recent ride was at the Illinois Railway Museum once again. This time, I rode all trains (Like I always try to.) except the Vintage CTA cars (Red and green scheme.), but instead road the newer CTA cars when we first arrived (Red and tan scheme.). Along with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Nebraska Zephyr, and the coach train. Though, the coach train was pulled only by the Southern Pacific EMD SD7 once again, it had a longer consist this time around.

Those are all of my more popular rides. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to post.

Sincerely,
Joshua

[jbsmith]

Here may be found photos of that House of David train that I mentioned earlier. My grandfather is in two of the photos,,#4 second from right
and #5 on the right.
The last three photos are the ones I remember seeing and riding on.

http://www.houseofdavidmuseum.org/edensprings/trains.htm

These trains are going to make a comeback in the next year or two.

[Hellhound]

that would have been as soon as I was old enough to stand up and look out the screen door in the kitchen. The Nickel Plate Road went through the middle of a field behind the house. I don't remember seeing any steam locomotives, only diesels. ...One of my earliest childhood memories is standing at the kitchen door watching giant black monsters roar through the field while the floor of the house vibrated beneath my feet...and wondering what they were.

[pcctrolleyII]

I'm not to sure when i seen my first train it might have seen the frankford market El where i live in Phila PA.

[DuceNova]

When I was VERY young (born in 1948), we lived in Downsville, NY until 1956.  The O&W tracks ran near us (they went bankrupt before I was born) so I didn't see a train till we moved to Deposit, NY in 1956.

I believe it was still the (weary) Erie back then.  We lived ON (what was then) Rt 17 (before the four lane was built) and the Erie tracks were about 300 yards from our house.  All I remember about my first nights there was that I thought I'd NEVER get to sleep with all of the noise from the trains and trucks going by!

I don't remember seeing any steam engines on the Erie (I think that they had changed to diesel power by then).  Most of what I saw were F series diesels then later on when GP series engines when they merged with the Lackawanna.

One train in particular stands out in my mind.  A trains LOADED with M60 tanks headed east.  I found out years later that we (the US) stripped the east (of the Missippippi) of all of our M60 tanks to send them to Israel!  Quite a site to see all of those hundreds tanks on flat cars!

I also rode the Phoebe Snow from Hornell to Binghamton, NY twice in 1967.  We darned near froze to death as there was NO heat and it was at Christmas time!

[rogertra]

I was Born in Portsmouth, England.

Trains were so common that you couldn't fail to notice them.  Sadly, many, many lines have closed since then but trains are still more common than in North America.  The line into Portsmouth would see trains every five to ten minutes or so.

Here's a video taken in the mid to late 1960s showing trains on one of the many mainlines leading to and from London.  This is what was once the Southern Railway and later, when the video was taken, the Southern Region of British Railways.  Now it's all "privatised".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=R4ZFi3Pcyy4&feature=channel_page

[Rashputin]

  I was born in Youngstown, Oh in 1951 and thought that when the sun set in the west, it left an orange/pink hue in the sky.  In reality, it was the steel mills running day and night back then.  The first train I remember seeing impressed me so much that I remember it to this day even though I was only four years old at the time.  My father was letting me ride along with him to go pick up something or other and we stopped at a rail crossing where a NYC L2b (so I was informed) rolled passed with a long train of mostly gondolas.  I clearly remember counting the drivers and watching the volcanic exhaust in the subzero cold.  With relatives in PA, MD, WV, and VA, one of which was a grandfather who worked for the Southern, I watched an awful lot of trains on the PRR, NYC, B&O, C&O, WM, Southern, and even Y6bs on the N&W.  Nothing has ever equaled that L2 slamming through the crossing with its exhaust enhanced by the cold and carload after carload of newly made steel.

   Now, of course, Youngstown is almost as dead as the L2 that past me that day.   People born too late to have seen this country when we made things missed out on a lot more than seeing an industrial America.  They missed out on seeing a real multicultural society, one where people from all over the world were in America because they wanted to be Americans, were proud of where they came from, but even more proud of their work and their community.

  Somehow, maybe because I've gotten older or maybe because I've lost enough of my marbles to have faulty mental connections these days, all of that relates to the first train I remember seeing back when we kids hung on every word of the big Hunkie or Wop who bragged about how much steel they rolled that day rather than listening to hyphenated American adults brag about their latest feat of thumb typing on their IPod.

  Regards