Ron has sent in these railroad memories from the 1950’s:

The call to board. The pulling out of Tampa Union Station around 9:00. The smell of diesel smoke coming through the closed gate of the converted cattle car. The aroma of cooking hamburgers on the grill while you waited – how good they tasted as I stood by the gate watching the Florida pineywoods roll by – how excited all the people were knowing they were going to watch their Florida Gators play.

My father would get free train tickets since he worked for the railroad. That meant we didn’t have an assigned seat but who cared. Stopping in Waldo and moving the engines to the other end of the train arriving in Gainesville around 12:30 and detraining to awaiting buses for the ride to the stadium. Reversing this process for the return trip to Tampa.

All these and more are profoundly etched in my memory from childhood. The people were so excited after a Gator victory but so down after a loss. But everyone was in agreement that this Gator Special was a wonderful way to experience college football in the 50’s.

The Seaboard ran these trains for a long time and I can’t begin to tell you how much fun they were. The Seaboard was one of the forrunners of CSX, and I guess, as with all good things, it had to come to an end. I regret that I couldn’t carry my kids and grandkids but am so grateful for my father who did carry me. Thanks for the memories, Dad.

Peter remembers learning to drive a locomotive and riding the last steam powered service from Berkshire to Kent in the UK:

The Mid-Hants Railway, is a preserved steam railway, running from Alton to Alresford, in North Hampshire, England.

After spending a birthday dinner on a Saturday evening, I was presented with an ‘Activity Day’ coupon that gave me the opportunity to learn to drive a steam locomotive.

It was a great experience. After learning the safety rules and line protocols, rights of way etc., we went onto the footplate.

I was assigned the role of Fireman for the first part of the trip, being shown how to keep the fire, red hot, to maintain sufficient steam power to drive the loco. It did not come easy at first, both the shovelling and the positioning of the coal was quite difficult, but I was able to keep up a reasonable heat.

The second part of the experience was to learn how to drive the locomotive. Adjusting the steam, power and speed regulators was hard work, but was as exciting as I thought it might be. I did quite well, but for one thing, I overshot the ‘Halt’ signal and entered the single-track section illegally, and dangerously. Thankfully there were no other engines on the line and I was able to return to the station at Ropley, home to all the engines and workshops.

It was a really great morning and satisfied a dream of many years, from my time as a teenager, riding on the last steam service, running from Reading (Berkshire) to Tunbridge Wells (Kent) on the old Southern Region of British Rail.

Sterling remembers doing something many of us would have done when we were kids and writes:

“I grew up in a small town in Nellis, W. Va. Our house was real close to the rail road. The train pulled coal cars up and down the rail. More often than not the enginer would throw candy to us from the train. Needless to say we spent a lot of time watching for the train. We would also put pennies on the rail so the train would flatten them. That was a long time ago, but I still have the memories.”

It’s easy to see why so many people share an interest in Model Trains after hearing so many wonderful railroading experiences from years gone by. Here is an interesting recollection from Elbert:

I was born into a railroad family. My grandfather had been an engineer for the East Carolina Railroad for many years. He lived in Goldsboro, NC. I have fond memories of him later in his life after he retired. He and my Dad (also an engineer for the Atlantic Coast Line) would sit for hours and tell stories. I was priveleged to sit nearby and listen. It was wonderful and exciting.

My grandparents lived in a house on a slight hill that overlooked the switching yard near the passenger station. On the cold winter day, I would sit by my grandmother’s bedroom window and watch the steam engines switching cars around and often the long columns of smoke which rose high above the steam engines were very white, especially when the wind was still and the air was cold. I loved to hear the sounds of the engines. I recall that in the passenger station there were restrooms and water fountains labelled either for black or colored. Even at age ten, I thought that was pretty ridiculous.

My Dad used to take me to the train yard in Portsmouth, VA often to help him “fire up” an engine on a Sunday afternoon. Sometmes he would sit me on his lap at the throttle and I would “help him” switch a few cars. Of course, he was very careful to do this on a Sunday afternoon when it would be less likely for a railroad detective to be snooping around the railyard. He would tell me he could get in trouble if caught with me in the engine. I recall having to duck my head a few times.

My grandfather was once praised in the newspaper as being the most talented engineer in Eastern N. C. because he could stop a passenger train exactly where he should at the station; thereby not using extra coal and water to back the train up. The paper said, “He could stop a train on a dime”.

I have always loved trains and I deliberately slow down at a crossing to watch a train go by. But the smells, sounds, and the feel of the ground shaking under your feet from a steam engine (and later diesel) passing by was always something very special!

These are the best memories of my childhood.

Jerry would like to share these memories of the New York subway and writes:

I grew up in Brooklyn NY and my mom and I would take the subway to run errands and visit with some friends. I remember the most exciting ride I took was taking the Lexington Ave Express from Brooklyn to Woodlawn Rd to visit friends up there I was 9 years old and went with my mom. The train was very old for it had slats for the destination signs. It was a long and interesting ride.

As I grew older I started exploring the NYC subway on my own and have ridden every line that was in service since 1964. For more info go to http://www.nycsubway.org/ there is info on the system and old pictures.

My interest in trains have grown since. I rode the LIRR from Brooklyn to Montauk and from Brooklyn to Greenport. I also road the eartern corridor of amtrak to Boston and Florida and Albany NY. My other riding experiences was riding Metro north to various destinations in Conn. and NY.

Out here in California I have taken Amtrak from SF to Reno on the Zephar and have ridden the local Capital corridor service from Sacramento to SF and to Fresno. Both are nice rides. I hope to ride the Coast Starlight up to Seattle when I am feeling better.

Joe has sent in these photos and interesting story for publication:

When I was born, we lived less than a 1/2 mile from the Southern Pacific “Alhambra Yard” in the eastern part of L.A. (Not East LA). It was the last half of the 40’s and steam was nearly all there was. I loved, and still do, the steam engines. They ran 24-7 and their “noise’ was a way of life.

My buddies and I would walk down to the yard and then walk the mile and a half east to the Alhambra station once or twice a week. We were 8 or 9 years old.

I particularly remember the “Cab Forward” SP engines. They were the biggest, noisiest most wonderful engine around. Yes, there were the diesel yard and switch engines and the streamlined diesel “passenger engines” but we detested them!

Our home was only about 10 miles from the Union Station in Los Angeles and travel by train was the #1 means of travel in those days. There I got to see the “Daylight” train that ran to San Francisco daily. THAT was the most beautiful train of them all!

By the early 50’s, the diesels were taking over most of the passenger service but the SP yard still had steam running ’round-the-clock. Every night, I’d go to bed hearing the sounds of the steam trains and falling asleep happy.

When they were gone, I’d talk Dad into going to Knott’s Berry Farm so i could just sit for hours and watch their old steam train run the circuit. What a blast! (That was long before they turned it into a major amusement park.

I still love steam, have been able to ride some and we are planning to ride the “Toltec & Cumbres” some time next month.

Went to “RailFair” in Sacramento in 1981 for the Grand opening of the California Railroad Museum and took lots of pictures of the engines there.

Long live steam!

Larry is happy to share his childhood memories of growing up near the rail yards in St Joseph, Missouri and writes:

As a boy growing up in the 40s, 50s and 60s in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and living just three blocks east of the rail yards, I had a lot of opportunity to watch the switchers do their jobs and I loved to watch the steamers stop to fill with water, and load with coal.

My friends and I would go up to the round house and watch the engines being worked on. As long as we stayed back out of the way, no one would say anything to us, of course there was times when we would be told to leave but most of the yard workers were very friendly and would let us watch.

My mother would always have to make sure the wind wasn’t blowing, or was out of the east when she hung the washing on the lines or she would have to rewash them because of the soot from the steamers!

When my oldest son was born, we lived about five blocks from the main line and he was used to the noise of an engine and the blare of the horns very early. As he grew older I used to take him down to the yards to watch and if I was working, he would go get one of his grandfathers to take him down. He could sit and watch all day if you let him!

We built him a model train set up, which he still has today, 30 years later, and his son is now having to be taken to the yards and watch the trains.

So the torch has been passed and we all still love the blare of the horns and the rumble of a passing train

Steve tells of his days watching a steam locomotive pass under a bridge just a few feet away:

I remember back in 1950 or so living on Gates Ave in Jersey City and at the foot of my street was an iron truss roadway bridge leading to the Lehigh Valley rail yards on the waterfront.

The Central Railroad to the Jersey Shore ran its line under that bridge. I used to stop on the section of walkway over the southbound track and watch the CNJ camelbacks pulling out of the Danforth Ave station about 1/2 mile north. As they would approach, we boys would hold on tight to the bridge while the engineer blew the HELL out of his whistle and great clouds of black smoke poured out the stack!! I was really scared the first time I did that as the bridge was only a few feet above the smoke stack!! And it had a wooden deck with large spaces between the boards. Well after going through that black tornado I’d walk the 1/2 block home and my mom would chastise me for smelling so bad with coal smoke!! I told her I just “Happened” to be there when the Locomotive was passing under!

Sadly both my MOM and the bridge are gone but not the memories!!!

Gregory tells how, as a 14 year old, watching freight trains lead to his interest in model railroading. Here is his story:

In the early 1950’s we used to chase and watch the huge consolidations of the Southern Pacific haul freight trains up the Cascades in Western Oregon. It took four (4) 4-8-8-2’s in each of the freight trains of more than 100 cars to pull the huge load up the grade and over the Cascades to eastern Oregon. Unbelieveable power.

What a thrill and site to see them come home, four giant engines, three dead heading engines behind a bearly working lead engine. Then the next day we would hike across the fields to get to the round house to walk around and inspect these huge behemoths.

What an eye opener for a 14 year old train buff. Some forty years later I was able to see that same locomotive in inch and half scale run under live steam with my live steam locomotive. My guess is that that scale locomotive was 12 to 14 feet long. Impressive to say the least.

Jim has sent in this amusing story from his childhood days in Scotland:

My parents and I where on our way to a day out at Saltcoats a seaside resort on the west coast of Scotland when my Dad decided he needed to go to the bathroom (after a few beers in the central station bar) well as there was no toilets on a steam train he decided to nip off at Kilmarnock to use the stations toilet and as the train was pulling out of the station I caught the sight of my dad running along the platform (he never caught up with it) and to make matters worse he had all the train tickets in his jacket pocket so me and mum had to sit on a bench in salcoats station as I think the ticket collector must have thought we were a pair of fare dodgers until dad came through on the next loco from Kilmarnock well as it was everything turned out o.k. as we had left home early enough and had a great day out including the famous Scottish high fish tea (fish and chips with a cup of tea and two slices of scottish plain bread). Well thats it. regards Jim

Kobus has sent in his memories of railway operations in South Africa:

I grew up in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The town is situated on the Main Line between Bloemfontein and East London and had a steam locomitive depot. My father was a boiler maker with the then South African Railways and Harbours. The rail system operates on a 3’6″ gauge.

I have fond memories of visiting my dad at work during holidays, climbing on and in steam locomotives. These were of classes 19D, 14AR and 24AR. I was fascinated by these monsters and went on many rides on the footplate to turn the locomotives on the triangle. I also had the oportunity to use the regulator and stoke the fire even though I could hardly lift the showel with coal. (All done illegaly) My favourate reading was the magazine on trains published by the SAR&H.

I recall the time when the 4-6-4,4-6-4 garret locomotives were introduced. These monsters ran bunker first to East London due to the tunnels on the line. The families’ annual holiday was to travel to my grandparents farm at Welverdient in the Transvaal province.

From Queenstown to Burgersdorp the train was hauled by dubble header steam (2x19D.) I remember getting my face plastered with coal dust as I hung out of the window to get a veiw of the locomotives on curves.

From Burgersdorp to Kroonstad 23 or 15F steam classes were used and then 5E electric loco’s to Johannesburg. From there a motor coach to Welverdient. In this area I had the oportunity to observe many other locomotives of different types and classes. Using my magazines as reference, I learned all I could about them.

In 1960 diesel-electric locomotives were introduced on the Bloemfontein-East London line. These were class 33 General Electric and later General Motors locos. I remember the day I darted of to the station on my bike to have a look at them after I had heard the air-horn. I remember marveling at the powerful sound of these locos that made your insides vibrate.

These locomotives were later replaced by more powerful GM 34 class. Wow, four of these hauling a heavy grain train! The sound was magnificent!

Yes, you have guessed. I did join the Railway Operations department and retired in 2007. If you have the time, there is no better way to travel than by rail! Kobus, South Africa.