Chris from South Africa send in his memories of working on the Railways:

I’m from South Africa and work 31 years for the S.A. Rail & Habour company. Although I work in the clerical departments I’ve also work for 6 years on various stations, where I had to attend the load & offload of traffic from goods trains. These trains were steam, electrical and diesel engines with trucks from hopper, parcels, grain, farm animals, mass load etc. I’ve also deal with mainline & suburb passenger trains.

In the early years of the rail road service to and from Cape town the train (steam/diesel) had to zigzag on a single rail from the bottom to the top of a mountain (visa versa) before continue to the north/south of the country. In later years they changed this route only for tourist. Ever since this route has been closed.

Your railroading memories continue to flood in. So much so, that I have been flooded (excuse the pun) with stories to publish.

I am also getting lots of amazing feedback from others in the hobby who are thoroughly enjoying the series. It seems that the articles have bought back many great memories for everyone.

If you have sent in your railroad memories…

PLEASE NOTE it will take a while to get them all published. So keep watching the blog as it is updated frequently and your memories will be published (provided they meet the publishing guidelines).

In the meantime I would like to hear some more from those of you that can help others with model train tips and advice. After all, that is the main purpose of this Model Train Help blog. So, if you can please send in your best model train tip it would be a big help to others in the hobby. Please submit your best model railroading tip at http://www.model-railroad-resources.com/train-tips.html

That would be a big help. Thank you.

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