Remember When...

[hoborich]

I remember when railroads posted signs saying "Private Property, Trespassers Assume All Risks". And you could go into any trainyard and look at trains or take photos all day and no one would bother you.
When I worked for the Grand Trunk at Pontiac, back in the late 60s, there were always people in the yard, scooping up spilled grain from the tracks, to feed their chickens and other animals. Other people would pick up spilled coal from the tracks, and take it home in buckets. Nobody bothered them.
We had a cleaning track, where we sent empty boxes and flats to be cleaned before delivering them for loading. Nails would be pulled from flat car decks, and boxcar walls, and bracing lumber would be removed from the cars. It was just thrown in a pile for people to take. Some of the guys built garages and cabins from the scavenged lumber. The local would bring back box cars with dozens of perfectly good bricks left in them, from broken bundles that someone was too lazy to pick up. There was always some usable lumber in the grain doors used in box cars, before the use of covered hoppers for grain.

[Y@]

I remember...

When the Indiana Hi-Rail was all ALCo power out of Defiance, and I never got pictures.

My first trip to Deshler and how excited I was.

Meeting my first real "foamer" friend Ryan when I was 6. We grew up around here together, then he moved over to Akron. He was killed September 8th, 2009, by the thing he grew up loving. While on a trip to Cincinatti for a college visit, he was asleep in the back seat of the car he and his dad were driving. His dad tried to beat a train to the crossing... neither of them made it out.

The day I learned of the Conrail split, and how hard I cried (LOLZ) because it was my favorite railroad. Eleven years later, it still is.

Meeting most of you guys for the first time and how welcomed I felt in the group.

My original train-watching buddy, my dog Jake. My dad would drive us out to Standley when I was just a little kid and we'd all sit on the back of the truck and watch the trains go by. God I miss that dog.

The summer trips to the Bellevue Yard with my uncle Jim. We'd drive down an access road and sit on the tailgate at the south end of the yard and watch the yard jobs with SD9's and slug sets drill cars. That was where my real love for trains began.

So many memories... and so many more to make!

[Aleks]

I remember when all you had to do was go into the yard office @ Port Huron, sign a release form and you could wander around the engine terminal to your hearts content and get shots like these.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 59&nseq=32

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 298&nseq=2

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 822&nseq=3

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1673022

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1670245

and this was the same at many yards and engine terminals.

At Spadina yard in Toronto where the CN Tower is now located, you would go into the office, sign a release, they'd give you a hard hat and you could wander through the roundhouse or where CN's passenger power was serviced and readied for their next assignment all you wanted.

I can remenber going to the B&O yard in Toledo (can't recall the name that I75 crosses over what remains of it) and getting permission at the office to shoot some power sitting in the yard and the employee in the office giving us permission to climb aboard, go in the cab, etc with one restriction. He said we couldn't run them.

[penn central]

Nice thread bnsfben, Where should i start the things i remember around saginaw in the 1970's and 1980's, I remember walking across the saginaw river bridge on CSX back in 1987, And thats when the Washington avenue tower was still manned the tower operator leaned his head out the window and said the train from Ludington is getting close and to not cross the bridge until the train cleared, The power on that train i will never forget it was three Clinchfield SD40's He had 130 cars of mixed freight, I will always remember the train from ludington would always have the cars off the boat in ludington on the tail end of the train, And the boxcars full of kegs of beer from milwuakee wis. You could smell the cars as they approached

[J T]

I wish i was a railfan for most of that stuff

Me too. I've always had an interest in trains, often sitting by the tracks and watching them go by, but it never occurred to me to pay attention to what kind of power was on them, what railroad name was going by, etc. Wish I would have thought to take pics of them way back when, too.

[PAT.C]

I REMEMBER WHEN WABASH F'S AND GP7/9'S WENT BY MY HOUSE [8224 .S HOMAN AVE. CHICAGO] HAULING STEAM ENGINES TO THE SCPAPPER.
FROM THE TRACKS ACROSS FROM MY HOUSE I COULD SEE THE GTW/WABASH DIAMOND AND PASS.TRAINS WITH 4-8-4 POWER .


AND SINCE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE OLD DAYS...THE OLDER I GET--THE GREATER I WAS !!!!!!!!!!!!.

[Jochs]

I remember all the Chessie engines in St. Joseph when I was little.

I remember in the early 1990's when you could go down to the St. Joseph depot and see several trains in the evening.
R337 used to wait for Amtrak P370 east of the bridge, or if 337 was early, it would wait at Livingston. BITD 337 used to set sand cars off at Livingston.
After Amtrak, often CP R200 (now X500)would follow Amtrak, sometimes with CSX R326 or CP R202 following.
Or 337 would cross the swingbridge and go into Livingston for one or more eastbounds.
We also had R201, 203, later 205 and 207 wb CP's, 204, 206 eb CP's, and 327 and 336 and D700 on CSX.
N939, the West Olive-Cicero Turn started running around 1993( BN coal train.)
I think it was 203 that delivered new engines out of London, ONT.
My brother and I were among the first railfans to see the SD70 demonstrators headed west, around 1990 I believe.
CP trains had the old alcos and old CP and Soo cabooses.
Also, Grand Trunk still used cabooses until the early 1990's
When I was a student at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac, I used to go out railfanning on Mondays when the weather was decent and see trains near Cassopolis. CN was rare then, it was mostly GTW trains with cabooses.
There was one CN LASER train that ran each way, with piggy-back trailers set in double stack cars so they could fit through the tunnel into Candada, before the tunnel clearances were raised. ( I think they lowered the 'floors' of the tunnels)

Since I got up around 9am today, we have had P371 and X500.

[KVERBERK]

I remember when you were allowed to sit in the parking lot at the plymouth diamond, and you could watch train orders being caught buy the conductor.






I also remember when they used pushers on some of the coal trains through plymouth(sorry no pics of that)

Also lots of chessie Geeps and cabeese

[MSchwiebert]

I remember a vibrant DT&I
I remember sunny afternoons at Delta yard watching the DT&I Delta turn hand off the autoparts to a waiting N&W train
I remember spending evenings at Hamler tower taking the train order hoops back upstairs to the operator and - once in a while getting to "throw some levers" to line a train up.
I remember how cold the tower in Malinta was
I remember a cab ride from the southwest transfer in Deshler to the south end - and checking out the cab of the trailing WM F unit while waiting for a northbound to show up.
I remember hearing the relays click their music from the windows of Deshler tower while waiting for Dixie 99 to show.
I remember getting asked by the Deshler PD "what I was doing" in the Post office parking lot while waiting for the southbound roadrailer - with the F units to show up at 2:30 in the morning.
I remember when CSX sent the Soo trains up to the C&O of Michigan - in trade for the CSX freights and being bummed about it.
I remember a "one of everything" pig train on the former DT&I (one engine, one car & one trailer)
I remember seeing the Broadway Limited pull into Lima - behind E units.
I remember watching my first (and only hopefully) derailment one night when a dragging chain threw the switch under a southbound DT&I in Hamler
Many many good memories - and a few half decent pictures too

[Jochs]

I remember when you used to could park at the CR, CSXT, AMTK jct at Porter, IN (I know this is a Michigan thread )
After it was listed as a hotspot in Trains magazine, CR posted no tresspassing signs everywhere.
Some people had the idea it was okay to set tripods on tracks as long as at train wasn't using it.(If the train is on tk1, it is okay to stand on tk 2 to photograph it)

[Ben Higdon]

Walking the wooden, then metal, stairs at BO Tower, rapping on the metal screen door and watching the operator (hopefully not the stand-offish Bob Biddle!) get up out of his chair and walk over to open the door. Sitting in a chair trying to remember the questions I'd been wondering about, the musty smell of the building that still clings to the papers they gave me, watching the cars wait at the crossing gates until the operator frees them with the push of a button, the spooky, echoey sound of the operator at Drawbridge over the radio, pretending to understand the explanation of how the interlocking plant works as it all went over my head, studying the tracks on the model board and slowly piecing together what used to be, being surprised to hear "Checker 1 to BO Tower" over the radio, the whistle of ELLA blowing before it creeped into sight around the Star Paper building, the ring of the bell when an Amtrak hit Augusta, clanking armstrong levels swinging back and forward, the vibration and slamming of wheels of Amtraks passing over the diamonds outside, and listening intently to stories about Pennsylvania Tower, NYC freights and passenger trains, the CK&S, the "Valley", the South Haven branch, helpers on westbound freights, and all the places the operators had worked as operators and station agents...Fuller, MA, Three Rivers and lots of little towns.

[Buster Manning]

I remember......Fs' on the PC heading thru Reed City and C&O Geeps with tonnage roaring out of town--it was uphill bothways on both line...
riding the Boyne Falls to Boyne City train....
those funky New Haven style PC cabooses with a cupola and a bay window sitting on the sand track in Hillsdale....
seeing the HCRC Chief Baw Beese bringing a lumber car to Osseo....
the Lenawee County switchin' in Adrian.....
the DT&I FLYING!!! thru Riga....
the N&W still using the roundhouse in Montpelier....
the CSX Fs' leading a Roadrailer thru Perrysburg....
seeing BN painted NYSW Alcos' sitting in Chi waiting to go east to their new owner....
seeing the NYSW E-8s' heading east thru Indiana to their new owner....

[Jochs]

I remember about 20 years ago when trains 364/365/367 on the Amtrak Line (then, the International) ran two train sets, one Amtrak, and one VIA LRC set. The VIA LRC cars ran until the mid 1990's I believe, but before that, around 1989, 1990, they ran LRC units with the cars. The last LRC set (engine+cars) was being pulled by GTW 4610 I believe.
I am not sure of the GTW #, but I do remember seeing my last LRC engine being towed by GTW through Dowagiac.
They used VIA F40PH's after that for a few years.

[Jochs]

Remember when CSX ran The Iron Highway through MI for a little while in 1996?
I saw one after it hit a log truck at 12th Avenue near Grand Junction. It was Thursday 8-29-1996, the second day of the Fall Semester at WMU. I heard about a crash on the news on the radio and went to check it out. I had a friend who lived near there at the time and I went to see if he had heard about it. He had talked to officials there and we were allowed to take pictures as long as we stayed off the tracks(try that now!!) I still have a piece of CSXT 6297's number board. 6297's front was smashed, and the crew received non-lifethreatening injuries.
The day before, Wednesday 8/29/96 was the first day of school at WMU, and after class I walked down to the Amtrak line which goes right in front of WMU, and watched Pres. Clinton's POTUS train. A train went in front of him, and one behind with a CSX engine leading. I remember the helicopter flying over and all the police going alongside the train. Clinton was out waving when he went by WMU.

[CERY]

I remember when Conrail hauled these things called auto parts into this factory in Lansing called BOC. My cousins step sons didn't know GM was a Michigan company until I took them to the Ren Cen to look at the cars. Wow times change...

[Hogger1225]

Walking the wooden, then metal, stairs at BO Tower, rapping on the metal screen door and watching the operator (hopefully not the stand-offish Bob Biddle!) get up out of his chair and walk over to open the door. Sitting in a chair trying to remember the questions I'd been wondering about, the musty smell of the building that still clings to the papers they gave me, watching the cars wait at the crossing gates until the operator frees them with the push of a button, the spooky, echoey sound of the operator at Drawbridge over the radio, pretending to understand the explanation of how the interlocking plant works as it all went over my head, studying the tracks on the model board and slowly piecing together what used to be, being surprised to hear "Checker 1 to BO Tower" over the radio, the whistle of ELLA blowing before it creeped into sight around the Star Paper building, the ring of the bell when an Amtrak hit Augusta, clanking armstrong levels swinging back and forward, the vibration and slamming of wheels of Amtraks passing over the diamonds outside, and listening intently to stories about Pennsylvania Tower, NYC freights and passenger trains, the CK&S, the "Valley", the South Haven branch, helpers on westbound freights, and all the places the operators had worked as operators and station agents...Fuller, MA, Three Rivers and lots of little towns.

Nice thread here, interesting memories, but the comment about Mr. Biddle was uncalled for. I worked many years with him and his son. This is not a source to vent about someone, let alone someone who has passed away. If you can't say something nice, just keep it to yourself.

[Ben Higdon]

Sorry I offended... I wasn't venting, only remembering that he didn't invite me to stay when I stopped by. I'm sorry to hear of his passing...I always enjoyed listening to him over the radio, answering calls as "B.O. in the tower" or "Boe Tower", and wishing everyone to have a "Conrail Quality day".

[Hogger1225]

Oh boy, now the memories are really starting to come back. I also remember him handing up Clearance Card K's at Vicksburg, and passing on info as to whereabouts of "Officials" doing their night stalking! He would at the last minute write a small note and hand it up along with the rest of the mail. His son Rob is still an Engineer for NS, but not sure where he is working out of now, I would guess Elkhart.

[GLC 392]

Granite these aren't that old but...... i remember when all the GP35's on TSBY ran except the 2674 and 387, i remember going to the old 1225 back shops with my grandpa in the mid 90's so i was like 5, remember switching at the shops with him. I remember one of the last CMGN trains through Ovid. I remember when TSBY was running grain trains with CSX power CSX 153 and CSX 8836 rolling north at Delaney rd and seeing them on the old GTW main through town. I remember the Chesaning and Owosso central Alcos and going for a cab ride in one. Remember eating at Golden Corral(at least i think that was the name) on Linden Road and seeing a GTW train heading east to the parts plant. Also remember drving through GTW yard with my dad such as Tunnel yard, Flint, Lansing, Durand etc and not getting harassed. And thats about it right now....

[Hogger1225]

Steve, I remember your Grandpa and your Dad changing your diapers! (just kidding!)