RailRoadFan.com

Remember when...
CP ran trains through Durand breaking the speed limit?
The Holly Sub was busier than the Flint Sub?
Central Michigan ran on weekends?
UP coal trains with CNW power ran on the Holly?
Coal trains would go into the Durand yard nearly every day?
Flint yard had diesel fuel?
Seeing 30 trains at Durand in 10 hours?
CN GP40-2LW's and CN SD40-2W's were common power?
A ES44AC/DC was amazing NEW POWER?
Almost every Class I leased much power?

I just am thinking to myself...
We would die for all this stuff today. We took it for granted then. Maybe all we see on CN is LITERALLY SD75I's and Dash 9's in a few years, who knows. Just though I would throw this out there.

I can remember back about 35-40 yrs. ago when we would leave our youth meeting at church to go watch the Wabash Cannonball go through. It was only about 50 yards to the tracks and we would hightail it over there. It was gone in seconds but it was neat to watch it go by. I was in Sand Creek, MI which is MP 66 on the current NS Ex Wabash mainline where the CP's run today and are most always the fastest trains on that line when they come through(along with the NS roadrailers).
If you've ever been to Sand Creek (SW of Adrian) you would not believe that there used to be 5 tracks in the 1920's. The Wabash and the DT&I were there including a transfer track that they used to set out the carloads of autos on that came from Detroit. There were two depots, one for each line, and 22 trackside businesses. I had the fortune to be able to sit down with the old "local" man that owned the coal yard there. He received coal shipments from the railroad before his business closed up. He drew out a map of where everything was located. Priceless! Now there is one main and nothing else is left but the newer post office, telephone company office, the church I went to then and still do, and the school that butts the rail line. A football game in the fall is good for at least 2 CP's, NS freights and/or roadrailers. Sometimes more. If only...........life seemed alot more simple back then. Ron

I remember.....

-Going out railfanning with cnw8835 and seeing more leasors than actual railroad owned locomotives

-Complaining about how we always saw more CP trains than CSX trains (HA, HA, HA)

-Watching NS Z739 go around the wye at Ann St. and put 3 cars on the ground in the GRE yard with one of those ubiquitous B32-8's as power

-When Q326 and Q327 ran every day, and when S327's and S326's were common

-When the Coke trains came through GR

-Watching GRE head east through Ada with 3839, 24 and 40 cars for Greenville and Ionia

-Seeing my first UP SD90MAC in Chicago and thinking it was a DDA40X (lolz)

-Sitting at Cascade Park in GR and watching a loaded coal train go by with 4 CSX Geeps on the head end and meeting an eastbound at Fox with a GTW blue SD40-2 leading

-Seeing Conrail engines parked next to US 131 at Hugart yard

-I swear to god I saw NKP 765 when she came up in here dressed as C&O 2765 in 1994 too

Memories.....

I REMEMBER WHEN... AAH, WHAT WAS THE QUESTION ???

Sorry, I suffer from CRS

I wish i was a railfan for most of that stuff

I remember when the michigan line didn't suck.
I remember seeing a still in Conrail paint SD80MAC leading 27V
I remember when there used to be P32BHW's on Amtrak all the time
I remember run through BNSF and UP coal trains
I remember the good days......

i remember riding my 10 speed 4 -5 miles to see CHESSIE train 88 with 10,000 tons heading over the B&O between cincinnati and cumberland with 6-7 4-axles going balls to the wall to get up the hill out of loveland ohio.
i remember the ford special with 3 frame cars and a WM f-7 for power.
i remember conrail in the early 80's with power lash-up's that looked like tuti fruiti ice cream, some LV, RDG and a EL
ALL TOGETHER....

Think I'm going to cry---I remember---the BIG Alcos that use to visit Wyoming (GR) and the RS3's that were always around Huntinton Indiana. bjett

I remember 6 trains per day running west of Cadillac.
I remember seeing trains pound the diamonds in both directions in Oxford and Reed City.
I remember car ferries crossing the rivers at both Port Huron and Detroit.
I remember the semaphore outside the GTW passenger station in Royal Oak.
I remember 6 unit lash ups on the Holly Sub, with orange DT&I units, blue CV units, and blue DWP units a regular event.
I remember when Ferndale was a yard with locals running out of it.
I remember taking the Traindeer to the Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit.

I remember watching NKP 765 go south on the Saginaw Subdivison at M-153 Ford Road dressed as her C&O Counterpart in 1993.

I remember seeing my only sighting of SBD Geeps in Newburgh Yard

I remember when Ford Livonia used to get tankers of oil.

I remember seeing the PepsiCan AMTK B40-8W lead an Amtrak Wolverine Eastbound at Merriman with the ExpressTrak Boxes on the tail end.

I remember the first time I saw SOO locomotives in Oak Yard

I remember sitting at Metro Airport and watching the airplanes and NS trains go by with all standard cabs.

I remember when........

Chessie cabooses were a common sight.
Lake State was still the Detroit and Mackinac.
Central Michigan GP8s were still around.
Huron and Eastern engines weren't red.
CSX was still in Saginaw.

Remember when,,,,,, you used to run around town looking for killer weed, now you run around town trying to score weed killer

When the Chessie scheme was new, same for Penn Central later Conrail, Alco's on unit trains. Remember when as long as you stayed out of the way you could normally go into RR yards to get pictures.

I remember........

When Plymouth had 40-50 of trains a day.
When CSX had C30-7s and HLCX ones, too.
When CSX ran many autorack trains past my uncle's house in Highland,MI.
When CP ran Alco M636s through Plymouth and many NS and MRL power, too.
When Chessie and SBD painted U-boats and GP38-2s were common switchers in Plymouth.
When CSX had their orange MofW services.
When some coal trains through Plymouth had NEW SP AC4400CWs for power.
When the Dash 9 series was new.
When CSX's Newburg Yard was always busy with the Wayne Yard Job.

Man, I really wish I had the "Hot Tub Time Machine" right about now!

I remember growing up in Pontiac and seeing GTW switching all the various GM plants and running on the Pontiac Loop.
I remember the yard (name?) west of Baldwin being full of cars.
I remember seeing lots of locomotives sitting near the roundhouse in Pontiac.
I remember seeing nothing but Chessie colors on trains when we would visit friends of my parents in Milford.
I remember moving to Milford and seeing a heck of a lot more trains than I do now.
I remember living in Arizona in 1983 and seeing lots of blue and yellow Santa Fe units.
I remember the SEMTA trains
I remember the model railroad club in the attic of the Birmingham train station.

I remember watching the GT come into Muskegon every night with 3 geeps and over 100 cars....
then running over to watch the C & O Cannonball head out of Muskgeon with a train that was just as big.

i also remember watching the Ann Arbor run along Crystal Lake and the blow through Beulah at a pretty good clip.....

I wanna go back...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbkowHt45yg

I remember waiting in the weeds, at the foot of West Grand Blvd, in Detroit,and catching a drag coming out of the boat yard, and winding up in the Wabash Melvindale yard.
I remember a couple of rail cops taking me and my buddy to breakfast in some local diner, and returning us to the yard, and telling us to wait at the edge of the yard, and the trains would still be going slow enough to jump on.
I remember a train crew telling us to "climb up in the second unit, and don't touch anything. You'll be safer there".
I remember a conductor saying "I've got a son your age. C'mon back and ride in the caboose. You'll be safer there".
I remember riding south through Tennessee in a boxcar, on the old Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, pulled by an assortment of Alco FA units and RS-1s.
I remember hopping on an L&N freight, right off the passenger platform, in Mobile, Alabama, one hot, steamy night in July, while waiting passengers stood there with their mouths hanging open.
I remember my grandma taking me to watch trains in Detroit, and seeing steam locomotives pulling trains into the Detroit Union Terminal on Fort Street.
I remember watching the Chesapeake and Ohio streamliner pulling into the same depot.
I remember the car ferrys on the Detroit river, running around the clock, non stop.
I remember hearing the steam whistles of the locomotives and boats on the river, late at night, while staying at my grandmas house near the Ambassador Bridge, in Detroit.
I remember picnics at Belle Isle.
I remember the balloon man and the Good Humor man, and the Italian produce guy who came through the neighborhood every afternoon.
I remember riding the Woodward streetcar from downtown out to the fairgrounds and back, just for the fun of it.
I remember the Olympia, and a time when hockey players didn't wear those weenie helmets.
I remember Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, and Alex Delvicchio.
I remember seeing Ricky Nelson and Elvis at the Olympia.
I remember Soupy Sales.
I remember when no stores were open on Sunday.
I remember Hudsons and Kerns at Christmas.
I remember the Western Auto stores, and their Christmas toy catalog.
I remember when every kids mom was home after school, making dinner, and we couldn't get in trouble, because someones parents were always home.
I remember when Detroit was the fifth largest city in the United States, and everybody had a job, and all the factorys along the river were open and busy. Guess I better stop right there.

I remember going to flatrock yard with my grandpa and seeing all the GTW's..Seeing CN power at that time was "Rare" Oh how the times have changed......Nobody remembers 9/11?? lol

I remember when...
LS&I Alcos ran between West Yard and downtown Marquette, almost through the back yard of my parent's house. Used to get cab rides, too.
Soo Line F-units and Geeps filled the ex-DSS&A roundhouse.
One had no other goal on a hot summer's day but to soak up the sounds, smells, and sights of that roundhouse.
When two ore docks loaded boats in Marquette.
Power plant coal was unloaded by a steam gantry crane in Marquette's Lower Harbor.
Those ex-Santa Fe alligators---in the dress blues and warbonnet schemes---were the LS&I's 'new' power.
I got hired as a Steam Fireman on the M&HM.
I met my lovely Wife of 25+ years on that job.
I first heard the stories all those retired railroaders that I worked with, told.


Mick