If........................................

[dmitzel]

Oxford, Mich. in the late '60s-early '70s - when both the PC and GTW pounded the diamond in town. Rochester Jct. or Lapeer Jct. would be a close second - watching BD-2 or DB-3 polishing the old Bay City Branch.

Another would be to take the way-back machine to the early '80s - back to my early teens. I could revisit the GTW running by my folk's house on the Romeo Sub, and go back to the Thumb for weekends in Port Austin - watching the Chessie along the way. More important, Dad would be still with us and healthy.

Some things are more important than trains.

[hoborich]

Oxford, Mich. in the late '60s-early '70s - when both the PC and GTW pounded the diamond in town. Rochester Jct. or Lapeer Jct. would be a close second - watching BD-2 or DB-3 polishing the old Bay City Branch.

The Oxford local ran out of Pontiac, when I worked there in the late 60s. Hauled a lot of gravel from the Oxford gravel pits. We called it the P O &N, or Pontiac, Oxford and Northern local. I believe it ran to Gagetown or Pidgeon. No idea what CN does in Pontiac these days. The old Johnson Ave yard office is gone now. Been gone for years.

[DT&I]

I'd like to see what Bellevue was like when there were 4 different freight railroads operating here, which would mean going back to the 40's.

And then to pick a specific day from that decade I'd go with the day that Bellevue's basketball team arrived in town after having won the 1945 state championship. It'd be neat to take part in that celebration, and then head over to the diamonds to see what things were like when the NKP, PRR, NYC and original W&LE were all operating their separate lines.

You know T&L recently did a show with Don Krofta's?? film from the early 1950's that included Bellevue, Fostoria, Arcadia, Leipsic, Continental, Oakwood, Fort Wayne, etc. Lots of Big Berks and even a shot of 765 before it was famous. Its absolutly great and I enjoyed every second of it. Of course NYC, PRR, and others are featured as well.

[hoborich]

Now THAT'S a great story. I've often wondered what it would have been like back in those days.

Those were great days, before lawsuits and lawyers, and other things changed life as we know it. As I posted, trespassing was not an issue back in the day. There were lots of people wandering around in the train yards. Maybe not a good thing, but that's the way it was. When I worked on the GTW at Pontiac, we had a guy who came into the yard almost every day, with buckets, and wandered around the yard scooping up spilled grain for his chickens. Grain was shipped in boxcars, with cardboard grain doors, that often leaked half the load, before covered hoppers came into use. Other people wandered the yards, picking up spilled coal. Nobody seemed to care.

Most of the switching was done by kicking the cars into the tracks, except for the autos and trucks. We had one conductor who had a reputation for being the fastest to get the job done. We didn't have radios yet, and used fusees and lanterns for signaling. He would be out there on the lead swinging his lantern in wild circles, and cuts of cars would be flying down into the various tracks. I can only imagine the damage claims they must have got.

There were no run through trains, or foreign power back in the day. Each railroad hauled a train to the limits of their system, switched it out, and had transfer drags to interchange the cars to another railroad.

There were no radios. Train orders, and pickup manifests were hooped up to the engineer and the conductor in the caboose. There was a phone system, with call boxes located along the right of way, for crews to talk to the dispatcher.
There were no defect detectors, and hot boxes were common.
And trains were shorter then, with 40 and 50 foot cars the norm, except for auto racks and piggyback flats. Containers and intermodal were not invented yet.

[J T]

When I worked on the GTW at Pontiac, we had a guy who came into the yard almost every day, with buckets, and wandered around the yard scooping up spilled grain for his chickens.

I'm going to try that in Wyoming Yard sometime. If anyone gives me a hard time, I'm just going to say, "Hey man, I've got to feed my chickens!"

[Saturnalia]

When I worked on the GTW at Pontiac, we had a guy who came into the yard almost every day, with buckets, and wandered around the yard scooping up spilled grain for his chickens.

I'm going to try that in Wyoming Yard sometime. If anyone gives me a hard time, I'm just going to say, "Hey man, I've got to feed my chickens!"

Wasn't there a guy on a go-cart that drove into Wyoming Yard a few years back?

[J T]

Wasn't there a guy on a go-cart that drove into Wyoming Yard a few years back?

Wasn't there a guy who walked through the yard the other day?

[Y@]

Probably.

[CSX_CO]

When I worked on the GTW at Pontiac, we had a guy who came into the yard almost every day, with buckets, and wandered around the yard scooping up spilled grain for his chickens.

I'm going to try that in Wyoming Yard sometime. If anyone gives me a hard time, I'm just going to say, "Hey man, I've got to feed my chickens!"

Probably try and charge you with theft of company property at that point! Once it hits the ground out of the car, the railroad has 'bought' it.

Practice Safe CSX

[J T]

Probably.

[J T]

Probably try and charge you with theft of company property at that point! Once it hits the ground out of the car, the railroad has 'bought' it.

But my chickens have to got to eat, man!

[Racer]

The CSX Plymouth and Saginaw Subs between 1996-1999. I sure miss all the Chessie, FLS, and Seaboard System units, plus the C30-7s and older GE units now gone and all the CP trains.

[JANGAJONGA]

Michigan line Early 1960's

[hoborich]

I miss everything on the Detroit line. Spent an evening at Oak street a couple weeks ago and saw two trains. I used to see 10 to 15.

[Standard Railfan]

Michigan's Copper Country, late 50's - early 60's, when the mines were still running strong and trains were everywhere up there.

By that I suspect you mean the 1850s.