Beemer-mark
Member
I think these were the Durango and Silverton. I took the pictures around 1959 give or take a year with my Brownie. I was very young.
Ride That Train!
- Thread starter THE PILGRIM
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I think these were the Durango and Silverton. I took the pictures around 1959 give or take a year with my Brownie. I was very young.
OP
THE PILGRIM
Member
You had your own Brownie?
I had to use my Mother's.
I see you shot Engine 476.
A search shows its still in Durango and undergoing a rebuild to rejoin the fleet!
Remember, the Durango-Silverton and Cumbres-Toltec are cute little tourist narrow gauge railroads.
But they are using ancient equipment to pull heavy loads up Mountains.
Modern technology keeps Durango train steaming along
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the ringo kid
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Nice, I love train threads. Ive only been on four my entire life--all four were when I was in Germany. 1) Ride from Konstanz to Zurich 2)and back again. 3) From Konstanz to Heidelberg. 4) Heidelberg to Frankfurt am Main. One of these years. I'm going back.
Beemer-mark
Member
I hate (and I mean hate) flying. I travel by train, motorcycle or car. Went to a meeting from Toledo to San Fran one year January. Blizzards in the plains made us a day late. The dining car ran out of desert. I didn't care. I had my sleeper car, bottle of rum and there was plenty of coke. Nothing like watching the scenery go by in a blizzard at 5 mph.
model70hunter
Member
Ive done the Chicago to Kansas City. Crosses the Mississippi and runs along the Missouri River. Nice scenery.
kwselke
Member
You can always come to Houston, stay downtown and then take the Metro Rail Red Line south to the Med Center/Museum District/Zoo area and do the real train.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzvzVFwW7HU[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzvzVFwW7HU[/ame]
We are in Durango for the next 3 weeks, drop by and ride the train and we will go shoot.
TB
TB
In my career with a major locomotive builder I had the opportunity to ride the head end of trains around the world. The most memorable were from Havre, MT to Spokane, WA and in Mongolia south to the border of China and north to the Russian border. The most uncomfortable was riding passenger trains in Egypt, their safety standards leave a lot to be desired.
I have trains in my blood. My hometown had a small double switchback steam railroad, The Penn View Mountain RR, from the time I was born until I was nine years old. My dad was a great friend and head of P.R. for the owner, so we rode that train often.
The narrow gauge gem of the eastern U.S., The East Broad Top RR in Rockhill Furnace, PA. was a twice per year destination until the owner embargoed the trains at the end of 2012. I'm still a member of the Friends of the East Broad Top, an organization which is stabilizing and preserving the complex. They give tours several times a year, and it is well worth the trip. The shop complex is basically untouched since April of 1956 and frozen in time. Plus there is a good trolley museum, The Rockhill Trolley Museum, which operates on weekends in the summer, right across the RR.
Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikoado #15 built in 1914 whistles for a crossing in Orbisonia, PA. October 2010. The train and the big dead tree are now gone from the scene.
I've ridden the trains at Cass, and Durbin WV on many occasions. The Cass trip to Bald Knob is one train ride in the East that should be on everyone's bucket list. The trains are now operated by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley RR/West Virginia Central. Some operational changes have occurred but the Shay's and the scenery are still fantastic. Don't miss the Durbin Rocket either. A scenic ride along the Greenbrier River on a train with either a Heisler or Climax steel locomotive, less than 20 miles from Cass.
The Bald Knob train with Shay #11 waits on the upper part of a switchback as the 2:30pm train to Whittaker powered by Heisler #6 blast up the hill and "into the hole" on the switchback tail so our train can come in behind and the reverse down the mountain. The current operations no longer stage these coordinated train meets, instead the Whittaker train pulls into the siding at the replica timber camp at Whittaker and the Bald Knob train cruises on by down the hill.
Double Headed Shays to Bald Knob! On busy weekends, Cass nearly always needed to have two engines push the nine car train to Bald Knob. Not in 2017, the current operators now add a second, earlier train to add capacity instead of double-heading.
My bucket list trains are the Cumbres & Toltec, The Durango & Silverton and the Georgetown Loop RR's. Even if I have to max out every credit card I have, I will make it out to Colorado and New Mexico to ride those trains!
The narrow gauge gem of the eastern U.S., The East Broad Top RR in Rockhill Furnace, PA. was a twice per year destination until the owner embargoed the trains at the end of 2012. I'm still a member of the Friends of the East Broad Top, an organization which is stabilizing and preserving the complex. They give tours several times a year, and it is well worth the trip. The shop complex is basically untouched since April of 1956 and frozen in time. Plus there is a good trolley museum, The Rockhill Trolley Museum, which operates on weekends in the summer, right across the RR.
Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikoado #15 built in 1914 whistles for a crossing in Orbisonia, PA. October 2010. The train and the big dead tree are now gone from the scene.
I've ridden the trains at Cass, and Durbin WV on many occasions. The Cass trip to Bald Knob is one train ride in the East that should be on everyone's bucket list. The trains are now operated by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley RR/West Virginia Central. Some operational changes have occurred but the Shay's and the scenery are still fantastic. Don't miss the Durbin Rocket either. A scenic ride along the Greenbrier River on a train with either a Heisler or Climax steel locomotive, less than 20 miles from Cass.
The Bald Knob train with Shay #11 waits on the upper part of a switchback as the 2:30pm train to Whittaker powered by Heisler #6 blast up the hill and "into the hole" on the switchback tail so our train can come in behind and the reverse down the mountain. The current operations no longer stage these coordinated train meets, instead the Whittaker train pulls into the siding at the replica timber camp at Whittaker and the Bald Knob train cruises on by down the hill.
Double Headed Shays to Bald Knob! On busy weekends, Cass nearly always needed to have two engines push the nine car train to Bald Knob. Not in 2017, the current operators now add a second, earlier train to add capacity instead of double-heading.
My bucket list trains are the Cumbres & Toltec, The Durango & Silverton and the Georgetown Loop RR's. Even if I have to max out every credit card I have, I will make it out to Colorado and New Mexico to ride those trains!
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OP
THE PILGRIM
Member
I strongly urge you to come on out and ride those trains!
nuguy
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
Train rides
My dad worked 30 + years for the Pennsylvania and later the merged, PennCentral. We rode the trains alot when I was young. I have rode several of the scenic Railroads here in PA. and Western Maryland. I think my favorite ride was the White Pass & Yukon in Alaska.
My dad worked 30 + years for the Pennsylvania and later the merged, PennCentral. We rode the trains alot when I was young. I have rode several of the scenic Railroads here in PA. and Western Maryland. I think my favorite ride was the White Pass & Yukon in Alaska.
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OP
THE PILGRIM
Member
Years ago, we were in LA.
When we left, stopped at a grocery and bought Picnic lunch food.
I often take the road less travelled and sometimes the I wonder where that road goes.
So way out in the desert we stopped on the side of the highway and were eating sandwiches.
I hear a train. I look down the hill and see it coming.
Then I see it going.
Then I see it coming again.
Say what?
When I asked a Real Train guy, he says, yes!
You just saw the Tehachapi Loop.
Folks come from everywhere to see it.
You are a lucky dog!
He said be had never seen it.
Tehachapi Loop - Wikipedia
When we left, stopped at a grocery and bought Picnic lunch food.
I often take the road less travelled and sometimes the I wonder where that road goes.
So way out in the desert we stopped on the side of the highway and were eating sandwiches.
I hear a train. I look down the hill and see it coming.
Then I see it going.
Then I see it coming again.
Say what?
When I asked a Real Train guy, he says, yes!
You just saw the Tehachapi Loop.
Folks come from everywhere to see it.
You are a lucky dog!
He said be had never seen it.
Tehachapi Loop - Wikipedia
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cfplinker
Member
There is a similar loop up in Canada around Banff. The difference is that it is a tunnel and if the train is long enough you can see the engine coming out of the tunnel before the caboose has entered the tunnel.
shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
I haven't been on a train in over twenty years, and that was only from Baltimore to Philadelphia to see my son. It was a bitter disappointment.
I grew up riding behind steam locomotives, sometimes on Pullman cars, before, during and after WWII. One short line I rode a few times, from Newport, Tennessee up into the North Carolina Smokies, ran a train that dated from no later than 1890, probably the 1880's. So, apparently, did the aged conductor.
On what were then more modern trains I ate in dining cars that served good food, well prepared. The coaches were comfortable and clean, though not new.
And then there was Amtrak from Baltimore to Philly. The coach was designed to resemble the interior of a passenger jet. The "dining car" offered snacks and very undistinguished (to put it kindly) sandwiches, grossly overpriced.
It had no soul. And it certainly didn't have the glory of a huge, thundering, altogether fascinating and romantic steam locomotive on the head end.
I grew up riding behind steam locomotives, sometimes on Pullman cars, before, during and after WWII. One short line I rode a few times, from Newport, Tennessee up into the North Carolina Smokies, ran a train that dated from no later than 1890, probably the 1880's. So, apparently, did the aged conductor.
On what were then more modern trains I ate in dining cars that served good food, well prepared. The coaches were comfortable and clean, though not new.
And then there was Amtrak from Baltimore to Philly. The coach was designed to resemble the interior of a passenger jet. The "dining car" offered snacks and very undistinguished (to put it kindly) sandwiches, grossly overpriced.
It had no soul. And it certainly didn't have the glory of a huge, thundering, altogether fascinating and romantic steam locomotive on the head end.
VaTom
Member
Two weeks ago my wife and I rode the ICE train from Liege Belgium to Frankfort, Germany. It hit 180 mph at one point. At the front of each "wagon" (car) the speed would be displayed on a screen so you could see how fast it was going. Smooth ride!! I noticed that all the cross ties there are concrete and spaced close together. Picture of the Liege station also.
I was impressed. Now that's a train.
I was impressed. Now that's a train.
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Riding the Rails
My Dad and I rode this brute
N & W 1218 Pulls Into Appomattox, VA; 1991 - Bing video
on this excursion from Richmond to Appomattox in Oct 1991. IIRC, the N&W 1218 was the most powerful steam loco ever built, maybe 5,500 HP, 450 tons, ~120 ft long, with twelve 70" drivers. For about three years, it came right along the back of my property line on Autumn Leaf Excursions, and I decided I just had to ride it. It was put up for overhaul shortly after that ride, and it was never finished. It's now in the Virginia Transportation Museum in Roanoke, Virginia. I'm glad we did it; the feel of the ride, occasional cinders flying in the open windows, the smells of coal smoke, steam, grease and hot iron and the sounds - the roar of steam and clattering mechanisms and the songs from that whistle - brought back memories of our youth for both Dad and me.
My Dad and I rode this brute
N & W 1218 Pulls Into Appomattox, VA; 1991 - Bing video
on this excursion from Richmond to Appomattox in Oct 1991. IIRC, the N&W 1218 was the most powerful steam loco ever built, maybe 5,500 HP, 450 tons, ~120 ft long, with twelve 70" drivers. For about three years, it came right along the back of my property line on Autumn Leaf Excursions, and I decided I just had to ride it. It was put up for overhaul shortly after that ride, and it was never finished. It's now in the Virginia Transportation Museum in Roanoke, Virginia. I'm glad we did it; the feel of the ride, occasional cinders flying in the open windows, the smells of coal smoke, steam, grease and hot iron and the sounds - the roar of steam and clattering mechanisms and the songs from that whistle - brought back memories of our youth for both Dad and me.
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Been there, done that. Great ride. I need to do it again.
I've ridden three of the trains mentioned in the article.
5. Grand Canyon Railway
6. Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
7. Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
I've also Ridden the Heber Creeper in Heber, Utah, the Georgetown Loop R.R. in Georgetown, Colorado, The Ghost Train in Ely, Nevada, and the Virginia & Truckee R.R. in Virginia City, Nevada.
Each, with the exception of the Heber Creeper in Utah, was the destination in our destination vacation. My interest in riding the rails is born out of the desire to connect with my deceased maternal grandpa who was a Conductor for the Union Pacific R.R. and whose route was the Salt Lake to Las Vegas run on the U.P.'s old passenger trains.
5. Grand Canyon Railway
6. Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
7. Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
I've also Ridden the Heber Creeper in Heber, Utah, the Georgetown Loop R.R. in Georgetown, Colorado, The Ghost Train in Ely, Nevada, and the Virginia & Truckee R.R. in Virginia City, Nevada.
Each, with the exception of the Heber Creeper in Utah, was the destination in our destination vacation. My interest in riding the rails is born out of the desire to connect with my deceased maternal grandpa who was a Conductor for the Union Pacific R.R. and whose route was the Salt Lake to Las Vegas run on the U.P.'s old passenger trains.
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The only one I ever rode was the "Santa Clause Train" that ran from I think Ellerson, to Ashland, Va. and back. Maybe 30 miles round trip. It was a steam locomotive I remember which were in the process of being phased out IIRC, but I was just a little kid, so I might be totally out to lunch. The highlight of the trip of course was a visit from Santa. That would have been in the mid/late 50's I guess.
My wife rode the City of New Orleans from Nawlins' to Chicago years ago. She said it was "Just like the song, only in reverse."
My wife rode the City of New Orleans from Nawlins' to Chicago years ago. She said it was "Just like the song, only in reverse."
I've ridden the Durango-Silverton twice. First time back when it was called Denver & Rio Grande Western. The Cumbres & Toltec once. The Texas State Railroad once.
Oh, and the zoo train at San Antonio.
Oh, and the zoo train at San Antonio.
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