How many of you...

[WICT106]

My grandpa used to take me to visit his buddies down at the Illinois Central yard in Jackson, Miss. when I was a lad. I was able to "play" in and around trains with them. My fondest memory, and what hooked me back then, was being allowed to pull the horn chord on an old F7 unit. I have always loved that particular locomotive, and have seen a few photos of some in Amtrak scheme. Anyhow.....I still drive by the old yard and think back on the fond memories of spending my weekends down there amongst the steel giants.
When I was a Boy Scout, we rode the CONO to Chicago, then the Empire Builder to Minnesota for Canoe Base. Some fond memories were made there......we took over that particular car. It was on that trip that I made friends with the conductor who taught me several things about railroading that I still know today.

I cook a good bit and recently came across a book Dining By Rail.....its filled with recipes from the old dining cars! They are great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have since taken many trips aboard the CONO and will be riding the Crescent this Summer to visit my brother in Charlotte, NC.

It is too unfortunate that those of us who have become acquainted with travel by rail via the Boy Scouts have fewer and fewer opportunities to do so. The endless discussions on moving the SW Chief to the Amarillo line would leave at least a half million people with NO exposure to rail travel at all. Believe me, if the SW Chief moves away from Raton, NM, then Scouts will not take it !

 

[RailFanLNK]

My story is a tad like Green Maned Lion's. It was the airline trip from hell in 2005 that had me thinking for 3 days...."there's gotta be a better way". :huh: I had seen Amtrak blow by numerous times in LNK and I always said, "I want to do that someday". Well that someday was March 4th 2006, I took the CZ from LNK to EMY and made reservations to "fly" home in case I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all....I LOVED it!!! Since then I have taken 9 more trips since ....does that mean I'm an addict?!? Does this mean that I'm going to start stealing stuff, pawning it and using the money for Amtrak tickets?!? :lol: Will I get busted for loitering at the station and thinking suggestive things as the train pulls up....such as "man, would I like to board that thing and hit the rails!" It was SO NEAT today to listen to the two guys who rode to DEN on National Train Day with me. They weren't asking about my upcoming trips, they were talking about THERE upcoming trips!

Al

PS. The airline that made me dump flying, treated me like crap, I never raised my voice, lied to me, gave me erroneous instructions, made me pay $50 for a hotel room I only slept in for 2 hours. .....and on and on and on!

 

[amtrakwolverine]

I got addicted on my first Amtrak trip. It was around 1987 from Bloomington, IL to LA. We hit a car on the way there. On the way back home, from LA to Bloomington, we hit another car, a passenger got "evicted" for threatening other passengers around him and we watched the police haul him away, we broke down in the mountains and had to wait hours for another engine to get us up the hill. Sat there with minimal lights and no air conditioning.
All that stuff takes time. We ended up missing our connecting train in Kansas City, took a different train from KC to St. Louis, spent the night in St. Louis and got a train, possibly the Ann Rutledge?, and ended up back in Bloomington a day later than planned.

A railroad fans dream trip!

Betty

i've always been into trains. my first train ride was on a VIA from windser to Toronto when I was a kid. last year was the first time i had EVER ridden on a Amtrak and i live in the states. me and my mom were going to take greyhound to Arizona and i suggested the train and it was cheaper anyway so we went via train but took greyhound back as the train left at 5am and being all day at the grand canyon we were not getting up that early LOL

 

[had8ley]

" It is an awesome sight with all the kudzoo growing and there really are cliffs up above. I don't doubt you;"
Had8ley

I know the patch of healthy kudzoo (I wish that it were pointed out as a scenic point in the literature) you're talking about and the stream below. But at that point what hills you see are up above you. Right? The portion I remember was being on a ridge looking down on both sides and it seems like it was long after being settled in. It could have been around Toccoa. I don't remember it being really bright daylight either. Would the train have gone through Toccoa near dusk? Full moon, maybe?

... I have to find that report. All 3 of us were avid diarists, reporting the most minute of details when we traveled by roads such as "passed downtown xxxx at 6:00pm" but that was our only train trip together and we wouldn't have had any clue as to where we were.

Can you imagine what Toccoa looked like in 1973? Interstate 85 did not extend that far at that time.

J

Yes, I do remember pulling into Toccoa with a glimmer of daylight left. It was a unique stop in that the Southern had a real signal to "flag" the train to stop and pick up pax. The conductor had to re-set it before departing town.I'm not certain if it is still a flag stop. The tracks are pretty low compared to the hills above where the kudzoo is located. It's a toss up until you find your diary.

 

[jphjaxfl]

I don't remember my first train trip because I was about a month old in 1948 when my parents took me on the Rocky Mountain Rocket from Joliet, Ill where we lived to visit my Grandmother in Council Bluffs, IA. In 1950 we moved to Peoria, Il and would alternate between the Rock Island (Peoria-Bureau, Jct-Council Bluffs) and the Burlington Peoria-Galesburg-Council Bluffs. I can remember trips at 2 to 3 years old changing trains in Bureau Jct or Galesburg and watching all the other trains both passenger and freight passing through. My Dad worked for a railroad so we were always going to Union Station in Peoria until it closed in the mid 1950s or the Rock Island Depot to watch the trains and talk to the other rail workers that were around.