What have you ridden?

[Shotgun7]

Does anybody know what CSX actually stands for?

And I'm FAR below the age requirement for this thread, but I'll throw in some lines that in no way qualify to make this list to at least visually make up for it :

Amtrak, Florida Tri-Rail, Strasburg, Pittsburgh "T" line, Durango & Silverton RR, MetroRail, NJT, LIRR and most recently and nearly weekly now, the Gold Coast RR Museum line (the entire 2 miles of main and branch lines!)

 

[Ryan]

Does anybody know what CSX actually stands for?
And I'm FAR below the age requirement for this thread, but I'll throw in some lines that in no way qualify to make this list to at least visually make up for it :

Amtrak, Florida Tri-Rail, Strasburg, Pittsburgh "T" line, Durango & Silverton RR, MetroRail, NJT, LIRR and most recently and nearly weekly now, the Gold Coast RR Museum line (the entire 2 miles of main and branch lines!)

Wikipedia says Chessie, Seaboard and "X" because CSC and CSM were already taken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_Transportation

 

[Guest_Yerry_*]

CSX's name? Umm, "Poultry Doo-Doo Express"?

Well, straight from C&O Historical Society:

The first part: In the mid-80's, the tax advantage of the B&O being a paper company were negated for various reasons, so, FIRST, WM was legally merged into the B&O. THEN, B&O was merged into the C&O, and CSS&SB was sold off to the Venango Company..

Parte Sdeconde: "Family Lines" was just a marketing umbrella, with its name on the equipment with original RR names (SCL, L&N, CRR, and a bunch of short alphabet lines) as reporting marks, pretty much like Chessie System (C&O, B&O, WM), with a few minor legal differences. ANother reason relates to the court case rebuffing Southern pacific's attempt to take over L&N. After a few years, the individual lines were merged into Seaboard System. They were entitled to a 2-letter reporting mark, being a Class 1, but SS was taken by a solitary boxcar by Sand Springs Railway. Hence SBD, an acronym shared with a gastro event of dubious originations.

All this was legal preparation for THE BIG MERGER. >>LEGALLY<<, C&O merged with SBD. CSX was mentioned rather weakly as "Chessie-Seaboard-Expanded", and always with the notation that it was a temporary name for the holding company. UNFORTUNATELY, like so many literature "working titles" that get used so many times they become the final title, CSX became the permanent name.

CSXT & BNSF are the only class 1's that I can recall that have 4-letter reporting marks. A few locos and a pair of boxcars were painted in its earliest days with CSX, but it was quickly pointed out that common-carrier railroad marks can't end with an X, so the T had to be added. There were also a large number of cars i CSX paint and C&O reporting marks at first.

BTW, B&O was the last surviving railroad on the Monopoly board.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

My dad was a big steam fan

Mine was too. One summer in Mexico, out in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a connecting train, a steam locomotive happened by, apparently on its way to the yard. It stopped. The engineer and fireman wanted to know what a man - my dad - and his young family were doing out there. My mom is Mexican, and speaks fluent Spanish. She explained the situation. The engineer told us to climb into the cab. Six people in the cab of a steam locomotive! Like riding a fire-breathing dragon. We rode several miles to a yard where the engineer not only arranged a better place to wait for the next train, but made us an excellent meal as well.

 

[had8ley]

Let's put a little twist on this; whose ridden obscure branch lines that have long been forgotten?

I'll start with the GCT-Pittsfield run through with a parlor car and cafe-diner.

 

[had8ley]

CSX's name? Umm, "Poultry Doo-Doo Express"?
CSXT & BNSF are the only class 1's that I can recall that have 4-letter reporting marks.

I can't think of any off hand but do remember the RBOX which was a box car pool and GONX, a gondola pool. I'm sure the company is in the history books much like Pullman. Does anyone know what became of Rail Box?

 

[PaulM]

I like the song "The L and N don't stop here anymore", and notice L and N mentioned in this posting, what did / does it stand for?
Ed B)

Louisville and Nashville, or as my father, who worked for a competitor, referred to it: Late & Nasty.

 

[JayPea]

An addition: The Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio.

I'm curious. Which line was that? the Gulf Coast Rebel between Mobile and St. Louis, the Little Rebel between Jackson, TN and New Orleans, or one of the 5 trains between Chicago and St. Louis on the former Alton Route.

GM&O, L & N, Southern, Pennsylvania, Rock Island, B&O, Milwaukee Road, NYNH&H, Frisco, Atlanta & West Point, Western Railway of Alabama, IC.

That would be one of the Chicago-St. Louis trains, round trip between Bloomington, IL and Chicago.

Also, as long as commuter and tourist trains are included, I've ridden the CTA, monorail at Seattle, trains at both the Illinois Railway Museum at Union and the Monticello Railway Museum, also in Illinois, and the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad steam train in Washington.

And as long as we're REALLY grasping at straws, :lol: a childhood friend's dad was the depot agent for a branch line of the Union Pacific Railroad in the town I grew up...so a couple of times had the opportunity to ride Union Pacific freight trains, once in the cab of the engine and another time in the caboose.

 

[creddick]

My uncle was the trainmaster for the NYC in Bay City, MI, then in Jackson. He used to take me to the yards in Bay City and hand me off to an engineer who would "let" me shovel coal, blow the whistle, etc. I loved it. When we fist moved to Bay City, we lived across the street from the Michigan Central depot on First Street. Some of the depot remains today although the majority of it was destroyed in a fire many years ago. Several times the sleeper porter "let " me help make up beds, clean. etc. For many of us, a dream come true.

I too have ridden commuter lines but I can't remember all of them. Most recently, NJT.

 

[zoltan]

I'm wondering if we're counting the operator of the trains or the owner of the tracks here - if the former, I would have a much less impressive total than if we were looking at the latter!

 

[zoltan]

(As much as I try to imagine, I can't seem to "grandify" my MARC Camden rides into pseudo-B&O trips)

I don't know; being used to the very efficient and charmless British railway, my trips on the MARC did have a feeling of something special to them, with the low platforms, and the result of all the commuters lining up to board at either the Conductor or the Assistant Conductor's door, and being given a friendly greeting by them as they do, and the relationship between some of the conductors and the passengers - one got given a box of cupcakes by a regular commuter on the 1830 to Frederick - not to mention the proper locomotive on the end!

 

[Rail Freak]

My Dad worked for a railroad when I was growing up from the late 1940s to when Amtrak started in 1971 so I traveled by train a lot: CRI&P, CB&Q, P&E (NYC), IT, C&EI, L&N, NC&SL, C&NW, CMSP&P, NYC, NKP, DL&W, Erie, NYNH&H, B&M, MEC, PRR, B&O, C&O, Sou, RF&P, ACL, SAL,IC, GM&O, WAB,KCS, MKT, MP,T&P,SLSW, SP, DRG&W, WP, GN,NP, TP&W, AT&SF, MONON, N&W.

Have you kept tabs of your mileage, or do you have an estimate?

Was if you who mentioned once riding the Dixie FLyer (not to be confused with the Dixie Flagler, which I talk about a lot mooe) through the prettier parts of Tennessee,west of Chattanooga. You were in the rear sleeper looking out.....a steamlined 4-4-5-1. Was that you?

I remember being so envious when I read that...today I see how pretty that part of Tennessee is, while lived there I took it for granted.

Do/Did the tracks west of Chattanooga go north or south of Mt. Eagle?

 

[George Harris]

I was thinking routes, but if you think companies:

NC&StL

ICRR

L&N

CRIP

MoPac

N&W

RF&P

Pennsy/PennCentral (not sure whether it was before or after the merge

B&O

Amtrak over the

SP

UP

CB&Q (or was it already BN in 1971)

SCL

Penn Central

Commuter

New Jersey Transit

SEPTA

Caltrain

Transit

WMATA

BART

Muni Streetcars

NYCTA

Newark Subway

Philly Market Frankford

Lindenwold

MARTA

New Orleans Streetcar

Elsewhere:

New South Wales

Taiwan Railway

Malaysia Railway

Kuala Lumpur Kommuter

Singapore MRT

Hong Kong MRT

Hong Kong KCR

China Railway

Shanghai Airport Maglev

KNR (South Korea)

Souel subway

JNR, both regular trains and Shinkansen

Subways in Tokyo and Sapporo

Taiwan High Speed

Taipei Rapid Transit

Alishan Forest Railway

Bill: I also took too many of the southeastern trains for granted. Also missed ever ridign the Dixie Flyer. Had couple of rides on the night train between Nashville and Chattanooga and then walked between stations to catch the Tennessean. The one I really kick myself for missing is a ride over Saluda. Was in Knoxville for a while. It was very possible. Catch the Carolina Special out of Knoxville and do a round trip to Spartanburg and you could do it in both directions.

 

[p&sr]

Do/Did the tracks west of Chattanooga go north or south of Mt. Eagle?

South

 

[sky12065]

I'm just curious, including Amtrak, what passenger train lines have you ridden when they were actual train companies? The lines I can remember for myself are Amtrak, New York Central, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, Grand Trunk, Algoma Central, Via, and L&N.

Other than several Amtrak runs, I can remember when I was very young being taken on my very first train ride on the New York Central before it became Penn-Central. We traveled from the Albany Union Station to Grand Central Station and rode the NY Subways while there.

I remember screaming and being scared to to death when my mother and her friend got on the subway car and the doors started to close between them and myself! That was more than 50 years ago and I haven't ridden the subway in NY since; but not because I'm still tramatized!

I have also ridden the Monorail at both Disney World and this summer I got to ride it at Disneyland. I could actually drive my rented mobility scooter into it. B)

I guess that this just leaves me with the numeorus mini train rides in amusement parks over the years.

One interesting mini train ride was when I took my (at the time) pre-teen son to an amusement park at Old Forge, NY in the Adirondacks. There were two sections to the park about a mile from each other and a miniture train ride took us from one part to another. Well we boarded and rode to the other park section which was at a little higher elevation. Just before we got to the other mini-station the engine konked out and we started back rolling with no breaks. We made it all the way back to where we originated before we leveled out enough to come to a stop. BTW, no conductor came by to collect our tickets! :lol:

 

[WICT106]

When I was very young,less than one year old, the family rode the BN (nee CBQ) from East Dubuque to La Crosse, WI, in order to visit the relatives. So, a couple of rides there. Since then,, there have been numerous rides aboard the Empire Builder, the Capitol Ltd., Silver Service, with a pair of rides aboard the SW Chief, and one ride aboard the Three Rivers and the Cardinal.