Happy National Train Day!

I have always wanted to travel by train but I have never had the opportunity. Anybody have any cool train stories to share?

National Train Day site

When I was a boy I remember taking a train ride through the Smokey Mountains. It was a very memorable experience. You get to see scenery you will never see from the road. Great fun. I keep meaning to take my children on a similar trip, but finding the time and money is tough.

I also always wanted to take a Auto Train trip to the north west. Load the car on the train, ride it out west and unload for a week of playing tourist. Would be cool.

If you get a chance to go to the train museum in york, UK go..

http://www.nrm.org.uk/home/home.asp

See if this works

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80667463@N00/sets/72157617906259158/

When I was young, my grandfather had a lumber company next to the local rail yard.(Macon was, and still is, the railroad center of the South). I used to befriend the hobos that hung around behind the store, and they told such amazing stories about hopping boxcars, that I tried it myself. I was 9 at the time; rode an empty car from Macon to Atlanta, then turned around, hopped another one going south, and was back in Macon before suppertime. My folks didn't even know I'd been gone. I never told them until years later, at which point my mom almost fainted.

To this day, I still have a little bit of hobo in me; I occasionally "Waltz with Matilda".

There was another time when I was in Boy Scouts, and came very close to being run down by a train on a river bridge over Rum Creek, but I'll save that story for some other time..

I almost had to jump off a train trestle that I was crossing when the train decided to come along. LOL I was very lucky

I read an article in Classic tabout Tim taking a scenic train ride and spotting a porche parts car. Ended up being well worth it.

Only first hand story I have is a trip in the smokeys when I was about 5...I tossed a toy plane out the window to see if it could fly as we went over a trestle hundreds of feet up over a river. it didnt fly, my dad yelled at me, and I cried. [/story]

A couple of months ago I was waiting for my wifes train to arrive at the New Carollton Md. station.

About 10 minutes before her train arrived there was an annoucement for passengers to clear the platform, that the next train would not be stopping.

I stepped into the stairwell which was enclosed, about 30 seconds later the Acela train came through at about between 90 and 100 mph. I now know why they clear the platform, the air pressure hit the enclosure like a hurricane.

It was pretty damn cool !

mythbusters did a cool experiment with just that sort of event...people on the platform as a train hurtles past. Freakin awesome

If any of you like steam engines, and live anywhere near Michigan, look into:

www.trainfestival2009.com

8 operating steam locomotives, including 3 heavy-hitting mainline steam locomotives, July 23-26th.

the most fun I ever had on a train was standing on the engineers seat and pulling the whistle chain while my grandfather moved his steam locomotive around the yard in Youngwood, PA. I was 5years old at the time so he gave me hand signals so I would get the right number of "toots" for the situation.

If you are ever in south central Pa you should go visit the Railroad Museum of PA in Strasburg, PA. They also have the Strasburg Railroad just across the road.

My wife and kids and I just rode the Silver Streak train from Denver to Chicago in record time last week.

We also visited a coal mine that day.

EastCoastMojo wrote: I almost had to jump off a train trestle that I was crossing when the train decided to come along. LOL I was very lucky

That's exactly what happened to me. Except that it was 50 feet down into a creek only 2 feet deep. I just grabbed an I- beam and held on for dear life while 97 cars went by (yes, I counted them).

Ah.. memories.

We didn't screw around.

My new wife and I took a short excursion on my cousin's "train", between our wedding chapel and reception hall:

Some of my guy pals and I agreed to go from PA to CO for a friend's wedding. I'd never been west of Pittsburgh so wante to see the country. They wanted to fly because it was "so cheap". I took the train. They never could understand that.

Truly a highlight of my life. The trains west of Chicago are double deck, and much nicer cars. Even boring Iowa corn fields were interesting at 80 mph. If I got tired of the scenery I just read, or napped, or walked the train. Would love to do another trip, but sadly it's really expensive.

Railroads are a huge part of our history in this country. If you like history, start googling train stuff in your local area. You may be surprised at some of the stuff you find out. A bit of a train buff my whole life, I just found out in the past year we had a narrow gauge line in my county at the turn of the century, which is really odd considering the terrain we have around here.

I believe I rode the same train Tim spotted the Porsche from. I kept looking, didn't see any other parts cars. I guess he cleared 'em out. That train went over a lake which was way down (drought up there a couple of years ago) and the trestle was at least 75 feet above the lake surface. I don't generally have a problem with heights but that was an exception.

Appleseed wrote: We didn't screw around.

Every wonder why they moved the engineers compartment to the front of trains? Check out this picture and imagine running one of those through a long tunnel... apparently they had same cases of asphyxiating engineers.

The real reason the cab moved from back to front was the switch from coal to diesel. Hard to huck fuel with a shovel.

I'd like to believe this was a staged shot. locomotive crews usually prided themselves on how clean their smoke was. However the Southern Pacific did flip around the cab on their big articulateds going through the Sierras to keep the crews from asphyxiating. They could do this because of the switch from coal to oil.

^ The original Cab Forward!

aircooled wrote:

Appleseed wrote: We didn't screw around.

Every wonder why they moved the engineers compartment to the front of trains? Check out this picture and imagine running one of those through a long tunnel... apparently they had same cases of asphyxiating engineers.

hey, thats a Big Boy, I have seen # X4005 (forney museum in denver) and actually been in the engineers compartment. the picture does no justice to its size in person.

I actually got to partake in the festivities involved with national train day.

I had a job at Union Station yesterday in DC for the celebration. lot of local polititions and a nice concert by Vanessa Carlton

IIRC a Big Boy weighed one MILLION pounds.

For an automotive-related connection to really cool train history, google "Galloping Goose" or visit www.ridgwayrailroadmuseum.org . I'm vice-president of the museum. We ran five of the original seven Geese at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden this past weekend, probably the first time that many of the Geese ran together in at least 60 years, if ever,and definately the first time ever for this compination of Geese. If any of you are ever in SW Colorado and want a tour of the Ridgway museum, call ahead - most of the museum folks are also sports car nuts.

JimPettengill

From the title I was so expecting SOMEONE to toss in a dirty comment.