Train Watching

[Gardo]

I grew up in the Altoona area and at one time it was THE railroad city. A year ago I needed a ride back to pick up a car , but that’s another story. I couldn’t find anyone heading that way so I took the train. I really enjoyed the ride. Then last fall we were driving home from western Pa.and I decided to take my wife to the Hoseshoe Curve, I’d been there many times but it was all new to her. She loved it and especially enjoyed counting the cars of each train. I think the longest was about 200 cars. Since then I find myself constantly clicking over to the YouTube livestream of the curve just to see if there happens to be a train,I find it very relaxing to listen to the rails sing as the trains round the curve. I don’t count cars, just enjoy the scenery

 

[Stringbanger]

Being from PA, I know about the Horseshoe Curve, and I often thought that I would want to ride that rail (with my guitar of course)! Great post Gary!

 

[sax4blues]

Mid 1960's we would visit my grandparents in Iowa. They were in a two block town, grain elevator at one end, church and volunteer fire house at the other end. The train tracks went by the grain elevator and part of the day was spent counting the number of cars in a passing train.

 

[Gardo]

Mid 1960's we would visit my grandparents in Iowa. They were in a two block town, grain elevator at one end, church and volunteer fire house at the other end. The train tracks went by the grain elevator and part of the day was spent counting the number of cars in a passing train.

It’s kind of relaxing and addicting at the same time.

 

[imwjl]

I still enjoy it. My parents were rail fans from an era of it was how you saw more than your world. The sound of the trains when I was a kid was almost like clocks and knowing my small town was alive. They came in and out of our family business and my dad would teach me what kind of engine from the sound. We had a scrap yard and farm - the cars arriving and leaving meant how we ate.

Our home is over the hill from a rail line that is still alive. Some newcomers and downtown condo residents complain - come on, you bought next to train tracks. On summer nights at the biergarten the train going by first is a reminder to go home. From my bedroom window it's same sounds and distance that either put me to sleep or woke me up in the 1960s.



P.S. It's also in my blood because my dad worked on a steam train restoration and operation when I was a kid.

 

[Gardo]

One afternoon my dad took us train watching in the city of Altoona. This was at the beginning of the PennCentral era. My grandfather had worked in the railroad shops and probably tipped off my dad about what we might see. I remember a seemingly endless train of diesel locomotives going by. There were the familiar PRR’s and the seldom seen New York Central’s and then some I had never seen from the New Haven Line all heading to the Juniata Locomotive Shops. I don’t know if they were EMD E6 or which exact models but it was an amazing sight.

 

[dankilling]

Here in the Lehigh valley, there are trainspotters almost every day by the tracks that go through the boroughs

 

[tubeToaster]

In the mountains of East Tennessee we have the Hiwassee loop. Unfortunately there is not an overlook to see it from. You have to ride the rails to see it.

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[BB]

The Polar Express!

 

[David Barnett]

Do you have an anorak?

 

[Mechanic]

Part time Foamer here. When my family visited Salt Lake City in the early to min 50’s. I remember seeing steam locomotives in the UP and D&RG yards.
Now living in Salt Lake, the D&RG shops are no more and UP is just a fuel point and yards to build trains.
I’ve seen the Big Boy 4014 pass through a couple of times. There is an avid rail road fallowing here in the west.

 

[Gardo]

In the mountains of East Tennessee we have the Hiwassee loop. Unfortunately there is not an overlook to see it from. You have to ride the rails to see it.

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That looks like quite a scenic ride. The loop is spectacular

 

[Killing Floor]

Ewan McGregor was great in that.

"I Wish I Could Think Of Something To Say, Something Sympathetic, Something Human."​

 

[Gardo]

Do you have an anorak?

I had to Google the word to find out what it is, so no I don’t have one

 

[Engine Swap]

They still do “street-running” up in Rockford, IL

 

[CV Jee Beez]

It's pretty.

 

[green_henry]

 

[trapdoor2]

Years ago, we did the Grand Canyon steam train out and back. Great fun, drinks in the observation car, etc. When we got back, there was a Civil War reenactor brass band (featuring some original instruments) to greet us.

I fondly recall my mother's story of taking the train from DuQuoin, IL to Yellowstone in 1937, where she spent the summer working in the photography shop. She was 16.

 

[middy]

Ever see a steam locomotive?

 

[RoscoeElegante]

All due respect to people who dislike hearing trains, etc. But they've always been music to me. Especially late at night, from a windy distance.... All the romantic cliches ring true to me. It's even okay when they interrupt listening to music and guitar playing. I've had some of the best hours and epiphanies of my life on long train rides. And some of my happiest moments are lying on the floor on a summer's night, under an oscillating fan, listening to a distant baseball game, while hearing a train making its lonely route through our nearby river valley. Floaty goodness, indeed.

We'd be a lot better off ecologically and emotionally with available and reliable passenger train service between cities again. Just sayin'....