The river flows...

[sheepherder]

Back in the '80's and '90's, I used to travel to the Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Antique shows in the Spring, and the Import/Kit Car shows. We'd go down on Thurs night, get there at 8 or 9am and take in the show through Sat evening. Sunday we'd drive down to Gettysburg and tour the National Battlefield Park. Always something new to see. One time, my girlfriend and I decided to take the Gettysberg Railroad ride. It's a privately owned 14 mile long straight track, through peoples backyards.

It was a riot! We got to the 'station' early, and examined the locomotive, the cars, and the station (a re-creation) itself. All very mid-1800's period. As we were getting our tickets, a strapping six-foot-five young lad, dressed in bib-denims, plaid shirt, engineer boots and a lunch bucket the size of a suitcase came through, on his way to the train. The GF immediately said "That's the stoker!". I agreed, he was certainly qualified. A few minutes later, an older gnarled, walnut complexioned, thin man came through, carrying a smaller lunchbox. He looked like 14 miles of bad road...The GF said, "The engineer! And a lunchbox with a quart of Jack Daniels!"

We boarded the passenger car. There were three (IIRC). The car was bare wood, no glass just rectangular holes for windows, and rows of bare wood church pews. We stopped, and took it all in...Pax looking at us. The GF went into a airline stewardess spiel "Thank you for flying Gettysberg Railroad, we'll be flying at 10 feet at 40mph. There are oxygen masks etc flotation devices etc..." She had the car in an uproar.

It was a 14 mile (again, IIRC) ride, housewives hanging up laundry, kids playing, dogs barking, then a stop. Nothing much to see, then the train started backing up...All the way back to the station!

It was a fun two hours or so; especially watching the stoker and the engineer getting steam up. The stoker stoked; the engineer just lounged around and watched. The conductor came through collecting tickets, everyone including the station ticket lady dressed in period costume. I seem to remember an oiler oiling the exposed total-loss bearings before the trip but I don't know where he disappeared to.

Always a fun trip; the National Observation Tower was still up back then, you could take the elevator up and view the whole battlefield. There were tour double-decker buses; cassette tape guides; human guides; group tours; etc. In the park proper, you could hardly walk ten feet without bumping into a monument. We always went on off weekends, no re-enactments. There was one hopping bar in town, and our Best Western had a wet bar. It was worth the 9 hour drive just to see, hear, and ride the train.

[spangy]

Just for fun !!

This illusion is called the Ponzo Illusion

Both yellow lines are exactly the same size and length.



Train tracks are such fun

[spangy]

Amazing sheepherder I had almost the same train as in your memories just 5 blocks from our 1st house in Sakatoon.


Almost numbers matching ya ??

Plus as kids we used to ride the miniature train in Kinsmen Park just a few miles down from the train trestle we used to cross in my previous post.



Your post has awoken so many happy childhood memories in me sheepherder ... Thank you my friend

[Fla.Mallard]

As kid we lived one block from 4 sets of tracks .. 2 for the "streamliners" and 2 for the freight trains. On the other side was a large forest preserve. We would regularly cross the tracks to bowhunt in the forest preserve. It was illegal, of course, but we didn't know it.

I had a part beagle who would go everywhere with me. When a slow-moving freight blocked our way, we simply grabbed a ladder, crossed the boxcar to the other side, climbed down and jumped off. My dog didn't like being left behind so she would wait until 4 wheels went by, jump in under the train and wait for another long break in wheels and then jump out on the other side. She never came close to getting run over.

In the summer we would hop a freight and take it to a public swimming pool about 4 miles away. A neighbor boy wanted to go with us one day so we gave him a crash course in getting on and getting off safely. When he got off, he just jumped instead of hanging on the ladder and getting his legs moving in a running motion before letting go. He stumbled and fell when he jumped and his lower body rolled under the train. Luckily, he rolled back out and down the grade before the next set of wheels cut him in half.

My friend and I were so scared that we grabbed him and beat the living snot out of him for not following directions. All we could think of was how much trouble we would be in if he had been killed.

We never even spoke to him again.

[cirelaw]

We used to place a coin on the rack and trade coins!

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by cirelaw

We used to place a coin on the rack and trade coins!

Coins were my one brush with the RR Police. They saw me, came to my house, and told my parents. I don't recall my punishment, but I never did it again.

I forgot all about the freight trains! And the freight engines. The passenger trains were streamlined; the freights were boxy and had rails around the engine.

Bill Lyon recalled the train trestle outside Belfast NY. I used to pass under it every time I went into Belfast with my parents (it was a wet town). I think it was the 8th longest, at one time in the '50's. Wonder if someone posted a pic of it???

Yeah! Bunches of them!

[sheepherder]

Remembering the Belfast trestle...In 1965, my dad took me with him to the Belfast Hotel to get beer (we had a cottage at Rushford Lake; the grown-up cottagers would play Euchre and drink beer at night). We had a 1962 Buick Special with the 215ci V-8 & 3-speed manual. For some reason the cases of beer weren't ready, so my dad had a couple beers at the bar. When we finally loaded up a couple cases of Genesee, he told me I'd better drive, he'd had too many and didn't want to get pulled over. I was 15, no license. Uh, yeah, OK dad...What??? We made it back to the cottage. My first driving lesson!

[Kiwi]

Interesting, in NZ the "Big" trains were the KA class.
My Dad was a driver and me and my older brother did get to ride on them (on night runs.)

I checked spec's with the US "Big Boy", wow the Big Boy is 3 times the size of the KA and (to a little boy) the KA's were huge

Big Boy 762,000 lbs
KA 208,320 lbs

[m1903a3]

Originally Posted by spangy

Amazing sheepherder I had almost the same train as in your memories just 5 blocks from our 1st house in Sakatoon.



...

Your post has awoken so many happy childhood memories in me sheepherder ... Thank you my friend

If I recall correctly, 1278 was a Canadian Pacific locomotive originally. Sadly, she suffered a catastophic crown sheet failure in the mid 1990's, badly injuring the engineer and both stokers. I don't think she was ever repaired.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the B&O, and it's steam locomotives from the great age of steam on American railroads.

[m1903a3]

Originally Posted by m1903a3

If I recall correctly, 1278 was a Canadian Pacific locomotive originally. Sadly, she suffered a catastophic crown sheet failure in the mid 1990's, badly injuring the engineer and both stokers. I don't think she was ever repaired.
...

I remember seeing this last Fall

https://youtu.be/7TJPmkcPer8

[cirelaw]

I had a retired whe ran from Miami t Jacksonville and ccouldnt case how many lost their lives, either drunk or intention! https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and...-and-injuries/

[Lyn Islaub]

Indeed Kiwi, the "Big Boy" was truly a big boy. We used to drive out to the entrance of Weber Canyon in Utah and watch these monsters start up the grade. Lots of noise and smoke. An era long forgotten by most, but those of us older folks will always have a soft spot for big locomotives.
Lyn

[Ron Wood]

Originally Posted by m1903a3

I remember seeing this last Fall

https://youtu.be/7TJPmkcPer8

That video made mention of Baldwin locomotive #38 that was used by the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Company.
My home town, Robertsdale, Pa, was located on Broad Top Mountain and that is one of the locomotives that ran there! Who knows, maybe I hitched a ride on a coal train it pulled.
Ron

[spacecoast]

My grandparents lived near a warehouse in Dayton, Ohio that was a frequent stop for train traffic. Frequently my grandfather would take whatever cousins were around over there and pick up rubber "washers" after Sunday dinner. Apparently they were used in some capacity to cushion the payload transported in/on the freight cars.

[spangy]

Originally Posted by cirelaw

I had a retired whe ran from Miami t Jacksonville and ccouldnt case how many lost their lives, either drunk or intention! https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and...-and-injuries/

Although sheepherders post has brought a flood of pleasant childhood memories revolving around trains and trestles cirelaws post has brought the dark side of rail travel to light and awoken within me a rail tragedy in my own family.

My brothers wife lost her father, Bill Brownlee, in the 1986 Hinton Alberta train wreck.

A CN freight train traveling at 96 km/h at the time of impact, ran head-on with a VIA Rail passenger train, leaving 23 dead and 95 people injured. It was the most lethal rail disaster in Canada to that date.

The value of property destroyed or damaged in the mishap was in excess of $30 million 1986 dollars.




The YouTube video below shows the magnitude of equipment involved in this 'head on' collision.
One of the trains involved, the run-away train, was 6,124 feet long or 1.16 miles and consisted of 118 cars including 3 Locomotives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX5p3yjM8L0

The investigation and witnesses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9FKSNF--Mc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLNu6WRl6hM

Bill Brownlee's death was an incredibly sad day for us all ... Bill's was an empty casket funeral.
Many of the dead were never found such was the horrific nature of the collision.
For miles around this incident people were alerted by the 'Sonic Boom' created by the impact.
Bill was in the lead engine at time of impact.

Rest in Peace Bill ... the family misses you every day.

https://www.jonroma.net/media/rail/a...1986-1-eng.pdf

[sheepherder]

...Let your waters wash down
Take me from this road
To some other town...

I live close by the Erie Canal, and although I've lived here 26 years, I didn't know that this railroad bridge was just a couple miles from me. It's the same rail line as my pic in the first post, spanning the Erie Canal. It's known as the 'upside-down' bridge. I'm planning on visiting it in the next few days, just 'cause...

[sheepherder]

...Was to be free
And that's the way
It turned out to be...

It was a beautiful day out today, so I spent a couple hours looking for the 'Upside-Down' bridge. I found it. It was about 10 feet away from a viaduct I pass under about 15-20 times a week. There's no fences or any obstruction blocking access to the bridge - You could just climb up the slope where the viaduct is and be on the railtrack. I didn't climb it. I wasn't even sure if it was allowed to park where I was (I often see City Police cars parked there, radar-ing speeders coming up the hill).

The third pic is of one of the Canal locks, with the bridge in the background. Next pic is of another lock up-Escarpment from the last lock. The Erie Canal and the rail line runs roughly parallel to Lake Ontario although some 15-20 miles South of the lake. There is what is called locally "The Escarpment", which is simply the difference in height above sea level between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Where I live, in Lockport, that difference is 224 feet. My house is 6 feet above the level of Lake Ontario. Hence, the locks. Trains also have to climb that Escarpment, but the rail line is much more gradual. The locks and bridges are in a perpetual state of repair/maintenance. My tax dollars at work. There's virtually no commercial traffic on the Canal, it's pretty much all recreational now.

I noticed a couple of passenger cars parked on a remote siding. I wanted to get closer but this is a 'rough' part of the City and I was hesitant about intruding on anyone's 'turf'. Going a couple blocks farther North I noticed a couple more, obviously boarded up and unused for years. These two, like the other two, were parked on an unused siding (possibly the same one) alongside warehouses that did have regular tractor-trailer traffic while I was there. Offices or storage maybe?

When I had first pulled off the street at the viaduct, an engine with several cars was just crossing the bridge. I wasn't fast enough to get out and take a pic of that. So, I went down to what I think is the 'train yard' (there's only two engines in the Falls Road Railroad). I couldn't get in a position to take a pic of the front of the trainshed, just the rear. It looks like there's some kind of rail machinery parked there, but the engines weren't in sight.

My digital camera with it's tiny LED display screen was washed out in the bright sunlight; I couldn't see/read the symbols on the screen, so the pics are pretty poor. (Couldn't even tell when they were in focus, if they ever were). For some unknown reason, the camera switched from single-pics to .AVI for the last three shots. I had to take SS's from the video.

An interesting tour of part of the FRR line. If I get a chance in overcast daylight I'll take better pics, and maybe get a shot of the engines.

[sheepherder]

I found some pics online of FRR's locomotives. There are also several online sites with information about the 'upside-down' bridge, the engines, FRR, rails lines in WNY...Many many sites...

It seems that the FRR line is small but also connected to other bigger lines that occasionally use this section of the line. Genesee Valley seems to have an interest in it as their engines are sometimes seen in the Lockport rail yard.

Wikipedia has a page on FRR describing the engines -

Engine roster

The Falls Road Railroad, like all other GVT properties, is Alco-powered. The railroad uses one New York Central vintage RS32 (2035) as well as one Nickel Plate vintage RS-11 (1802). The 2035 is the primary engine; however, 1802 will be used on days when an extra train, such as a passenger excursion or snowplow, is needed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falls_Road_Railroad

https://www.gvtrail.com/region/western-new-york/

https://historicbridges.org/bridges/...ss/lockportrr/


I believe that last pic of mine in post #1 shows the snowplow parked at the rail yard.

[cirelaw]

I miss my own railroad!!