Arn't trains related to tractors?

ch1ch2 · Jan 22, 2019

Not sure where to post this.

What country boy doesn't like his tractors and trains?

I have been going all over the U.S. riding vintage trains and vintage train lines. This one is one of the best. I will be going there again this year and will be volunteering my time for a week.
Check it out.

Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad - YouTube

ArlyA · Jan 22, 2019

I don't know where to post this either but I worked as a carmen for a few years. All regular gauge.... Still love RR's today.

Industrial Toys · Jan 22, 2019

I like trains and watch a bunch of videos. What I don't quite get is aside from being able to ride in a steam locomotive, what is special about riding in a passenger car pulled by a steam locomotive?

When I was around ten, my Uncle used to bribe German Train Engineers with a pack of cigarettes so I could ride in the locomotive. I got to operate the speed control, and in one case, the guy disappeared to the back for a brief time. I can only imagine if something happened. Ten year old boy from Canada was at the controls!

MossRoad · Jan 22, 2019

ch1ch2 said:
Not sure where to post this.

What country boy doesn't like his tractors and trains?

I have been going all over the U.S. riding vintage trains and vintage train lines. This one is one of the best. I will be going there again this year and will be volunteering my time for a week.
Check it out.

Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad - YouTube

Very nice. For several years I spent evenings on google earth following rail grades, both active and abandoned, looking for roundhouses and roundhouse foundations all over the U.S. I think I got about 1500 of them last count.

BoylermanCT · Jan 22, 2019

Cumbres and Toltec is on my short list of railroads to visit. The Durango and Silverton is a good one in the same neighborhood in Colorado. I missed the East Broad Top in PA, did not make it there before they shut down. We have the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat in CT which is a nice tourist railroad.

2LaneCruzer · Jan 22, 2019

How long has it been since you have ridden on a train? Not only is it nostalgic, and you are reliving a slice of life from 60 or eighty years ago, it actually takes you there in one sense. Our life is mostly filled with automobiles, traffic, asphalt, concrete and noise. You get on one of these old trains, and you go back in time. You get out of town, and there are no cars, trucks, skyscrapers; very little asphalt and concrete and the only noise is the rhythm of the old steam engine. You are moving by virtue of 200 year old technology, and the sense of self and nature is magnified. It seems to satisfy a primeval need that is hard to describe.

I rode trains several times back in the 40's during WWII, when it was a necessity. I was enthralled as a 5 and 6 year old, and nothing brings back that thrill except another ride on another old train. It's been 20 years since I rode a train, that time a 50's diesel, and I am ready to go again on an old steamer.

bcp · Jan 22, 2019

Looks like only a couple of states don't have a vintage trolley, steam train, or vintage diesel train to ride. Go ride one. They need your support.

List of heritage railroads in the United States - Wikipedia

Bruce

ch1ch2 · Jan 22, 2019

MossRoad said:
Very nice. For several years I spent evenings on google earth following rail grades, both active and abandoned, looking for roundhouses and roundhouse foundations all over the U.S. I think I got about 1500 of them last count.

I would have never guessed are that many. I would of guess less than 500. Maybe even 300.
I know there is 1 in Fort Worth and 1 in Grapevine.

ArlyA · Jan 23, 2019

No on here has ridden the 1880 engine train in Hill City SD? I have but that was long ago.... About 188 Train :: 188 Train :: 219 Season

coldsteelva · Jan 23, 2019

I'm from CT and have done the Essex Steam train and riverboat ride many times. I remember going with family, on school and summer camp trips also. Pennsylvania has the Steamtown National Historic site with a short steam train trip and some longer scheduled excursions. PA also has the Strasburg Railroad deep in the Amish countryside and the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum is just across the road. It's quite nice. Maryland has the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. There are plenty to ride.

EddieWalker · Jan 23, 2019

Cool video. I've wanted to do one of those train rides in the mountains one of these days. I would only go in the Fall because of the aspens being golden then.

I've taken trains in Asia and Europe and enjoyed them. The last one was five years ago from Zurich to Innsbruck to Venice. The mountains where awesome. My wife and I where always watching for castles and then trying to get pictures of them as we went by them. One of our future vacations will probably be through Eastern Europe on the train.

MossRoad · Jan 23, 2019

ch1ch2 said:
I would have never guessed are that many. I would of guess less than 500. Maybe even 300.
I know there is 1 in Fort Worth and 1 in Grapevine.

The standing ones are easy to find. What I look for is the foundations of ones that are long torn down. It's a distinctive wagon wheel spoke pattern. If you use google earth, and follow a rail grade into a town, they were frequently located at a point where the tracks enter a yard area. Sometimes they were in the middle, but most times they were at an end. You look on the ground and see nothing, but you just have a hunch that "If I were a railroad, I'd put my roundhouse here". :laughing: So you use the history slider in google earth and go back in photos as far as you can, and 9 times out of 10, you'll see the foundation before the vegetation took over, or a new building was built on the area.

And sometimes, you can't find it, so you google the town's name + railroad + roundhouse or round house, and you'll find a history of the town, which railroads located there, where their workshops were located, the roundhouse, etc.... and you look at the map for the town and it's all houses or businesses. So, again, you use the history slider and go back to the 80's and boom, there it is.

I haven't been active on it for a few years, so I need to pull it up again and take a look. There were literally thousands of them over the years.

MossRoad · Jan 23, 2019

I also look for turntables and turntable pits, as well as transfer tables. :laughing:

MossRoad · Jan 23, 2019

Like this one in Logansport, IN. There's a turntable to the left, a roundhouse foundation to the right. The roundhouse is long gone and replaced with a rectangular building. Now look at the backside of the rectangular building and there's a transfer table.

ArlyA · Jan 23, 2019

I love industrial history and building of the transcontinental railroad is part of that, at least here in the USA. It tied our nation together.

MossRoad · Jan 23, 2019

ArlyA said:
I love industrial history and building of the transcontinental railroad is part of that, at least here in the USA. It tied our nation together.

You have a bunch of roundhouses in Michigan. Lots of rails around the iron ore areas of Minnesota leading out to the lakes, and timber back in the 1800s, too. Wisonsin as well.