Trains....

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As a kid I loved trains, I loved everything about them expect for their god forsaken whistles. My parents fed my obsession with them by getting me a model train sets to play with, and taking me to rail road musuems. In 1985 my dad even built me a small HO scale train set in the basement for me to play with.

I think I was the only 6 year old in my class who had a real model train set to play with.

Does anything I mention here ring a bell here?

It rings a bell with me, all right. I didn't like trains as a kid, but I got into them sometime in high school, and I'm a pretty big fan now. I just like everything about them, including the whistles. I once rode an Amtrak train, and I found the clacking of the wheels against the tracks really soothing. Ironically, I don't feel that way about city el trains. I've read quite a few members' posts about topics of interests; so many of them list trains as a topic. Must be the whole big machine thing or the history behind them.

My parents got me a Hornby train set when I was five. It was a diesal locomotive. Later on, I had a Flying Scotsman added.

I remember going to the Railway museam at York when I was eight, and seeing a real Flying Scotsman!

My interest in trains did not last long, however. I became more obsessed with astronomy as I got older.

My five year-old daughter went through the 'train-stage' when she was three. Now she is more interested in her Nintendo!

I liked trains when I was a kid too...

oh yea..trains are definitely my bag..more so when i was a kid though..too bad they took away the caboose

I love trains!! When I was growing up my uncle had a tiny city build in his basement with an HO train going through the town. I could sit and watch it make its stops for hours at a time.

The Ohio State Fair has a building where all the model train enthusiasts gather to show off all the different train scales in the little cities they built for them.

I never really liked trains that much. I think my grandparents might have taken me to the National Museum of Transportation once, but I didn't enjoy it very much.

I have a moderate obsession with trains. I used to run down the street (over a mile) just to watch a train cross the grade crossing. I still would if the weather was better. I have a tape of myself describing what was going on as the train was going by (I rode my bike down there) and wound up falling and getting my leg trapped into my bike all because I was in a hurry to watch the train. The horns are my biggest obsession, especially when they go by late at night.


Here is a picture of the train tracks that I watch trains from. A good mile from my house:



Chicago & Northwestern/UP and Kansas City & Southern. KC&S doesn't run trains through here anymore and is selling some of this land that their tracks occupy. The 2 tracks on the right of this picture are the only ones in use by Union Pacific.

When I drive back to campus on weekends I take highway 41 south from Menasha down to Oshkosh. Most of the way down there on 41 there is a set of railroad tracks that runs right next to the highway. Often times when I drive back, there will be several engines pulling a huge length of cars behind it. Last week when I was driving, I was going south and was right next to train on the tracks. I slowed down to pace the train to see how fast he was going.

60 MPH! WOW!!

And these engines were pulling about a mile long string of cars also.

They go through the city of oshkosh doing about 40 mph too. It's quite the sight to behold.

Yes, I am a train nut. My favorite line is the now long gone Colorado Midland Line.


This is the only picture of "train stuff" I have online. It is a pitcure of tunnel 8 on the Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs "short line".

Artwork of railroad tracks I drew on the garage wall of our house from '85 using a piece of drywall I broke off using a hammer

I like trains too. When younger I use to go down to the tracks and find all the tunnel entrances and interesting sections of track to look at. I also make model railways; these days I model more unusual railways like narrow gauge systems, rather than your standard Hornby set.

I like trains as well...

Both cities I've lived in were VERY train-centric... blame the urban planners...

Hey, go to www.railpictures.net. It's an enormous archive of user-posted pictures of trains, stations, bridges, tunnels, action shots, etc. You can search by railroad, by category, by year, and by photographer. Enjoy.

Trains?

That's me!

I know of several great secluded spots where I can set up a folding chair on a cliff overlooking the tracks, and just sit there all day with a scanner with all the railroad radio frequencies programmed in, watching the trains go by, listening to the dispatch and track maintenance crew talk back and forth over the radio, snap a few photos, watch the lights on the signal bridge change, and get a good suntan in the process. It's quite relaxing.

I was fascinated with model trains as a kid too...