Our love affair with trains.

Yes. Crazy about trains ever since I can remember, probably about the age of three. Later that developed into an abiding interest in the whole subject of railways - track, signalling, operations, rolling stock ("equipment"), history, the whole thing. My favourite rail memory, I think, is my first journey through the Channel Tunnel in 1996, which was followed by a TGV ride from Paris to the south of France.

I've loved trains from the very start. Amazingly relaxing. The sounds, the feel...what's not to like? From subways to elevated local lines to commuter to distance travel, they never let you down.

I was raised by my grandparents, and my grandfather was station master and telegrapher in that small town, which had, however, a large siding from which trains could be made up. We grew up with that. I don't recall it specifically in my case, other than when my grandfather had taken all of the furniture out of one of the upstairs bedrooms so that he could varnish the floor. The single window faced west, and the rail line ran from east to west. A train at night can be a very haunting, lonely sound, and now it was amplified in the empty room.

In later years, if you had to babysit a small cousin, you could just park them by the south-facing window that overlooked the siding, and they would stand there for hours, watching the men in the yard make up a train.

My earliest memory of trains was hearing them and not seeing them in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This would have been in the early 50s when they were still using steam engines. It must have been a railyard where they were making up a train, because you would hear them chugging and then the chugging would increase for a couple seconds like the wheels were slipping, and then they would get traction finally. I'll never forget that sound. But I can't remember actually seeing a steam engine working.

Here's my idea of flying:

https://vimeo.com/11888167

When I was five we lived near a mini switch yard, where we could wave to the men in the engines and cabooses, from our own back yard. Those steam engines were a source of fascination for me, the release of the steam, the short bursts to get the wheels turning to make the cars follow. One day, my brothers and I were out playing. My oldest said, "That's a diesel." I looked to the tracks to see this big ugly box and I knew by the things Roger told me they would replace the steam trains. It was a disappointment I never really got over.

They were still using coal-fired steam engines when I was a boy. The only time you would hear my grandmother curse was when she ran out to take her laundry off the clothesline so it wouldn't get smuts from the coal smoke. The engineers who knew my grandparents would stop outside the town to wait while she got the laundry in.

One thing I found exciting was when my grandfather, the telegrapher, would give messages to trains which would come roaring past the depot. He would take the yellow flimsy with the message on it, and wrap in red twine. He would then stretch the twice across a forked bamboo stick, and stand on the platform.holding up the message stick. As the train roared through the yard, the engineer would lean down and snatch the message. It was always a thrill to see that.

Last time I visited, the little switch yard appeared to be not in use.
In the 60's I rode freight trains, Texas to California and back. Almost died a few times and froze my feet in the mountains once. Went back to hitching cars.

Towing the Union Pacific "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4 from Dallas to its new home in the railroad museum in Frisco, Texas.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cuvfccRzkPo

There are still working steam engines. We have the Durango - Silverton Railway. I much preferred the more romantic prior name: The Denver and Rio Grande Western. To a large extent, it is a tourist attraction.

By the way, the fireman has almost unbelievable upper arms, though he says there isn't much to do on the down hill return trip.

I have an entire set of photos 10x12" of the entire rolling stock of the Reading Railroad. It is a collection of inventory that was made for the war department in 1940 . It has everything of all their engines (COWS)
, yard engines, mine crawlers, tenders, Spinos, and trollies . I also have a similar collection of "crumb boxes" (Cabooses). Back then the metal skinned ones were a new thing and the Reading still had plenty of wood siding caboose.

Its a pile over 300-400 photos long. Ive been offered a hefty amount for em but I think Im going to will em to a museum that knows how to care for em.

The photographer's signature and a war department number is on the back of each one, as well as the makwr and tech specs an wheel configurations.

I guess the WD was getting ready for the eventuality

The commuter trains in Bangladesh are hopelessly inadequate as witnessed by this video. Rail cars are so overcrowded that people take to riding on top. This occurs in the morning and then the evening after work. 2000 people are seen riding on top of this train. Train speeds are approximately 27 miles per hour, any faster and many people would be in danger of falling off. The green flag with the orange sun in the middle is the national flag of Bangladesh.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G5u68LF1I74


Article:
Shocking images capture a commuter train in Bangladesh
https://www.google.com/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4308352/amp/Shocking-images-capture-commuter-train-Bangladesh.html

Union Pacific 3985 Challenger 4-6-6-4 steam locomotive. This was not the largest steam locomotive, but it's impressive and it's running down the rails at full steam.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6OgSNQOTw2U

Footage of a working big boy steam locomotive, the largest ever built with a wheel configuration of 4 - 8 - 8 - 4.

https://youtu.be/t_hj5HW6jTk

Loewy and Dreyfus were designing "Streamliner" engines for the Pennsy in the late 1930's. Sorta cool "Art Moderne" look and a last ditch effort to justify steam by design.

I like railroad architecture too. With the overhanging eaves they resemble Asian architecture. This is an old railroad depot at Whitewater, Wisconsin.

How diesel locomotives work. A 13 page tutorial. It's not as simple as you think.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/diesel-locomotive.htm

This is the depot in which my grandfather worked:



When such depots became obsolete (due to radios and computers), the town bought the building for a song, and moved it to a nearby park:

Even the simplest of railroad buildings look cool.