Jump to content
 

Why I love US railroading..


PhilH

Recommended Posts

It's a cracking shot, I almost had a feeling it'd feature in the opening post.

 

Why I love US railroading...? There's street running obviously, and a "let's just get on with it" atitude, but over here, you could spend years preparing, painting, and polishing a loco, and eventually get a cab ride. Over there, you can turn up on a Saturday as an unknown stranger with an unhealthy interest in photographing everything, then by the Sunday, drive the entire length of the line, with passengers aboard...!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I still watch the USA rail vidoes bought in the later 1980s when I went through the 'American phase'. Multi lash-ups and beautiful scenery on Donner, Cajon and Tehachapi etc......The clue is the date; no wide cabs except on the Santa Fe carbody SD45s and Union Pacific DD40s. I had come in at the end of an era and lost interest when the railroads modernised and merged. Nevertheless, terrific pictures on PhilH's and Trisonics entries.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Larry, This old GP 9 is still working in 2012 (and doing very well too)!

 

http://www.railpictu...d=196746&nseq=5

 

The photo is a few years old though....located within 30 minutes of Manhattan.

 

Best, Pete.

Looks lovely, but the real beauties to me were the SD9's....in fact SD anything! As regards HO models, I didnt even realize the Athearn model bonnets were too wide.
Link to post
Share on other sites

Happens in the USA too.

http://www.railpictu...=219319&nseq=31

 

Interestingly, that area appears to be marked for parking (so the driver didn't just randomly park on the rail line) - presumably there are No Parking times posted on the sign on the pillar in front of the truck which give the rail operations a window to work in. It is an Illinois plate on the Toyota, so it is likely a local.

 

I'd also suggest that, based on the look of the rails, the line isn't used very often.

 

For those modelling the modern scene, you also have an example of the ubiquitous plant pot...

 

Adrian

Link to post
Share on other sites

That looks to me like a yellow painted vehicle exclusion zone (though the angled lines could be construed as parking bays). So far as I know yellow lines are not used for parking bay delineation in the 'States. Another clue is nobody else has parked on that side of the road.

 

Best, Pete.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

To my eyes though there's a world of difference between that and the photos posted above - the trains are almost in the front gardens...

 

I absolutely agree, I was just giving an example of street running a little closer to home. Does any street running occur in the UK these days?

Link to post
Share on other sites

That looks to me like a yellow painted vehicle exclusion zone (though the angled lines could be construed as parking bays). So far as I know yellow lines are not used for parking bay delineation in the 'States. Another clue is nobody else has parked on that side of the road.

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

My guess is that it is here: http://maps.google.c...States&t=h&z=20

 

On Bing http://binged.it/Tdih97

 

The area is private access, with yellow-painted parking bays (quite normal in private lots).

 

It would appear that the line is now orphaned, as there appears to be a building on the RoW just north of W. Webster Ave (two blocks south), that shows up on the aerial shots but not in the street views (both Bing and Google).

 

Adrian

Link to post
Share on other sites

I lived near Erie PA where the Norfolk Southern tracks ran down the middle of 19th Street, best thing I saw was N&W Streamlined 4-8-4 no. 611 on a steam special one day, fabulous! Bell, mournful "whistle" which sounded like the Queen Mary, a great experience. Now, a few years later, the tracks are gone, rerouted next to the CSX tracks, and 611 is in a museum, the story goes that insurance premiums for running steam skyrocketed, Norfolk Southern abandoned their steam program and sold the coaching stock. Sad!

 

Edward

Link to post
Share on other sites

Did they build the RR along Main Street or did they build Main Street along the RR? I've come across a few places in the US, particularly in the South and West where the main street had been built either side of the RR but fairly wide and that had normally developed into two one sided streets with the RR on its own right of way between them. The one that really sticks in my mind was walking down a road in Savannah Beach near the the port which had an obviously long disused railway running down its centre.

It turned out to be not disused at all when a switcher and half a dozen boxcars came down it clearing out all the muck that was filling the groove inside the rails.

 

In the UK the only current example of street running by a railway (as opposed to a tramway) I know of is the cross town link in Porthmadog but there are bound to be others. They used to be quite common as goods lines connecting factories and especially docks to the nearest railway though not as common as in the US or even Europe but I always seemed to discover them after they'd closed. There was one still working in Southampton that I used to see pretty often when I worked in the old South Western Hotel building in the early 1980s. It connected the West and East Docks though ISTR it was more roadside or even behind the flower beds than actually in the road.

 

Not in Britain but the street running that always intrigued me was the standard gauge steam tramway that every night brought train loads of produce from the main line railways through the streets to the Paris central markets (Les Halles) I'll bet that was fun to live next to.

Link to post
Share on other sites

No, Phil, this is surreal:

 

http://www.railpictu...d=377352&nseq=5

 

Best, Pete.

What I love about that one is the time it was taken - 03:35hrs..!!! Imagine the hue'n'cry if that happenned in the UK..?? A few years back an attempt by EWS to re-introduce rail service to a large Industrial Estate fairly close to where I live had to be abandoned, as it was planned to run it mostly at night, and local residents objected to the potential noise. :rolleyes:

Seems they'd sooner have HGVs rolling past their front doors instead of trains at the bottom of their gardens.... :scratchhead:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...