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 Post subject: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:14 am
  

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Location: Iowa
:D

Love em! Old ones, of course. I don't know why but maybe because I grew up in a town full of them. My dad's cousin, who was like my uncle and was my Godfather, told me he used to work in the tower at one of the crossings. I presume this was a railroad job but he also worked for the Standard Oil Refinery in Wood River, Illinois and that crossing he pointed to that I passed almost every day, was right outside the refinery. Supposedly, his hanging around the train yards allowed him to associate with the hobos (love some hobo stuff, too) and he told me about hobo soup and how the hobos would make it. My parents made it and now I make it with a little addition of Slovak dumplings to go in it.

My dad bought me a Lionel train set when I was just a wee child, before the age of kindergarten. I loved it so. It was an O Gauge, I am pretty sure. The engine was so heavy. The transformer was quite large with two throttles, I think for 2 trains on the tracks at the same time. The trains only came out right before Christmas and he'd set them up to take up the whole livingroom and diningroom floor so we were more or less inundated by train track all through the holidays but my brother and I didn't mind. :D Later, I figured out how to set it all up, myself. After my brother was born, my dad got him one, too. I had the old steam locomotive and my brother had the diesel. We raced! :lol:

But the real thing was something to behold. Growing up in Southern Iillinois, near St. Louis, I had the occassion to ride the train from Alton, IL, up to Chicago and back, several times. I'll never forget that, either. It was a long, long ride, and I remember passing through the small towns (with no names :wink: ) flying down the tracks at such a speed, past the corn and wheat fields that seemed to have no end. And remembering eating ham and cheese sandwiches my mother would make for us to eat on our trips back and forth. There was nothing like riding that train. Maybe that's why City Of New Orleans is such a favorite song with me. The song, itself, is so good and Arlo singing it is the very best version, ever. It sorta sends me back on those trains going through towns like Kankakee, Joliet, Bloomington, Springfield and so many others that we just flew through so fast. It made ya feel good, sitting there looking out the window and watching the crossings flying by.

So, I still love em. I used to photograph the diesel engines and cabooses passing by if I could get up to the crossings, fast enough, before everyone was in front of me. I remember one on my way home from work. It was a sneaky diesel, lemme tell ya. There was no signal going off, no lights going off so I proceeded to start across the track, turned to my right and there it sat, right there on the track, not very far away at all. I think it was moving very slowly. I pulled out the cell phone with the camera, grabbed a couple of fast pix of it and off i went, FAST. Hahaha.

One of the other famous trains we apparently had going through Illinois in the same county I lived in was The Wabash Cannonball. My mother would tell me about it and I'd go out to my grandparent's farm, out to the bluffs and watch from above, hoping to catch a glimpse of it as it flew past the fields down below. I do believe I saw it a number of times but I will never be sure it was that train. It was definitely A TRAIN but The Wabash Cannonball? I'll never know for sure. Sure was fun watching for it, though.

Also lived right near a train track in Edwardsville Illinois before I ever married. All night long, the trains were running and pretty much on schedule. It was fun to listen for them because each engineer had a different way of blowing the whistle and you could tell which train was going past, just by the sound. One was so long and mournful. I'll never forget that one, either. So, there ya go. Weirdness? Naw, there's lots of people into trains. Just not so many women, I guess. :)


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:39 pm
  

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Joined: Sep 15, 1999
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well, if you want to, maybe you can post a picture?

but if you don't want to, that is fine too.

i couldn't resist posting this one

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/mow/LI ... earJay.jpg


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:46 pm
  

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Were you on the track with that train? Wooooo! Sure, I'll post a pic of the one that surprised me. Since it was a flip phone and not android, the train doesn't look quite as close as it was - I think. I swear it was looming over me. :lol: :lol:

Image


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:56 pm
  

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no! i saw that picture on the internet and got a kick out of it, and just thought i would share it.

does it seem strange that there would be no signal, even if it was moving slowly?

anyway, thanks for sharing your picture


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 4:03 pm
  

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That's a real nice train in your photo. For sure. I think with this diesel and the cars it was pulling behind, which weren't many, the arms and lights may have malfunctioned. That or they were working on the track and that's why it was going so slow. Never seen a green one like that before and never have since then. I'm glad I snapped that pic, real quick. Where I am living now, I rarely run into a train at all. Bummer!!! lol


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 4:27 pm
  

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i am thinking you might be a "train whisperer", haha. always be careful, it sounds like you already are.


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:00 pm
  

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A train whisperer? LOLOLOL! That's a new one on me but whatever - it works. LOL :D


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 6:16 pm
  

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Joined: Aug 25, 1999
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Location: Ocala, FL, USA
Nice pics! You could do a lot worse than be a blunderer who's also a train buff. Not long after Hurricane Katrina, Arlo and his gang boarded Amtrak's "City of New Orleans" for a trip down to Tipitina's in New Orleans, stopping in cities along the way to benefit storm victims.

Other than maybe Johnny Cash, there's no artist more into trains than ADG. Welcome aboard the choo-choo called Arlonet!


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 6:35 pm
  

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mikey wrote:
Nice pics! You could do a lot worse than be a blunderer who's also a train buff. Not long after Hurricane Katrina, Arlo and his gang boarded Amtrak's "City of New Orleans" for a trip down to Tipitina's in New Orleans, stopping in cities along the way to benefit storm victims.

Other than maybe Johnny Cash, there's no artist more into trains than ADG. Welcome aboard the choo-choo called Arlonet!


ADG is into trains? Really!? Now that's cool. I don't propose to know a whole lot about them, other than I've been around a lot of them as a kid and some as an adult and just find them fascinating. Never had a bus but did drive a Plymouth Van. Does that count? LOLOLOL!

Oh wait, I just remembered (this getting old stuff is for the birds!) my dad's father invented the current or newer type coupler that hooks the train cars together. My mom told me all about it. He was an immigrant from Slovakia and trusted way too much - showed his drawings to the railroad and that was that. They ripped him off. :( He worked for the refinery, too.

A long while back, I had read ADG traveled on The City Of New Orleans and co. and had taken that same route as in the song. That must have been something awesome. I don't know what the names of the trains were I rode on because I was a kid and didn't realize, trains had names, other than the Wabash Cannon Ball but I am really pretty sure we weren't on that one. I suppose I should have known better with that one having a name that others would, too. I just was more excited to go to Chicago and see stuff I'd never seen before. Sure was a long trip for a kid but I guess I behaved myself on the train pretty well. My brother, too and we didn't fight. Go figure. LOL. I was more interested in the scenery and when we were going to get to a town so I could watch at the crossing and the cars and trucks sitting there waiting for the crossing arm to go back up. I think I was feeling smug. Ha! We had to wait on trains all the time and sometimes for an awfully long, boring time. It was nice to be on the other side for a change.

It was so big inside - remember that. Lots of room. But nothing to do but stare out the windows. LOL

And thanks ;)

Hey, I remember a hobo coming to the back door once. My mom made him a sandwich and gave him something to drink, too. And that reminds me - the movie, Emperor Of The North :D Train movie with hobos. Awesome!

Thanks for the nice welcomes!


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:54 am
  

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mikey wrote:
Nice pics! You could do a lot worse than be a blunderer who's also a train buff. Not long after Hurricane Katrina, Arlo and his gang boarded Amtrak's "City of New Orleans" for a trip down to Tipitina's in New Orleans, stopping in cities along the way to benefit storm victims.

Other than maybe Johnny Cash, there's no artist more into trains than ADG. Welcome aboard the choo-choo called Arlonet!



Not to argue, but

Neil Young has to win the Train Geek/ Musician award!


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 11:17 am
  

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well, i don't think i can argue with that


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 10:36 am
  

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Hi Dragonfly, I like your train stuff! I have lived a couple of blocks from the same train tracks most of my life (different houses). I love the sound, especially in the early morning when they do what I call "singing".
It amuses me when people say they would buy a certain house but its too close to the RR tracks!
As little kids we played on the tracks and the RR bridge that went over a small river. Not too dangerous!!


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 10:43 pm
  

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Hey deeyak! :D

Here's one of my 1st train tracks by the refinery in Wood River, IL, where I grew up. Wooooo :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWAkS-dl82U

This is a crossing in Joplin, Missouri that I am pretty familiar with. I used to have to sit and wait many times at this one but I didn't mind. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtcjB9HVjbw

This is something I have never seen before in person and would love to but I don't live anywhere where they use these snowplow trains. Cool stuff. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvbgq2Ni2uE

Then for fun, The Wabash Cannonball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TobaR51ELXU

When I was a kid, I guess I was somewhat hyperactive. ROTFLOL. After I got to the age where I could set up the whole train set which went through the living room, the dining room and back, I got my brother to man the controls on his diesel and me with my locomotive, a lot like the Wabash Cannonball you see here. We'd put them end to end so when they went around the tracks, they'd hit each other. LOL. We'd highball the trains which meant full throttle. There would be a huge crash and both trains would jump the track. :oops: Then I'd just highball mine and make it jump the track going around the corners. I was a wild kid. Hahahaha! My mom had fits with us kids. lololol


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 10:52 pm
  

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I have also done genealogy for years and years. One day, I ran across this article while reading microfilm in a library. As horrible as this was, it was also fascianting to read about it. This happened 7 miles from my home, yet I had never heard about it, before. Read at your own risk. This was the most horrible train catastrophe to ever happen in Madison County, Illinois and still remains the most awful. Still, it's kind of fascinating to read about things that happened way back then. And we think things are bad right now.

The Wann Disaster.

http://madison.illinoisgenweb.org/wann_disaster.html


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 Post subject: Re: Trains!
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 7:36 pm
  

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Dragonfly wrote:
…...After I got to the age where I could set up the whole train set which went through the living room, the dining room and back, I got my brother to man the controls on his diesel and me with my locomotive, a lot like the Wabash Cannonball you see here. We'd put them end to end so when they went around the tracks, they'd hit each other. LOL. We'd highball the trains which meant full throttle. There would be a huge crash and both trains would jump the track. :oops: Then I'd just highball mine and make it jump the track going around the corners. I was a wild kid. Hahahaha! My mom had fits with us kids. lololol


when i was 7 or 8 i jumped off the house to test the parachute worthiness of a sheet. does that count? i carefully calculated in my mind, if it were to fail miserably, would i be ok? my answer was yes. it was a thrill, i think that the sheet failed, and i was okay.


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