I love trains too, so I think I could go for this holiday.

Grandfather DeVine moved from Gadsden, AL to Spartanburg, SC in the late 20s when the SR shop burned down and they re-located their main repair station to Spartanburg. Many from Gadsden, Hendersonville, NC and Chatanooga moved to SC.

Granddad was a carman for 53 years and my Dad was carman and then VP (out of the union for 7 yrs) for 43 years until two years before Norfolk Western merged.

I rode the train from Spartanburg to Gadsden, Al often to visit relatives.

Last summer, I took 18 Boy Scouts & adults to the Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, NM. To save the 13-hour drive, we caught Amtrak in Flagstaff at 5 AM and rode all day to Raton, NM. It sure beat driving, and we got to see the countryside like we never could have driving or flying. The seats had mucho leg and elbow room, you could roam about to the lounge car, and the food was excellent. If you have time, it’s a much better way to travel than to cram in shoulder-to-shoulder with 200 strangers in a little aluminum tube 40,000 feet above the scenery. And that’s coming from an aerospace engineer!

Also, if any of you get the chance, come to northern Arizona, Cottonwood to be specific, and take a ride on the Verde Valley Scenic Railroad. It’s a 3-4 hour ride through some of the most beautiful country you’ll ever see (outside of Alaska!). Get a first-class ticket, it’s not that pricey. You’ll maybe even see some bald eagles and their young if you come at the right time. Follow that up with a chuckwagon dinner at the Blazin’ M Ranch for a great family time.

There’s also the Grand Canyon Railroad that runs from Williams, AZ to the GC National Park. The scenery ain’t that great until you get there, though. And while you’re in Williams, be sure to get a burger and shake at Twister’s, a 50′s-style diner on Old Route 66.

Geez, better stop before I start sounding like an AZ tourism commercial.

I have a couple of pictures from a park outside of LA that has all of these old neat trains.

Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload pictures. It keeps telling me I don’t have permission.

That departure I watched from my grandfather’s shoulders was the last departure in steam, the WS soldiered on a few more years using an SW1500 diesel switcher for motive power. In the book Rails Through Dixie there’s a picture of the WS in steam in a mixed freight and passenger configuration. The passernger car is the rarely pictured “Jim Crow” combine. A combination coach and baggage/freight/mail car with seats for White passengers at one end, Black passengers at the other, and the freight/baggage/mail compartment in between.

Becareful, it’s mother’s day weekend! Any mention of “Hallmark” and something other than motherly devotion might get you in hot water!
Thanks for the diary. My son likes to read about trains I’m going to share it with him.

There is just something so solid about them. I took the train from DC to Baltimore to take the bar. MUCH less stressful than driving.

You’re absolutely right about trains and their legacy.

I grew up in Western New Jersey along the Raritan River about 60 miles due west of New York City, and according to one of the old town’s residents, there were scenes of Tomas Edison’s “Great Train Robbery” filmed not far upstream from our town. The whole time we lived there the coal trains headed east to the power plants for New York and Newark punctuated our day’s schedule.

We should do more to make a market for passengers with them now, but Amtrak’s obviously not the way. The point about seeing the country while riding the train vs driving the interstate is right on target. You can still take the train from Charlotte to DC and get there in a decent amount of time–and the small towns along the way could be rediscovered gems.

A round trip ticket from St. Louis to Chicago is around $50 right now…that’s about 1/2 as much as a planet ticket, much more comfortable, and when you combine with the hassle of air travel and the time it takes to/from the airport, going thru security, waiting for flights, etc. – the time difference is negligible.

My grandfather was a hostler for the old Ma. and Pa. R.R. in York, Pennsylvania and trains have always fascinated me. Whenever we go back to PA I take the kids over to Lancaster County to ride on the Strasburg railroad. They have a beautiful old steamy there and also the PA railroad museum. There’s also a steam engine that operates out of Gettysburg that does dinner trips and is supposed to be very nice.

Art,

Thanks for the memories, my trains were Southern Pacific. I grew up with a track at the back of my house and can remember the train running through at night.

The sound and feel of a passenger train running fast at night out my back yard is something I will always remember.

Really, this comment is about trains and the telegraph, which made each other possible. Without the telegraph, there could not have been long-distance train travel, lest the railways hire someone to run along in front of the train to say the coast was clear. And without trains, there could have been no telegraph, for how could you fix the wires? It was a symbiotic relationship,

Trains and telegraphs made possible a boom in newspaper production. For the first time, newspapers could be syndicated, and could have reporters stationed in far-off locations with daily deadlines. Whereas in the 1840s news stories would sweep across the country in weeks, in the 1850s that turned into hours, with full reports within a day. And papers could be printed in one town and delivered by train all across a State or a region that day.

Trains made baseball the national sport, as teams from Boston and Chicago could be in the same league.

More here.

was my very first train ride. It was a verrrry long time ago when the bandits and the sheriffs where allowed to use their guns.

My first train trip was from Germany to Hungary across the Iron Curtain. Now that was interesting, and I was only 12 years old. But this trip made me fall in love with trains, especially the ones with the “bedrooms”, as I called them. Very James Bond like.

by himself as a young boy from Baltimore to Seneca, SC back every Summer in the ’40s and would carry his suitcase a few blocks to his Granpda’s hous eon Depot Street. His mother would probably be arrested for neglect today.

My Maternal Grandfather purchased few passenger cars in the ’70s ,after he divorced Grandma ,and he moved them onto a siding off the Pickens Railway, (Family ran the line at the time) where he lived until his death in 2004. He made some good moonshine in the dining car for years.

“If I could save sounds in a bottle,
The first thing that I’d like to do,
Is to save the growl of a radial engine,
And the call of a steam whistle, too.”

Apologies to Jim Croce.

You sparked an old memory. A group of us hopped a freight train to Pocatello Id. to see a Fleetwood Mac concert. Did it on a dare. Those were the days.

Happy Train day!

Since it was the Mafia-run unions that got rid of them in the first place, and the Chicago Mafia’s puppet is in the White House, fat chance.

The Starlight Express was a nice experience for my family and me. It started off inauspiciously: my 8 yr old son made a rude remarkgesture to one of the porters. Once my son very clearly understood that the porters, conductors and cooks could have a very positive effect on our trip if they chose, and had him apologize, the trip went perfectly.

One of the greatest joys of train travel today is the other people you meet on the train. They are not like the fellow travellers on the airlines. They aree more thoughtful and more patient. And they seem to love our old heritage.

I agree with the commenter above that the Verde Canyon train is a wonderful experience – combine it with a chance to visit Jerome, AZ and you have a great 3 day weekend.

To be precise, the Monon Bell, which is the traveling trophy which Wabash College (my alma mater) and DePauw University (our arch-rival) play for in football every November.

Now don’t think I’m crazy. Just think of all that they have in common-riding rails, jostling in a railroad car and seeing the sights, countryside or city. Trains bring a neat connection for the travelers.

I spent my childhood in NYC, riding subways, lived in Colorado and the trains out there show some of God’s beautiful country. The Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge still operates and that is God’s Country.

Today, I’m happy to take a train, even if it is Amtrak…yes, Happy Train Day.