Any railfans here?

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

I have to confess I am.

Grew up 3 blocks from the Milwaulkee Roads "Galewood Yard" (my granddad called it the "Cragin Railroad yard"), with switching action between the MILW and the Belt Railway of Chicago...

....and the CTA L and the various commuter lines, including the exotic "South Shore Line"...and summer vacations on the "Hiawatha" streamliner to the Wisconsin Dells.

One of the last long distance trains I was on in the US was the "South Wind" between Louisville and Chicago....(saw the equipment in a museum in Indiana)....

So, any railfans here...

[H2O Man]

1. yep.

I wrote a book on the Irish immigrants on the railroads in upstate New York.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

6. Do you know anything about the Orphans?

Some of my relatives use to talk about the orphan trains.

[olddem43]

2. Yeah, I was a railway mail clerk back in the '60s.

I did the stuff you see only in the old movies now - throwing off and catching mail pouches on the fly and carrying a .38 revolver in case of a mail train robbery. Even back then, it seemed like the old west at times.

[Zomby Woof]

3. yep

I work for a railroad, in the tourist trade. Our company restores and preserves lots of classic beauties, like this one:



It once belonged to the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, for which my great-grandfather was an engineer.

[Kool Kitty]

8. What a beautiful engine.

I love trains. Love them. My dad worked for the Central Railroad of New Jersey for a while in the thirties, before he went into the army. I got my love for the railroad from him, I think.

[mitchum]

4. I love rails

[VoteDemocratic2004]

5. I love trains

Have you been to the Museum to see the Zephyr?

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

9. The Illinois Railway Museum? Yes I have.

be nice to see their streamliners on an excursion.

[enigmatic]

7. I love trains..

Had a train set when I was a kid, and hopped trains for awhile in my 20's..

[Wapsie B]

10. I love watching trains.

Some of my best dreams are of trains, kind of a recurring theme.
I'd love to live right along the Mississippi between Prairie Du Chien and Lacrosse. They've got a busy rail line through there and coupled with the scenery there it's a slice of heaven.