Growing up around railroads

[lmackattack]

Im sure we all have stories about railways while growing up..I was thinking about the hobo thread.. so heres my story...

"The bridge"

I was in High School around 1994. We had a hang out spot on the old Soo line/Milwaukee road/WC main that came out of Western Chicago burbs and ran thru Buffalo Grove IL. We called this spot "The Bridge"

It was a small bridge that went over a small creek. It was a single track Bridge about 150' long and 30' tall. It was a spot to sneak a beer, meet with friends, some nights bring the girlfriend to hang out. It was kinda a secret spot that only 15-20 of us close friends knew about. A place that was nothing but trees after 70' either side along the mainline. tucked away from homes and roads. You could get there by motorcyle or bicycle via a trail used by the power company. Other wise you had to walk from the nearest road crossing about 1 mile away. The bridge was at the bottom of a small valley and there was a signal standing gard at the top of both the north and south grades. These signals would be dark untill a train was near. Just before this bridge was a well worn rarely used siding that bad order cars must have been spotted to. We would have small camp fires near the water under the bridge and used a tire swing to cross the creek. We would hang out for hours and wait for a signal to lite up. when one showed green and the other yellow/red we knew one was on the way. we would hurry to the siding if grain or box cars were there, climb atop them and wait for the train to soon come. As the locos approched we would lay low and watch the stars fade away into the headlight of the engine. Soon the loud EMDs rolled past and we would stay low and out of site of the crew. As the engines passed the sky came back and you just would take in the view and sounds of the slow train in the hot night. The breeze that the train made was refreshing and the sound of the trees came alive from it. It was only 5 mins but what a rush to see,hear and feel the night come alive in total darkness. Hard to explain the feeling but It was just a great way to spend a few hours with good friends or better yet a lady friend on a hot summer night.
We only got cought once in the 3-4 years we hung out there. and the cops were cool about it... 5+ years ago "The bridge" was knocked down and they put up a 2 track mainline over the creek. its now a concrete bridge and just does not look the same. We were not taggers or the type that put rocks on the rails we were just kids that had nothing to do on a summer weekend.

I miss those days!

 

[Motley]

Good story Trent. I don't have any interesting stories of growing up around railroads. I did however live near a mainline, and we used to put coins on the tracks and come the next day to see them completely flattened.

About 2 years ago this happened about a mile from my house. One night I was up late watching TV, it was about 12 midnight, and I heard a low rumbling sound that literally shook the entire house. I didn't think anything of it, maybe it was a low flying jet, there is a small airport near my house that sometimes military jets fly.

The next day I was on my way to work and just down the street was a huge scene of emergency vehicles, strewed everywhere. As I'm driving I see all this lumber, like matchsticks scattered all over near the road. Then I see it, oh my heart sunk, it was a BNSF engine not sure exactly what maybe an SD70Ace, it's nose was dug into the ground, and laying on it's side.

It was amazing how fast they cleaned that up, it was all gone only a few days later. After investigating, they found out a cop was on patrol in a nearby neighborhood at or near a grade crossing, when the cop saw a huge log sitting on the tracks. He stopped and removed the big log, which was big enough that two officers had to lift it away. Whoever put that big log on the tracks came back and put it back on the tracks after the cops left.

Well apparently the log was big enough, because when the train came it derailed. They have never found out who did it. Probably some stupid kids. I mean, who puts big huge heavy logs on the tracks? Idiots!

 

[flyboy2610]

Well apparently the log was big enough, because when the train came it derailed. They have never found out who did it. Probably some stupid kids. I mean, who puts big huge heavy logs on the tracks? Idiots!

God knows exactly who did it. He will deal with it appropriately.

 

[fiend540]

I grew up in a house in the little town of East Aurora NY, and Conrail's Buffalo Line (former PRR) ran right behind our property and the vacant field next door. I remember those big blue engines rumbling by multiple times a day with long mixed freights, flat cars filled with auto frames and long strings of auto racks. Now as we know Conrail is gone, the line is owned by NS but is leased to the B&P railroad and maybe sees a handful of trains run mostly at night. Makes me really wish I had a camera as a kid and would have caught all that action on film

 

[Airslide]

i grew up in NYC so i rode the train (subway) everywhere up until i was 18 and moved out to go to college. When i used to visit my grandmothers house in Queens on the weekend, we used to hang out by the LIRR tracks. we used to spit on the rail, place quarter on it and wait for the train to flaten it. one day we got the bright idea to throw rocks at the train. we did this to a few passing trains. but then a train came and we were doing our thing; throwing rocks at the train, but on the last car standing in the doorway was this big burley dude with a shotgun. the train was doing at least 40 so when the dude saw us he took aim and shot at us. he missed me but a few pelets hit my friend Bobby. we both hit the deck when we saw the guy so i thought he was dead. all i remember is being sooooo scared. but Bobby seemed to be alright. it was the dead of winter so we were layered up pretty good. his goose down jacket had holes in it but there was no blood? we dug through the holes in his jacked and pulled out a few rocks, which we later discovered was salt. needless to say that was the first and last time i ever threw a rock at a train....

 

[BIG-D]

michael when was this i seem to rember it happening or reaing about it

 

[Motley]

michael when was this i seem to rember it happening or reaing about it

It happened on 06/10/2008

Here is the report on Denver Post newspaper. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9538861

 

[Brakie]

Wonderful topic!

If I may share some of my fondest and unauthorized(from my Mother's view point) summer time childhood railfan jaunts.Mind you I was born and raised in Columbus,Oh.During this time I lived about 7 blocks from the Columbus Union Station and 4 blocks for the PRR yards.

One of my favorite railfan spots was by Patton's Warehouse in the former C&O freight station.I spent hours there perched on a retaining wall watching PRR,NYC and B&O trains.If you look to the left in this picture you can see part of that wall..I suppose today the various children watch dog groups would wet their britches seeing it was about 10-12' drop from where I usually sit to the ground.

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/pom-feb2007.htm

My second hangout was the union station platforms where I would spend hours watching trains.The station personal never said anything to me because I usually sit on a baggage cart and never got near the tracks-I would stop at the tobacco shop and buy a coke(5 cents) and a candy bar(5 cents) before heading down to the platforms-some times I bought a cheeseburger at the station's lunch bar for a whooping 15 cents!

I can still smell the smoke from the passing steamers and recall how they smoked the platforms up as they pass..

Although this photo dates 1948 it was about the same when I would go there in 54/55..

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/pom-mar2008.htm

Now if I felt adventurous I would ride my Schwinn bike(about 7 miles) to NYC's (T&OC)McKinley Avenue yard and spend the day there..I would pack a lunch that would contain crackers,vienna sausage or deviled ham,a hostess cake and small Coleman jug of water..

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/pom-dec2007.htm

Now some days I would ride my bike to Essex Avenue that was at the end of the Grogan yard or to the Cleveland Ave overpass and view the yard there..

Sadly all of those areas are gone except for one single track.

Now why was my Mother concern? I started these unauthorized "childhood railfan jaunts" when I was 6 by sneaking off on my bike.

 

[CharCad]

When I was little (1960s) our house in Fort Wayne had a New York Central (later Penn Central, still later Conrail) branch line running right behind it. Long freights came through several times a day headed to/from Michigan.

We "played on the tracks" constantly. I remember when I was 5-6 "hobos" would still appear from time to time asking for food. This was about 1961-1962.

Just in a space of 1.5 miles from 4th Street to Lima Rd along this line there was a freight yard, LCL freight depot and at least 10 rail customers with spurs.

1. Superior Scrap Metal loading gondolas with cubed crushed junkers.
2. City Utilities power plant receiving coal.
3. Indiana & Michigan Electric service yard receiving cable, transformers, etc. This service yard had a surprising rail network for a relatively small installation.
4. The I&M spur went on further to service the Old Crown Brewery at Clinton & Spy Run.
5. General Telephone depot receiving cable and parts.
6. Valspar (paint manufacturer)
7. An old lumber yard at State Street & Cass.
8. A gravel yard further up on Cass St.
9. Roethele Lumber on Wells St.
10. Another spur where US 27 crosses the old right of way.

Also in the 1960s the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus train would unload at the 4th Street yard. Then they would parade out North Clinton & Spy Run to the War Memorial Coliseum. This was always a spectacle.

Cities used to have spiders webs of rail spurs running everywhere. I also remember waiting in the car with my mom in long lines of stalled traffic on Clinton & Spy Run while switchers shuffled cars around for City Utilities, I&M and Old Crown.

 

[julienjj]

i grew up in NYC so i rode the train (subway) everywhere up until i was 18 and moved out to go to college. When i used to visit my grandmothers house in Queens on the weekend, we used to hang out by the LIRR tracks. we used to spit on the rail, place quarter on it and wait for the train to flaten it. one day we got the bright idea to throw rocks at the train. we did this to a few passing trains. but then a train came and we were doing our thing; throwing rocks at the train, but on the last car standing in the doorway was this big burley dude with a shotgun. the train was doing at least 40 so when the dude saw us he took aim and shot at us. he missed me but a few pelets hit my friend Bobby. we both hit the deck when we saw the guy so i thought he was dead. all i remember is being sooooo scared. but Bobby seemed to be alright. it was the dead of winter so we were layered up pretty good. his goose down jacket had holes in it but there was no blood? we dug through the holes in his jacked and pulled out a few rocks, which we later discovered was salt. needless to say that was the first and last time i ever threw a rock at a train....

Who could be stupid enought to shot at kids
why would someone be armed ont the train ??

 

[zoegraf]

No stories here, but when I was a young teen, I lived in a neighborhood that was up on a plateau. On the edge of it, looking down over a cliff, you could see a railway yard. We used to go down there to explore and get chased away occasionally by the railway police. We used to put coins on the rails, hoping they would be there the next day flattened out.

Also, when visiting my friend in the country, we used walk on the railway tracks to get to the drive-in theatre to watch Russ Meyer films. Ooh la la.

http://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/i...j6hovo&sigi=11tp40s4h&sigb=141kp4jp5&type=JPG

When I was I was in high school, we used to do stupid dangerous things like walk across this bridge after having a drink or two thinking it was cool to look down to see the dangerous stretch of rapids and whirlpools between the ties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:June_2009_Reversing_Falls_Bridge.jpg

 

[CharCad]

Who could be stupid enought to shot at kids
why would someone be armed ont the train ??

Shooting rock salt? It worked. They stopped.

This will be very hard for many people to believe. But back in the 1940s to around 1970s the autorack cars were not fully enclosed. They were open, just like semi transporters still are today. And like these modern German autoracks still are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DB-Laaeks25804366678-7.JPG

But then we modernized to today's wonderful progressive social conditions. And during this progression freight insurers tired of paying the receiving dealers for body and glass repair work on 25% - 50% of the brand new vehicles shipped to them. So the autoracks were 100% enclosed and supercargoes stopped carrying shotguns with rock salt to deter hordes of rock and paint bomb throwers.

 

[zoegraf]

Shooting rock salt? It worked. They stopped.

This will be very hard for many people to believe. But back in the 1940s to around 1970s the autorack cars were not fully enclosed. They were open, just like semi transporters still are today. And like these modern German autoracks still are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DB-Laaeks25804366678-7.JPG

But then we modernized to today's wonderful progressive social conditions. And during this progression freight insurers tired of paying the receiving dealers for body and glass repair work on 25% - 50% of the brand new vehicles shipped to them. So the autoracks were 100% enclosed and supercargoes stopped carrying shotguns with rock salt to deter hordes of rock and paint bomb throwers.

I believe it. I actually remember those open autoracks in the 70's and early 80's when I was back on the east coast of Canada. And those kids that threw rocks at them. Apparently it was a big problem on the Canadian Prairies. I didn't know about the shot guns with rock salt. Maybe the RCMP used them; who knows?

 

[Airslide]

Who could be stupid enought to shot at kids
why would someone be armed ont the train ??

i think it was more effective than it was stupid. scared me straight. like someone said, it worked - lol. This was about 1983 or 4. i learned in later years that railroad security (particularly in the New York area) carried rocksalt shot guns while on patrols. 1) rocksalt buckshot was primarily used as a non-lethal version of the real thing 2) that guy was probably a worker or some sort of security for the railroad. the engineers from the first few trains we pelted probably called in because i cant imagine a random passenger hanging out in the last car of the train with a shotgun - even though it was the 80s...

 

[Coy]

I grew up a mile or so from the NS yard in my hometown, and spent plenty of time with my friends watching the trains go by as a kid. I remember sitting in my room at night with the windows open and you could hear them building trains at all hours of the night. Also my friends father owned some property where we rode dirtbikes/go-carts and such that was bordered by NS/UP/KCS, and Gateway Western mainline.

Also there is only one way out of my hometown that isn't a grade crossing, so that helps.

 

[RW&C]

Not only is rock salt non-lethal, it stings like hell. Perfect for scaring away rock-throwing kids.

I can see the tracks from where I live (I think it's an ex BN branch, long since taken over by RailAmerica), but I've never really gone exploring. I should sometime.

 

[bigB]

Grew up around/near the Southern Railway. Back in the early 80s, they used to do a steam excursion out of NC up to DC. One year, my dad and brother and I went on it. We got off in the little town of Altavista,VA where my mom was supposed to pick us up. She, however, thought we were continuing on to Lynchburg. Wrong, we got off in Altavista. We spent all day waiting in the town park by the tracks eating McD's and watching what seemed like 50 Southern trains go by. Lots of High Hood SD45s, GP50s and GP38s. Lots of good memories were made by the time the local police pulled up as my mom had driven all the way to Alexandria looking for us (20 years before cell phones!). Man she was hot at my dad but relieved at the same time when we finally all were reunited.

When I was a kid we'd spend about three weeks out of the summer down at my grandparents down in NE NC. We swam at a pool near the Seaboard Coast Line. We would often have sodas and crackers and wait by the tracks in Weldon for the Amtrak and freights to go by. Lot of SD45s in those days and FP40s.

On the drive home to western NC, we'd pass by the Atlantic Coast Line which ran from Petersburg down to Selma. We would trainwatch near my great uncles house near Lacrosse,VA as the trains went across Lake Gaston near I-85 and made their way down to Raleigh. One the way to/from my grandparents, we'd always get off I-85 early and drive the 6 or so miles from one end of Norlina to the end along US 158 to hopefully see a train.

Good times...lots of great memories

 

[blownoutcylinder]

I grew up in Woodstock ON--our backyard actually faced the CN doubletrack main that ran through Toronto to Windsor/Sarnia.

My favorite place to sit and watch trains is the footbridge that crossed the tracks--of course down the road apiece was the, at that time, BeachvilleLime plant/quarries in Beachville--which was just down the road from where we lived--

 

[oldtimer67]

Great thread and good stories.

I grew up in England beside the ex LMS main line between Birmingham and Bristol, I spent hundreds of hours collecting engine numbers on weekends and slowly became so obsessed with trains that I started to skip school, only 12-13 years old sitting beside a railway line smoking a pack of cigarettes and collecting train numbers, a lot of fun that used to leave me with a sick and guilty feeling when I had to go home but it was worth it, darn it the train obsession never left me I as still a train nut.

 

[Beachbum]

I was pretty lucky. My grandparents lived within sight of the ex-CNW line in Upper Michigan north of the Escanaba ore docks. Lots of taconite pellets to load my slingshot with.

Later, I lived in Gladstone, MI, within easy walking distance of a CN (ex-Soo) division point yard. I used to listen to them flat switch the yard late on summer nights when we had the windows open. Also, my best friend's dad was a brakie for the Soo, so I got to sit in his caboose once when he fired up the stove for his run that night. (That was when cabeese were still assigned to certain crews.) Railroad torpedoes are mighty loud, heh, heh, heh.