O/T—Trains in California (business travel with MordEth)

Post by **MordEth** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:43 am

Edisonfan wrote:Nice Pics, MordEth.

Thanks! The first 4 of the last 5 photos were some of the ones that I had really wanted to get up; I think there are members that will enjoy those in particular.

Edisonfan wrote:I was on a replica of a BART Train at Universal Studios Florida, as part of the EARTHQUAKE Ride. Where visitors get to expeirnece being in and Earthquake.

Despite living in Florida for the majority of my life, I do not remember if I ever rode that or not—it seemed like I usually ended up going to Disney World (Magic Kingdom theme park) or EPCOT Center instead. (Yes, I know they changed the name of the latter to just ‘Epcot’. I refuse to modernize.

)

I should make an offtopic avatar set with trolleys and antique cars, I think.

Henry—have a favorite train car/trolley/etc. that you’d like to have as your avatar?

More soon!

— MordEth

armyvet · Post by **armyvet** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:38 pm

Wonderful photos of the trains!!

Down here in this part of Florida you just don't see that many trains.
I really miss seeing them.

Thank you for the photos you have managed to remind me of a little better time for me with some really great memories.

Bill armyvet

antiquekid3 · Post by **antiquekid3** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:27 pm

Just got back from the Irondale (Whistlestop) Cafe, and we saw several trains. All freight, but still were quite cool! Chlorine gas, LP, and other neat contents. The conductor of a Norfolk Southern diesel even waved to me!

Brad · Post by **Brad** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:19 pm

Figured I would weigh in.

I have taken several cross country Amtrak trips as an adult. As a young boy (4 years old) in the early 60's my mom took me on the Sante Fe Super Chief from California to Boston. I have fond and vivid memories of that trip, probably bigger memories that what actually was, but very impressionable.

Here are some pictures of two operating excursions that if you have the opportunity, the are must do's.

The first is the Cumbres and Toltec running between Antinito Colorado and Chamas New Mexico. 64 miles of steam narrow gauge that crosses only 2 roads the entire trip. I spent the entire trip standing outside in the open gondola car.

Next is the Durango and Silverton which runs between Durango and Silverton Colorado. At the roundhouse the morning I was there, they had 4 engines under steam! I have some great video of the trains pulling out of the roundhouse and turned on the turntable. The trip up to Silverton is spectacular.

I took these pictures the summer of 2000 and intend on going back soon.

Post by **MordEth** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:29 pm

Brad,

Great pictures! I am very glad that so many people have jumped in and used this thread to post their images of trains, despite my poor choice of thread names to encourage that.

I have at least one more set of my photos to post, but I am really enjoying seeing everyone’s pictures, and I am not even a big train fan. So I think that it must be nice for our members that are a fan of trains.

One of these days I should take pictures of the network of trains in Boston—or steal some of John’s photos from him, if I do not already have some of them on my computer; I believe I scanned a few photos he had.

— MordEth

Post by **MordEth** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:24 pm

Here are a few more of the public transportation vehicles that I walked past while wandering San Francisco...

(Once again, click on any of the images for the full-size image from my digital camera.)

First, we have buses, which really do not look any different than the ones I see every day in Boston:

Then we have a few trolleys, which do look different than the trolley lines here:

And finally here is a trackless trolley (and as far as I am aware—and John may very well correct me on this—we do not have any of these running in Boston):

As I mentioned previously—if you have some train images you’d like to share, please feel free to add them to this thread.

— MordEth

Henry · Post by **Henry** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:57 pm

Trackless trolleys in Boston on Mt. Auburn Ave. and Belmont Ave., among others. The best way I've found to get from the Mass Pike into Watertown is to follow the tt overhead on Mt. Auburn Ave. Otherwise the oh-so-impatient and discourteous Boston automobile drivers, bless their black little hearts, will cut you off and definitely do NOT like it when anybody moves into their lane (and the lane markings are the poorest I've seen; they make PennDOT look like traffic engineering geniuses, which they certainly ain't).

In addition to Boston and SF, trackless trolleys also run in Philadelphia and I believe still in Dayton, Ohio, and Toronto. Years ago New Orleans had seven tt routes, six were streetcar conversions, but they were gone by the '60s. Lots of N. American cities had them at one time.

SF's fleet of streetcars includes the streamlined PCC cars, acquired used from several systems and painted in their historic paint schemes (like the Pacific Electric "red car" in your post). They also have older cars from New Orleans and, I think, Milan, among others. All of these, together with the renowned cable cars, constitute a veritable museum fleet of operating transit vehicles in everyday service---reminders of what most large American cities once had, but did away with, to our loss and their shame. Just my 3¢ worth.