The roundhouse, water tanks, and all the old rails needed.
Ever ride a steam train, or have a roundhouse left anywhere near you?

We have a historic railroad here, 2 steamers & a diesel. The maintenance shops, depot, offices, & freight barns are open for the public to tour free. They do a 6 mile run, if your pockets are deep enough you can be the engineer & run the thing.

We volunteer there, when we had horses we helped stage robberies, the wife & her work women dress up as hookers and have an exhibit right above the whorehouses (still legal here) next to the tracks.

www.nnry.com

Strasburg RR in Lancaster County Pa. No roundhouse but everything else. Plus the Railroad Museum of Pa. is right across the street. The National Toy Train Museum is just down the road (right next door to the Red Caboose Motel where you can sleep in a real caboose).

Heaven for railroad fans.

Dale

Grew up around some of the last remaining active steam locomotives, in the early 50's. Grandfather worked for the railroads from before WW1 in Mississippi, through Oklahoma after serving in France, then on to working in the yards in California from 38' until his retirement in 62', worked in the old Tayler yards in Glendale, CA not far from the old Lockheed plant, none of it there any more, neither the rail yard or the Lockheed plant.

Link

Greatly reduced in size from the war years, and completely gone today except for a few rusty spikes and signs of its once existence amongst the weeds.

And the old Lockheed plant which I helped close down and amongst one of the most polluted piece of property's in the Los Angeles county area at that time.

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Phil

my father worked for the santa fe for over 40years, and his father before him for over 40years too.
My grandfather mostly was a section foreman and came here as they were laying track across northern arizona from kansas.
the santa fe depot in prescott is about a block from my house, so was the roundhouse, machinest buildings etc. I grew up playing in/with that stuff.
when they were switching cars, i often got to ride on an engineers lap when little, blow the horn, and work the controls. At least in my mind i thought i was.
I can remember when they were switching over to diesels but do remember the steamers in the shop.
There is a really good ride, not steam, but still, from williams to the grand canyon real popular at christmas time.
I do remember sleeping in the pullman cars, and breakfast as we road over to california, almost no cost father being an employee.

We have a steam locomotive sightseeing trip here in Utah from the town of Heber (near Park City) down the Provo River Canyon and back. It fun and popular. The old roundhouse here in Ogden has only been gone a few years, but it was still open to visitors when we moved here. Utah is a huge railroad center.

We are planning to enjoy the Durango to Silverton narrow-gauge steam rail line this summer. It's an all-day trip on a line in continuous operation since the 1800s, formerly to haul gold and silver ore, now hauling tourists. It's rated the #1 train excursion in the nation.

I'm old enough to distinctly remember the last of the steam locomotives in active service running across Illinois to and from St Louis. The sight and sound of those brutes was unforgettable.

While I was in Germany during the early 70's they were still running Steam locomotives on most of the freight and some of the passenger trains... not sure but believe they are still running a few in some of the areas.

Phil

There used to be an operating steam engine over in East Texas that belonged to the state of Texas. They ran it during the summer and on weekends for tourists. I have no idea if it is still in operation.

Up in northern New Mexico, we have a narrow gauge railroad, the Cumbres and Toltec, that hauls tourists between Chama, NM, and Antonito, Colorado. And, of course, there is the narrow gauge railroad up in southwestern Colorado that runs between Durango and Silverton.

I have taken a ride on all of these at one time or another. The Cumbres and Toltec is my favorite, especially in the fall when the colors are at their best. YMMV.

The Heber Creeper! It is a fun ride.

We did the Silverton/Durango thing a while back, the round trip. In retrospect would have enjoyed the one-way trip more, too much of a good thing.

The Baltimore Train museum has a really nice collection and roundhouse.

http://www.borail.org/The-Roundhouse-ca-1884.aspx

The iron horse opened the continent. It would be interesting, to say the least, to time travel back to see the early locomotives.

Believe the White Pass and Yukon line is still running at least one of their two steam locomotives... #73 was the last one I've been on in full operation and can't remember but think it was using a diesel helper, was strictly a tourist excursion but fun, think it was about a 60 mile road. There is some eerie videos on YouTube about abandoned trains in the U.S., kind of like looking at the old ghost towns.

Phil

There is still a roundhouse here, but the rails and workings were removed many years ago.
If I were to ride the Cumbres & Toltec again, I'd start the train portion in Antonito, while fresh. Then the most fascinating would be later, and I wouldn't be thinking "Darn, I wish this was over"

In the 90s we rode a few steam excursions on Norfolk Southern and CSX track in Tennessee. Riding behind a steam locomotive running at road speed through the countryside is an experience that will make the hair on your neck and arms stand up. When going through a curve you can see the locomotive wheels churning, the smoke belching, and the whistle really makes it come alive. What an experience!

It's interesting to see the look on peoples face at rural crossings, both people who came to see the steamer, but also people who just happened to be there when the train came by - they looked like they were seeing a ghost, and in a way they were.

Gramps used to take me down to the roundhouse when
I was little (pre school age). I'd get a ride in the yard engine. I can recall a couple of times when steam engines went screaming up the tracks along a hillside visible from the house, maybe a quarter mile away....scared the hell out 3 or 4 year old me...belching smoke and fire, whistle just a screaming...

Durango & Silverton. Rode it twice long ago. Georgetown loop. UP runs 844 every year to Cheyenne Frontier Days, there is more listed this year on the UP Steam page. Cost is too much for me, but I follow when I can. Back in the late 60's and 70's I followed it all the way to Laramie, clocked around 100 in those days, now there is a lower speed limit for trains, not that my cars now could do it anyway.

When Forney moved, they had 4005 (4-8-8-4) and a 4-6-0 CNW parked outside where you could REALLY crawl around on it, along with a rotary plow and a crane. The keep off signs were ineffective.

When a wee lad, my brother, Dad, and cousin ran across one of the Great Western 2-8-0's parked at the end of the day, climbed in, sat in the seat, wondered how anyone (specially a little kid) could swing the Johnson lever through all the notches. No way you could park one unattended now.

If I ever get richer, I want to take the plunge and "run" that Nevada thing.

There's an old train that still runs between Cripple Creek and Victor not far west of Colorado Springs. I've ridden this one a couple of times but the trip is kind of short.
http://cripplecreekrailroad.com/

There's another one that runs between New Mexico and Colorado. I've never ridden this one. The movie Apaloosa was filmed using this train.
http://cumbrestoltec.com/

The Georgetown Loop Train is another one that I haven't ridden. Part of its' route is a cork screw and you can look down on the tracks below you, as you pass over them.
https://www.georgetownlooprr.com/hike-and-ride/

The best one in Colorado is the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The scenery is spectacular. I've ridden it several times and gotten off at water stops to access wilderness backpack trips. That's a pretty fun adventure.
http://www.durangotrain.com/

KC

If you like steamers, then you MUST visit the UP Steam Shop in Cheyenne, WY. They only do a few tours a month, but is worth it.

They store the 844 there since they restored it and just they just started on restoring the BIG BOY 4014. The 844 makes PR runouts from time to time.

Those that want to ride the rails on 844 can purchase a RT ticket from Denver to Cheyenne for Frontier Days.

Decided to go see the #4014 while she was sitting down here in Rialto before heading up to Wyoming, all the years she was at the Pomona Fairgrounds rusting, I never bothered. Most of the old steam locomotives down here are in local parks and fairgrounds, places they call museums that haven't been maintained or even looked at in decades... rusting hulks nobody seems to know what to do with.

Phil

Several to enjoy here in WV. Day trips as well as dinner trains.

This is a good one. http://mountainrailwv.com/

Come visit sometime .

I worked for NSW and they ran these old baldwin switchers up til the mid 1980s.

I have some home movies from 1951 or 1952 of Dad taking me on the passenger train from (I believe) Fonda to Storm Lake or Alta. He is holding me with the engine in the background, and then we are boarding the train. When I was very young, he worked as partsman at the IH dealership in AC. He would come home for lunch, I would be waiting at the door to run out and meet him, and we would drive north of town on the blacktop to where the Milwaukee crossed the road so that we could sit and wave at the engineer. This was all in the era of steam.

It's been 55+ years since I visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, but I want to remember a gigantic steam engine that they had there that was built to haul coal in West Virginia, but turned out to be too heavy for the track to handle. Can anyone confirm that, or is it just the imperfect recollection of an aging mind?

Its a Lima Locomotive Works H-8 Class Allegheny 2-6-6-6, think they just had trouble getting the Henry Ford engine #1601 into the museum... believe they had 60 or 70 within 2 different classes of these 2-6-6-6 engines working the coal mines of West Virginia... believe it is the third largest, and second most powerful steam engine ever built.

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Phil

My late MIL bought us a ride on the Grand Canyon RR from Williams to the Canyon, for our honeymoon a couple of years ago. I've also ridden the train up the Verde Canyon from Clarksdale, up the canyon and back to Clarksdale, and took several train rides from Marceline, MO to KC to visit family back in the '60s, just before the passenger lines went away.

In those days, my cousins and I would ride down to KC and get picked up by our grandfather, to spend the summer on his farm in Johnson County KS. My cousin always took a shotgun and his Ruger Bearcat on those trips, without any incidents whatsoever (and we were barely teenaged, at that!) You couldn't do that nowadays, I'd bet, on any Amtrak trains, IF they were still rolling on that stretch of track.

My family has a lot of railroaders, too, both of my stepbrothers, four nephews, and one cousin are/were working for BNSF.

I think I'd love the train ride across Canada, but I hear it's awfully pricey. Our little ride on the Grand Canyon RR was right at $1000 for the fancy, deluxe trip (including three nights in motels at Williams and GC Village).

Heckuva lot of fun, regardless.

Living with my Grandparents until I went into the service, I had a free railroad pass to travel anywhere on the 16,000 route miles from California to Seattle and the western states, or the Chicago and Michigan, or south to New Orleans... at least until my 18 birthday, my Grandparents eventually lost the benefit shortly before Amtrak took over passenger service in 71', believe it was during a merger or reorganization in 68' or 69' when it was converted over to half fare on the airlines. Use to travel quite a bit by rail, and never flew until in the Army going from Fort Ord, CA to Fort Leonard Wood, MO after basic.

Phil

Greyghost - thanks for clearing that up - much appreciated.