Any train people?

[fivestring]

S W E E T !!! Great site. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Mecheng]

On the South end of my place we stand on a rare curved wooden bridge and look down to watch the BNSF trains pass. With over 100 per day going from Chicago to LA it is not a long wait.

[chrisjbell]

Good to see this thread still alive [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]. We live pretty close to Sacramento, CA, which is the home to a really nice railroad museum. On Sunday we went down to "Old Sac" for a family day trip and rode the old steam train on the excursion ride that they do (about a 45 minute trip along the river).

Aside from listening to a group that was really unhappy about how hot it was it was a great time. And the folks that run the train (all volunteers) were talking about wanting to extend the line a few miles...but they need help laying ties, gravel, and track. It would be a pretty good workout - if it didn't kill me [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]. I'm thinking about doing it in my "spare time" [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img].

If you ever do happen to be in Sacramento (and are reading this thread) then I highly recommend the railroad museum here (web page) . It is a really cool place.

[egon]

Working " On the track" may sound romantic but it will be very hard labour intensive work. Much heavy lifting and lots of hammer swinging. Unless you are in very excellent physical condition and used to heavy labour think very hard about volunteering. I'm not trying to be a spoil sport but backs/joints can be damaged and muscles strained without knowledge of how to properly apply oneselves without overextending.

When a kid I was able to watch the smoke of a steam engine as it made a weekly run on track passing a a few miles away from a hill on our farm. It always intriqued me.

For me travelling on a train is a most enjoyable form of transportation. I once had the oportunity to spend about 5 hours riding in the caboose of a Diesel Electric freight train. Nice trip.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[mikell]

Now I'm in west Mi and here's where I hang out. My website by the way. Still and allways under construction.

www.hesstonvolunteers.com

mikell

[troyr57]

Well, I just Registered this morning, and now writing this, just before I go out and keep the rail's safe for another day. Just found this site, have been on TBN for a while. Any way besides, working for Contractor, Sperry Rail Service, I have model trains, both HO and N. Will add more latter.

[jross]

I dabble with Microsoft Trainsimulator (MSTS), which is available at ten bucks from Atari versus the fifty M-soft got for it. Trainsim.com has tons of loco's, rolling stock, routes downloadable for free if one has the patience, but I subscribe at thirty bucks a year and get more than that back with the first download. MSTS itself leaves much to be desired as far as performance and realism goes, but is enhanced immensely with a few downloads. Right now I am running the Amtrak Empire Builder from Shelby Montana to Athol Idaho in a winter blizzard on the Marias-Kootenai route I downloaded from Tranisim.com. Dial-uppers beware, a download manager should be used. I have an HO layour partially completed that has been gathering dust for some time now.

[Pat]

Train Simulator???? Never heard of it. Sounds neat. Yet another diversion for when I get time.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[sanmigmike]

given to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo by a guy named Al Smith, heck of a nice guy, I met him a few times. Very nice layout and well worth a visit. My understanding is that Al's old train set must be kept operating for Cal Poly to keep the ranch.

Do a web search on Swanton Pacific, it is near Santa Cruz for those California folk.

[JazzDad]

The ol' eyes aren't what they used to be, so I'm not too comfortable with HO scale any more (although I still have a switching layout to dispose of). I'm starting an On30 layout. For those unfamiliar, that's O scale running on HO (sort of) track. There is quite a bit of ready-to-run stuff out there, and (for the "realists") you can always kitbash or build your own. There weren't many real 30" guage rail lines, but it's for our own amusement, right? Don't go counting the rivets on my locomotive!
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