Why do you like trains?

I can't put a finger on it, but why am I spending all this time with-trains? I just like them. Maybe because they are so big and powerful, maybe because their so different from other moving thins, like cars. But ask me, and I couldn't say for sure. Why do you like trains?
Thanks!
DavidPagesWeb

The "Metra Man" David Kuntz, 13 year old Simmist

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RE: Why do you like trains?, sd70mac666, Jan-03-03, 09:49 PM, (1) RE: Why do you like trains?, CN 699_85, Jan-03-03, 10:30 PM, (2) RE: Why do you like trains?, West_Coast_Railroader, Jan-03-03, 10:59 PM, (3) RE: Why do you like trains?, zachattack, Jan-03-03, 11:27 PM, (4) RE: Why do you like trains?, Gandalf, Jan-04-03, 00:26 AM, (5) RE: Why do you like trains?, fwwr2005, Jan-04-03, 00:30 AM, (6) RE: Why do you like trains?, pacmancreator, Jan-04-03, 00:44 AM, (7) RE: Why do you like trains?, ASR_Q301, Jan-04-03, 01:55 AM, (8) RE: Why do you like trains?, Jonatan, Jan-04-03, 02:52 AM, (9) RE: Why do you like trains?, kinnamon, Jan-04-03, 07:10 AM, (10) RE: Why do you like trains?, SVTS, Jan-04-03, 07:20 AM, (11) RE: Why do you like trains?, OTTODAD, Jan-04-03, 07:55 AM, (12) RE: Why do you like trains?, MOSS MAN, Jan-04-03, 10:29 AM, (13) RE: Why do you like trains?, dcmorris, Jan-04-03, 10:34 AM, (14) RE: Why do you like trains?, Bing, Jan-04-03, 10:52 AM, (15) RE: Why do you like trains?, davereage, Jan-04-03, 12:59 PM, (16) RE: Why do you like trains?, Ty_train11, Jan-04-03, 01:12 PM, (17) RE: Why do you like trains?, CRSD40, Jan-04-03, 01:46 PM, (18) RE: Why do you like trains?, HAC, Jan-04-03, 02:16 PM, (19)

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My wife says for purity's sake and the fact that you are 13 says that trains are like well, uh how do I put it this way. a certain male body part which I will not mention
you older people will click on to this one

The Road Goes Ever On
Gandalf The Grey
Logic 7/Reprise/Warner

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Because they are fun. Especially when you take your own out and play with it.Tom

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I've liked trains since I was a child.
Trains are a symbol of power.Now I see trains as art,different liveries,locomotive shapes,different forms of rolling stock and all in various degrees of weathering and each consist is different.and with models and simulators you can make your own trains and play with them.

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I like trains because of Thomas the Tank engine. I used to love that show.
Zach, future Trinity Railway engineer(I'm only eleven)

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I've always liked trains...I can remember books as a child (Tootles, The Little Engine That Could, the one about the train that wanted to be the fastest, biggest longest in the world and only ended up chasing his own caboose around the mountain (sorry, i can't remmeber the name!)and many more. I had a puzzle of the Super CHief w/F7's on the point, battery opperated trains, electric trains, HO, N you name it. This was compounded by the fact that my Grandpa who worked on the UP in the 20's and 30's,and a very close family freind (I always called him uncle) who was an engineer on the DRGW would take every opportunity to tell me stories about trains and railroading.It seems that throughtt my life almost all of the freinds I have met have shared a passion for trains as well. (When 844 (then 8444) and 3985 visited Salt Lake/Ogden in the early eighties my best freind and I actually cut school (GASP!!!) so that we could ride the bus downtown to see them). I think it's got to be in the blood!!

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I have liked them my whole life I dont know i guess their just cool.
Trains are the veins in america they keep us going.

stephen

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I guess trains are like Cirque Du Soleil; they both have lots of cool sounds, require lots of physical work, are great fun to watch, they make you wish you were had a job with them, and there's so many of them doing so many cool things! Mainly, you could watch them over, and over, and over again and never get bored!

how do I get my gif to bounce right and left? I've seen it done before -Matt, Future Cirque du Soleil musician-Creating Pac-Man comics for the humorless people out there

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what else in the world sounds like a locomotive - the throb of a Alco 244 in the middle of a cool night - 4 C44-9W's stuggling on a stack train around the mountains, 3 SD40-2s in the hills on a loaded coal train screaming to the high heavens, Santa Fe GP60's speeding past on a TOFC train at 70mph. What else can get like this. they are sooooo cool .theres that part - and some physics to it - a loaded train of 14000 tonnes - the force needed to keep it at a certain velocity. how technology changes - the use of Radio Control in Powder River (which i did my physics report on )cheers
mike

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LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-03 AT 03:05 AM (EST)

My train-fanatics started of when I was five years old. It was when I got a big battery-powered locomotive with one passenger-car and a gondola looking thing, the train was called "My buddy" and I guess that that must be milepost zero when it comes to my love for trains.
PS. I was afraid of the whistle on the train, so my older broher chased me with it And since then, my love for trains have grown HUGE! Sorry to say my family is getting fed up with it. (the wakeup-call is often the shrill of the whistle when I play MSTS at max volume )(EDIT) I agree with you all, trains are fun, cool and powerfull. I mostly like the steamers because they have a kinda soul acting thing. My mom is one of those who beleves in mystical energies, tarot-cards and medetation and all that stuff. And when she (and I) stand close to a steamloco which is under steam, we can feel that it is something special about it (and it's not the heat of the fire.) But I like steam trains the most.

When things screw up, there's only one thing left to say "Doh!"

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I wrote about this topic once to answer someone who asked the same question. See the page at the link below:http://homepage.mac.com/lkinnamon/About%20the%20Americus%20Central.htmlThe world of the railroader, the culture, is rich and fascinating. I have been privileged to participate in that world through my work with museum operations and now with a mainline passenger excursion program. Railroaders are among my best friends, and you will find no finer men to work with.http://www.samshortline.comLee Kinnamon
Chief Conductor
SAM SHORTLINE

Lee Kinnamon

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When I tell people what game I play on my PC, and that I take pictures of trains for weeks at a time, I often get a confused look from them. Most people see a train as they sit behind a gate at a crossing, and the only thing they can thing of is how long is this *%#$ing train?!?For me, it has to be the sights, the sounds, and the locomotives. What really drew me into trains was Tehachapi. If you have never watched a train on Tehachapi Loop, your missing out I think. But there is something to be said for hearing 4 SD 40's coming out of a tunnel in full throttle, with plumes of black smoke coming out of the tunnel long before and long after the engines do. Or watching a string of 80 doublestacks weave back in forth at the "S" turns in Cable, or listinging to a Dash 9 Lash-up in full dynamics as it comes down the hill into the Caliente Horseshoe Curve. I could go no and on, but you get the point.ChrisWin a free add-on, enter the photo contest at my website, and submit your best photo. Contest ends 1/20/03Festival of Trains, NRHS 2003 Convention, June 2003, Baltimore Md. www.borail.org www.nrhs.com

Visit my website for lots of great photos and info on trains. http://groups.msn.com/tehachapi

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I must be the odd one here. Please, no cracks ! Since a child in Vienna, I liked Trams and Trains going over Switches/Points and Crossings most. Spent hours watching steam engines working with trains in yards and sidings.Used to stand next to Tram drivers whenever I could to watch the Tram going along it's track and points, occasionally being allowed to throw a point using the long metal bar hanging outside the front of the cab, looking like a giant toothpick/screwdriver, usually bigger than myself !Made points and bits of track out of plywood to play with the odd waggon. That's all we had and could afford before and during the war.My ambition then was to be a Tram / Train driver and still is ! That's why I like the N.&.J.C. and P.O.&.N. best of all ! Hope that the next release of MSTS will have sounds for locos going over Switches / Points !

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If you hear a train whistle or horn, and you dont stop to see what shows up around the bend, well you missed the boat on Trains.And that sure isnt the case of the gang around here. We all love trains, that can be seen everyday on this message board. Why? who, knows, yes the power, that is for sure part of it. The mystery of where are those cars coming from and where have they been. And what will you see on the flatbed. And so on. The RailRoads helped to build this country, and have played a major part in our history, songs, and lore.But more than that, there is a first memory of seeing a train in our own part of the country, doing the work that cant be done quite the same by any other means. For us older fellows there is the memory of those fallen flags of our home areas. The local railroad's of our home area, with track's running everwhere, many of these tracks now gone, but not forgotten. Many memories of thousands of horsepower rumbling with long trains. For me it was mile long Coal Trains, of the Clinchfield. Just around the bend of the river from my house. Shoving those big trains up into the holler where the mine was that my Daddy and other in the family worked. Yes I cant put my finger on it in writing, either. But they are in our blood, wouldnt you say fellows????

Phil Senter
aka
Moss Man

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When I was a kid, during "The Great Depression", I only knew one kid who had an electric train and he was bored with it and would never let us play with it. So I had to settle for watching the real thing which included the transition from steam to diesel. My kids were never interested in model trains. I retired, moved to a smaller house and had no room for a model train layout. Then along came MSTS and the rest is history. BTW, I live one and a half miles from the S line of CSX in Central Florida and the sound of the growling diesels, wheel noise, and horns are pure music.
D. C. Morris

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For myself, I think it is possible that loving trains and railroading is in the genes. My paternal grandfather was a locomotive driver, all over the US. They were called "boomers" , because they "boomed" from one job to another. Dad said grandfather and gandmother lived in 30+ states in the first thirty years of marriage. His last job was driving an ore drag on the DM&IR. Ross went to climb into the cab on a cold morning, slipped and broke his shin in several places. THose days you were hurt on the job, they sent you home and probably wouldn't rehire you. He retired to a small town here in MIchigan, not far from where I now live, running a steam powered sawmill, which had been his trade before railroading. Maternal grandfather had a steam license, worked the Mississippi for many years, when Henry Ford started to make autos he finished his career with a 25 year trick in the Rouge steam power plant. I always loved trains. When I was growing up in East Tawas, Mich, the yardmaster at the Detroit & Mackinac used to call my dad and tell him to keep me away from the tracks - they were concerned I would get hurt. I hung around there all the time.I think the sound of a steam loco whistle in the distance is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. Diesel horns come next. When I have a grain drag on the KHP or MP31, I swing the external camera around and look at the train snaking its way through the countryside and tell my cats, "Guys, THIS is railroading!".Bottom line, I don't really need a reason or excuse. I simply love trains and railroading. Forget the 25 cent, amateur pyschiatrist Freudian implications. Its a clean hobby, less expensive than golf, soaks up a lot less money than gambling and way less destructive than booze or drugs. Hear that lonesome whistle blow!Bing

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LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-03 AT 01:01 PM (EST)

When I was very young, we lived in Mississauga, Ontario very near to CN's Oakville Sub. I had my first (of many) rides on the GO Train at age 3 months. The park closest to our apartment building was right beside the tracks, and I have many fond memories of going to that park with my parents, sitting on the swings, and watching trains roll by. I also have many great memories of taking the GO Train downtown to see the Blue Jays play at Exhibition Stadium. Finally, I got an HO Scale train set for christmas when I was about 5.We left Toronto when I was 5 (and the GTA area when I was 8). The first thing I did when I returned a few years ago (for the first time in 15 years) was drag my girlfriend around my Port Credit neighbourhood, showing her all the parks on the tracks. The second thing I did was take her for a GO Train ride downtown. She was thrilled, but very understanding I think it's a combination of all these things that led me to like trains Dave

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I'm 11, but I started loving trains when I got a mod trainset and a Thomas The Tank trainset, then me and my family went to a tractor show in Wabash Indiana, You could hear a horn almost every 30 min. I saw 2 trains and almost started chasing one of them because I love trains so much. I used to play Railroad Tycoon 2 Platinum (the latest Railroad Tycoon)before I got MSTS. Somtimes I turn the volume all the way up with a diesel train on MSTS and made the whole computer desk rumble! TY

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LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-03 AT 01:56 PM (EST)

Well, I would say I got intrested in trains when my dad set up his old Lionel trainset in my room when I was about 5 or 6. Then I would ride my bike (as soon as my parents would let me, lol) to the local RR crossing when I heard a horn off in the distance. Now, I have built my own permanent layout and me and my dad go on about 5 or 6 "foamer" trips a year, including visting the world famous Altoona, PA area.

-----------------------------

Happy Holidays!
Kyle Norek, Milepost 76 on the NS Buffalo Line
MSN Messenger: crsd40@hotmail.com

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Well, I've worked for a railroad (Canadian Pacific) for 30 years now, guess they sort of get into the blood, I'm a 3rd generation CP man, and my son makes it 4 generations with CP..(as a matter of fact, my grandfather had worked for the fellow who was my first supervisor when I started out..)Cheers
HAC

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