Nostalgia & History > 50 years ago today......my first train ride

Today is my Dads Birthday, and on this day 50 years ago, Mom and Dad took me on my first official train ride on the City Of Everywhere on the Milwaukee Road from my hometown of Marion, IA to Chicago and return. I was only 2 so I dont remember the trip, but my dad said I had my face planted in the dome car window all the way to Chicago. So I included a couple photos of that day 
The photo with mom is somewhere on the D&I division across Illinois while the one with dad is likely at Savanna, IL.  I guess this is where I caught the bug of my intrest in trains LOL. 

Anyway I thought I would share you this story with you good TO folks. Dad and Mom are very much still with us and they still like to take a train ride now and then too. 

Thanks for looking. 

MILW86A 

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Great photos and great memories for you.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Nicely dressed family.
A reminder of how things used to be
and how people acted in public.

Englewood Wrote:
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> Nicely dressed family.
> A reminder of how things used to be
> and how people acted in public.

My thoughts exactly.

Great memory, and glad your parents are still with us and still riding the rails! 

Great captures, and the photographer had an excellent eye for background with the semaphore and Milwaukee Road boxcar. BSB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/21 05:55 by BigSkyBlue.

AMEN

I too rode in a dome on my first rail trip. Magic!

Posted from Android

Domes were great.  I road my first dome trip at age 16 on the westbound San Francisco Zephyr in 1975.  The only disappointment was it skirted the Rockies and went north to Cheyenne WY.

Well done, Dave.  Say "Hi" to your folks for me!
Chuck B.

Great photos and story Dave!  We rode that train also about two or three weeks before the end.  I could have been on that train as well that very same trip.  If not that exact day we were within a week or so of riding it ourselves.  That was a fantastic train and the absolute best way to get to Chicago and back for the day.  Glad you got to ride it and for the pictures you have of it.  So much history there in those shots!  Great stuff!

As a teenager, my last pre-Amtrak train trip in April, 1970 was on the City of Everywhere from Savanna, IL to Chicago.   Living in Freeport IL, IC's eastbound Hawkeye left Freeport about 5AM, way too early for a round trip to Chicago for me, my younger brother and Uncle.  So my Dad drove the 3 of us to Savanna to ride the MILW to Chicago instead.   We caught the WB Hawkeye back to Freeport for the return trip.

I still vividly remember that trip on the MILW for 2 things:   My first ride in a dome car and watching the upper-quadrant semaphore action from my seat in the dome.   The dome car was perfectly positioned such that when the signal circuit activated, the semaphore mast was about 2 cars ahead of the dome when it dropped from green to red.  All the way to Chicago, every one of the semaphores did a little bounce as the blade fell to horizontal.  Magic!

- Norm

Great series and topic, it certainly resonates with lots of folks here on TO, including me! While not my very first trip, on one of my earliest train trips I rode the Floridian with my folks and the first car I went to was the dome car. Tried to snag the front row every chance I could and didn't want to leave to eat or sleep. A truly special way to see the world, esp the railroad world that I was totally fascinated by, and I was rewarded with seeing Chicago railroading up close, as well as lots of L&N and SCL. Good stuff...

JG

Your mom has the classic late '60's early '70's hairdo as well.  Some great pictures there.

Great human intrest story. Thanks to all the parents who either started our love of trains or tolerated it.

Posted from Android

Very nice story. Thanks for sharing.
 

Awesome photos, and (obviously) awesome parents. That age is the magic age to be "programmed" (bitten by the bug, etc.) to love trains - was the same for me about a year later than you.

My first ride was in the early Amtrak "rainbow" era, either the Builder or North Coast Hi (or both) from Minneapolis south to Winona and return. My maternal grandmother took my sister and I on a trip which included a paddlewheeler cruise on the Mississippi. I did get to ride a former MILW coach on the return, as I recall the yellow car sides, wood laminate interior and the porthole windows at the end and in the vestibule. I must have only been 4-5 at the time. Even though my grandparents in Little Canada, MN lived along the SOO the Milwaukee is very special to me as well.

Thanks for sharing these family photos of your first train ride. 
 

Here's my son in a similar type outfit, asleep on a Superliner coach seat.  Slight resemblance there.

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