Eastern Railroad Discussion > First ever cab ride?

When I was 6, my dad took me to a railyard near our home then, I wont say where to protect the friendly crew, and I got to ride back and forth in the cab. No idea then what type of unit, but I would assume a GP-9, or early 2nd gen unit. This was in a N&W coal yard, 1974.

I sat tonight looking at one of my books with my 3 year old. I remembered fondly the friendly crew that allowed a wide eyed young railfan to ride and blow the horn. I can still remember the rumble and smell.....hopefully one day I can work out something for my girl, but this time Ill get a photo for her!

Anyone else have fond memories like that?

Randy
Virginia Southern

PS : Thank you to all the crews that ever let a kid ( or us big kids ) enjoy your machines, even tho we all know the safety risks and company policies.....safety always first!

My first on was In 2001 got to drive and ride (for only about 150 of track back n\' forth)on the loco below. Then my first one over the line in 2002 was on the Hocking Valley Geep.

---

My first was in a yard engine (wont say where to again protect the yard crews..) and I got to ride it down a yard track and reverse it back onto another track.. Was about 2 years ago.. a month or so before 9/11...

-JuNiOr

My first was in a SCL U18B

My thanks goes out to a great railroad crew that let me run a geep 38 at 10 per for my first cab experience...going with the intelligent trend here, I won\'t disclose information on location but will say that it was 5-6 years ago. Have had other cab rides since then (at various places), but none are ever as memorable as the first one...

Take care.

Mike DiMunno
http://www.SJRail.com: All about South Jersey Railroads!

My first cab ride was at either age 5 or 6. My Grandpa was an engineer on the Soo Line. Retired in 1952 and at the end he held #2, a passenger run that ran from Minn. (I believe) to Chicago. He picked it up in Fond du Lac and came back on # 1 (I believe?). Sometimes we would take him to work at the north end of Shops Yard where #2 always had an engine change and where he went to work. Then we would drive ahead to the Soo depot and meet the train there. A number of times, I was lifted up to the cab at the depot. The engine was cut away and we went ahead about a 1/4 mile to pick up a milk car and then a backup to the the train and I was lifted off. I have vivid memories of these short runs. He always blew the whistle a few times and of course it was hot in the cab. The engines on this run were Soo Pacifics and I have one pic of him in the cab of #735.
As I got a little older and started spending time chasing trains, I was given rides a number of times on the local Soo switch run. These rides were in Alco RS-1\'s, S-2\'s and once in their SW-1 up Byron hill to a stone quarry. A few cars and a caboose and throttle in the 8th notch all the way. Before that trip, the engineer laughed as he opened the hood doors to show me what he thought was such a tiny little prime mover.
In college I worked 3 summers for the Soo as a switchman with many more interesting experiences...

John

If you don\'t count the numerous times I rode in the head car, looking out the front window, of Conrail Metropolitan Region commuter trains (pre-MNCR), then my answer is:

Northeast Corridor, Providence to Old Saybrook, Amtrak F40PH cab. 110 mph at night across R.I. was awesome, watching the signals light up in the distance on the long straightaways, and crossed five drawbridges, too. Plenty of candidates for who let me aboard, so nobody\'s at risk here.

The first cab ride that I remember was on the former EBT #6 0-6-0 on the Whitewater Valley Railroad. That was probably 25 years ago & wish it would have remained in service long enough to run it.

The first \'cab\' ride on a freight railroad was in the cab at the other end of the train (PC transfer caboose) on a Penn Central local through Harrison, Ohio. I\'ll never forget the excitement of riding on the end of a \'real\' freight train at about 6 years old.

There\'s no better way to get kids hooked on railroading than to give them a ride in an engine or a caboose. Enough gratitude cannot be expressed to those who extend an invitation.

I was about 8 years old when I got the invite to ride in the cab of an Amtrak F40 after the passengers had detrained for the night. We took the train down to turn it on the wye and back to the station. If only my dad had gotten a few pictures. What sticks out the most was how loud the engine was and how it took seemingly forever to climb the steps up to the cab door.

Jeff Hawkins

1960.

My next door neighbor, Frank Leahy, was graveyard CTC operator at South Minneapolis on the Milwaukee. He got permission from the Division Supt. to bring his surrogate son (he had only daughters) to work with him. I got to run the US&S CTC machine. Then, he gave me over to the yard conductor "Hatch", who led me out into the Garden and told me to get on the engine. "Get on?", I remember reacting. "The damn thing ain\'t stopped, yet!"

"And, it ain\'t gonna! Get on!"

I rode up and down the Garden Yard lead for the next two hours, with fireman Sabin and Engineer Russ, \'till it was time to go home.

Baldwin S-12, Milwukee No. 925.

The CTC machine is now in the Minnesota Transportation Musuems collection. The Baldwin has been scrapped. Leahy, Hatch, Sabin, and Russ - all moved on to that great railroad in the sky. The Milwaukee --- \'nuff said. And the Garden? It\'s now the site of the shops for the new Minneapolis lite rail Hiawatha Corridor.

And, that little homemade black box on the floor over there... the one with the initials "F.A.L."? That contains Frank\'s telegraphers bug.

Sigh...

I got to ride in the cab of an RDC in Pittsburgh and catch the train orders at Glenwood.

And I got to operate a PCC car being operated by a former neighbor for about 3 miles one dark night years ago.

14 years old. Neighbor was condutor,(also was Merit badge person for railroading) Dad\'s poker buddy engineer, " running" a Gp-38 on the Elyria Local to Switch the G.M. plant and Harshaw chemical plant.(hiding in the nose when in the G.M. plant) Even picking up fellow School mates walking along the track and giving them a ride to the end of their streets.( was brought up again last summer at the 20 year renuion)
Running the Water level route at track speed, I was instructed Notch 1 was to get her moving then notch 8 till track speed. 5 to 10 cars you could hit 60 in nothing flat.( I still hold to this operating principle)
After a few weeks of this I got to run a van train from Toldeo To Elyria at 70 mph. a few moths later running historical Equipment I almost tagged a car on Cleveland street in Elyria.The trainmaster of the toledo division was sh#$ing bricks, LOL
All of the above mentioned people have since went on to bigger and better places and can\'t be held acountable so here it is.

Early 1960s, Southern station agent in Woodstock,VA rented a house nearby, he knew I liked trains and I rode my bike down to the station sometimes. One day train was there and crew let me ride 3 blocks from station and let me off at road crossing, did that several times that summer. Then the station was closed and he moved away.
Second cab rides were at Avtex Fibers where I had a summer job in stores dept. Plant switchers and N&W loco they borrowed when the switchers were broke down. That was fun. If I had just asked then plant crew would have let me run then a little bit.
Holiood
NS B-Line MP 74

Rode in the cab of an F-unit on the "Cape Cod Scenic Railway" in the early 90\'s.

No ride, but was a guest in the cab of
CSX CW44AC #213 late one night last summer.

Later,
Mark

We actually have two shortlines in my area that I\'ve ridden with.

My first ride was on one of these two, and we went about 15 miles. It was exactly on my 9th birthday. (1994)

Then the other local shortline, we got to know them too, they let me ride with them, and as my Grandpa and I got to know both shortline\'s crews really well, it eventually turned into a 40+ mile trips almost weekly. Thanks to release forms of course.

I can remember one time, when I was going south with one crew, we met up with the northbound crew from the other line about 30 miles down, they transfered me there and I rode back north with that crew, and back down south again about 70 miles round trip. I was like 10 and put in an 8 hour work day that day. I\'ll always remember that.

I rode with each line for oh, about 4 years steady. The one line\'s crew left, but the others are the same old guys from day one.

My grandpa and I maintain a great friendship with these guys.

I\'ve had many many rides, but these are the first.

Tony :)
Ster2Block

2-3 years ago while out filming switching operations. Hogger didn\'t know me from a can of paint but it didn\'t stop him from waving me over from where I was standing. Real nice guy, showed me around the cab (Electrical cabinet, gauges, control levers, insrument panel, etc.). My cab ride came about 2 days later. Boy, talk about someone acting like a kid in a candy store! Even let me work the throttle for about 5-10 miles. (line basically runs through quite a few back yards and lots of crossings and he kindly informed me to "lay on the horn, and don\'t stop till I tell you to")

I must of been about 4 or 5, and I don\'t really remember it. It was just a quick ride out of CR\'s Ashland, Ave. Yard in Chicago and back. Legend has it that on the way back they let me notch the throttle, and I immediately notched it from Run1 to Run 8! The engineer quickly grabbed it and brought it back down to Run 1.

As a little kid watching trains with my dad around La Grange/Congress Park, IHB crews switching those two small yards (which were often used for interchange back then) let us ride with them while they switched.

Since then I\'ve had the occasional Metra cab ride on the Racetrack.

My dad was (and now is once again) a States Attorney, and has several friends in railroad police capacities, so that\'s how many of the cab rides (minus the IHB) took place.

Fond memories indeed...

Tom

http://ABPR.Railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?september00/09-04-00/cr6560.jpg

It was a trip from Gang Mills to Ludlowville on the coal train, aboard brand spanking new CR C30-7A 6560.

Gang Mills was my traditional weekend hangout during my college years, and one Saturday I was hanging out near the yard office when I was propositioned to ride along and photograph the crew at work. The entire crew apparently were only days away from being cut off (in 1984, CR was just beginning the buyout frenzy, brought on in part by the labor agreements necessary to begin cabooseless operations, and the entire crew was accepting the buyouts).

These guys, who lamented their pending career change situation the whole trip saying stuff like "Whose gonna hire us? Our skills are not very transferrable, all we do is move a lever back and forth" (while gesturing at the throttle on the control stand). They were only days away from ending their railroad careers, and I guess they all decided on the spur of the moment to take advantage of a camera-toting buff and get some photos of themselves at work to remember their rail career experiences. I collected street addresses from all 4 guys on the crew, and they promised to have me back in time for classes on Monday.

In the photo, we are backing into the yard to add a caboose behind the 4 motors. The Ludlowville train required a runaround move at Sayre once the train exited the EL and got on the LV trackage, so it was common to add a second caboose between the power and the coal hoppers before leaving Gang Mills. Thats our train of Chessie hoppers sitting on the EB main. The Chessie cars tells me the coal loads came off the BR&P at Salamanca.

It took me more than a week (student finances, you know) to get all the photos developed, duplicated, and mailed off. By the time the guys got the photos in the mail, one of them was kind enough to write me back and thank me, while telling me all 4 had indeed exited their railroad careers just days before getting the photos in the mail.

Oh yeah, and in fact way too many to remember them all. First one was on a CR local with, you guessed it, GP40-2 3317. That was just the start of many a ride or cab conversation on the two local jobs. Folks used to drop me off with the cell phone and I\'d call when we came back in some six to ten hours later. It was always a blast!

More than the ride though I miss the fellas that it was with. All have long since retired, as has the big blue...


CR

My first was an all-night switching operation on the Canton RR in Baltimore in the early 1960\'s.

Mid-60\'s it was cab rides in B&O RDC\'s Elkridge or St. Denis to Washington or Baltimore.

In the late 60\'s, it was a Western Maryland F unit pulling an excurstion between Cumberland and Hagerstown.

In the mid-70\'s it was an Amtrak E-60 from Philadelphia to Baltimore.