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Any train fans around?

How I remember train spotting in Chicago in the late 60's. Lots of great motive power and great rail lines running through the area. Visiting the EMD paint shops in LaGrange for the 25th Anniversary. Being in the cab of a Northern 4-8-4 during a railfan trip from Chicago to Rock Island and back...smelling the smoke from the stack...something "Right" about it...
 
I miss train travel. It's something I haven't done since the early 90's because of all the reductions in service and the general availability of that service. It feels embarrassing because we have a long history of both rail service and freight, beginning with the time our town at the time, pre-1800's, was a lumbering hub until a railway worker hit a mineral deposit which turned out to be a life-changing, town-changing discovery of nickel, that turned the town from a lumbering town into a nickel mining town with a boom that followed, with the creation of two mining companies that are still active today. This boom ended up attracting the likes of Thomas Edison who at the time was working on batteries for electric vehicles, batteries he'd hoped to sell to Ford. He'd left before striking a claim, but his legacy lives on at one of the mines with a building named after him.

Anyhow, I digress. Up until the 90's we used to be able to rely on the train to take us where we wanted. That's no longer true. And when the train does pass through and pick up passengers, it's out of town at a junction.

Just for fun, I looked into the different routes Via was offering, and it's as if I live in a no-man's land. Up to the 90's, I'd have trips to Ottawa with my family. It was more or less direct. I can't do that anymore. They don't even offer it. I'd first have to go to Toronto and from there go to Ottawa, which is so counter-productive from where I'm located. As a point of comparison, it's about 4-5hrs to drive to Toronto for me, about a 6 hr drive to Ottawa. And from where I am I get one option to go up north to White River, and another to Toronto. That's it. It's ridiculous that there aren't more options. The company behind it doesn't deem us important enough.
 
Owain Taggart said:
I miss train travel. It's something I haven't done since the early 90's because of all the reductions in service and the general availability of that service. It feels embarrassing because we have a long history of both rail service and freight, beginning with the time our town at the time, pre-1800's, was a lumbering hub until a railway worker hit a mineral deposit which turned out to be a life-changing, town-changing discovery of nickel, that turned the town from a lumbering town into a nickel mining town with a boom that followed, with the creation of two mining companies that are still active today. This boom ended up attracting the likes of Thomas Edison who at the time was working on batteries for electric vehicles, batteries he'd hoped to sell to Ford. He'd left before striking a claim, but his legacy lives on at one of the mines with a building named after him.

Anyhow, I digress. Up until the 90's we used to be able to rely on the train to take us where we wanted. That's no longer true. And when the train does pass through and pick up passengers, it's out of town at a junction.

Just for fun, I looked into the different routes Via was offering, and it's as if I live in a no-man's land. Up to the 90's, I'd have trips to Ottawa with my family. It was more or less direct. I can't do that anymore. They don't even offer it. I'd first have to go to Toronto and from there go to Ottawa, which is so counter-productive from where I'm located. As a point of comparison, it's about 4-5hrs to drive to Toronto for me, about a 6 hr drive to Ottawa. And from where I am I get one option to go up north to White River, and another to Toronto. That's it. It's ridiculous that there aren't more options. The company behind it doesn't deem us important enough.
Click to expand...

What a nice story re: the history of your town and area. Love to know about Thomas Alva and the car battery development!
Who knew?
He knew!
Very sad to know of the limited service you are experiencing and “sign-of-the-times” (?) importance you are NOT being shown.
Train service is all pretty perfunctory and vanilla around the Chicago area. There is an occasional nod to preservation of a station or other building, but nothing really moving and “vintage”.
 
Yeah, Train service in Canada has often felt backwards, even though there are companies such as Bombardier (a Canadian company) at the forefront of highspeed rail development all over the world. Nothing it seems, is being invested into the rail infrastructure beyond what's needed for freight, and in certain cases they seem to even be removing infrastructure outright. And it's not like we're not on the main corridor, because we're definitely on the list of places they run through on their longer routes. It's just that as far as single destinations go, the options are severely limited unless you happen to be one of the big destinations.
 
I've given up on trains. Last time I tried to buy a train ticket at a ticket office, I was told that "Advance Tickets" hadn't been released yet although they could sell me an ordinary ticket. THEN they told me that the train times for those dates hadn't been released either and that I'd need to check the travel times closer to the date. I asked when "Advance Tickets" and train times would be available and got a vague "in a couple of weeks?". This was for dates less than 8 weeks away. How is anyone supposed to plan travel? And the ticket prices have become ridiculous. In the end I went by coach for less than half the likely "Advance Ticket" price.
 
I love the retro-modern design of the Rapi:t (yes, it's written that way), an express train that runs between Kansai International Airport and Namba Station in Osaka, Japan. It looks like something from Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

bAwVjv1.jpg
 
The Ghost of Hanukkah Past said:
I love the retro-modern design of the Rapi:t (yes, it's written that way), an express train that runs between Kansai International Airport and Namba Station in Osaka, Japan. It looks like something from Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

bAwVjv1.jpg
Click to expand...


Behold.............. Trainbot

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UTU news
https://www.smart-union.org/preside...connecting-las-vegas-and-southern-california/

But I still remember how the rail strike ended a year ago this month

the Fell
https://hackaday.com/2024/01/03/retrotechtacular-the-fell-locomotive/

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Sad
https://www.al.com/news/2024/02/norfolk-southern-employee-killed-in-north-alabama-wednesday.html
 
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There is a nice railway museum here in my hometown and right next door is an aircraft museum. I haven't been in ages and really should go again one day.
 
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someone accidentally paved over your railroad crossing? no prob :lol:
 
scotpens said:
I love the retro-modern design of the Rapi:t (yes, it's written that way), an express train that runs between Kansai International Airport and Namba Station in Osaka, Japan. It looks like something from Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

bAwVjv1.jpg
Click to expand...
That is quite a interesting design, and at low speeds if it were to hit something it looks like it would push it aside rather than the old flat design, and that low skirt may also help stop anything going under the train, and that is a best case senario of a train hitying anything, and you take that from me, a ex-peeway worker. :(
 
publiusr said:
So tiny
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Click to expand...


That is insanely neat and cool

Here's another one, not as small but neat

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