A good railway story.

[Midland Man]

So then what is this about you ask.

 Its a topic for anyone to tell a story about a event involving railways that has something to learn from. Yes i know it's childish but story's are what you get info on in any hobby. If you have ever been to Hell's Kitchen you know you will get a good story. So this topic is for telling story's to help people get along in this weird time. So then hope you all like the story's.

Story 1.  I mentioned above hells kichen and Thai is where this story takes place. We were walking around Sean (The owner ) told me of a story about Gay Byrne had taken a cab ride on engine number 463. He had sent a letter to Sean saying if he had a pic of it but Sean (at the time) did not know what engine it was. We takes about for half an hour thinking it was a DSER 0-6-0 tender or even a Bandon tank. When I came home I took my copy of Tom Middlemass"s Irish standard gauge railways where I found it was the first Bandon tank built in 1920. I wanted to sent a letter to Sean or Gay but never got the time until Gay passed and I was like  . I really do wish I had told one or the other as gay probally went on the engine when the line was being closed down as I beleive 463 and 464 were one of the last of the class left. So then never leave stuff to late.

Hope you like the story and stay safe.

MM  

[Arbhin]

@Midland Man: I like the idea of stories. If you don't mind I like to add my 1 pence. 

Some years back I was working as a Surveyer in the centre of a desolate village somewhere in Nederland. Coming at a marketplace I saw some strange 'monument' propped somewhere at a corner of the place. Build out of rails, wheels and other stuff I thought it was hidious. Really someone wanted to create an idea about 'how social we are' and got away with molding stuff together. Some days later I still worked at that place and took a close look at the hidious artistic-impression seeing a plate saying: 'In memory of the Tram that once connected this Village to the rest of the world'(Or something similar to that). Out of curiousity I searched about the tram and found out that for nearly 25 years at that same place a tramrails ran through the village and the monument was about 'how sad it was that such great transport was gone'. 

Still feel 'Doh' about that.

 

Greetings, 

Arbhin

[Mayner]

Probably my most striking railway story was experiencing thunder, lightning and snow but not hearing a ghostly whistle or horn of a Galloping Goose Railmotor while exploring Trout Lake on the Rio Grande Southern on 26th May 2016.

The weather was clear when we arrived at Trout Lake the thunder and lightening started as we got out to take a picture of the famous water tank

and it started snowing as we drove along the track bed to the last of the major trestles.

 

 

We didn't run into anything though then again we might have been in different time dimensions. We didn't stay to long at high altitude as we didn't want to get caught out in a late spring blizzard in a saloon car without tyre chains.

 

Another great experience during the trip was a shortline crew at Oakes North Dakota interrupting  their work and specially firing up a pair of SD45 diesels to switch a pair of boxcars from a soybean plant to the interchange with another railroad. The switch only took about 15 minutes in the biting cold, but it was a memorable experience the SD45s were one of the most powerful diesels of the 60s with very few still in operation, the crew had planned to use a pair of slightly smaller SD40-3 to perform the switch, but fired up the big GMs for a visiting railfan from New Zealand. North Dakota is on the prairie and a little bit flatter than Colorado's  San Juan Country

Edited May 12, 2020 by Mayner