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Re: Trips I'm SOOOOOOO glad I made
Author: DCA
Date: 02-07-2011 - 22:19
My dad took me on a business trip to Kansas City, MO in 1955. We rode the C.B.&Q. from Chicago to KC. I spent every possible moment in the front seats of the lead dome car. That was a great railroad and its passenger trains were certainly among the finest.
Later that year my dad was transferred to the Bay Area and my family rode the California Zephyr out to Oakland, utilizing two adjacent bedrooms with the wall opened between them. Again, I spent as much time as possible in one or another of the five domes on that beautiful train.
We rented a house between Hayward and San Lorenzo while building a new home. The rental was a railfan's dream, being immediately adjacent to the west switch for the Hayward siding (on the Elmhurst-Niles Jct. line) and a vacant lot butted right up to the tracks. A lot of freight used that line, though passenger trains took the Mulford line to the (geographic) west.
SP steam was concentrated in West Oakland and the Hayward road switcher was always steam, usually Consolidation No. 2568. My brother and I soon met the regular hogger, who was known as "King John", probably due to his senority. He allowed us to ride his engine for hours at a time on many occasions. The longest distance we rode was from downtown Hayward to the west siding switch, as the switch job often came up the siding, tender-first, to wait for eastward traffic before they could head for Oakland.
We got into the cabs of many engines that were stopped on the siding, including three 4400's (one of which was Baldwin-built No. 4487) and three "Mallets". One of those was a ride, my most memorable steam engine experience: we got up in the cab of No. 4179 which was W/B, while it left its train in the siding. We then backed light a mile eastward to Hayward and switched for half and hour (all this according to the notes I kept of every engine we got up on) and then back westward with a cut of cars they'd picked up to add to their train.
So my steam rides were short but memorable and I'm very fortunate to have had them. The last ride we had with King John he was running Alco diesel switcher No. 1308 and steam was pretty much history on the Southern Pacific.
Later that year my dad was transferred to the Bay Area and my family rode the California Zephyr out to Oakland, utilizing two adjacent bedrooms with the wall opened between them. Again, I spent as much time as possible in one or another of the five domes on that beautiful train.
We rented a house between Hayward and San Lorenzo while building a new home. The rental was a railfan's dream, being immediately adjacent to the west switch for the Hayward siding (on the Elmhurst-Niles Jct. line) and a vacant lot butted right up to the tracks. A lot of freight used that line, though passenger trains took the Mulford line to the (geographic) west.
SP steam was concentrated in West Oakland and the Hayward road switcher was always steam, usually Consolidation No. 2568. My brother and I soon met the regular hogger, who was known as "King John", probably due to his senority. He allowed us to ride his engine for hours at a time on many occasions. The longest distance we rode was from downtown Hayward to the west siding switch, as the switch job often came up the siding, tender-first, to wait for eastward traffic before they could head for Oakland.
We got into the cabs of many engines that were stopped on the siding, including three 4400's (one of which was Baldwin-built No. 4487) and three "Mallets". One of those was a ride, my most memorable steam engine experience: we got up in the cab of No. 4179 which was W/B, while it left its train in the siding. We then backed light a mile eastward to Hayward and switched for half and hour (all this according to the notes I kept of every engine we got up on) and then back westward with a cut of cars they'd picked up to add to their train.
So my steam rides were short but memorable and I'm very fortunate to have had them. The last ride we had with King John he was running Alco diesel switcher No. 1308 and steam was pretty much history on the Southern Pacific.
