This is splitting off from another thread so thought I'd see if there's any other train enthusiasts and would be great to see locmotives from where you are.
These locomotives were built in the 60's and in the 80's these locos were numerous at Inverness in the 80's to haul the majority of passenger services, they were tremendously flexible with a relatively low axle loading for their power allowing them to go onto more rural lines bigger engines could not, they could work in pairs and able to haul passenger or freight services. Nearly 60 years on there's still a good number of them in use on the mainline as many of the newer locomotives are heavier freight designs not suited to lighter work.
Have lots of trains here as Amory is a RailRoad town. Is small but with the waterway going through here with all the barges it does ok for a small southern town .
I loved model trains as a kid. I went to the model train show every year. My first set was when I was 5, just a circle with a loco, freight car, and caboose. My only problem with trains, is that you need a pretty big table to have a nice setup. Other than that, I think it is a very cool hobby.
I got a train set as a kid and I've been hooked ever since. Here is some drone footage I took of 150-car trains going over Cajon Pass in California.
One of my great-great grandfathers worked for the Union Pacific in the late 1800s. A great-grandfather worked for the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, then for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which took over the BMRR. His children worked for the CB&Q. My grandfather met my grandmother there, and worked for the CB&Q for 50 years, retiring as the chief freight rate clerk. I have many of my grandfather's O-gauge Lionel trains and some HO scale railcars my dad built as a kid. I have my own HO scale equipment.
I just remembered my favorite scene in my youth of Pugsley and Gomez with their trains.
I had the Class 91/Intercity 225* for my first train set and bought a few more adding an Intercity 125, a railfreight liveried class 37 and a few others. In those days it was rubbish as the trains didn't run well and everything was so expensive.
I'm not planning on setting up a model railway but did buy a model of 37025 same as up above as my brother spotted it in a local shop so had to buy that since it's difficult to get. I was visiting a light steam railway and they had a pretty Intercity liveried class 47 which I had to buy as well as the Intercity 47's used to haul the sleeper up here and always seemed special since they could haul the train on their own rather than the usual pair of 37's.
Now of course I'm wanting to get a couple of carriages for each of the trains so I can put them up on display but worry I'm getting sucked in deeper. The new digitally controlled trains are amazing although very pricey so I'm trying to resist going any further with them.
I've never actually seen a class 91 in real life although I've always thought they looked beautiful in their Intercity livery and the fact they were the fastest train in the UK. It's a bit sad now though because 30 years after they were introduced to service, they're being retired and were never able to run at their full speed as the improvements to signalling were never made. One of the 91's that was badly damaged has recently been repaired and put back into service plus as a bonus it's been restored back to its original Intercity 225 livery so I definitely want to try and see that engine this year before it goes.
It's quite funny some of the superstitions they have with the locomotives, there was a class 91 that was coincidentally involved in two serious rail crashes one when the rail collapsed under the train due to fatigue and one where a car driver fell asleep and drove onto the rails causing the 91 to derail and crash. The locomotive was undamaged in both cases (these trains run with a locomotive at one end and a cab at the other end with a remote control) but when it was upgraded rather than keep its original number it was renumbered from 91023 to 91132 since that number was bad luck.
An even strange case was a class 47 which was numbered 47216 but was changed to 47299 which made no sense as locomotives are only renumbered when they've been changed but in this case the locomotive was kept in the 47/2 subclass. It turned out British Railways had been warned by a psychic that a train numbering 47216 would be involved in a crash so the locomotive was assigned a new number. Stranger still that two years later that very train was involved in a fatal crash despite there being 512 47's in total and only 16 crashes in their lifetime. I don't believe at all in psychics but it was quite a coincidence.
Granddad was an engineer for the MKT. Dad was a brakeman (don’t have them anymore as cabooses are no longer in use in the US). Grandad once stopped a 7 mile long train at a street intersection so I could get on and ride to the roundhouse with him. ...Never happen today!
Wish I had a drone then to follow along. Love trains, especially steam.
I spent a lifetime as a civil engineer maintaining, building and designing railways. Mainly in Australia but had a spell with London Underground and in the last 10 years worked on projects in Mongolia, Sierra Leonne Ivory Coast and the Congo. Worked in Beijing for a Chinese client on an African project.
One of the men standing on the ground is my great-great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant who died in 1900. The 2-8-0 locomotive in the photo is Union Pacific #1252. From the info found on the excellent rail site UtahRails.net Home Page , this loco was originally built as UPRR #115 in 1868 (UP laid its first rail in 1865), renumbered to 1252 in 1885, rebuilt in 1893 and retired in 1904. It was sold to the Mount Hood Railroad.