An extra story this weekend...

[birdguy 3,943]

Lately I have been having balance problems so I've been walking with a cane.  Last week my doctor ordered a CT scan of my brain to see if I had a mini stroke.  Yesterday I saw my doctor and he said the scan was negative.  But he ordered me a walker and sent a request to DMV for me for a handicapped parking sticker.

Those of us who are doing our post-graduate work on aging are all going through this to one degree or another.  For me I am lucky.  My difficulties are failing eye sight and balance but the core, my heart and lungs are still strong.  So I have some time left to pursue my indoor hobbies.  A bit of writing, a lot of reading, watching old movies on television and, of course, flight simming.  My heart goes out to those who never pursued indoor bobbies or reading.  I know some of them and they just sit around and watch the world go by.

My outdoor hobbies were hiking, back packing and fly fishing.  Betty and I were still back packing into my mid 70s and day hiking into my early 80s.  And I still a current FAA medical so once or twice a month a friend who was also a pilot and I would split the cost to rent a C-150 for an hour. One of us would fly to Carlsbad or Hobbs or Tatum or Sierra Blanca and the other would fly back.  But those are gone now and my indoor hobbies are all I have left.

Until a decade ago I built plastic model airplanes and I had a model railroad.  Deteriorating eyesight and hand shakes took those away from me.  I had an N-Scale layout in a spare bedroom.  I really miss my model railroad.

Which brings me to old movies.  One facet of old movies I like are seeing old automobiles which I can identify and busses which were modern at the time.  DC-3s and DC-6s and Connies with their suck-squeeze-bang-blow radials and, depending on the age of the movie, sometimes a Ford or Fokker Trimotor.  But most of all trains.  Steam locomotives.  GM E-8s and F series freight locomotives.  Or the Alco PA series (the most beautiful diesel locomotives ever made).  Which leads me into this weekends extra story.

Train Watching

I was always interested in cars, busses, trains, airplanes, or anything that moved, had an engine of some type, and you could ride on.  Most boys are like that.  I think trains were at the top of that list for me at that time.

Lee and I would go to all of the  railroad ticket offices in downtown San Francisco and I would gather time tables for all the railroads I could.  My collection included every major railroad in the country, and some less than major ones too.

Two or three times a year we we'd go to the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street, buy a ferry-boat ticket, and cross the bay to the Oakland Mole.
The Oakland Mole was the rail terminal where all of the transcontinental trains between Chicago and San Francisco arrived and departed.  It was a train watchers paradise.

As soon as we arrived at the mole, I would check the schedule boards and track numbers for departing and arriving trains.  I already knew all of them by heart, but it didn't hurt to check.

In those days visitors were allowed on the platforms with the passengers.  Visitors could even board the train to see their friends and relatives off.  
Although we weren't with any passengers, Lee and I consider ourselves visitors, and we boarded trains that were about the leave and walk through them until the conductor made the announcement that it was time for the visitors to leave.

We'd head to the front of train and stand by the locomotive until it whistled twice, the bell started ringing, and it slowly pulled out of the station.
Then it would be time to watch the next train that was due to arrive.

We would go the platform and peer down the tracks to see if the headlight was visible yet.  The headlight is the first thing you see when a train is in the distance.  If we could see it, we would wait and watch the train come into the terminal.  The locomotive came first, rather fast, followed by the baggage cars, coaches, diners, and Pullmans.

After the passengers detrained we would run to the end of the train and watch the switch engine couple up to the last car.  The brakeman would give hand signals to the engineer who slowly inched up to the car.  Then, with a slight jar, the couplers would mate.  The brakeman would connect the air hoses, climb onto the pilot steps of the locomotive, and signal the engineer to back out.  With a hiss of steam, the switch engine would take the train out of the depot and to the service yards.  A few minutes later the train's original locomotive would back out and head for the roundhouse.

Every now and then a new train would back into the depot, pushed by it's own locomotive.

Several trains an hour would arrive and depart.  This was during the Golden Age of Railroading, before the airlines captured the inter-city passenger market.  And it was a time when the railroads were in the middle of switching from steam to diesel engines.  We were immersed in a mixture of the sounds of hissing steam engines and whistles, throbbing diesel engines and air horns, and the smell of diesel fuel, bunker oil, steam, and heavy grease.

The trains were a rainbow of colors.  The bright yellow, red and gray of the City of San Francisco; the gleaming stainless steel silver of the California Zephyr; the orange, yellow, and black of the San Joaquin and Shasta Daylights; and of course the dark green and olive of the older commuter coaches and short haul trains that went to San Jose and Sacramento.  It was a young boy's nirvana.

Late in the afternoon we would take the ferry back to San Francisco, walk up Market Street to California Street, ride the cable car to Larkin Street, and walk the rest of they way home.    

 Mom would look up from the stove as we came in the front door and ask, "Well, what did you boys do today?"  "Oh, nothing," we replied as we went to our room and waited for dinner.

Noel
 

[n4gix 4,947]

Thanks for another great story. I too suffer from balance problems. The VA provided me with a terrific and sleek cherry red 'walker' with huge wheels, excellent brakes and a neat seat I can plop myself into whenever my legs and/or feet get too painful.

My podiatrist at the VA signed an application for my disability tag and plate several years ago. It has been a real blessing being able to park in handicapped stalls thereby shortening the walk to the store's entrance.

I too was a model railroader. I began with "N" scale, but soon realized my eyesight wasn't up to the task, so switched to "HO" scale. Over the years I had spent many thousands on my model RR. I eventually managed to fill the basement of my rental home (big mistake that!) when I decided to purchase my own home. I carefully disassembled everything and packed it up for the move.

After having moved everything to my new domicile, I found that I just didn't have the heart to start all over again. After a few years, I gave all of my stuff to a young high school boy who told me he could put it to good use by expanding his model RR.

[Penzoil3 480]

I gave my HO set to a friend; for his grandson for Xmas about 6 years ago. I have a video of the kid with his first run around the track. Made it well worth it. The set went to a good home.

 Sue

[birdguy 3,943]

Our local model railroad club and dismantled mine and took it away.  I'm sure they put much of it to good use.  I sold the Southern Pacific Cab in front, the complete Daylight and California Zephyr on consignment through a model railroad shop in Ruidoso.

Noel

[BillW 210]

I used to watch the Daylight going from LA to San Francisco. It would come through Moorpark at a high rate of speed every day about 5:00 p.m. It was a beautiful train. This was in the 50's when trains were the thing. I'm glad I got to experience that. She was finally discontinued in the 60's.

Bill W

[birdguy 3,943]

The Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Seattle maintains roughly the same schedule as the old Daylight.

My brother and I sometimes rode the Daylight when going down to visit out aunt and uncle in Prunedale.  They would pick us up in Castroville.  It had a steam locomotive in those days.

The last time I went to San Francisco I took the Southwest Chief from Albuquerque to Los Angeles and then the Coast Starlight to Oakland where my daughter met me at Jack London Square.  We spent the week-end in San Francisco.  She wanted me to show her where I grew up.

The night train between San Francisco and Los Angeles was the Lark.  I only rode it once...on my way to boot camp when I joined the Marines.

[BillW 210]

You might have seen me standing near the tracks. 😄 Not sure of when you went to boot camp. How was your most recent trip? We've thought of doing this. The Daylight I saw always had a diesel engine. A couple of different paint variations. In my mind, I think the Daylight was the most beautiful of all the passenger trains.

Bill W

 

[birdguy 3,943]

My most recent trip was in the summer of 2019 Bill.  I went to boot camp in 1951.  The Daylight was a beautiful train.  But s was the California Zephyr and the Union Pacific 'cities' trains.  The City of Los Angeles, The City of San Francisco, and The City of Portland.  They all used the same track from Chicago to Ogden Utah.  There the City of Portland turned north, the City of Los Angeles turned south, and the City of San Francisco continued west.

The Daylights had articulated cars.  That is like two cars joined into a single car with an articulated truck in the center.  They couldn't be uncoupled.

[Tim_Capps 474]

Yup. I've become tripedal. Can't complain though, since I never gave a second's thought to my health and the power plant is sound even if everything else looks like an erector set on X-Ray. Haven't been able to do much simming due to neck issues, but finally got the VA to approve surgery. Yup. Hang in there buddy. Something magic about trains.

[birdguy 3,943]

Every time I see a train in a TV movie I wish I was on it.  Not airplanes though.  Two years ago I flew to Charleston to play with my great granddaughters for a few days.  Several days after I flew back home I felt a pain in my shoulder.  I went to the emergency room and they diagnosed a pulmonary embolism that landed me in the hospital for four days.  The first thing doctor asked me was had I flown recently.  I was unaware that you have to move your legs around during flight or blood clots can form in your legs.

I flew first class both ways and the service was only marginally better than the people sitting behind me.  But the food was quite good.

I normally travel long distance by rail.  I flew this time because Amtrack sleeping cars were all booked up.

Noel

[Fielder 3,643]

I have many the same hobbies. I use hammocks instead of sleeping on the ground when backpacking (can't stand the hard ground any more). Use a scanner radio on the wall by computer to listen in the UP switch yard. In the afternoon, they sometimes start to 'ragchew" i.e. talking fun and games and smalltalk instead of purposeful transmissions.