James
 

Suuuuuuup.
Are you ready for May?
The wife says she wants to come along this time, I guess I had to much fun last time.
Ron

SCREW THIS!
 

HAVE TRIED FOUR TIMES TO ANSWER THIS POST ABOUT A GREAT TRAIN TRIP WHEN I WAS 5 AND OTHER GREAT MEMORIES PROVIDED BY MY DAD. EVERY TIME I FINISH AND HIT SUBMIT, IT GOES TO A "NOT LOGGED IN SCREEN THING" AND DELETES MY POST. WHAT, IS THERE A FRIGGIN' TIME LIMIT ON THE POSTS? THIS WAS MY LAST ATTEMPT.

JAMES, THANKS FOR THE FINE MEMORIES YOUR POST BROUGHT BACK FOR ME.

DAVID, WHAT THE CHRIST IS UP WITH THIS?

PACKO

I took trains as a child. Darrel took trains in Europe.
We took the train from Lansing Michigan to Washington DC in June 2000. Sidetracked for everything. Late by hours.
If you want a good memory of train travel, pick your trip where the train you travel on owns the track where you're going. Example northeast corrider passenger trains have high priority.
No passenger trains through Yakimaa for years. All were taken out of service to facilitate really long trains of coal and grain for export.

RON--- YOU BETCHA!!! SATurday, May 5th, Breaux bridge, crawfish festival,(the white fest at the fairgrounds) in front of the Budweiser booth--I'll be wearing a cammo T shirt and a black Oakland Raiders hat. oh yeah, some shorts too.!! Can you stay over night? there's some great clubs to go to, all the hot players be jammin
WHAT TIME?? 1:00 PM is best but you name it
Anybody else in the Area is welcome and encouraged to attend, ESPECIALLY Chilidog!! and Mrs E
Admission: $5.00

(Authors note: You may wonder why I specify "the white one." well, its because our Southern Friends had two Cajun/Zydeco Fests in the SAME SMALL TOWN on the SAME WEEKEND for decades due to some QUAINT LOCAL CUSTOMS we need not go into now. When these quaint local customs came to an end, due to federal Yankee intrusion, forcibly, With typical Southern Pride and Stubborness they decided to continue this altho black and whites mix at and perform at both. An enterprising carpet bagging Yankee might be thinking" well why don't the idiots space em out and make more money?" but a prudent Westerner like myself has learned to bide his tongue when consorting with contrary Rebs, they do love their history so, the white version anyway)
Speaking of which, Packo, keep trying! These stories of me and my dad have a lot of meaning to me. he had 8 kids and these are the memories of him I had when I was young. My parents were divorced when I was 8, we were estranged for years, now we're cool.

howw about trolley cars and interurbans?
the bay Area has a long history of light rail , SF still has their system, Now we have the BART again--they have some new branches I been meaning to ride and its going into SFO next year. they also have rail commuter trains running all the way from Colfax to San Jose now, Stockton to Silicon Valley--this is REAL popular as Silicon Valley workers gfind much cheaper housing out in the Great Valley.
I remember the Key System, catching the streetcar in Berkeley on Shattuck and taking it over the Bay Bridge to SF.
Northern CA also had the longest electric Interurban, the Sacramento Northern from SF to Chico, 165 miles. This used to run right by a friend of mines house, we'd watch the little electric lokies trying to make the Havens grade. I photoed the drop dead final run of the SN through Chico before absorption by the UP and then abandonment.
I am an artist, a technician and a history buff and I find that the model railroad is a good blend of all. the weird part is the Shakespeare fetish.

all for now

James
Happy just to be alive!

Griz--I'll be going to italy in July in the Florence/Sienna area to a place called Poggibonce, south of Sienna
Any suggestions?
James

If I may suggest,
 

It was 35 years ago when I was in Europe, but everybody is right, the trains are an excellent way to travel. They were on time and there were alot of them. There used to be someting called a Eurorail Pass. It was bought in advance and good for a certain time period. It was good all over Europe and you could ride the trains all you wanted for the purchase price. I don't know if it's still available but any travel agent should be able to tell you. Probably somewhere on the net too.

drywall i rode the train in germany what i liked
 

about it was the guy walking up and down the ailse's selling the beer,don't remember much about the ride after a few bottles of that beer but as i remember the beer was EXCELLENT but now i would really enjoy the ride more.i've never forgot those pop-top bottles.
razz

I remember that
 

I also remember coming off the ship in Bremerhaven, being given a travel voucher and told "go to Ansbach private." I took trains all the way down there and didn't really have a lot of trouble doing it. Not bad for a young kid who didn't speak much of the language. It was the trains that got me there.