When I met mainline steam....

It was 1976, I was in 6th grade and that was the year I met 4-8-4
northern SP 4449 as the American Freedom Train in New Orleans for the
first time. I remember it well. My mother dropped us off at the New
Orleans Union Passenger Terminal to see the train, and of course, I ran
up to where the engine was. It was my first mainline steam experience!

Even though I didn't get to see it move, it seemed alive just standing
there. I toured the exhibit cars and walked the entire train just
starring at the displays on the side of the cars. I don't think I
appreciated what I was seeing until years later.

The next year in 1977, I got to see the AFT engine again! While
traveling home that evening with my mom, I saw the AFT 4449 in the
station from the overpass with an Amtrak consist behind it. As soon as
I got home I called the New Orleans Amtrak Station office and ask what
was going on? They told me the train was leaving at 7:00 in the
morning. So I made my mom take me down there the next morning.
Needless to say, I ran up to the engine again, this time it was under
full steam and really alive like I've never seen before. The Amtrak
name was on the side of the tender. That somehow told me this wasn't
the usual train. In later years, I had come to learn it was a ferry
move to return the engine back to Portland after serving on the AFT.
Amtrak was the sponsor and a company named "Broadway Limited" was
selling tickets. It also had an extra water tender labeled for the
Union Pacific behind the engine. Another name I would come to enjoy in
later years of railfanning mainline steam.

After soaking up the engine's smells and sounds. The call came for "All
Aboard" as the whistle blew and it was time to leave. Boy was that
whistle loud! It scared me at first, but I wanted the full experience,
so I stood there as the train started to move. Lots of steam started
pouring out of the side of the locomotive. It seemed to shoot out at
least 50 or more yards on each side, I will never forget the sight of
all that white steam covering everything up around it. Then the deep
throat sound of the exhaust and smoke coming from the smoke stack, it
shot straight up into the air. Wow, was this cool or what? Of all the
years I played with toy and model trains just wondering, I'm finally
getting to see the real thing in action, I became hooked for life!

As the train pick up speed, it changed it's sound and started that
rhythm pacing of Chuff, Chuff, Chuff, or some would say Woof, Woof, Woof
as it moved passed me. I watched it leave making the slight curve
heading out of the station wondering who was lucky enough to ride the
train that day. If I was only a few years older, I would be on that
train with them. Instead, I had to go to class in the next day. After
the train left, my mom took me home with a memory I will not soon forget.

In 1984, my wish to ride behind 4449 did come true! My Dad and I got to
ride behind her on the Worlds Fair Daylight out of New Orleans to
Houston. And some of you may know of my recent trip to Portland a
couple of months ago where I got to revisit the 4449 in AFT colors and
ride the cab with Doyle McCormick. It was very sweet to finally ride in
the cab of the engine that started my mainline steam fascination as a
boy.

All told, these are wonderful moments I will cherish as a railfan.

Skip Waters
Dallas, Texas

wgcrush@swbell.net

A great story, and well told. With your descriptions, I am able to be standing there on the platform witnessing the same thing as you. Thanks for telling it as it was.
Mark D.

> When I met mainline steam....

> It was 1976, I was in 6th grade and that was
> the year I met 4-8-4
> northern SP 4449 as the American Freedom
> Train in New Orleans for the
> first time. I remember it well. My mother
> dropped us off at the New
> Orleans Union Passenger Terminal to see the
> train, and of course, I ran
> up to where the engine was. It was my first
> mainline steam experience!

> Even though I didn't get to see it move, it
> seemed alive just standing
> there. I toured the exhibit cars and walked
> the entire train just
> starring at the displays on the side of the
> cars. I don't think I
> appreciated what I was seeing until years
> later.

> The next year in 1977, I got to see the AFT
> engine again! While
> traveling home that evening with my mom, I
> saw the AFT 4449 in the
> station from the overpass with an Amtrak
> consist behind it. As soon as
> I got home I called the New Orleans Amtrak
> Station office and ask what
> was going on? They told me the train was
> leaving at 7:00 in the
> morning. So I made my mom take me down there
> the next morning.
> Needless to say, I ran up to the engine
> again, this time it was under
> full steam and really alive like I've never
> seen before. The Amtrak
> name was on the side of the tender. That
> somehow told me this wasn't
> the usual train. In later years, I had come
> to learn it was a ferry
> move to return the engine back to Portland
> after serving on the AFT.
> Amtrak was the sponsor and a company named
> "Broadway Limited" was
> selling tickets. It also had an extra water
> tender labeled for the
> Union Pacific behind the engine. Another
> name I would come to enjoy in
> later years of railfanning mainline steam.

> After soaking up the engine's smells and
> sounds. The call came for "All
> Aboard" as the whistle blew and it was
> time to leave. Boy was that
> whistle loud! It scared me at first, but I
> wanted the full experience,
> so I stood there as the train started to
> move. Lots of steam started
> pouring out of the side of the locomotive.
> It seemed to shoot out at
> least 50 or more yards on each side, I will
> never forget the sight of
> all that white steam covering everything up
> around it. Then the deep
> throat sound of the exhaust and smoke coming
> from the smoke stack, it
> shot straight up into the air. Wow, was this
> cool or what? Of all the
> years I played with toy and model trains
> just wondering, I'm finally
> getting to see the real thing in action, I
> became hooked for life!

> As the train pick up speed, it changed it's
> sound and started that
> rhythm pacing of Chuff, Chuff, Chuff, or
> some would say Woof, Woof, Woof
> as it moved passed me. I watched it leave
> making the slight curve
> heading out of the station wondering who was
> lucky enough to ride the
> train that day. If I was only a few years
> older, I would be on that
> train with them. Instead, I had to go to
> class in the next day. After
> the train left, my mom took me home with a
> memory I will not soon forget.

> In 1984, my wish to ride behind 4449 did
> come true! My Dad and I got to
> ride behind her on the Worlds Fair Daylight
> out of New Orleans to
> Houston. And some of you may know of my
> recent trip to Portland a
> couple of months ago where I got to revisit
> the 4449 in AFT colors and
> ride the cab with Doyle McCormick. It was
> very sweet to finally ride in
> the cab of the engine that started my
> mainline steam fascination as a
> boy.

> All told, these are wonderful moments I will
> cherish as a railfan.

> Skip Waters
> Dallas, Texas

In 1989 the 4449 visited Washington State twice to celebrate the state centennial. In November the engine ran from Yakima to Ellensburg. Doyle allowed me to ride up in the cab on the return trip to Yakima. There were about 8 of us including the crew. What a ride along the Yakima River doing about 45 MPH.

Richard Wilkens

> When I met mainline steam....

> It was 1976, I was in 6th grade and that was
> the year I met 4-8-4
> northern SP 4449 as the American Freedom
> Train in New Orleans for the
> first time. I remember it well. My mother
> dropped us off at the New
> Orleans Union Passenger Terminal to see the
> train, and of course, I ran
> up to where the engine was. It was my first
> mainline steam experience!

> Even though I didn't get to see it move, it
> seemed alive just standing
> there. I toured the exhibit cars and walked
> the entire train just
> starring at the displays on the side of the
> cars. I don't think I
> appreciated what I was seeing until years
> later.

> The next year in 1977, I got to see the AFT
> engine again! While
> traveling home that evening with my mom, I
> saw the AFT 4449 in the
> station from the overpass with an Amtrak
> consist behind it. As soon as
> I got home I called the New Orleans Amtrak
> Station office and ask what
> was going on? They told me the train was
> leaving at 7:00 in the
> morning. So I made my mom take me down there
> the next morning.
> Needless to say, I ran up to the engine
> again, this time it was under
> full steam and really alive like I've never
> seen before. The Amtrak
> name was on the side of the tender. That
> somehow told me this wasn't
> the usual train. In later years, I had come
> to learn it was a ferry
> move to return the engine back to Portland
> after serving on the AFT.
> Amtrak was the sponsor and a company named
> "Broadway Limited" was
> selling tickets. It also had an extra water
> tender labeled for the
> Union Pacific behind the engine. Another
> name I would come to enjoy in
> later years of railfanning mainline steam.

> After soaking up the engine's smells and
> sounds. The call came for "All
> Aboard" as the whistle blew and it was
> time to leave. Boy was that
> whistle loud! It scared me at first, but I
> wanted the full experience,
> so I stood there as the train started to
> move. Lots of steam started
> pouring out of the side of the locomotive.
> It seemed to shoot out at
> least 50 or more yards on each side, I will
> never forget the sight of
> all that white steam covering everything up
> around it. Then the deep
> throat sound of the exhaust and smoke coming
> from the smoke stack, it
> shot straight up into the air. Wow, was this
> cool or what? Of all the
> years I played with toy and model trains
> just wondering, I'm finally
> getting to see the real thing in action, I
> became hooked for life!

> As the train pick up speed, it changed it's
> sound and started that
> rhythm pacing of Chuff, Chuff, Chuff, or
> some would say Woof, Woof, Woof
> as it moved passed me. I watched it leave
> making the slight curve
> heading out of the station wondering who was
> lucky enough to ride the
> train that day. If I was only a few years
> older, I would be on that
> train with them. Instead, I had to go to
> class in the next day. After
> the train left, my mom took me home with a
> memory I will not soon forget.

> In 1984, my wish to ride behind 4449 did
> come true! My Dad and I got to
> ride behind her on the Worlds Fair Daylight
> out of New Orleans to
> Houston. And some of you may know of my
> recent trip to Portland a
> couple of months ago where I got to revisit
> the 4449 in AFT colors and
> ride the cab with Doyle McCormick. It was
> very sweet to finally ride in
> the cab of the engine that started my
> mainline steam fascination as a
> boy.

> All told, these are wonderful moments I will
> cherish as a railfan.

> Skip Waters
> Dallas, Texas

I was six when the General came to Hagerstown, MD. Growing up in a railroad family I knew what big steam looked like but had never seen one run. When the General came into sight it looked like a 55 gallon drum on wheels! I was never so disappointed in my young life.

My first real mainline steam was George Hart's 972 and one of the pacifics doubleheaded on the Western Maryland at Smithsburg, MD. I can still see them in my mind.

In 1969 NKP 759 arrived with the Golden Spike Centennial Limited. Big steam at last!

John

jhbohon@yahoo.com

Mom took me to watch NKP #759 leave Hoboken on one of Ross's "viaduct tours." I was 4.

I was interviewd on CBS news, as I had my full pinstriped regalia on. #759 became a member of my family that day.

My grandmother painted me a huge oil-on-cavass version of High Iron's publictiy photo of the Berk.

I have pictures of myself on her pilot at ages 6, 17 and 20 something. If all goes well this weekend, I'll get a shot of my baby son with her.

And I guess when Proto2000 releases the HO scale model of her this year, I'll "have" to get one... for my son, of course!


trains@robertjohndavis.com

Little too young to remember when steam was vanishing from Kansas City in the mid 1950s where my father was an engineer with the UP however in 1969 I was traveling by train from Moscow to Berlin and when we crossed the Russian/Polish border off went the Russian engine and on went a Polish steam engine. Just wish I had taken more pictures

tcox@parknet.pmh.org

> I was six when the General came to
> Hagerstown, MD. Growing up in a railroad
> family I knew what big steam looked like but
> had never seen one run. When the General
> came into sight it looked like a 55 gallon
> drum on wheels! I was never so disappointed
> in my young life.

> My first real mainline steam was George
> Hart's 972 and one of the pacifics
> doubleheaded on the Western Maryland at
> Smithsburg, MD. I can still see them in my
> mind.

> In 1969 NKP 759 arrived with the Golden
> Spike Centennial Limited. Big steam at last!

> John

The date was February 18,1976. The place: Navasota,Texas. The locomotive:T&P 610 on the American Freedom Train. She had stopped in town to take on water. I had seen her class in pictures but at the tender age of 13,I was totally overwhelmed by her sheer size and seemingly unconquerable superiority over everything around me. My grandfather,a long time railroader for the Santa Fe,was used to big steam. My Dad was also rather taken aback by the size of her.

While the fire department was filling her tender,my grandfater had something else in mind. He owned a farm next the then Missouri Pacific line she was to take heading into Houston.

He said to us they were going to be awhile taking water using the fire trucks,so he said let's go somehwere else. I thought at that moment that I was not going to see this engine move.......but my grandfather had other ideas.
We went to the farm,and went into the house and got some folding chairs,then went down by the fence next to the road crossing and the tracks.

The farm was only a couple miles from town,and on a pretty good grade,just up from a siding called Jerry. It was a clear winter day,when sound travels for miles.

Then I heard her steamboat whistle.I told my grandfather,"she's coming!" My grandfather,nonplussed by the sound of a steam whistle,merely got more comfortable in his chair...but had his eyes closed.

"Soon",he said,"you are going to hear something..something special,something you will always remember".

In the clear cool air,we heard the massive bark as 610 got underway,blowing for several crossings as she left town.....and accelerating!
My heart was pounding as we heard her coming closer..louder. Soon she was fighting into the teeth of the hill,her bark sharper,more defiant.
We could see her,perhaps less than half a mile away,a tornado of smoke,a yellowish white light leading a progression of American history,whistle blasting at the crossing we were seated by.
As she roared by us,her engineer( I'm guessing it was Doyle McCormick) had a big grin on his face as he hauled down the whistle as he passed us,the puny diesels behind her either dead or not loud enough to overcome the power of the mighty 610.
My grandfather and my father both looked at the train as it passed.To my grandfather,it was remembering the way railroading used to be. For my father it was remembering the train that took him to where we met his wife. To me it was the strenghening of a boyhood dream.....to be a locomotive engineer. I now live that dream.Sorry this was so lenghtly,but hope you enjoyed the story.

kbcotton@flash.net

My mother took a job as a housekeeper and cook on a large wheat farm at Nunn, Colorado in 1956. From the farmhouse window and on trips to town we could see the last of UP's Northerns, Challengers and Big Boys on freight trains, plus Mikados and 2-8-0s on beet locals. That Fall, we moved to Greeley, with a one-room apartment just a block from the depot. There, a friendly old fireman noted me looking over his Colorado & Southern 2-8-2 and invited me into the cab. I was never the same afterward.

http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00017761+OP-17761
ryarger@rypn.org

TP 610 is without question the loudest engine I have ever heard. I can just barely remeber her in Freedom Train service, but it convinced me that there was nothing, NOTHING, in the skies, on land, or seas to compare with the steam locomotive. Four horsement of the Apocolypse? You want to scare some righteousness into a fallen world just come ridin' in on a TP 600 at full cry.

One day, God willing, a Texas rail preservationist will win the lottery and..............

Steam hauled unit rock trains, anyone?

lorija799@aol.com

Thanks for sharing the story! I can picture her storming past you and your grandfather. You were one lucky kid!

Tom

> TP 610 is without question the loudest
> engine I have ever heard. I can just barely
> remeber her in Freedom Train service, but it
> convinced me that there was nothing,
> NOTHING, in the skies, on land, or seas to
> compare with the steam locomotive. Four
> horsement of the Apocolypse? You want to
> scare some righteousness into a fallen world
> just come ridin' in on a TP 600 at full cry.

> One day, God willing, a Texas rail
> preservationist will win the lottery
> and..............

> Steam hauled unit rock trains, anyone?

That would be nice........and I know the perfect railroad to run her on if anyone wants to rebuild her.............

kbcotton@flash.net

The only steam enginesI ever saw in regular service were mainly 2-10-4's on the CB&Q. They lasted until abou 1957. As I got older, cars and girls took precedence, but finally in 1973, I got a chance to ride behind 2-8-2 #4501, and my priorities got straightened out by the "green machine."

Here I was surrounded by hundreds of train nuts, and their female companions all getting coated with cinders. There's something about leaning out a window or a dutch door, and watching the side rods in motion. Watching the action, while getting cinders all over you, and listening to the whistle and stack is something I hope little boys of all ages will be able to do for generations to come.



kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net