(If discussion questions aren't allowed, feel free to delete this!)

In your entire railfanning history, what was the most enjoyable or memorable trip you ever went on, chased, or even operated? It can be anything, even something like a small tourist line run.

Two.

Standing in the open dutch door of a coach on a Southern steam excursion with CPR 2839 on the front, running at speed through the curve in downtown Orange, VA.

Riding at the front of one of the Liberty Liners on the Norristown Line. There was a delay ahead of us inbound to 69th Street. When things cleared we came straight in, nonstop, again at track speed.

Wesley

Two:
1. At the age of 11 in the early 80s, getting a cab ride in SRR 630 at TVRM. Even at the time, I knew that had been ET&WNC 207, a railroad I have always loved. My parents, who saw the loco daily in their youth, were riding in the car behind me. I'll never be able to thank my Mom enough for asking them if I could get that ride (though I've thanked her many times since then).
2. Leaning out of the tool car window behind N&W 1218 heading to Jacksonville FL in November of 1987, at night. It was like being in an O Winston Link photo!
Ironically, many years later I heard that Link was actually there at the time and that I'd stood about 30 feet away from him the day before the trip, in Rice Yard, looking at 1218 sitting under steam. Oh how I wish I'd known it at the time...

In March of 1973, Al Shelton & I flew to Guatemala. We had a weeklong trip planned with the hopes of catching some n.g., steam.

We asked for and got, written permission to be on railroad property and then inquired about the use of steam on the mainline. We were told that Baldwin Mikado 180 was arriving that afternoon with the mixed local from Zacapa.

Sure enough, we drove East out of Guatemala City in our rented VW and decided to stop just above the track at a location past Agua Caliente. We stood and waited for a few minutes wondering when the train would show up. Then this absolutely beautiful whistle sounded and the 180 shuffled around the corner with her mixed consist. We followed it back to G. C. and made plans to try to ride the next morning.

Early Tuesday morning, we walked through the yard to the roundhouse and there sat 180 outside waiting to get onto her train. Turned out that I knew the fireman and he introduced us to Gustavo Loyo, the uncle of the man that I had first ridden with in November of 1971. Could we please ride? Si, Si. They stowed our box lunches from our motel and put them both up on the steel rack beneath the rear of the roof.

The best part about this 97 mile, all day ride was that Gustavo Loyo offered me his seat at a stop called Jalapa and the train was mine for the rest of the day, 49 miles. Al took care of filling the tank at the next stop. I had the throttle out past my ear on one hill and will never forget that. Then it was down the 3.3% with Gustavo coaching me as to where to set air. I had not ever ran here before. When we got down to the bottom of the hill at Rancho, Gustavo and his fireman, Hermenegildo Tobar, both got off without a word at the train order office. With Al now firing, we went down to the other end of the yard and added another 10 cars for a total of around 20. I backed up to the office after an air test and we proceeded to Zacapa, getting there after dark. One thing that Al & I both noticed was that the crew supplied their own light bulbs for the water glass and cab gauges. Al fired while I ran and the crew just sat on the sandbox and let us figure it out. I learned to check back for signals often from the brakies riding the roofs of the cars. That beautiful 3 chime whistle got exercised plenty, likely more than it needed to be. We stopped one time out in the middle of the desert where several folks were waiting, Behind the engine on a flat was a small dozer. It was started and driven right off onto the edge of the cut that we were in.

We got to Zacapa OK. I shook hands with Gustavo, thanked him and then went into the Hotel Ferrocarril and got a room for the night. Al helped put 180 into the house.

The room plus 2 hot meals was $4.50 US. Best day of my life and that with a great friend who I still stay in touch with.

As to wesp's post, the operator's cab on a LibertyLiner (or Electroliner) extends across half the front of the car. On the opposite side are two passenger seats and this is where Wes sat, with a view as good as the operator's.

As to my memory was a cab ride on the last run of a Reading Blueliner (Reading old car). The trip was nominally to Wilmington, where the cars were built but when we got back to Philadelphia, we were sent to RDG Chestnut Hill, the 1832 original commuter line. I found a spot in the cab and made the round trip. We had to change at Suburban, where a yard crew took over. As the train made its way to Pow Ave Yard, we knew that was really it.

Phil Mulligan

Oh, this is a difficult one. Mid-1960s, riding an excursion behind one of the DM&IR Yellowstones (222, I think). Standing in the baggage car, as we lumbered through the woods, the sounds, the smells.

Taking the throttle on Strasburg #90 back in 2020. I've always had an attachment to that engine. When I was a kid, my father and I went to Strasburg and took the shop tour. It was a cold rainy day in the middle of the week, and we were literally the only two people on the tour. The guide saw that we knew more than the average person, so we went to parts of the shop that normally they didn't take the tour to. When we went up to the locomotive barn, the guide had us climb up in the cab of #90, told me to sit in the engineer's seat, and quizzed me on the controls. I kind of got away from railfanning and such for quite a few years, and then on a whim, I went back to Strasburg in 2019. What was pulling the train into the station when I arrived? Strasburg #90, like an old friend welcoming me back. So, in 2020 when they announced the In Cab Experiences for #90, I knew that I had to take the opportunity. And it was great. I also did the engineer's seat In Cab Experience for N&W #611, but getting to operate #90 meant more to me, and was more enjoyable.

I have two standouts. All my life I’ve been interested in (almost obsessed with) “What does it do, how does it work and where does it go?”. Trains, being massive things that moved always piqued those interests.

My standout-above-all memory: When I was 5 years old, my grandmother walked me down to the station in Sewickley, PA to watch the afternoon parade of trains on PRR’s four track main. That would have been 1960 so steam was gone by then but the smell of diesel exhaust remains a pleasant memory for me.

Second best: Jump to my early teens, our family took a vacation to south central PA and Strasburg was one stop. It was #90’s first year of operation there. That was the first time I got up front and personal with steam. And boy, was I impressed. Being an information junkie, I then learned everything I could about railroads.

Since then, my exposure to railroading was infrequent at best until I retired. That’s when my wife’s cousin’s husband (who I refer to as “cousin in-law by marriage”), introduced me to ORHS. Damn if the bug didn’t bite again.

These are all some amazing stories, the history behind our experiences with trains are all so different, and that's what I like about it. I'll drop my own:

It was only a couple years ago actually, in 2019. I had been off trains for a solid 5 or so years but in the previous months I grew a liking to them again. Our family had tickets for the return trip of CSRX 7470, a special excursion to Hazens road in Whitefield. I knew virtually nothing about the line at the time, but I knew it was the first railroad I had been on, about 10 years before that point. After a long ride and an overnight stay, up and early we went to North Conway Depot.

At this point, I didn't know what to expect, it had been so long since I had been behind a train that wasn't just our local subway system, and I was a little nervous. I waited out on the platform, and it happened. 7470, tank car in tow, backed out from the roundhouse. it went to the front of the train, headed west, and the two diesels coupled up to the back of the train. We got onto it, waited a minute, and soon it left.

The ride east, despite 7470 leading, wasn't that great. Something in the dome car kept breaking. I believe it was the air conditioning. However, once we got to the gateway of the Notch, they turned off the diesels, and really let 7470 run. It was an unforgettably loud bark that came from the stack, I could hear it from the back of the train. From there to Hazens it was relatively uneventful and finally came to a stop. We got off, sadly they couldn't switch 7470 to the back of the train, so 252 lead east. They went relatively fast, and didn't stop on the way back. I remember poking my head a little out the window on a curve and watching exhaust come out from the vents on top of the locomotives.

All in all, the trip ended up being 9 hours long. My family was not as pleased as I was with it, but I had a ton of fun. I only remember so much of it because I caught most of it on video, which I still have saved to this day. It really made me look more into trains as a whole, and now I like them more now than I did before.

Greetings:
Labor Day weekend 1960, the Illini Railroad Club ran a three day excursion from Chicago to Biwabik(?), Minnesota and return. I traveled with the late Albert Reinschmidt, we were both in our early teens.
From Chicago to the Twin Cities our train was hauled by CB&Q 4-8-4 #5632. From the Twin Cities to Duluth we went overnight via the NP (some of us slept in baggage racks).
At Duluth we found DM&IR 2-8-8-4 #222 waiting to haul our train to someplace North of Two Harbors. We stopped somewhere with a coaling tower for a photo runby and there were a lot of folks up in the cab. When the locomotive whistled, most of the folks in the cab got off and I got on, riding in the cab for the runby. It was my first cab ride in a steam locomotive. I was standing on the cab deck a little behind the engineer so I could feel the locomotive and see out too.
As soon as we got back to Duluth the NP took us back to the Twin Cities, arriving mid-morning.
5632 was there waiting for us ready to take us back to Chicago. I don't recall if we had any runbys, but what I do recall vividly was riding the crowded rear platform of Illini's open end Pullman/Observation car "Chief Illini". After it got dark and became rather chilly, the platform cleared out a bit and Al and I began timing our speed between whistle posts. One of us would look out for the post and yell when we passed it and the other would be watching how many SECONDS it was until the next post. Mile after mile we were traveling at 90MPH+/- through the night. Illini RR club President, Maury Kelbolt turned on the inspection lights that lit up the right of way behind us. We ran like that from about Savanna to Aurora: unforgettable!
Also unforgettable was the fine mist that occasionally cover us. Someone on the platform said it was steam from 5632, but I knew what it was: some of our coaches had open chute toilets (read: no holding tank)...
J.David

J. David -

Thanks for your recollection of your 3-day trip to the Missabe out of Chicago. I rode a similar trip in 1958, not long after my graduation from High School. The sponsoring organization was the Railroad Club of Chicago, not the Illini Railroad Club, but the DM&IR 2-8-8-4 was also the 222. One difference was that the Burlington 4-8-4 was Class O5A #5618. The Missabe had a steamed up 2-8-2 sitting out for one of our photo stops (perhaps at Virginia) and beautiful Pacific #400 outside at Two Harbors, but dead. I recall a terrific photo run with the 5618 alongside the Mississippi River on the ride home. She reportedly had just 5 days left on her tube time, so this was her swan song, but what a way to go!

Thanks for the memory.

Les