Train Jumping In Mexico

This is the story of Latin American migrants who hobo trains in Mexico for ride north in search of a better life. Some make it, others lose body parts and a few die during this jagged quest. The rails south of the border gives new life to the phrase "magic carpets made of steel".......

The article link

Photo slide show - Be warned that some of this pictures are not pretty and contain people who are missing various body parts.

My Daddy Was A Railroad Man

I used to work for The Great Train Store located in Tower City. From opening until closing, we had to play train related music. There was a 5 disc changer that had the job of playing music for 10 hours a day. After hearing the same music over and over again, it just started to drive you crazy. You started to hate some songs and love others. The best weekend I ever worked there was when the disc player stopped working. Nothing could replace the silence that filled the store all weekend.

I found a link to one of my favorite railroad songs, My Daddy Was A Railroad Man by Boxcar Willie. I did not mind hearing this song over and over for some reason.

GTW 4070

While Googling (yes, this is a word, verb, the act of using Google) for Midwest Railway, I came across this webpage about someone's first trip behind steam engine 4070.
http://paleoferrosaurus.com/gtw4070.html

Rebuilding Rail Passenger Cars

Over the years, I have followed some folks and groups who have rebuilt their passenger rail cars to Amtrak operating standards.

Here are a few cars that I follow.
ERIX RailCar
Colorado Pine
NYC 3
Mt. Vernon
Dover Harbor

One car that I really like is the NKP 1. It was built for the Nickel Plate Railroad in 1929 and used by the Van Sweringen brothers.

I'm working on a post to explain what it takes(besides money) to get a private car up to Amtrak standards.

Clevelandtrains.com

This past Friday, I was able to purchase the www.Clevelandtrains.com domain name. When I started my website at Trainweb.org, I had no need for my own domain name. A few years later, my photo collection started to out grow my space limits on Trainweb. With some suprus server equipment laying around my office, I decided to give web hosting a shot. When I had my own webserver configured and ready for use, some company had purchased the .com of Clevelandtrains and wanted $1,000 to purchase it. This is how I ended up with the .net domain name for $6.99 a year. The company holding onto the .com domain decided to give it up. I was only able to find this out by going to some webhosting companies to see what kind of rate they are charging these days for services. Something told me to check on the .com name. I'm so glad that I did follow that voice. Both sites are pointed at the same server, same files and will be for some time to come.

CSX 1st Quarter Report

There has been a lot of folks waiting to see CSX's 1st quarter earning report. Some are using this a gauge of how the economy is expected to do this year. Usually railroads will see traffic rise or fall 4-6 months before it hits Wall Street reports.

Below is a link to the report.

There is a great table on page 9 showing the revenue by product, profit by product and the profit by unit. If you ever wondered how much a RR might earn for products carried, here you go.

CSXT 2009 1st Quarter report

Pullman Porters

When time permits, I try to read the local newspaper online and the NYTimes. The NYTimes recently ran an article about Amtrak honoring Pullman porters on National Train Day. Reading this article took me back many years to a conversation I had with my godfather, Richard Gunn.

One day while waking Smokey, his little black dog, we heard a train horn from the train tracks near his Mt. Overlook Street home in Cleveland.

“Can we walk down to the tracks to see the train?”

“By the time we walk down to the tracks, the train will have left town” said Richard.

“One day I want to work on a railroad as an engineer. Did you know anyone who worked on the railroad?”

“Yeah.”

“Who?”

“My father. He was a Pullman porter mostly on the C&O trains.”

“Really? Did you get to travel on trains using a pass?”

“Yes, but all railroads did not honor the passes completely or at all. Some railroads did not honor the passes because they had their own porters, not Pullman porters though.”

“Did you ever get to ride on the 20^th Century Limited?’

There was a chuckle from Richard before he proceeded to answer my question.

“ The 20^th Century did not stop in Cleveland. It used the New York Central track near the lake that bypassed the Terminal Tower. It would have been a schedule killer to route the train into the Terminal. Plus the Terminal did not want steam engines smoking up the building, so you would have to put on some electrics or diesels on it and then take them off at Collinwood. I don’t think the New York Central would have liked some family of a Pullman porter riding their flagship.”

After that was said, there was nothing more for me to ask and nothing more for him to say. We continued are walk around the block, stopping at the Preisler Home Lumber Center on Woodland Ave. to say hi to the staff and get me some gum from the Ford $.10 gum machine.

I'm currently doing research on my God father's father. Hopefully I can find some information out and add him to the Pullman Porter Registry.

Hand Signal Day on the Railroad

Here is a link to the railroad hand signals that most brakeman/conductors used in the past and still today.