Autobiography (Railroad-wise)
I
was born in the age of steam. I grew
up within the sound of a four-track main line into
At
age ten in the mid-1960’s, I watched the trains cross the valley every day from
my school window. I was especially alert at eleven in the morning, as this was
when a sleek bright blue diesel train
came sailing through the village. This was the fabled Blue Pulllman. Alas, it
lasted only a few years before being moved to other routes. Steam had gone by
now and diesel reined supreme. Steam and whistles had given way to diesel
exhaust and horns. Still, there was much variety in those first generation
diesels and always plenty of action. When I was old enough to cycle, I was
always riding up to the railway and watching trains for hours. Occasionally I
could catch trains on three of the four tracks simultaneously. Semaphores and
signal boxes (towers) were still a part of every town’s station (depot).
A
number of summers in the 1960's were spent living with my grandmother and aunt. They lived
close to a real racetrack, the East Coast main line, running from London
to
In
1979 I emigrated to the United States of America, settling in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. The apartment that I first lived in was across the street from the Chicago to
Detroit
Amtrak line. At that time Amtrak was running the French built Turboliners and F40’s
through town.
Freight was limited to a Conrail run twice a week. However, there were other
Conrail lines in town that saw daily freight action and the Grand Trunk also
serviced industries using a branch from their main line through Michigan
. I first worked at a paper mill in town, which was switched daily by Conrail. I then worked for Upjohn in
I
bought a house just south of Plainwell, over the hill from the ex-GR&I line
from Kalamazoo
to Grand Rapids, which hosted four
Conrail trains a day. In 1994 I bought my first speeder and ten years later I had
five of them. In these cars I traveled over 3,000 miles on the rails. I
believe that this is the ultimate thrill for a railfan. I also liked to ride on
excursions in Michigan
. These are set up by Lake
Central Rail Tours.
In 2008 I had to get out of the
speeder hobby due to health problems. Then in 2014 I moved to an apartment in
Portage, Michigan. From there I can hear trains on the Canadian National
mainline through Vicksburg and Schoolcraft, and on the Grand Elk line that goes
south to Elkhart from Kalamazoo. So I
still live within the sound of a railroad line.
However, railroading has changed totally in my lifetime. While it is a
financially strong industry today, it lacks the charisma that created this
lifelong railfan.................
Last Edited 12 June, 2019