Photos from the "old days"

You're welcome ! (You needn't call me sir- I'm just another buff.) Speaking of buffs, that Manger Hotel must have a rail buffs dream, especially with a north side facing room. The Beatles stayed there when they played the Garden. Stones too I believe.

As a related aside, did any of you ladies or gentlemen grow up adjacent to any of these lines? I was raised within earshot of Arlington Heights but trains had unfortunately ceased by then. I remember as a child swearing I could hear train whistles on windy days, probably from the Fitchburg main. I even looked at a few houses that were along the former B&M lines when me and my wife were getting ready to settle but needless to say she had a [figurative] stroke and I lost the battle. I remember a nice ranch in Wilmington along the Lowell line, but damned if there wasn't so much as a rusted chicken wire fence between the backyard and the double track that she was sure would be the demise of our future children. Mr. Hutchinson, did you ever get a chance for a cab ride in a steam locomotive before they were gone, or were you too young to have remembered?

I grew up just off the Boston-Providence Main Line on the New Haven RR in Roslindale. I was next to the Tollgate Bridge which enabled pedestrians to walk over the tracks, and our home was about 60 feet from the tracks. I am too young to remember steam and regret that I don't remember I-5's barreling past. I was the Alco PA generation and remember their power and speed well. The line was four tracked, slightly elevated, and 80+ MPH speeds were common. Here's a later Amtrak EMD scene heading to Providence under the bridge that I took.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa26 ... ual/t3.jpg

I remember those NH PA freights screaming through Mansfield around '67 when I was a kid, and I wasn't "seeing things" when I witnessed NH Budds and F's or E's bringing (probably just a few at that point) passengers between Taunton and Norton Ma until around '65 when the tracks were quickly ripped up. Edit: Seems this may belong in the NH forum though it's just rambling on my part.

The "Trains and Locomotives" show on RFD TV showed a bunch of stuff from "Boston & Maine in the Four Seasons" that featured a lot of early great '50s footage of the Western Main through Melrose, Wakefield, and Reading.

The photo of #1010 in Melrose brought back some fond memories. Whoever took that picture was standind close to the west Foster st crossing. When I would visit my relatives on Trenton st. you could always found me at the shanty talking to Bill who worked at the crossing from early morning to about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Every weekday at about 10:00 I would stare south towards Oak Grove looking for the first signs of a head light, a head light that was usualy attatched to an 0-6-0 out of the Boston yards. Once it had made up its consist it would head up the tracks to us and hopefully deliver somthing to the small freight yard of which you can see one of the tracks in the bottom right of the photo. When I looked at that picture I just drifted back about 60 years and it felt real good.

That's what this thread is all about Dave, if I've brought back a fond memory or two, then its all worth it. The crossing tender you speak of was Bill O'Brien, I used to hang out at the shanty also, we lived just up the street on Emerson Place. I'll have see if I can dig up some more Melrose stuff.

Here's a scene you'll never see again, Pacific 3640 is leaving Melrose with train #139 to Haverhill as the Agent, probably Henry Krueger, waits patiently to throw some company mail onto the westbound train arriving on the opposite track. The date is April 29,1954.

3rdrail wrote:I grew up just off the Boston-Providence Main Line on the New Haven RR in Roslindale. I was next to the Tollgate Bridge which enabled pedestrians to walk over the tracks, and our home was about 60 feet from the tracks. I am too young to remember steam and regret that I don't remember I-5's barreling past. I was the Alco PA generation and remember their power and speed well. The line was four tracked, slightly elevated, and 80+ MPH speeds were common. Here's a later Amtrak EMD scene heading to Providence under the bridge that I took.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa26 ... ual/t3.jpg

Did you listen to the trains at night as a child and dream of far away places? Did you stay close to the rails when you ventured off on your own, or are you now beyond the reach of the "music" many of us hold so dear? When you first came on did a transit police agency even exist or was the elevated orange line part of your patrol area?

TPR37777 wrote: Did you listen to the trains at night as a child and dream of far away places? Did you stay close to the rails when you ventured off on your own, or are you now beyond the reach of the "music" many of us hold so dear? When you first came on did a transit police agency even exist or was the elevated orange line part of your patrol area?

To be honest, I found, as most persons do who live next to any reoccurring loud sound, that I didn't hear them. At the Tollgate Bridge, speed restrictions be damned, they were doing pretty close to a buck. So, what you heard was a sudden diesel growl changing in pitch as it Dopplerized, followed by a rapid succession of freight or/and passenger cars rolling over jointed rail. It was all over within ten seconds ! I always have had an intense interest in the area where I live - Boston, and that tied in with my railway interest, so I thought more in terms of South and North Stations, the Dover Street Yard, the Arborway (where I think that I got my inspiration), etc. I was treated graciously by most railroad men- welcomed into cabs, given "souveneirs", had explanations given to me regarding what this and that was for, etc., so now, I hate this "Stay off the Property" growl that you hear so often, because it means that new kids can't have the same magic that I had. As regards to "going beyond the music" as you put it, to the contrary, I believe that my interest in railways has increased over the years rather than decline. Hahaha- I enjoyed your last question. How old do you think that I am ? hahaha!!! Ever since I was small, I had two consuming interests- trains and the Boston Police Department. There was never any doubt as to what I was going to do when I grew up, that is, to be a Boston cop. So that's where I eventually wound up, but I will say that I found that my job put me in a position where I could sometimes work and enjoy "trains" at the same time. Often, around 4-5 AM, when the radio calls got down to a tolerable level, I'd be prowling through rail yards in the cruiser. I got invited into a private car one night at Southampton. She was a beauty. Unfortunately, the owner's name has slipped by me, but if you're reading this, thank you for a memorable experience. Well, that's the condensed version of my life's story. Thank you for your interest, TPR. This seems like an appropriate thread for others to share recollections regarding growing up around trains. I'd like to hear your story, TPR, and anyone else that would like to share. Aside from what probably is many things in common that we all share, it's fun to listen to the differences that shape our experiences, but ultimately bring us to the same place.

bmcdr's pictures have got me all choked up, as they remind me of my childhood in Waltham. I was born in 1923, 250 feet from the Lyman Street grade crossing of the Mass Central branch. As a nine to twelve year old I would go down to the ROW and watch the freights do their stuff delivering cars to the local factories. I suppose that the locomotives were mostly Moguls, maybe with a Pacific once in a while. (By that time I even knew what a Walschaert reverse gear was, but the Moguls had Stevenson gear, I believe.) Several time I would be standing (too) close to the loco and the engineer would open the cylinder cocks as he went by and I'd jump a mile! Up close, I would watch the trainmen couple and uncouple the cars. I must have been a nuisance. But once .... they hauled me into the locomotive for a short ride while they pulled some cars out of a siding. That did it!

butts260 wrote:bmcdr's pictures have got me all choked up, as they remind me of my childhood in Waltham. I was born in 1923, 250 feet from the Lyman Street grade crossing of the Mass Central branch. As a nine to twelve year old I would go down to the ROW and watch the freights do their stuff delivering cars to the local factories. I suppose that the locomotives were mostly Moguls, maybe with a Pacific once in a while. (By that time I even knew what a Walschaert reverse gear was, but the Moguls had Stevenson gear, I believe.) Several time I would be standing (too) close to the loco and the engineer would open the cylinder cocks as he went by and I'd jump a mile! Up close, I would watch the trainmen couple and uncouple the cars. I must have been a nuisance. But once .... they hauled me into the locomotive for a short ride while they pulled some cars out of a siding. That did it!

My earliest childhood memories involve my father dragging me and my siblings to the hardware store on Lexington Street (it seemed like every weekend), I remember playing on the tracks but I don't recall ever seeing a train there.

This thread, and especially the posts about Melrose have stirred fond memories for me too. Although much later than the early 50's, when my family relocated to the North, we moved to Melrose, purchasing a house on Nowell Rd. This was only a short walk to the Melrose Highlands station on the Reading line. Our neighbors owned a local grocery store just across from the outbound platform, and I always made sure I was with my mom when she went shopping. Being 1968, the crossing gates were still manually operated, and as a five year old, I was warmly greeted and my endless questions answered by the kind older gent who cranked the gates.

I got my first glimpse of passenger trains on that line, and immediately started a life-long love affair with Budd RDC's (even though my older brother scornfully told me they weren't real trains 'cause there wasn't a loco pulling them... they were just buses on rails). I remember afternoons racing to the platform to see those silver streamliners arrive and being impressed (and a little intimidated) by the captain-like uniform of the conductors. Whenever possible, they always patiently answered my questions about the Budds, pointed out details about them and the differences in variants (RDC 1, 2, 3) and styles (first generation vs. second). I learned alot about them from those guys and it stuck.

While my railroad interests have broadened considerably over the last 42 years, the Budds, the B+M and Melrose will always figure into creating a railfan.

I remember as a kid that one of the things that I loved to watch on the Budds was that when the engineer began to move his car, there would be a plume of black smoke coming out of the roof exhaust. It was a signal that the car was on the move.

When the Budd cars sounded off did the tone correlate to their size or were their horns indistinguishable from locomotives? I was thinking that they may not have had air brakes and thus no air horns.