Lessons in Rail

I’m often asked why I railfan. Someone wrote and asked me that today.

It”s really a family activity.  I wrote to this point about 5 years ago… while sitting just west of my office here… in a little burg called Churchville.

As luck would have it, this is, then as now, one of the busiest rail corridors in the country… the old New York Central Water Route. Today, this line is run by CSX transportation, and still moves around 70 trains per day, and Amtrak moves 5 to 10, depending on what day it is. Power sets of 6,000 to 10,000 horsepower are common, these days. It’s a big and colorful parade, a display of power unmatched anywhere. It’s free, except for the small amount of fuel needed to get here. Often during the summer we’ll take some camp chairs to this spot, and a cooler, both of which are always in the truck, anyway due to our other family vice… RV camping.

There’s history trackside, as well… and a springboard for educational discussions with the boys. For example, in 1865, this very roadbed, was the route of funeral train of our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln.

The train is pictured here as it is leaving nearby Buffalo. This place I’m sitting in, now called Churchville, wasn’t even a town, yet. But the track was here.

A few years later, just west of here, about 20 miles or so, the fastest machine on earth in May of 1893, the old NYC 999, and it’s engineer Charlie Hogan set it’s record speed of 112.5 mph, while pulling the Empire State Express.

Hogan averaged over 100MPH for around 5 miles, on a slight downgrade. Apparently, Hogan just “wanted to see what it would do”, so once he got west out of Batavia station, he let the valve all the way out, and hung on, across the flats to Buffalo. Listening closely, I can almost hear its whistle.

Old 999 is still around today. It’s currently at the Museum of Science and Industry. The drive wheels you see mounted on 999 here, are 78inch wheels. The record run was done with larger 86in wheels. This would be like adding an overdrive to your car, more or less. One imagines the larger ones were removed so as to remove the high speed temptations from this already long- legged power.

Later, the 20th Century Limited blasted through here, at an only slightly more sedate 80mph as a matter of routine behind sleek, streamlined silver and black Hudson types, like this one, a J3a designed by Henry Dreyfus.

Those same engines pulled troop trains during both world wars. Out the windows of those trains was all too often the last glimpse of home many that fought in those wars, had. One cannot be anywhere along this main line without feeling at least some small sense of history…. A history I am taking pains to ensure my sons know about.

There certainly is that aspect to all this… I mean, History, and how to impart it. I mean consider the points I made incidental to the death of Billy’s Uncle, and you’ll see what I mean. I fear we as a society have lost far too much of our own history. An understanding of that history is something I want my two boys to have.

So, the kids like to watch trains. And they like to dream of one day driving the firebreathing monsters they’ve become so accustomed to. And that’s fine. Dreams, after all, are what futures are made of, even if you don’t get the dream you were after… the trick is to learn HOW to dream and then move in that direction. That, too, is an important lesson.

But I make sure to use the opportunity to teach them as we go.  My older boy has learned photography, has started to work with higher quality audio in a big way, has learned about radio recevers and transmitters, learned practical math by planning a several hundred mile trip down to the last dollar, has picked up modeling skills learning to work with paint and plastic, electricity, and basic drawing, learned to make friends… and alas, learned to say goodbye…(sigh… Maybe I’ll talk about that later) …all because of his love of railfanning.  The younger one isn’t far behind. Aside from all the history I’ve been hitting them with, of course.

But you know, there’s something that’s equally important to all of that… Indeed, there are times when it’s the most important lesson of all…. just being together.