Time Machine for a Day

[Ypsi]

Reading some back issues of Trains magazines this evening, I ran across some photos of Santa Fe Super Fleet C44-9W's that were freshly painted. It got me thinking what is the one place I would go to watch trains for one day if I had a time machine for a day. For me this was a decently easy choice:

New York Central Michigan Line, June of 1954 in Ypsilanti at my current home. The reason this is what I would pick is because I have always wanted to spend a day on the Michigan line where I could just sit at home and see what would seem like train after train after train. The year would be when the MC was still busy, and there would possibly be some steam floating around. I have always loved the NYC, so getting a day on the old NYC would be nice.

Where would some of you guys go if you had a time machine for a day?

[jrgerber]

Erie Lackawanna Magley IN circa 1967

[GTWwatcher]

I would go back in time to the old GTW main that ran through Flint. That old line is now ripped out, but I've always had an interest in it.

[Saturnalia]

Michigan in 1945. First stop: Saugatuck Hill. Double-headed PM Berks. Yummy.

[James Sofonia]

I'd like to see Henry Flagler pull into Key West on the first train across the "Overseas Railroad" !

[trnwatcher]

Michigan in 1945. First stop: Saugatuck Hill. Double-headed PM Berks. Yummy.

They didn't double head many trains up the hill. Helper siding usually had a 2-10-2 sitting there to push trains up the hill.

[SousaKerry]

Lehigh Valley mainline right after the Alco C-628's were delivered in the Snow Bird Scheme.

[dmitzel]

First choice would be the Milwaukee Road Pacific Coast extension mainline west of Terry, MT - before the March '80 embargo. Ideally I'd like to ride the Olympian Hiawatha between Chicago and Tacoma, WA both ways.

The Erie-Lackawanna West End through Ohio and Indiana is a close second.

Bonus entry is to railfan the MCRR Bay City Branch from Utica to Saginaw-Bay City before Conrail Day.

[wagnew0923]

Bay City Branch, Rochester Michigan 1940-50's. Love to see my home town before it became a yuppie fest

[JCinSummerfield]

I'd like to be in Lenawee County in the 1940's. I'd railfan the entire county!

[Steve B]

I'd go back to 1955 and watch the C&O and GTW in Flint, when the old mains for both roads were in service their whole length. 1955 because it was a great booming year for Flint and railroad traffic, also because it was before Torrey Yard was fully built and took a lot of traffic away from the downtown and east end of the GTW old main. Still some steam on GTW, too. Also because it's one of the Back to the Future years!

So many places to choose from. A close second would be the old Penn Station in New York, or Ludington or Elberta when the carferries were at their peak, also roughly 1955.

It'd also be fund to take enough vintage cash with you back in time to buy a car, and hit as many spots as you could in a 24 hr period. Also bring an old camera and pay extra to develop it on the spot. Probably no 1-hr photo then.

[hoborich]

In 1955 you had to shoot an entire roll of film, usually black and white, 12, 24, or 36 exposures. Then you took it to the drug store, filled out a mailer envelope, and put your film in it, and it was sent out to a film lab. A week or 10 days later, you picked it up at the store. Color was very expensive, slightly blurry, and reserved for special occasions.

[SW]

Houghton / Hancock, late 50's, while the copper mines were still in production. You'd have Copper Range, Calumet & Hecla, Duluth South Shore & Atlantic (pre-SOO) freights, and the Copper Country Limited (at times with MILW power), which ran to Calumet. Maybe even some steam; not sure when it was discontinued up there.

Second choice would be Negaunee / Ishpeming, same time frame, with Duluth South Shore & Atlantic, LS & I and C & NW, including the Peninsula 400, although by then it was arriving / departing Ishpeming in the middle of the night.

[Matt Short Line H]

Oh boy there is plenty of places for me... Davenport, IA 2008 Iowa, Chicago & Eastern, Any Conrail Main Line in 1998, 1994 anywhere...Oh if only...

[ConrailMan5]

Chicagoland in the 1950's, early. Before the "Oh crap we overestimated the passenger market" set in, and before signs of "the end" began surfacing.

[atrainguy60]

July 1950 following GTW's Flint and Holly Subs in Shiawassee and Genesee Counties and PM's Saginaw Sub in Genesee and Oakland Counties. If only one spot-than it would have to be Durand.

[BamaSubdivision94]

Quite a few personal choices but my top pick:

Pre-1976 Saginaw (mid 60s to 1976) when the C&O/ Chessie was still around and their Grand Rapids, Ludington and Port Huron Subdivisions all in place, the Penn Central pre-GTW takeover with the Bay City Branch from Detroit and the line to Jackson still in place as well as GTW's presence. Not to mention the active industries and industrial spurs that served them all across town at the time (i.e. the C&O Saginaw Belt Line, the track that connected the C&O yard to the GM plant, GTW's piggyback facility on the south side, Fordney Park's maze of tracks, the Denmark line, the spur which connected the C&O from the plant off Genessee to the west side of town, etc.).

With Saginaw, I also have access to Bay City and Midland so it's a 3 for 1 deal here.

[southshorepapa]

South Bend Indiana in the early 50's on a Saturday when Notre Dame played MSU. 15 to 20 football specials on the NYC with Hudsons. A bunch of South Shore extras. Plus 10 or so GTW football special with any power they could find to pull them. It was great.

[Pie39]

A couple ideas.
First, Athens, Ohio in the late 70s, with Conrail running 10ish trains a day (with some old PC stuff mixed in) and the B&O Southwestern mainline still in and running plenty of trains. We're talking all sorts of geeps on all sorts of trains!

Second, the old Ann Arbor line, maybe from Owosso to Elberta. I don't care when, but give me GP35s. Maybe bum a ride and impress the crew with my futuristic cameras, then show up in present day and be like yeah some relative had all these pictures and they let me keep all of them...

[Standard Railfan]

Second, the old Ann Arbor line, maybe from Owosso to Elberta. I don't care when, but give me GP35s. Maybe bum a ride and impress the crew with my futuristic cameras, then show up in present day and be like yeah some relative had all these pictures and they let me keep all of them...

Pick your date carefully. Ann Arbor power was rare on the west end during the DT&I era. Almost every train was powered by DT&I locomotives. I remember being thrilled when an AA unit was in the consist.