Thanks Speed for this post. And thank you to all who have responded. It brought back soooo many memories.
My parents bought me a Lionel set one year. I can't remember anything that stands out about it. It lasted a few years and then it was gone. I don't remember why.
I grew up one block away from a main line track with a side track. There was a grain mill for the dairies that were still in operation in my town and the surrounding area. This was Norwalk CA in the late 1950s and mid 1960s before real estate development took away the dairies and the orange groves of nearby Orange County.
Life along the tracks was very interesting to a young boy. I got to watch the train switching operations of the brakemen. The signal lanterns at night. A tour of a caboose and an engine by a friendly brakeman. Meeting Hoboes in their camp (being scolded by my mother because she didn't want me to be kidnapped). Watching and following the track gangs as they replaced worn track. Climbing on, over, and through the boxcars that were left on the siding. Standing 5 feet from the track as one of the express trains came barreling through which resulted in a lot of horn blasts and angry shouting by the engineer. Feeling the force of the air front created by the moving train engine.
Seeing and hearing the different engines was always interesting. Just hearing the horn and the pitch of the engine would tell me if I needed to grab my bike and pedal to catch a view of an engine that I hadn't seen or heard before. The Santa Fe Super Chief was my favorite. Occaisionally a steamer would make the Los Angeles to San Diego run using this track (they usually went through Fullerton) and I remember seeing the light from the boilers being cast down on the tracks.
We had a small depot in the old part of town. It was no longer in regular use by the time I was allowed to roam the tracks.
The grain mill, the siding, and the depot are long gone now but not the memories.
Thanks guys.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
"Nah, kid, you'll put your eye out!"
