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Chapter 1 My love for trains began as a young grade school girl. We lived in a small community of 200 population. Each Thursday evening when the local train arrived, all the children from town would be at the depot just waiting with wide eyes and amazement to see the train come to a stop, and the steam locomotive to let off it's steam. It is a memory to behold to this day! Such a sight, the locomotive pulling dozens of cars loaded with farm animals, farm materials and cars we knew not what they contained. The locomotive always got the boiler refilled with water from the water tower that was standing nearby. The tender was refilled with coal and the bearings on the wheels were oiled. All the while this was being done the engineer would have to make sure the boiler was kept at a certain temperature. The train crew explained to all of us what they were doing. We looked forward to seeing this train crew each week. We were actually friends. We were "so" interested and followed the instructions given us about where we could stand and what we should not do. Can you imagine the wonder this put on the young children's faces? I wish I could paint you a picture the same as my memory relives this story today.
Chapter 2 Trains were a daily part of my Hubby Dale's grade school life. His Father worked for Union Pacific Railroad in a department called the rail crew. The rail crew repaired rails and replaced railroad ties manually, without any power equipment. His father walked to the train depot each morning and walked home each evening. At the depot he boarded the train for a long, hard day's labor. This crew consisted of three working men and a foreman. They cared for approximately thirty miles of railroad track. My hubby would walk to the depot with his father on non-school days and was allowed to ride the train(free) to the adjoining town to visit with his grandparents. When the train was returning at the end of the day he rode the train back home on what was called the "Evening Special." Occasionally he was allowed to ride in the steam engine, this was a thrill for him. Other times he rode in the caboose and climbed the ladder to the upper area where the brakemen and conductor were stationed. He fell in love with trains at this early age. Maybe this is why he is an avid model railroader today. See his model trains here
Chapter 3 There were other railroad fans in my family. My hubby, Dale, had a great grandfather that was involved with trains but we have not been able to research much of this information. It would have been great to know some of those details of the railroad in those days. The photo is from the 1800's, that is all the information we have.
Click for a full view
Chapter 4 Railroading continues in our family with model railroads. Our oldest son is a model railroader and a train chaser, also. Our Grandson is interested in our model railroads. Railroad memoribilia is a great passion of ours. We own some very authentic railroad items from different roadnames. Chicago and Northwestern is our favorite.
  This train ticket was purchased on an auction and is an original ticket.  Click for a full size view This is a 1913 Laird&Lee's Diary and Time-Saver of a train conductor of the Omaha & Chicago rail line. One example of an entry is working a ten hour day for $2.00. Each day has an entry of miles traveled in each location, hours worked and additional expenses, such as using the toilet!!
Chapter 5 These are some of our train photos, click for a full view
 
Chapter 6 This is a promotional postcard from the early 1900's
Chapter 7 Our love for trains continues and I will be adding more memorabilia items here soon. Keep watching!!   
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My Spring Secret Pal, 1999 |
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