I very much enjoy high speed rail and Metro systems. Wish they were more abundant in the US. I miss their convenience and practicality.

I love trains and come from a railroading family.  My grandfather was an engineer and I worked on the Rock Island and Soo Line RRs back in the 70s.  Our big family of kids all gathered round when our dad set up the almost sacred Lionel train set with sound, lights and smoke!  I had HO and N scale train sets to share with my kids.  My adult son is still a collector.

Trains make terrific sense for freight, commuters and pleasurable travel.  European and some Asian countries seem to have figured that out with high speed rail and convenient connections everywhere.  Portland, Oregon has a growing and enviable MAX train and street car system that is very successful despite the critics who don't value efficient public transit. 

Here in Astoria a hard working volunteer crew is rebuilding a steam engine and cars that will eventually be an excursion run.  There are many touristy railroad lines around the world.  With growing energy and pollution concerns it is easy to envision this renaissance of the rail will continue.  All abooooard.......

Quote from: Willow on January 18, 2014, 01:32:37 PM
I very much enjoy high speed rail and Metro systems. Wish they were more abundant in the US. I miss their convenience and practicality.

That is something that this country is in desperate need of. It would rock to just hop on a train at a little station downtown and go to a major city that is near-by for a show or something. Hell, they could build one right downtown by the railway that runs alongside the park.  We already have our city bus station there anyway. But I don't see it happening anytime soon. Ideas that actually make sense for the town at large don't seem to be very popular around here.

Quote from: Laura Squirrel on January 18, 2014, 01:53:47 PMThat is something that this country is in desperate need of. It would rock to just hop on a train at a little station downtown and go to a major city that is near-by for a show or something. Hell, they could build one right downtown by the railway that runs alongside the park.  We already have our city bus station there anyway. But I don't see it happening anytime soon. Ideas that actually make sense for the town at large don't seem to be very popular around here.

Even the slow train herw makes no sense. The only useful destination is Chicago; what would make sense is if the same train line served Chicago, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor, DTW, and Detroit. Instead, the routes branch at Kalamazoo. And there's only one train per day per branch.

I made a whole network of high speed rail for the US and Canada, I'll scan it and share it here, see what's thought.

Quote from: Laura Squirrel on January 18, 2014, 12:39:26 PM
Yeah, I had a train set when I was a child. It wasn't an elaborate one. It was just your basic oval shape. We didn't have the space to set up one that had any cool twists and turns.

I LOVE that movie too! I especially love that sequence when Steve Martin's character goes off on that car rental agent. If I had to endure what he did, I think I would be more than just a little miffed as well.

didn't see the movie , but had a similar train set. Can still smell the ozone produced when the sparks hit the air. Always remember the crossing lights too.

Quote from: Willow on January 18, 2014, 02:03:40 PM
I made a whole network of high speed rail for the US and Canada, I'll scan it and share it here, see what's thought.

I would like to see that.

When I was little (before age 5) steam engines still ran through my home town, behind my parents' house, and I was so impressed by the kindness and gentleness of the locomotive crew that I wanted to be an engineer when I grew up but my Dad said there wouldn't be any steam engines by then. He was both right and wrong. Steam carried on but not as "working" engines but in shows and excursion lines and I have been involved in steam most all of my life.

Quote from: Willow on January 18, 2014, 01:32:37 PM
I very much enjoy high speed rail and Metro systems. Wish they were more abundant in the US. I miss their convenience and practicality.

I prefer Light Rail systems. While I appreciate Metro and high speed systems where justified by demand, the capital costs involved are astronomical. 

Big news in that they are moving UP big boy 4014 from Pomona on Sunday 26th to start its journey to Cheyenne for full restoration to get it back running in a few years.

It is the biggest steam locomotive ever made and will truly be a awesome sight back in operation.
There are 8 preserved around the US out of the 25 built.

I have a few in HO scale including a very nice brass one in my large collection.

That is a big boy!

Yes that's the one, exchanging it for a SD40-2, reefer and caboose.
Still they have the UP 9000, 4-12-2.

It was thought that a big boy would never run again. It will be well worth the visit all the way from OZ just to see it running.

I like trains, I had several train sets as a child.

I started with a OO set on a 6ft by 4ft board that folded up against the wall of my bedroom but one day the clips pulled out of the wall & the whole thing came down on my head & sparked me out! Soon after that I changed over to the dinky N guage sets, once i'd finished the set & hasd it picture perfect I would tear the whole lot up & start again.
Even on E I still get the urge to take up railway modelling again but the price of N guage trains is eye watering nowdays, it's easy to blow £100 on a single train!!

Whilst on holiday as a child the Swanage railway were laying new track & the engineers saw my fascination & let me drive the 0-6-0 diesel shunter, I was in seventh heaven that day.