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www.railfan.com FOUNDING PUBLISHER


HAROLD H. CARSTENS (1925-2009)


PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER HENRY R. CARSTENS


VICE PRESIDENT JOHN A. EARLEY EDITOR


E. STEVEN BARRY


ASSOCIATE EDITORS WALTER C. LANKENAU OTTO M. VONDRAK


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL T. BURKHART JAMES D. PORTERFIELD


COLUMNISTS


A TOY TRAIN SET ENCOURAGED AN INTEREST IN THE REAL THING FOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR OTTO VONDRAK, WHO WAS TEN YEARS OLD WHEN THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN IN 1987 AT A “VICTORIA STATION” RESTAURANT IN YONKERS, NEW YORK.


ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD THOMAS KELCEC GREG MONROE GEORGE M. SMERK WES VERNON


Readers respond: How did you get started?


HOW DID YOU GET STARTED AS A RAILFAN? Last fall, I asked readers that question. Over the past few months, I have had some emails and letters trickle in with good answers. Unsurprisingly, family connections with the railroad play a prominent role. Bob G. of Bellefonte, Penn., mentions his grandfa- ther, one John Sholl, “who went working for the [Pennsylvania Railroad] at age 11, [and] eventually became yardmaster at Bellfonte, Penn.” Bob adds that “I, being the yardmas- ter’s grandson, could do no wrong.” One can just imagine the kind of access that this would give a boy in the mid-1950s. Talk about a child’s dream come true! Childhood travel also proved to be a sig- nificant influence on a lifelong love of trains. Dennis G., of Lancaster, Calif., writes a lengthy travelogue that, thanks to several cross-country trips, includes encounters with a wide variety of railroads. Santa Fe E-1s in “warbonnet” paint in San Diego; Northern Pacific steam engines and U.S. Navy center-cab diesels in Bremerton, Wash.; Southern Pacific SD9s, GP9s, F- units, and Baldwins in southern California. The list goes on and on.


Another important childhood influence: the toy train set, a gift that was no small matter in postwar America. Bob G. recalls his father giving him a Lionel set with Erie Alco FA locomotives for Christmas in 1950; the set cost his father $49, exactly a week’s pay. Dennis G. also recalls a wind-up O gauge set bought for him by his father. Meanwhile, Mark R. of West Milford, N.J., points to a Lionel set bought for him on his first Christmas in 1954. For Mark, the train set imprinted the railroad upon him, leading him to work for a steam tourist railroad, then Conrail, then New Jersey Transit. Donald B. of Bakersfield, Calif., has one of the more dramatic such tales. A serious motorcycle accident confined him, for a time, to a wheelchair, and his school’s handi-


4 FEBRUARY 2014 • RAILFAN.COM


capped parking spot was right next to a hob- by shop window. Soon, Donald had built himself a model railroad. “Once I finished it, I lost interest in electric trains,” recalls Don- ald, “but had gained an intense interest in the real thing.” Donald later went to work for Ward Kim- ball. Kimball, one of Walt Disney’s chief an- imators, was the owner of the Grizzly Flats Railroad, a full-sized, narrow gauge railroad built in his three-acre backyard in San Gabriel, California. “I worked for him off and on while getting my education,” recalls Donald, adding that “I painted his depot twice over nine years, helped fire his loco- motives, and learned a lot.”


The best letter, however, was a hand- written one from Austin S. of Victoria, British Columbia. “I am now 93 years of age and have been an avid railfan as far back as I can remember.” Austin recalls family tales of “cousin Willy, who was a locomotive engi- neer at the Pennsylvania Railroad. If he hadn’t been a railroad man, he might have been a musician, so skillfully adept was he with the locomotive whistle.” Like other writers, Austin recalls several cross-country trips on the railroads, as well as the influ- ence of a toy train set. Yet it is the final memory that he shares that is most potent. Visiting family in Wilm- ington, Del., “my paternal grandfather… would take me by the hand to the local road bridge across the [Baltimore & Ohio] tracks. He and I would stand there, as the steam- hauled freights roared beneath us.” Adds Austin, “talk about thrilling!” Family, toy trains, a brush with steam... What drew you into our hobby?


Alexander B. Craghead is a writer, photog- rapher,


watercolorist, and self-described “transportation geek” from Portland, Ore. You can reach out to Alex on our web site at www.railfan.com/departures.


DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING JOHN A. EARLEY


ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER PIETER UPTEGROVE


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RAILFAN & RAILROAD (ISSN 0163-7266) is published monthly by Carstens Publications, Inc., 108 Phil Hardin Road, Newton, New Jersey 07860. Phone 973/383-3355. Henry R. Carstens, Publisher; Phyllis M. Carstens, Secretary-Treasurer. Periodical Postage paid at Newton, NJ 07860 and additional mailing offices.


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