Ridin' the Rails

BrianS Oct 9, 2000

  1. BrianS

    BrianS E-Mail Bounces

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    Spent this afternoon on the Toledo Lake Erie & Western Rwy. in Grand Rapids, Ohio. For the duration of the afternoon I did just about every job on the railroad. The train was running about half its normal route, carrying people from parking lots in the country into a festival in town. There were four stops along the line, one in town and one at each parking lot. The train consisted of an Alco switcher and three coaches, pushing out and pulling back in. Onboard, there were two people in the head end calling the shots, two people per car boarding passengers, a rear brakeman, onboard ticket agent, a conductor, and an assistant conductor. There was also a ticket agent at each of the stops along the route. One of the car attendants just boarded passengers while the other boarded passengers and collected tickets from them. I was the (un)lucky soul who got stuck with both jobs. Furthermore, since I am also a MoW guy on the line, should something technical go wrong, I was also the man to take care of that. During the four hours that I was working (The train was running from 7am to 6pm, but I only worked 1pm to 5pm.), we made about ten out and back runs. During this time, I was freezing, since my car didn't have working heat. As a result, I didn't have as many passengers to contend with, I'd say around 100 passed through my car in the afternoon. But the day went quickly, and there's nothing quite like riding between the cars in almost freezing weather. I genuinely had a good time, and can not wait to do it all again next weekend. :)

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    Brian Schmidt
    railohio@hotmail.com
    ICQ #21630753
    AIM - railohio
     
  2. watash

    watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    Brian, wouldn't they let you step into the heated car next to yours?

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    Watash
     

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