I have enjoyed reading all the “first train ride” stories! So much so, that I thought I’d share mine.
David
My First Train Ride - May 1964
At the end of the school year, my 3rd grade teacher at Prospect Hill Elementary, Mrs. Champagne, would either take her class on a boat ride from Burlington, Iowa, down the Mississippi River to Keokuk, Iowa, and go through the locks, or take a train trip to Galesburg, Illinois, and return. The year I was in her class, we got to take the train!
We rode a school bus down to Burlington’s Union Station and awaited the arrival of Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train No. 18, the eastbound California Zephyr. It arrived on time, at 10:46 a.m., and was led by two Burlington E-units, which are the first two locomotives and train I’ve photographed! (Yeah, they’re not stellar, but after all, I was nine years old.) They were captured on my Official, Boy Scouts of America 127 camera which I had received for my birthday in February (which I still own).
The BSA 127 Camera was manufactured by the Herbert George Company of Chicago, Illinois, in the late 1950s, and early 1960s. This snapshot camera was constructed of plastic with the official Boy Scout logo located on the front of the camera. It featured a built-in eye-level viewfinder, a fixed focus lens (which partially explains the quality of my photographs), a simple instantaneous shutter, two aperture settings to accommodate color or black and white film, and a detachable synchronized flash. It captured exposures on number 127 roll film.
After the train stopped just as the Vista Dome observation car approached the platform – my second train photo – our class boarded the train. I was thrilled to watch the train curve towards the massive Mississippi River bridge and look back at our town as we crossed it. Not long after that, we ventured to one of the Vista Dome coaches, at the urging of Mrs. Champagne, for a better view of the Illinois landscape. I was fascinated watching the searchlight signals blink from green to red as our locomotives passed them. After passing south of Monmouth, we passed under the AT&SF overpass at Cameron, Illinois, where looking back, I shot my third photo of the trip.
After departing the train at the Galesburg station at 11:29 a.m., we ate the sack lunches we brought with us in the station lobby. When we finished our lunches, we were given a tour of the station’s ticket office and clerks’ room with the large blackboards filled with train numbers and crew names. On the second floor, we visited the Dispatchers Office, which left a memorable impression on this nine-year-old.
The biggest thrill, however, was our walking down the depot platform over Seminary Street, crossing under the Q’s mainline, for a tour of the 41-stall roundhouse. Our class was treated to a ride on the turntable halfway around its circle. In the background of this image, sitting just outside the roundhouse, is the excursion locomotive, No. 4960’s auxiliary tender, No. 99518.
Outside the roundhouse, on one of the whisker tracks, was Mikado 2-8-2 No. 4778, being used for spare parts for the 4960. It has already been stripped of its main rods. Looking to the south, we could see the huge, concrete coaling tower that is instantly recognized as being in Galesburg. This was my last shot of the day before returning to the station to board the westbound Nebraska Zephyr, train No. 11, at 2:10 p.m.
The only thing I remember about this portion of the trip was the vending machines that lined the walkway in the dining car, and how they seemed out of place. We arrived at the Burlington station on time at 2:51 p.m. to meet our board our bus to return us to the school, ending our wonderful adventure.
My next train ride wouldn’t be until after the BN merger, but before Amtrak.
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