Allllll Aboard!!

[warren]

I spent a summer building rail as a "gandy dancer". Damned hard work just to insure guys like didimauw don't spill their coffee or get jostled out of a nap.

 

[davet]

Davet, that was KICKASS!!

I thought so too :mrgreen: Would love to have witnessed it firsthand.

 

[didimauw]

Warren....they even took the sleeping away....probably because guys like you were complaining... :x :rofl:

 

[deathmetal]

Sounds like a cool gig. Brave of you to post it here, since it seems like a lot of these guys (especially the Black Frigate smokers) are train robbers....

 

[ssjones]

Congratulations! I live in an old railroad town, Nicknamed, "The Hub City" because the Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio and Western Maryland Railroads all intersected here. My wife's family were all railroaders. So, now you start that tradition for your own family. Travel safely!

 

[mso489]

The hat is an inevitability, so better establish a true hat size and try to unobtrusively inform family and friends so whatever they get you will fit, an antiquity or something current. The idea of organizing freight trains inspires awe, all that tonnage, and the need for correct order to facilitate correct delivery of the various cars. I'm sure computers play a role, but that's one of those jobs that also requires human instinct and a skeptical nature. Congratulations! Railroading is a classic industry. The high water mark of mechanical engineering among other disciplines.

 

[tslex]

Davet, I am not a "train guy" as so many are, but that was AMAZING.

 

[didimauw]

Yeah that was actually an awesome video! We spent a lot of time watching videos trying to learn from them, and that one, was not one I've seen!
Very cool!

 

[cigrmaster]

Congrats to Choo Choo Charlie. Time for a new handle.
Who here remembers that old commercial?

 

[brian64]

Very cool...congratulations!

Hobo wrangling was the most difficult part. 80hrs of Bare knuckle brawls, knapsack slapping etc...it's rough

You should carry a sledgehammer on your belt like Ernest Borgnine in Emperor of the North.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jn-ZS7g8xs

 

[fetidbog]

Congratulations! Talk about a dream job! Have you seen the 1965 Buster Keaton short film titled "The Railrodder"? It's on YouTube. I think you'll like it.

 

[davet]

Have you seen the 1965 Buster Keaton short film titled "The Railrodder"?

A great little movie :clap: I first saw it in school and a few years back was looking for it and was gifted a copy from the National Film Board. The General was another great train movie with Buster Keaton :mrgreen:

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

You're living the dream, congratulations. Always appreciated the rails. Haven't flown in over a decade, rather take the choo choo cross country and enjoy a few days of scenery than have anything to do with an airport.