by theShrubber
I thought it might be fun to hear about others’ rail excursion tales.
When I was kid my dad was friends with a fellow who was running an excursion as a fund raiser for turning abandoned rail lines into recreation trails. This was around 1980. I don’t remember where the trip started or the destination, but it was somewhere in NJ. The trip had “deluxe” train cars, which were more modern cars, with sealed windows and air conditioning, though I don’t think the cars were very new; and “regular fare” cars which were old fashioned with no A/C, windows that opened, and toilets that just dumped onto the tracks. Passengers in those cars were to use the bathrooms in the deluxe cars. At 16-years-old, I was tapped to be a conductor for one of the older cars. Some of my jobs were to put out a step stool and help people on and off at station stops, and shoo people out of the vestibule during the ride. “Too dangerous,” I would tell them, but the vestibule is where I rode for most of the trip with my head out the window (or maybe there was no door and I just leaned out the doorway? Can’t remember, but that would make more sense as a reason to discourage passengers from riding in the vestibule).
As the day got on, the weather got warmer and the A/C units in the deluxe cars started to fail. And the bathrooms in the deluxe cars also started to break down, so people had to eventually start using the ones in the old cars. Some people started coming to our car from the deluxe cars to hang out and get some heat and stuffy air relief. To get better ventilation, we opened the end doors in my car (the doors the lead into the vestibules). The doors swung open, with a metal spring clip to hold them open, but on one of the doors the springy part of the clip was too weak to hold the door. There was a piece of nylon cord dangling from the ceiling, and I thought if I wrapped it around the spring clip it would be enough to hold the door open. The cord was a little bit short, so I gave it a pull to use as much of it as I could, when I heard, “PSSSSS.” “CRIPES! The emergency brake!” I let go, the hissing stopped, the train didn’t stop, and after several minutes no one had come to holler at me. So without tugging on it, I gingerly wrapped what I could around the spring clip, and the door stayed open. (The car was getting warm and I had nothing else to use.)
We stopped some place for lunch, where they had some activities set up and food. That’s about the extent of what I remember. I think quite a few passengers, expecially the deluxe ones, were not entirely happy customers, with the warmth and the broken A/Cs and everything. And the guy running the trip was running around crazy and stressed-out dealing with all the headaches. But I had fun being a crew member.
Hope others will share some of their stories.
When I was kid my dad was friends with a fellow who was running an excursion as a fund raiser for turning abandoned rail lines into recreation trails. This was around 1980. I don’t remember where the trip started or the destination, but it was somewhere in NJ. The trip had “deluxe” train cars, which were more modern cars, with sealed windows and air conditioning, though I don’t think the cars were very new; and “regular fare” cars which were old fashioned with no A/C, windows that opened, and toilets that just dumped onto the tracks. Passengers in those cars were to use the bathrooms in the deluxe cars. At 16-years-old, I was tapped to be a conductor for one of the older cars. Some of my jobs were to put out a step stool and help people on and off at station stops, and shoo people out of the vestibule during the ride. “Too dangerous,” I would tell them, but the vestibule is where I rode for most of the trip with my head out the window (or maybe there was no door and I just leaned out the doorway? Can’t remember, but that would make more sense as a reason to discourage passengers from riding in the vestibule).
As the day got on, the weather got warmer and the A/C units in the deluxe cars started to fail. And the bathrooms in the deluxe cars also started to break down, so people had to eventually start using the ones in the old cars. Some people started coming to our car from the deluxe cars to hang out and get some heat and stuffy air relief. To get better ventilation, we opened the end doors in my car (the doors the lead into the vestibules). The doors swung open, with a metal spring clip to hold them open, but on one of the doors the springy part of the clip was too weak to hold the door. There was a piece of nylon cord dangling from the ceiling, and I thought if I wrapped it around the spring clip it would be enough to hold the door open. The cord was a little bit short, so I gave it a pull to use as much of it as I could, when I heard, “PSSSSS.” “CRIPES! The emergency brake!” I let go, the hissing stopped, the train didn’t stop, and after several minutes no one had come to holler at me. So without tugging on it, I gingerly wrapped what I could around the spring clip, and the door stayed open. (The car was getting warm and I had nothing else to use.)
We stopped some place for lunch, where they had some activities set up and food. That’s about the extent of what I remember. I think quite a few passengers, expecially the deluxe ones, were not entirely happy customers, with the warmth and the broken A/Cs and everything. And the guy running the trip was running around crazy and stressed-out dealing with all the headaches. But I had fun being a crew member.
Hope others will share some of their stories.
