Railroad Cars

 

Railroad Cars

When we were camping in Alamosa, Colorado, our campground was next door to a train yard, and it seems that all sorts of unused, deserted train cars were there.  One evening, we decided to walk through the train yard to check out some of the cars!

One of the things I noticed about the first few cars we walked by was the interesting messages on them.  One seemed to point up and the word “end”.  I was very curious about the “Do Not Hump” message on another car. I noticed a few more in the yard with the same message.  When I did some research, I found that the sign on a railroad car tells the yard crew that the car is to be set aside for special handling, as it’s contents are considered delicate.

I love the look of these rusty stairs.  Typically, I would have been tempted to climb up the stairs and explore the inside of the car.  However,  the “reach” between the ground and the lowest step was far too high for me to be able to manage.  They were definitely sized for use at a train platform!!

Here are a couple of images of some old train engines.  I didn’t see a name on one of the sets of engines (the red ones), but the Minnesota Zephyr (blue) looked really nice.  I did some research on that line and found the it’s considered a heritage railroad operating out of Stillwater, Minnesota.  It was quite fancy, as it operated as a dinner train and served a five-course dinner, complete with white table linens.  It only ran a 6 mile route, and its speed was between four and seven miles per hour.  It had five restored dining cars, and traveled along the St. Croix River bluffs.  The entire trip was about 3 ½ hours.

Here are a couple of, I think, passenger cars, the Memphis and Stillwater.  I noticed the Memphis car has the “Do Not Hump” sign on it – I guess passengers are considered delicate cargo!!  I can’t help but wonder if the Stillwater car was part of the Minnesota Zephyr dining car?

There were some broken windows on some of the cars.  I know it was due to some vandalism, but I also think it sort of speaks to how time goes on, and things that we thought were important and just kind of fall by the wayside as we continue down the path.  Kind of bittersweet, in a way.

This last image if of another passenger car, with no name shown, and an Illinois Central Baggage car.  The Illinois Central Railroad, sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa. There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska, west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota, starting from Cherokee, Iowa. The Sioux Falls branch has been abandoned in its entirety.  One thing that has pretty much disappeared are the caboose cars.  In the 1980s, a device called an EOT (End of Train) was developed and it monitors the brake pressure and is watched by the engineer.  If needed, he/she throws a switch, and brakes are applied.  Sigh…..the good old days of waving at caboose cars are gone.

 

Enjoy!