Brian Norden Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My father seemed to be fascinated by railroads.
> But was never a "railfan." When I was ages 3
> to 5 we lived in Ventura, California and my father
> would take me out to see the
Daylight and other
> trains. One time I was invited into the cab of the
> diesel switcher working the Ojai branch -- Dad
> may have known one of the crew members.
I have similar memories at age 4 to 8, Brian -
We lived in Glendora, and at least once or twice a month my dad would take us to one of three or four "special spots" to watch the Super Chief race by, and I vaguely remember being hoisted up into the cab of a steam engine at the depot — maybe the 4-4-2 that pulled the evening local out to San Bernardino. During school vacation for Christmas, 1950, we moved to Ojai just in time for my ninth birthday, and I remember hearing - but not seeing - a steam engine pulling the daily freight through town to the packing house on the east end. On summer weekends in the fifties the whistle of the southbound Daylight - still in steam until '55 or so - was the signal that an afternoon at one of the beaches north of Ventura was at an end.
- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender