Re: How I caught the bug!!!!!!!!

I've read all of these wonderful posts about the first fatal bite of narrow gauge fever. I have to add to this rich broth, and at the same time date all of us.
I come from a railroading family (PRR passenger engineer paternal grandfather) and I have had a mild case of railroad fever all my life, but it was 1950 that the virulent NG form of the disease hit. I was a senior in high school, and the family made a trip to Durango. Of course a trip on the Silverton was a must, which at that time was still officially a mixed train. On this day there were indeed two or three boxcars and a caboose in addition to the usual complement of coaches.
Lo and behold, the train crew invited me to ride back to Durango in the cupola. How could I resist? Sitting way up high like that and looking down on the common masses on the train, I felt like a king.
The next day (and I thought it anticlimatic an the time) I rode the RGS Goose from Durango to Mancos and back Don't ask me what the number of it was. I don't think the full realization of what I had experienced hit me until I saw RGS #5 on Cumbres.
Thank goodness that 50 years later the NG is still alive and kicking. Who would have thunk it then? This old man can almost die happy now, except that I hope to have a few more years to assault my ears with the sounds of a five chime whistle, and abuse my lungs with coal smoke.
CJ