Mr. Timesizing® takes time off
©2000-2007 Phil Hyde, Timesizing.com-sulting, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA (617) 623-8080 - HOMEPAGE
Steam locos aren't the only things that puff in New England - check out *Audubon's live puffin-cam on Eastern Egg Rock off Camden, Maine
Time off for letting off steam -
Steam trains around Boston in New England
C'mon America, let's bring back steam railroading!
It's renewable energy if we burn wood or methanol, newer steam locos can eat their own smoke & there's no better way to let off steam! - Up GM's nose, them saboteurs of steam & electric vehicles! Let's clear our streets and highways of smelly dangerous traffic-blocking ever-huger giantfreightcar-sized semis - Timesizing can easily make up the jobs lost.
- Northeast of Boston - *Maine Narrow Gauge, in Portland.
- North of Boston - "notching" on the *Conway Scenic RR, New Hampshire.
- A little farther north - The *Mt. Washington Cog Railway - oldest in the world!
- Waaay northwest by west of Boston -
- South of Montreal - The *Canadian RR Museum across the St. Lawrence River south of Montreal - drive a replica of Canada's second locomotive, the 1840 "John R. Molson"! It would have been the first, the "Dorchester," except Molsons Brewery put up the money and we're not sure what the Dorchester looked like - was it an 0-4-0 or a 4-2-2?? - we've got early drawings of both.
- Northwest of Montreal - The *Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield Steam Train (HCWRR) across the river from Canada's capital city, Ottawa, in Gatineau-secteur-Hull, Québec. The HCWRR runs northeast along the shore of an Ottawa River tributary, the Gatineau River, to Wakefield, Québec. And the bakery in Wakefield has fabulous buttertarts (tartelettes au beure), Canada's national food (Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse, self-styled Canadian ethnic restaurant chain in New England, take notice - your menu is wanting!)
- Southwest of Ottawa - 1912 Quebec & Labrador RR steam loco on view at the *Depot Museum, Smiths Falls, Ontario.
- Southeast of Boston - The *Edaville Railroad thru cranberry bogs at harvest & Xmas!
- Southwest of Boston - *Essex Valley RR & boatride past King Gillette's castle and tinglingly close to the *Devil's Hopyard
- Waaaay southwest of Boston - *Steamtown, near Strasburg, Pennsylvania. By the way, we have a numbered and autographed copy of "Symphony in Steam" (1966) by Jan Gleysteen of Scottdale, Pa. We acquired copy #9 from the Canadian RR Museum gift shop on August 21, 2006. A bookplate inside the front cover tells that copy #9 was part of the library of Commodore James Plomer of the Royal Canadian Navy, and was donated by his family to the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in January, 1987. We'd be interested in who's got each of the other copies among the first ten of the total of 500 numbered and autographed copies. Email us at timesizing(at)aol.com.
- And further southwest, the Casey Jones Museum in Jackson, Tennessee.
- And waaaay across the continent from Boston, in the great American Southwest -
- The *Grand Canyon Railway, from the 'front yard' of the *Red Garter Bordello & Bakery in Williams, Arizona (about 30 miles west of Flagstaff) right to the South Rim! Amtrak will now drop you off or pick you up at Williams Junction, Arizona, without the need to take a bus between Flagstaff and Williams. A van from the railroad hotel in Williams meets all trains and doesn't even require you to stay at the RR hotel if you're lucky enough to get a room at the Red Garter.
- The *Durango & Silverton in Colorado - 500 feet down on one side, 500 feet up on the other!
- The *Cumbres & Toltec narrow gauge railroad, weaving back and forth between New Mexico and Colorado.
- And waaaay across the Atlantic from New England in Old England & Wales -
Phil's favorite alltime steam loco? (besides British ‘singles’ like the *Stirling or the *Iron Duke) - the *Pennsy T1: slow-starting but fast and beautiful - a land-going submarine - but all scrapped, every last one. So let's get a new steady work-sharing economy going and build us a lifesize T1 = Phil's hidden agenda (+immortality). The South Australian Railway has come up with a *T1 disguise for a wide-gauge 4-8-4 Northern (page down to fotos 37 & 38 or search on "T1"), once again demonstrating more respect for America's treasures in Australia than in the U.S.
The Boston area has its own RR societies, such as the *Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts & the *Mystic Valley Railway Society & the *470 RR Club, its own railroad archive at the University of Connecticut, its own passionate *railfan family, and its own *railnerd site. Plus when it comes to model railroads, Boston has "America's largest train store," *Charlie Ro's place up in Malden, Mass. Across the "pond," reputedly Lincolnshire has the *biggest in Britain. And then there's a *wholesale website?
And Phil (aka 'Big Rich') Hyde had a buddy from the Harvard Glee Club who was MR. TRAINS out west - "Big Julie" Loventhal, impresario of *Jules' Toy Trains in Sacramento.
So let's see, we have -
- *"Big Julie" in California, fellow first-bass in the Harvard Glee Club in the early 1970s, who passed away Oct.3, 2004 but whose business is being carried on by his widow Lisa and her new hubby Brian Stanton
- *"Big Al" in Boston, editor of the Journal of Field Archeology and fellow sufferer in the Boston University Classics Dept. in the late 70s, and
- "Big Frank" in Kanata, Ontario, buddy from 'theological cemetery' in Toronto in the 60s, and Indian agent in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories for many years
- the last two of whom have weighed in on our website reactions page (scan down to dates 19 Dec 99 & 19 Nov 1999).
Well, damn, now that Big Julie has passed away, we need to replenish the "Big's" - so let's introduce into the Canon of Greatness a new one of more recent provenance -
- Big Rob = *Rob Firmin, the genius behind Javelin Software in the 80s and now America's hottest new sculptor.
Bonus - Here's the top 3 of 5 train websites from -
Desktop Traveller, by Suzanne McGee, 10/15/2002 Wall Street Journal, D5.
- *TheTrainTraveler.com. ...Good links to U.S., state and commuter rail. ...Tips on everything from finding electrical plugs onboard, to reviews of excursion trips like the Napa Valley "wine train"..\.. Founded by Lynne Williams, a train fan, as a resource for North American travelers....
- *Seat61.com. ...Read about favorite journeys (including the jaunt to Darjeeling); check tips on getting the best fares; view photos of luxury sleeper cars on nearly every train there is...\.. A click on "Vietnam" [not be our first choice for train/Asia - how about India or even China], for instance, leads to the official train website, a currency converter, schedules and tips...\.. The pet project of a rail enthusiast; named after his favorite seat on the train between London and Paris....
- MonkeyShrine.com. ...Offbeat site set up by a company specializing in trans-Siberian train tours. Easy to find what you want. ...Aimed at backpackers, but valuable for anyone mulling a trip on the "Trans-Zip." Tip: Beware the porters in Mongolia.
And a few more useful train sites from
Riding the rails, by Stacy Forster, 8/11/2003 WSJ, R5.
And a website of *train games for kids....
And railroad *history...
And clip art of *old steamers and *new steamers.
- * means 'a click here takes you outside our website' (click your back arrow to return) -
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