Hi Dark_Red,
It's starnge how things happen in this life. I was at my usual coffee stop one morning and the conversation was about how some of us got our CDL driver's licenses. I told about the guy who took me to take the test.
I was finishing up my coffee after the others had gone when a guy I didn't know, who had come in during that story, spoke to me. The guy who took me for the test was his long deceased brother. We got talking and he invited me to go with him in his rail car. He lived 20 miles south of me and the place we go riding is 60 miles north of me so I met him at a park and ride near me on the highway we take to get up there. I had a great time and became a regular rider with him.
One time we were going to a different place to ride and I met him at his house. I followed his directions and discovered his house was where a drag racing friend used to live 40 years ago. As we were leaving I mentioned this to him and he said, I not only got his house, I got his wife too. I knew they had been divorced many years ago but I never expected she would still be in the same house.
When we got back to his house, he was showing me his work shop in the garage where my racing friend used to have an upholstery shop, when his wife came home. He called her out to the shop thinking she would remember me, she didn't. I thought that was strange because when I knew her in that other life, we racers used to visit each other's shops quite often and we had visited in their house during the winter. At the track she hardly ever got out of their tow truck and was always reading a book. But no amount of memory jogging by me could bring it back, she just didn't remember me or my partner or our car. I even brought pictures of us with the car one time. Apparently her first husband was what we would have called a "wife beater" back then. That was the reason for the divorce and she has put those days out of her mind.
Anyway, after about 4 or 5 years of riding with him I found a car I wanted last Fall. Our regular run ends at a highway we're not allowed to cross. We get there about noon and there's a diner on the highway where we eat and then go back to the old engine house we use for a club house. The last time we went out, he brought his open car that looks like a picnic table. He came over to my car as we were about to leave and talked my wife into riding with him in the open car. She later told me she thinks he's lonely now that I'm not riding with him. I think she's right. But he's the one who kept telling me I should get my own car. I wondered about that before I bought mine. He and I get along well and had some great times riding together. He will say things that befuddle others but I understand him and can come right back with equally befuddling answers. His wife runs a beauty shop in the house which takes up most of her time and she just isn't interested in the rail car. The only time she came with him was a couple years ago when a TV station came to spend the day shooting video of us for a story.
That was an interesting day because president Sarkozy came running by with his kids and Secret Service entourage. The old railbed we use is owned by the state and it is also a walking/running trail, snowmobile and ATV trail. He was in Wolfboro on vacation and went out running every day.
More strange happenings: While the TV producer and videographer were setting up their stuff and waiting for the stars to show up, a lady who was driving by, stopped to see what was going on and look at the cars. She was from Canada and spoke with a heavy French accent. When Sarkozy came back we discovered the SUV that was parked in our lot was his and this was the end of his run. He left his Walkman in the car and came over to see what we were doing. She was able to speak with him in French so he hung around for a while and we all got our pictures taken with him. We were up there later in the week and he came running by again and stopped to talk with us for a few minutes.
The cars can go pretty fast but I don't really know the top speed. Most of the rails we have are 100 years old or more and haven't been maintained for trains for half a century. We usually travel about 20mph but I have had it up to 30mph. At our normal speed of 20mph my engine is idling in high gear so I expect it could go over 60 on decent rails. The older, single cylinder cars will go pretty fast too, but probably not quite as fast.
It's starnge how things happen in this life. I was at my usual coffee stop one morning and the conversation was about how some of us got our CDL driver's licenses. I told about the guy who took me to take the test.
I was finishing up my coffee after the others had gone when a guy I didn't know, who had come in during that story, spoke to me. The guy who took me for the test was his long deceased brother. We got talking and he invited me to go with him in his rail car. He lived 20 miles south of me and the place we go riding is 60 miles north of me so I met him at a park and ride near me on the highway we take to get up there. I had a great time and became a regular rider with him.
One time we were going to a different place to ride and I met him at his house. I followed his directions and discovered his house was where a drag racing friend used to live 40 years ago. As we were leaving I mentioned this to him and he said, I not only got his house, I got his wife too. I knew they had been divorced many years ago but I never expected she would still be in the same house.
When we got back to his house, he was showing me his work shop in the garage where my racing friend used to have an upholstery shop, when his wife came home. He called her out to the shop thinking she would remember me, she didn't. I thought that was strange because when I knew her in that other life, we racers used to visit each other's shops quite often and we had visited in their house during the winter. At the track she hardly ever got out of their tow truck and was always reading a book. But no amount of memory jogging by me could bring it back, she just didn't remember me or my partner or our car. I even brought pictures of us with the car one time. Apparently her first husband was what we would have called a "wife beater" back then. That was the reason for the divorce and she has put those days out of her mind.
Anyway, after about 4 or 5 years of riding with him I found a car I wanted last Fall. Our regular run ends at a highway we're not allowed to cross. We get there about noon and there's a diner on the highway where we eat and then go back to the old engine house we use for a club house. The last time we went out, he brought his open car that looks like a picnic table. He came over to my car as we were about to leave and talked my wife into riding with him in the open car. She later told me she thinks he's lonely now that I'm not riding with him. I think she's right. But he's the one who kept telling me I should get my own car. I wondered about that before I bought mine. He and I get along well and had some great times riding together. He will say things that befuddle others but I understand him and can come right back with equally befuddling answers. His wife runs a beauty shop in the house which takes up most of her time and she just isn't interested in the rail car. The only time she came with him was a couple years ago when a TV station came to spend the day shooting video of us for a story.
That was an interesting day because president Sarkozy came running by with his kids and Secret Service entourage. The old railbed we use is owned by the state and it is also a walking/running trail, snowmobile and ATV trail. He was in Wolfboro on vacation and went out running every day.
More strange happenings: While the TV producer and videographer were setting up their stuff and waiting for the stars to show up, a lady who was driving by, stopped to see what was going on and look at the cars. She was from Canada and spoke with a heavy French accent. When Sarkozy came back we discovered the SUV that was parked in our lot was his and this was the end of his run. He left his Walkman in the car and came over to see what we were doing. She was able to speak with him in French so he hung around for a while and we all got our pictures taken with him. We were up there later in the week and he came running by again and stopped to talk with us for a few minutes.
The cars can go pretty fast but I don't really know the top speed. Most of the rails we have are 100 years old or more and haven't been maintained for trains for half a century. We usually travel about 20mph but I have had it up to 30mph. At our normal speed of 20mph my engine is idling in high gear so I expect it could go over 60 on decent rails. The older, single cylinder cars will go pretty fast too, but probably not quite as fast.
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If you want to see a lot more photos of the rail cars and our club you can Google CVRTC to find our website. That's Cotton Valley Rail Trail Club. I'm in what they call the Thursday Gang. We're the geezer bunch and we seem to do most of the work. We mow our rail trails plus others around the state. When someone wants to clear a section of rail that hasn't been used in 60 years to be able to use it for the little cars, they call the Thursday Gang.
Scroll to the bottom and go to 2007 archives for a trip through the notch. It's labled Mountain Division Excursion, not MEC. I took the picture of the notch from Frankenstein trestle. Below that is a section on the TV photo shoot where you can find a photo of us with President Sarkozy.
Scroll to the bottom and go to 2007 archives for a trip through the notch. It's labled Mountain Division Excursion, not MEC. I took the picture of the notch from Frankenstein trestle. Below that is a section on the TV photo shoot where you can find a photo of us with President Sarkozy.
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Hi njoynlife,
I saw the pictures, they were very interesting. You have many rail cars.
Is Open House held every year or is it something new?
I saw the pictures, they were very interesting. You have many rail cars.
Is Open House held every year or is it something new?
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Hi dark red,
I don't know how long they've having the open house. For several years I was riding with someone else and I was not a club member. I joined the club for the first time this year. I did go to it last year but I don't know about previous years. There are quite a few places around the state where someone owns an old railroad station and has fixed it up as a historical relic. Most of them invite the public to see their works of love.
Our state legislature decided many years ago that the state would take posession of rail lines as the railroads decided to abandon them. They did this so the rail corridors wouldn't just disappear in case there was a need for them in the future. At first the railroads took up the rails for the scrap value of the iron but the state stopped that about 50 years ago, so now when they abandon a right of way the rails are left in place.
We are very lucky here in NH as not all states have done it that way. Due to the numerous sections of abandoned track in NH there are several groups who do this throughout the state. But I think we are the only really organized club. The others appear to be just small groups who use nearby rails or one of them knows someone who owns the rights to a section of track. Our club has over 100 members and we have two sections of abandoned track the state lets us use whenever we want.
Many of the small railroads around the state like to have us come in to do track maintenance for them in exchange for letting us organize rides on their rails. Others such as the Hobo Railroad have annual rides set up for rail cars and they come from all over the country.
In other parts of the country they don't have the abandoned trackage we do and they work with active lines to organize rides. Some of them to the west of us have rides that are hundreds of miles and last for days. Around here there were a lot of short lines that have been abandoned as the railroads went out of business.
It is also a popular activity in Australia, but I haven't heard of it in any other countries. There may not be a lot of abandoned track in other countries.
I don't know how long they've having the open house. For several years I was riding with someone else and I was not a club member. I joined the club for the first time this year. I did go to it last year but I don't know about previous years. There are quite a few places around the state where someone owns an old railroad station and has fixed it up as a historical relic. Most of them invite the public to see their works of love.
Our state legislature decided many years ago that the state would take posession of rail lines as the railroads decided to abandon them. They did this so the rail corridors wouldn't just disappear in case there was a need for them in the future. At first the railroads took up the rails for the scrap value of the iron but the state stopped that about 50 years ago, so now when they abandon a right of way the rails are left in place.
We are very lucky here in NH as not all states have done it that way. Due to the numerous sections of abandoned track in NH there are several groups who do this throughout the state. But I think we are the only really organized club. The others appear to be just small groups who use nearby rails or one of them knows someone who owns the rights to a section of track. Our club has over 100 members and we have two sections of abandoned track the state lets us use whenever we want.
Many of the small railroads around the state like to have us come in to do track maintenance for them in exchange for letting us organize rides on their rails. Others such as the Hobo Railroad have annual rides set up for rail cars and they come from all over the country.
In other parts of the country they don't have the abandoned trackage we do and they work with active lines to organize rides. Some of them to the west of us have rides that are hundreds of miles and last for days. Around here there were a lot of short lines that have been abandoned as the railroads went out of business.
It is also a popular activity in Australia, but I haven't heard of it in any other countries. There may not be a lot of abandoned track in other countries.
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Well I haven't heard for some other clubs of this kind, so I was interested in this when you have mentioned it. It is good that you have a lot of members and that you are active.
Do you have any kind of competition or it is just for fun?
Do you have any kind of competition or it is just for fun?
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Just for fun, but some guys spend inordinate amounts of money trying to make their's look better than others. I just want mine to run well and be reliable. I guess that's been my goal throughout life. I only bought one new car in my life which I kept for 19 years. I didn't get any special thrill out of owning a new vehicle and the monetary loss in the first two years was a real bummer. All the rest of my cars have been used cars that I had reason to believe would hold up well.
When I was drag racing in the 60s I had a 58 Chrysler New Yorker (the original hemi) I used for my tow car. It had about 300 thousand miles on it and ran fine. One year (1969) when a friend of ours was going to take his junior fuel car to the NHRA Nationals in Indy, he spent most of the summer poking fun of our old tow car. He bought a late model truck to tow his car out there. After the race was over we loaded the engine from his dragster onto our trailer along with our car, to take some weight off his trailer to lighten the load for his sick truck to tow home. We never heard any more from him about our old tow car.
Not to say I didn't have problems with it. In 1967 I replaced the brushes in the generator before leaving home because they were looking pretty worn. The evening we left for home it stopped charging and I found one of the new brushes was worn completely down to the wire insert which ruined the commutator on the armature. I used 5 sets of brushes on the way home due to the damaged commutator. I replaced it with an alternator.
In 1968 the replacement starter I had installed a few months before, went bad while we were in the staging lanes at Indy waiting to run. The guy next to us jump started us from his tow car. We later discovered the starter was drawing an unbelievable amount of current. I didn't shut the engine down again until I got back to NH. I left it idling the rest of the day at the track and all night in the motel parking lot and all next day at the track, then drove it home. When we took it out of the car we discovered the armature was broken in three pieces and the fork in the Bendix drive had one side broken off and the other side was bent. I lost faith in parts store starters and got the replacement from my Chrysler dealer. That one was still in the car when I got rid of it five years later.
When I was drag racing in the 60s I had a 58 Chrysler New Yorker (the original hemi) I used for my tow car. It had about 300 thousand miles on it and ran fine. One year (1969) when a friend of ours was going to take his junior fuel car to the NHRA Nationals in Indy, he spent most of the summer poking fun of our old tow car. He bought a late model truck to tow his car out there. After the race was over we loaded the engine from his dragster onto our trailer along with our car, to take some weight off his trailer to lighten the load for his sick truck to tow home. We never heard any more from him about our old tow car.
Not to say I didn't have problems with it. In 1967 I replaced the brushes in the generator before leaving home because they were looking pretty worn. The evening we left for home it stopped charging and I found one of the new brushes was worn completely down to the wire insert which ruined the commutator on the armature. I used 5 sets of brushes on the way home due to the damaged commutator. I replaced it with an alternator.
In 1968 the replacement starter I had installed a few months before, went bad while we were in the staging lanes at Indy waiting to run. The guy next to us jump started us from his tow car. We later discovered the starter was drawing an unbelievable amount of current. I didn't shut the engine down again until I got back to NH. I left it idling the rest of the day at the track and all night in the motel parking lot and all next day at the track, then drove it home. When we took it out of the car we discovered the armature was broken in three pieces and the fork in the Bendix drive had one side broken off and the other side was bent. I lost faith in parts store starters and got the replacement from my Chrysler dealer. That one was still in the car when I got rid of it five years later.
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Njoyn, I totally didn't know that's what New Hampshire did, and I live nearby. I am glad that they held onto the rails because I think that railroads are going to become big in the US again. Thanks for the info!!
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Every year we have around 40 people over or so, and change the theme to keep things fresh. We've had typical Red, White, and Blue, Festa Italiana, Carnival Theme, Luau, and much more. We are in the process of planning next year's picnic which will be a "Titanic Theme" first class dining, sailing back in time, complete with Embarkation on the "back Deck", and photo opportunities on the "Grand Staircase"...(front Porch!) and much more. :-) I can hardly wait!
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Hi sunshineangle,
Just a quick question. Are you talking about 4th of July?
We kind got little off the topic here, things got very interesting when njoynlife mentioned his rail car. You have to see the pictures.
And very interesting themes. Keep up the good work.
Just a quick question. Are you talking about 4th of July?
We kind got little off the topic here, things got very interesting when njoynlife mentioned his rail car. You have to see the pictures.
And very interesting themes. Keep up the good work.
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Yes. :-) Even though it's still a year away, I still get excited for the next one, the week after we finish the last one! LOL! Thanks.
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Absolutely me too! I already have a guest list planned out for next year and I'm thinking of new plans. What are you thinking to do? I am thinking maybe making a vodka watermelon...
Absolutely me too! I already have a guest list planned out for next year and I'm thinking of new plans. What are you thinking to do? I am thinking maybe making a vodka watermelon...
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