Uploaded September 2009 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
(REPOST: I originally posted this in 2008 but the copyright cops made me take it down because of background music. So, I have revised and reposted.)
By the spring of 1968 I was completing my second year as a teacher in Lorain, Ohio and could think of nothing better to do with my summer vacation than to ride trains especially as it was becoming apparent that American rail passenger service was on its way to extinction. So with the latest edition of The Official Guide of the Railways in hand I planned the first of several railfan dream vacations that I would enjoy before the coming of Amtrak in 1970 (of course, in 1968 we only knew that the end of rail passenger service as we knew it was near; we had no idea what, if anything, would succeed it). I was interested in all forms of rail transport and locomotion, so I planned this trip to include not only a variety of passenger trains and routes, but also several rail transit lines and the last all steam powered industrial railroad in the eastern US. The trip was timed to include a railfan event in Chicago on Sunday June 9, 1968.
(REPOST: I originally posted this in 2008 but the copyright cops made me take it down because of background music. So, I have revised and reposted.)
By the spring of 1968 I was completing my second year as a teacher in Lorain, Ohio and could think of nothing better to do with my summer vacation than to ride trains especially as it was becoming apparent that American rail passenger service was on its way to extinction. So with the latest edition of The Official Guide of the Railways in hand I planned the first of several railfan dream vacations that I would enjoy before the coming of Amtrak in 1970 (of course, in 1968 we only knew that the end of rail passenger service as we knew it was near; we had no idea what, if anything, would succeed it). I was interested in all forms of rail transport and locomotion, so I planned this trip to include not only a variety of passenger trains and routes, but also several rail transit lines and the last all steam powered industrial railroad in the eastern US. The trip was timed to include a railfan event in Chicago on Sunday June 9, 1968.
