In 1995, my wife Anita and I took trips to Texas, California,
Pennsylvania (twice),
Western Maryland, and
West Virginia specifically to ride on trains.
We also managed to find trains while visiting relatives in Wisconsin and Arizona. We rode on a total of eighteen different trains, and I got two cab rides as well. What a summer!
In 1996, we didn't travel quite so much. We did manage a trip to California and to Nevada in
late April/Early May, where we visited the State Railroad museums of each.
We drove up the Feather River Canyon and stopped at
Portola Railroad Museum
(yes, we rented a locomotive!). In July, we went to Wisconsin to celebrate my high school class
reunion and rode an excursion on the
Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway.
Then in October, we went down to Dillsboro, North Carolina
and rode the Great Smoky Mountains Railway.
In November we went to Rhinelander, Wisconsin
for the SOO Line Historical & Technical Society's annual meeting. We had hoped to ride behind
the newly-restored SOO # 1003, but it didn't get completed in time. Instead, we had two great trips
behind the D&NM Ry. # 14,
double-headed with the SOO # 2500 FP-7.
In January I updated my pictures from Texas in 1994 and Pennsylvania in 1995
to show some better scans and to give a little synopsis of those trips. I hope you enjoy them!
Some of the pictures from the SOO Line H&TS convention in Rhinelander got a similar treatment
a few weeks earlier.
We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary (May 18th) by taking a trip to Niagara Falls. While there, I
took a helicopter ride over the Falls. With the photos finally back from the processor, I've scanned some
of the better ones and put them here.
In early August of 1997, we took a major trip to the Canadian West. We helped the folks in Victoria
celebrate BC day, then drove up the coast and inland to the wonderful Canadian National Parks:
Jasper, Banff, Glacier and Mount Revelstoke. We also visited the Wine country of the Okanagan Valley.
What a wonderful trip! Thanks to all Canadians; we had a wonderful time.
In September, the SOO Line H&TS convention was held in our home town. We rode behind # 1003 both
days, and I've posted a few pictures Here!
In 1998, we had a major change when I took retirement from IBM after 30 years of dedicated service.
I retired in February, we sold our house in Lexington in June, and moved to Florida in July. In between,
we had a hurried trip to Wisconsin, three trips to Florida to search for a new home, and a lot of
exercise packing (or garage-saling) the accumulation of our nine years in Lexington. After we finally
completed the move, we made a trip to Texas (and chased the Hill Country
Flyer from Cedar Park to Burnet. Later in September, we made another trip to Wisconsin, where
we attended the Soo Line H&TS Society convention in Stevens Point and also got to ride behind the
Soo Line Pacific # 2719 steam locomotive out of Chippewa Falls.
We're already making plans for the 1999 convention, which will be held in Duluth, Minnesota.
Head on over to
