I have always been fascinated by trains, whether they be steam, diesel, or electric. As a young boy, I would often stand beside the railway tracks as a very long train with three heavy diesels thundered by. There were often more than 100 cars, box cars, tank cars, flat cars, with the empty ones at the end, followed by the caboose. Many times, a brakeman would be hanging out the window of the caboose and wave at me and my friends. Exciting stuff for an 8 year old.

In Spain in January 1965, I took an "express train", that moved about the same speed as I could run, from Madrid to Alicante. I rode third class: the window had broken glass, the seats were just wooden benches, and there were 8 people crammed into each compartment. The toilet at the end of the carriage looked like any western toilet, but it was disgustingly dirty, and when you looked down into it, you could see the railway ties going by. Since it was winter, it was freezing cold until we got to the Mediterranean coast. Then the train carefully came down from the central plateau to sea level, and as we descended, the air warmed up and soon became very humid. Off came the winter coat and heavy sweater, because soon only a light T-shirt was necessary.

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I hope you will find some useful information on this web site to help you with your model railroad.

Doug Anderson

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