Rekindle old Memories.

[NormP]

As Trainzers we often use Google Earth to help plan our new Routes.
But how frequently do you get side tracked (pun intended) and tour around the Globe,visiting and Zooming in on those remote and only dreamed of places ?
Only to come back too our own little patch on Earth,a look at our house now,and then start back tracking along the path of our life, zooming in on the school/s we attended,bringing to mind the face of teachers that left an impression on us,like my Woodwork teacher with his long, pointed,Waxed Moustache that drooped down (Chinese style)in hot weather,and his wonderfull voice singing French songs.
Moving on to visit other places of work and play,bring memories of old friends or acquaintances,as a young man travelling by train or bicycle through out Australia,looking for work,or just fullfilling the urge too move on to new places,finally settle down in one place, but life can throw you a curve ball and you move again,all bring back memories some good some not so good,my train of thought is interupted when a voice in the doorway mentioned something not done,and I find my self standing in the kitchen wondering what the heck am I looking for ? and the voice (the wife, who else)comes through,louder this time,"The Car Keys"and don't forget too turn off the Computer we are going shopping Remember.
Nope.
So Much for short term memory.

NormP.
An Oldie of course.

 

[davesnow]

,,,how frequently do you get side tracked...

Yeah, and sometimes while crusing along in Google Street View I find interesting buildings to model in G-Max for Trainz!!

Cheers and keep getting side-tracked!

Dave

 

[seeseeme]

I have done that quite a bit Norm. I have all the places I lived in or have fond memories of marked out.

Exploring the World though is great. We hear of places on TV and say "where the hell is that ?" and then proceed to look it up Google Earth. Like many things computer related we find that place mentioned on TV and that leads us to somewhere else, the next thing we know is it's 3am and well past bed time :hehe:

Craig

 

[NormP]

Gee Craig I don't think I could stay awake that long,I can even doze off watching the news at 6PM.

Norm.

Darn that voice again,what have I done/not done now ?

 

[Driver_Col]

Now here's a thread that I can relate to! How about sitting on the sofa after dinner and watching the evening movie. Why couldn't I follow it? ("You went to sleep half way through it....... and you were snoring again.") Really tired around 9:30pm - 10:00pm so go to bed. Really need the washroom around 12:00, and 2:00 and maybe 4:00am. Awake now so may as well play Trainz ............. but nodding off at the pc so back to bed around 5:00am. At 7:00am .......... time to start another day. Did I take my morning pills?



Colin.

 

[Stationbeem]

Now here's a thread that I can relate to! How about sitting on the sofa after dinner and watching the evening movie. Why couldn't I follow it? ("You went to sleep half way through it....... and you were snoring again.") Really tired around 9:30pm - 10:00pm so go to bed. Really need the washroom around 12:00, and 2:00 and maybe 4:00am. Awake now so may as well play Trainz ............. but nodding off at the pc so back to bed around 5:00am. At 7:00am .......... time to start another day. Did I take my morning pills?



Colin.

Know exactly what you mean....Don't you just love it.

 

[sawyer811]

I use Google Earth every now an then, even though i freelance (I usually use it to find track arrangements i want to copy), but every now and then, i use it to tour famous places from railway's past; the Bitterroots, where Boxcabs and Little Joes used to roam, the Narrow Gauge routes of the D&RGW and RGS, old shortlines that vanished before my time (too many to name) and routes from around my home. it makes me feel all nostalgic. sometimes I'll just track down old roundhouses and engine terminals. In a way, it has allowed me to visit places i couldn't if i wanted too, for they no longer exist. it makes me feel all nostalgic.

 

[JCitron]

I'm another earth googler as well. I find myself getting sidetracked as I'm looking for something I am working on. Sometimes I'll get mad to myself at the idiots that ripped up a possibly useful rail line. Why did that they rip that up?! I'll say to myself. There are so many good lines that are no longer in operation, and I remember when they were in operation now.

What's interesting is to see places I've worked. In a few of them, depending upon when the pictures were taken, I've actually seen my car, or cars belonging to people I've worked with.

I've also wandered off to other parts of the world. I'll pick a city or country for the afternoon and poke around looking at rail terminals, ports and other interesting things. I'm making mental notes too while I'm at it so I can include some of those features.

My thing is an afternoon nap on a day off or weekend. I've lost quite a few Saturdays or Sundays because I've dozed off for a few minutes. 3 hours later... and I get up in time for dinner!

John

 

[Euphod]

Such a sweet thread, and realistic too. TV would have you believing we're supposed to dancing somewhere, or off driving through the vineyards in our convertible. Then we're supposed to end the day sitting in a bathtub on the beach, holding hands with some remarkably pleasant woman sitting in a bathtub next to us, gazing fondly upon us with a promise of adventure in her eyes...

In any case, we're supposed to be doing something other than falling asleep watching TV, or we're just failures!

 

[peghorse]

Rekindling old memories is rejoining this community and seeing old names I remember fondly. Oh and other non TrainZ stuffs.
CheerZ to yaz!

 

[Mick_Berg]

I especially like the Google Earth view of London from 1945. It's blurry and black and white, but you can see things that have been gone for fifty years.
Mick Berg.

 

[pcas1986]

As a kid in the 50's, I lived at a place called Ashey on the Isle of Wight (an island off the southern English coast near Portsmouth. To get to school in Ryde I caught a steam train from Ashey to St Johns Road station. It was a real Thomas the Tank Engine style train.

Much of the extensive Isle of Wight railway system has gone now, but the track that runs through Ashey still remains and is used by the Isle of Wight Steam Railway for tourist purposes. I've returned twice to Ashey, a fleeting visit in 2009 and a longer holiday last year. On both occasions, while I was revisiting the tiny station (now a family home), the tourist train has passed.

If you view the island in Google Earth, you can clearly see the remaining tracks and, in many places, the outlines, cuttings, etc of the old railway. I was reading one of the many books on the IOW railways and was amazed to find that early in the 1900's, a spur line ran from Ashey station to service a horse racing circuit and a chalk quarry just a few hundred yards from my old home. I remember the quarry but the horse racing circuit had long gone together with the track.

The island remains much as it was in the 1950's and earlier. There are no freeways and no miles and miles of suburban sprawl. Despite leaving it for Australia in 1961, I felt very much "at home" when I returned. I suspect nothing much will have changed in another 50 years.

PaulC

 

[Mick_Berg]

As a kid in the 50's, I lived at a place called Ashey on the Isle of Wight (an island off the southern English coast near Portsmouth. To get to school in Ryde I caught a steam train from Ashey to St Johns Road station. It was a real Thomas the Tank Engine style train.

Much of the extensive Isle of Wight railway system has gone now, but the track that runs through Ashey still remains and is used by the Isle of Wight Steam Railway for tourist purposes. I've returned twice to Ashey, a fleeting visit in 2009 and a longer holiday last year. On both occasions, while I was revisiting the tiny station (now a family home), the tourist train has passed.

If you view the island in Google Earth, you can clearly see the remaining tracks and, in many places, the outlines, cuttings, etc of the old railway. I was reading one of the many books on the IOW railways and was amazed to find that early in the 1900's, a spur line ran from Ashey station to service a horse racing circuit and a chalk quarry just a few hundred yards from my old home. I remember the quarry but the horse racing circuit had long gone together with the track.

The island remains much as it was in the 1950's and earlier. There are no freeways and no miles and miles of suburban sprawl. Despite leaving it for Australia in 1961, I felt very much "at home" when I returned. I suspect nothing much will have changed in another 50 years.

PaulC

Paul. I didn't know you were ex-IOW, maybe you told me. Here's some personal recollection that I think others may be interested in.

I had family on the Island (still do) and in the 'fifties we would visit them for holidays. We would travel to Ventnor on the train that still ran through the tunnel to Ventnor station, with its strange rooms carved into the cliffs.

My aunt ran a guest house up in the hills above Ventnor. During the war, the crew of the radar station at the top of the hill were billeted there. They took my cousin up to see the radar gear (highly irregular!) and he has been a RF technician ever since. From the front balconies of the guest house he watched the fleet leave for the D-Day invasion. My aunt and my cousin emigrated to Perth, Australia/, in the late 'fifties.

For Ray Whiley; E. H. LeMare, one of the most famous English organist-composers, lived on the Island. A friend of my family found a whole stack of LeMare's personal organ music, with hand-written notes, in a cabinet in an organ loft somewhere. Worthless but priceless!!

Sorry, I guess I'm getting a bit off-topic............

Mick Berg.

 

[Driver_Col]

Paul. I didn't know you were ex-IOW, maybe you told me. Here's some personal recollection that I think others may be interested in.

I had family on the Island (still do) and in the 'fifties we would visit them for holidays. We would travel to Ventnor on the train that still ran through the tunnel to Ventnor station, with its strange rooms carved into the cliffs.

My aunt ran a guest house up in the hills above Ventnor. During the war, the crew of the radar station at the top of the hill were billeted there. They took my cousin up to see the radar gear (highly irregular!) and he has been a RF technician ever since. From the front balconies of the guest house he watched the fleet leave for the D-Day invasion. My aunt and my cousin emigrated to Perth, Australia/, in the late 'fifties.

For Ray Whiley; E. H. LeMare, one of the most famous English organist-composers, lived on the Island. A friend of my family found a whole stack of LeMare's personal organ music, with hand-written notes, in a cabinet in an organ loft somewhere. Worthless but priceless!!

Sorry, I guess I'm getting a bit off-topic............

Mick Berg.

Apology not necessary. Some of this nostaglia stuff is really interesting and there are many of us who can relate to some aspect or other of the ramble!

I spent all by waking hours (outside of school of course) at Walton Crossing in Peterborough. I would get there early in the morning and, if things were quiet, go picking mushrooms which Mum would later cook up for breakfast. I would dash there (from school) on my bike during lunch hour to see the 1:15 special which often had a "Sandy" doing the work, and stay as late as possible in the evening because who knows what might come through in those late hours! The stuff of boyhood memories!

Regards to all.

Colin.

 

[pcas1986]

Paul. I didn't know you were ex-IOW, maybe you told me. Here's some personal recollection that I think others may be interested in.

I had family on the Island (still do) and in the 'fifties we would visit them for holidays. We would travel to Ventnor on the train that still ran through the tunnel to Ventnor station, with its strange rooms carved into the cliffs.

My aunt ran a guest house up in the hills above Ventnor. During the war, the crew of the radar station at the top of the hill were billeted there. They took my cousin up to see the radar gear (highly irregular!) and he has been a RF technician ever since. From the front balconies of the guest house he watched the fleet leave for the D-Day invasion. My aunt and my cousin emigrated to Perth, Australia/, in the late 'fifties.

...
Mick Berg.

Well, I was born in London (Poplar in the East End) and vaguely recall playing in the ruins as a very young child. That area was heavily bombed during the war due to the docks in that location. My father was from the IOW and we moved there when I was about 5. I don't recall much of Ventnor as a child but we did visit there a year ago. We emigrated to Australia (Adelaide) in 1961.

There is still a working railway on the Island. The line runs from Ryde Pierhead (only the Brits would do that!) thru Ryde and terminates in Shanklin. It uses ex London Underground carriages that are quite low compared to normal carriages.

I've collected a few books on the historical IOW rail system and my longer term ambition is to recreate it in Trainz including my own rolling stock. I know there is a route already in existence but I prefer to make my own.

Cheers
Paul

 

[JCitron]

Paul. I didn't know you were ex-IOW, maybe you told me. Here's some personal recollection that I think others may be interested in.

I had family on the Island (still do) and in the 'fifties we would visit them for holidays. We would travel to Ventnor on the train that still ran through the tunnel to Ventnor station, with its strange rooms carved into the cliffs.

My aunt ran a guest house up in the hills above Ventnor. During the war, the crew of the radar station at the top of the hill were billeted there. They took my cousin up to see the radar gear (highly irregular!) and he has been a RF technician ever since. From the front balconies of the guest house he watched the fleet leave for the D-Day invasion. My aunt and my cousin emigrated to Perth, Australia/, in the late 'fifties.

For Ray Whiley; E. H. LeMare, one of the most famous English organist-composers, lived on the Island. A friend of my family found a whole stack of LeMare's personal organ music, with hand-written notes, in a cabinet in an organ loft somewhere. Worthless but priceless!!

Sorry, I guess I'm getting a bit off-topic............

Mick Berg.

Great recollection, Mick. These are great memories to hold on to. It's too bad that company administrations don't see the value very often in unique structures or places such as the waiting rooms mentioned above. Up here in Boston and elsewhere, as you know, urban renewal wiped out a lot of great buildings and places.

LeMare's personal organ music? That should be donated to a museum, or kept in an acid-free environment, or even better scanned and sent to a publisher. There are many keyboardists and organists that are interested in stuff like this. I happen to be a classically-trained pianist, and recently purchased a reprint of Clementi Piano Sonatas. The books were originally published in the 1850s and the reprint is a scan of the originals.

You might want to pass on this link to your family friend.

http://www.imslp.org/

John