Last visit "Back Home" was 2009. The grub at the Ft. Worth Stock Yards was oh so good as was the visit to the restored Texas & Pacific HQ/depot bldg.
The Original Dr. Pepper (made with pure sugar cane) and observing the Ft. Worth & Western switching Dublin was cool, but I sure missed Miss Hall at her Hobby House (RIP dear lady) and railfanning Miss Katy too!
New York, New York? You bet! My wife had relatives in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. When I was discharged from the US Army Transportation Corps in August 67 we stayed with her aunt and uncle. He was retired off Erie-Lackawanna (a former DL&W railroader) and I still wonder (not the famous brand of bread with the red, yellow, and blue baloons you understand...LOL) if we should have stayed in NJ as he could have got me hired on with E-L. Instead, yours truly, the No. One Dumb A**, decided to return to Texas where I hired on with Cotton Belt (67-68) then moved over to ATSF (68-76) before the move across The Big Pond brought me back to Germany.
No matter, we returned to The Fatherland, where I retired off Deutsche Bahn in 2010, with 31 years of service. Mainline steam was gone, but the McDonald's dining car that operated on one of the InterCity trains was neat. I was a passenger service rep so was always able to grab burgers and fries for me and my good buddy* (who was a platform dispatcher) right at trackside. Lunch. it never tasted so good!
Joe
* RIP
