423 replies to this topic

[yarrow]

yarrow, age 10, is the youngest of our family of 5 railfans. he was named after a late spring wildflower that blooms in perfusion where we live in the forests of ne washington state.

[AmtrakWPK]

Neat bunch of stories. Mine is obvious, home station is WPK, Winter Park, Florida.

Tom, I (being a pilot) thought you maybe had some connection with a Flight Service Station. Oh, well..

Trainboy, I wonder if y'all had anything to do with the huge model train setup at Cypress Gardens years ago? That was probably 15 years ago if not more. We've been through Lake Wales lots of times, including last week on the way back from Naples. Landed a C-172 there once to wait for a squall line of thunderstorms to pass by.

And Mrs. Spot is raising a stink about hair color, huh?

Let's see.... AKA: I once played the Thanksgiving Day church service aboard AGF-3 USS LaSalle at Manama, Bahrain. That would have been.... 1973? Now, as to the ships, AKA.. hmmmmmm. Attack Cargo Ship? Most of the AKA's I find references to were all converted to Charleston class LKAs, Amphibious Cargo Ships. It appears that AKAs 113 CHARLESTON, 114 DURHAM, 115 MOBILE, and 116 ST. LOUIS were all converted to LKAs (the hull numbers stayed the same). AKA 47, Turandot, later became ARC 3 (undersea cable repair ship), AEOLUS. AEOLUS was sunk 22 miles off Beaufort inlet, NC as an artificial reef. I think that CHARLESTON and MOBILE are in inactive storage in Philadelphia, DURHAM and ST. LOUIS are in inactive storage in Pearl Harbor. And one more, USS VANADIS, AKA 49, was later converted to USS THOR, ARC 4 (another undersea cable repair ship) Decommissioned, then part of Military Sealift Command, currently stored at National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, Calif.
How's that?

And, Every Day Matters.
Amen, and God Bless.

Edited by AmtrakWPK, 20 June 2007 - 09:15 PM.

[creddick]

Very unglamorous. It is the user ID I was given at work before I retired. For simplicity, I kept it. Now that I'm retired (7 years now), I don't do complicated.

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

Well, I coined my screen name to apply to my job. After all I was employed as an "on board service" employee when I found this site not too long after I hired out. Hence the name "Amtrak OBS Employee." But in June 2006, I was furloughed from my position at Amtrak. And now that I have taken a job as a freight train conductor with CSX Transportation, my name doesn't quite fit me now. I have been recently signing my posting with "Amtrak OBS Employee gone freight." I presume I will figure on changing it to reflect my job eventually.

Alan, Anthony, is it possible to simply change the screen name, or reregister with a new one? Might just keep the old one, but it is worth a shot to explore options.

Formerly OBS........

[AlanB]

Alan, Anthony, is it possible to simply change the screen name, or reregister with a new one? Might just keep the old one, but it is worth a shot to explore options.

As I noted back on page one in my reply to The Metropolitan, you cannot make any changes, but I can. If you decide that you do want to change things, just drop me a PM or an email and let me know what you want to change. Remember that there is a display name, which is what shows up with your posts, and then there is a login name that you use to log into the board. They don't need to match, so you can just change the display name, while leaving your login name the same. That means you don't have to teach your computer a new name and password to remember.

And I would recommend changing your name, and not rejoining, as doing that means that you loose control over your old posts. Changing your name means that you are still associated with your many helpful posts.

[WhoozOn1st]

AKA --not also known as.--Any Navy people out there? It was a ship designation. Lets see if anyone can come up with the answer. My first user name was APA. Got lost in a misfire in the forum some how. Same deal, a ship designation.My member number would be lower if I had not lost the APA. I thought some one might pick up on the letters and make the connection. I guess my shipmates are not train people. or none of you guys where my shipmates. You will have to go back a few years to find the APA AKA desingnation. If anyone does find the answer, be kind about my age. Hint Viet Nam

HA, I found it! AKA is Attack Cargo Ship, and APA is Attack Transport. Neither designation is currently in use. Googled "Navy Ship Designations" and looked around.

Great stories, folks. My handle probably needs no explanation, but What's on second, and I Don't Know is on third.

Anchors aweigh, AKA!

Edit: Oh yeah, and the 999 comes from the New York Central locomotive that was the first machine to break 100 mph. It's on display at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry.

Edited by WhoozOn1st999, 20 June 2007 - 10:08 PM.

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

Thanks Alan, I'll do that when I get a chance. Formerly OBS....

[Stuk in Tuscaloosa]

Hey guys, havent been around in a while. Use to be Stuck in Tuscaloosa, password problems have me re-registering as "Stuk in Tuscaloosa". Made friends here quickly back in April by making some disparaging remarks aimed at the Amtrak Terminal in Tuscaloosa, AL. I found myself apologizing rather quickly that Saturday morning!! LOL!! Fortunately, everyone here gave me the benefit of being a newbie, and all was forgotten.(I think, I hope, LOL) My families trip to NYC on the Crescent on July 21 is fast approaching, and we are "geeked up"!!!

I work in the Oil and Gas industry up here in Tuscaloosa Al. I wasnt really use to the place when I signed on as S I T. After being here for some months now, I really enjoy it. It isnt home, but its the next best thing.

S.I.T

[JAChooChoo]

Hate to admit it, but I always HOPED someone would initiate a topic like this.

My name was actually chosen prematurely. I live a short distance from what was once the "other" PRR Main Line (the old Northern Central) in the Northeast, running between Baltimore and Harrisburg. I first became intrigued by this line as a child in the late 70's, when it was just a disconnected freight line, and finally rode it in 1992 when our Light Rail line opened.

And back in the 60's I was involved in running excursions on the NCR to York, Harrisburg and Altoona.
Although the B&O is my #1 railroad, still enjoyed riding the Light Rail along Lake Roland.

Oh, and JAC are my initials.

[jamesbrownontheroad]

You can blame my parents for mine. They'd never heard of a certain soul singer / sex machine and had no problems christening me James (although I've always had a slightly different first name within family circles). When I headed across the Atlantic to Canada for the first time in 2002 I needed a new email address and naturally found that every combination of James and Brown had already gone. To reflect an increasingly mobile life, I appended 'ontheroad' since I only expected to use the address while traveling.

...and it stuck. jamesbrownontheroad became the tag for my blog, first on Blogspot and now on Wordpress. It may even make it onto other things as time passes.

As you'll see from this page, there are quite a few of us out there... these are just the more famous ones

http://en.wikipedia......sambiguation)

*j*

[MrFSS]

Very unglamorous. It is the user ID I was given at work before I retired. For simplicity, I kept it. Now that I'm retired (7 years now), I don't do complicated.

Retirement is great. I tell folks I get up in the morning with nothing to do and by the time I go to bed at night I've done about 1/2 of it!

[Squeakz2001]

The source of my name is pretty typical for most internet forums- it comes from a movie. In this case, one of my favorites, "The Princess Bride". I just like it because it sounds like it might be my real name, but it's not.

Oh- I get it! "Dread Pirate Roberts!" I love that movie!

[PRR 60]

When I was 15, I talked my parents into taking a planned cross-country trip by train. This would be my first ever overnight train trip. The first train we used was the Pennsylvania Railroad's "General" from North Philadelphia to Chicago. Years later when I first signed up for a rail discussion board I decided to us that first ever overnight overnight train ride as my name: "PRR 60" for PRR Train #60.

However, several months later I was looking through an old PRR timetable. Turns out my memory had been faulty. The westbound General was PRR Train 49, not 60. PRR #60 was the eastbound Pittsburgher that was an overnight trip between Pittsburgh and New York (all Pullman for at least a while). I guess it was a nice train, but I definitely never rode it. I might have seen the westbound version in my train watching days, but as far as I can recall, I never saw #60, the eastbound Pittsburgher. However, by the time I realized my error, I was PRR 60 in too many places to change. So PRR 60, Mr. Pittsburgher, it is.

[creddick]

Very unglamorous. It is the user ID I was given at work before I retired. For simplicity, I kept it. Now that I'm retired (7 years now), I don't do complicated.

Retirement is great. I tell folks I get up in the morning with nothing to do and by the time I go to bed at night I've done about 1/2 of it!

Agreed! After breakfast with some other retired buddies (don't they realize they serve breakfast at 10:00 too?) this morning, I have no plans until a golf outting tonight. What a life!

[AKA]

You guys are good. Congrats on finding AKA. I was really was on an APA in the Pacific. It was given to Spain and became thier amphibious fleet flag ship. Was broken up in 1980. I can say what the name or number was. This was a great idea!!.

[Palmland]

The 'Palmland' was a wonderful 'slow train down south' operated by the Seaboard. I had the pleasure of riding it when in college in Virginia on a spring vacation trip from Washington to Ft. Lauderdale.

Had a roomette and saw lots of interesting towns, trains and people. In spite of its leisurely schedule (two nights to get to the palmland) it had very fast running through the carolina low country. It was even more enjoyable with the good food and cold beer fromt the heavyweight grill car and suberb Seaboard crew. Couldn't beat standing at the dutch door with the warm breezes and well maintained jointed rail after a cold winter. My home in retirement is now on the route of the Palmland in SC.

[AmtrakWPK]

AKA - was that the APA / LKA-248 Paul Revere? If so:
Comm. USS Paul Revere (APA-248), '58, at Long Beach
Redesig. Amphib Transport (LPA-248), Jan '69
Decomm. Jan '80
Sold to Spain, Jan '80,
became the Castillia (L-21)
Retired (Spanish Navy), 6 Jun '98

[deimos]

Deimos - [diymos] is one of two Martian moons (captured asteroids). Astronomy is another one of my hobbies, though I don't seem to have time to do much star gazing.

Andy

[sportbiker]

One guess as to what my primary transportation is.





If you guessed Yamaha YZF1000 you're correct!!