27 September 2023 – An American Rail Rover

Presenter : John Day

Chichester welcomed John Day’s long awaited ‘American Rail Rover’ talk which was first mooted back in 2019 and the wait was well worth it. John has been a regular visitor to the USA in recent decades and has visited 46 states usually in the company of the same 3 friends or on family visits as his son lived in La Farge in Wisconsin before moving to Kentucky.

The quality of photography was truly outstanding with many beautiful backdrops of mountains and rivers, Tehachapi area being a particular favourite of Johns. Getting about was aided by TOPO maps which are very detailed and include dirt tracks which often share the routes of the main line railways to find the best locations. Fabulous views were obtained of colourful liveried trains with multiple diesel power on the front, middle and back of trains that could be up to a mile or more long, contrasting with a local goods of three trucks being hauled by 5 diesels in one photograph.

Most of the pictures were taken out in the countryside, but a few in cities where some depots still retained usable turntables and huge marshalling yards as illustrated in Barstow. Details of trains were often gleamed from listening into scanners which were picking up USA train control messages, but sometimes they endured very long waits to see action. Towards the end some heritage steam was seen including a Chinese QJ purchased by Railroad owner Richard Corman and UP’s Northern 4-8-4 No 844.

John’s memories of incidents on his visits often very humorous added to the content of his show. One example of the latter was a loco crew ordering a Pizza delivery whilst being delayed in a loop for two hours!