Word: railroader
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Portland, Maine, and the people with whom we went had too foresaken rest, church, comics, and TV. Instead we all got very sooty, and very tired, and very aesthetically fulfilled. For that one day of rest, you see, we were a brotherhood of a curious breed. It was a railroad enthusiasts' picnic...
Just what is a railroad enthusiast...
...selfless individual who just wants to be around trains and, if possible, to help them out when they get in trouble. Railroad enthusiasts are much the most genial when they grow older, at the time, as one writer describes them, "they shake down into fine people, jolly and philosophical." Youthful enthusiasts sometimes "ride their hobby too hard, and show off their knowledge of engine parts and other expert insignia with which they hide the hot confusion that is within them...
...ideal day of rest for the railroad enthusiast is spent on a jaunt with his fellow enthusiasts to a destination which has significance in railroad history. The enthusiast of course prefers to ride behind steam, but in these trying times of dieselization, must be content just to ride. Whenever the "hogger" (engineer) stops for water (and engineers must ration such stops carefully now), just as like as not the railroad enthusiast will leap from the vestibule, race to the engine, and consume a role of Kodachrome in the excitement of the moment. If he's not taking photographs...
...rail-fan movement began right here in Boston during the depression when people deeply reconsidered established values. Automobiles had become a bore because as modern contraptions they were devoid of all nostalgia. Railroad Enthusiasts, Inc., the group which sponsored Sunday's trip, organized in 1933, and quickly established chapters in Hartford, New York, Portland, and Taunton, Mass. Pretty soon there were a million members all over the country--buying magazines (Sample want ad: "Pictures needed of cabooses seen from the side."), swapping photographs (Advertised Mr. G. A. Porter of Savannah, Ga.: "8 X 10 neg. of A-AWP supplement...