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Train Men

Grown men building and playing with train sets all day? Yes, such a place exists at the train museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Of course, they don’t get paid. But they seem to love it and so do the kids.

Train Man

This post is dedicated to my brother Brian the train lover. He just recently completed his train conductor/engineer training last month and officially became a railroad engineer for Burlington Northern. Becoming “Casey Jones” was a life long dream of his that started with train sets and moved on to hopping freight cars. Congratulations Brian!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 2:16 am and is filed under California, San Diego. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

3 Responses to “Train Men”

BestCoolGuy22 Says:
May 19th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Been there many a time. XD
Ted in Ft. Laud. Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
6-14-2009

Congrats Brian! I know that it is 1 year and 1 month after Graduation, but I just found out! I hope that all is going well and according to your career plan! I tried to join CSX last year, but my eyesight held me back. Ride the rails for me Brain….there are many of us who would trade places with you in a nano-second!

Pat, if you ever come to Fort Laud. again, check out the Train Club at the Deerfield Beach Amtrak Station. They are in the rear of the building. The Train Club holds an open house every Friday night, and they also hold a Train Swap Meet 4 times a year. It is about Half the size of the San Diego Train Club at Balboa Park.

BTW- I was there in November of 2003. (I hed to get away for a few weeks, I was in the middle of my Divorce)

Also, Check out “NORTHLANDZ” in New Jersey if you can. It is a 20,000 sf HO Train Museum! It is 3 stories tall, and after you go thru it; you will have walked over 1 mile!!! It is amazing! I was there in December, 2008.

If you are passing thru Ft. Bragg, California; please stop to ride “The Skunk Train”. i did in 2000, and it rekindled my passion for my Lionel Electraic Trains and for Trains in general.

Ted in Ft. Laud. Fl.
Kara "freewind" Says:
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Rail fans are a breed of there own, I’ve met quite a few hopping freight. I’ve liked most of them but some acted super elitist, one guy wouldnt shake my hand, I guess it was a little dirty, but I’de just got off a really grimy ride. He might of just have been bitter because he lost his engineer job and I was getting to spend a lot more time on the rails than him.

Anyway I think the train park in Rochele, IL is pretty dope. It’s where UP and BNSF cross tracks outside of Chicago. They have a little model of a hobo jungle, that my raoddog and I slept at for a night, It’s a 24 hour park, so we didnt think anyone would mind us there for a night. The only problem we had was being woke at 7:30am by 2 little boys yelling “hobos!”