RE: PC: PCHS and the 70s

[Mike Pennie <mpennie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I model in N scale. I thought I was the only one left in the world.

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	NES3524 [SMTP:NES3524 -AT- aol.com]
	Sent:	Thursday, April 09, 1998 11:44 PM
	To:	penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
	Subject:	Re: PC: PCHS and the 70s

	I'm (gulp) 42 (naw, I can't be).  Well, I must be 42 even if I
don't believe I
	it, because I was just 12 when PC began, and a teen when that
newfangled
	Amtrak suddenly showed up in the station three years later.
Unlike the older
	folk of the time, I had no animosity toward the PC, as I had not
formed a
	special attachment to PRR or NYC.  To me, circa 1970, the PC
just represented
	something new (as was N scale too) and omnipresent on the local
RR scene.

	I must say though that I also remember that the morning news on
the radio
	throughout PC's life seemed to daily include reports of delays
on 1, 2 or 3 of
	PC's local commuter lines- Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines.
I wonder if
	there was ever one morning when all 3 were operating on
schedule.  Still, I'm
	sure they usually did the best they could with what they had.

	In a message dated 98-04-09 17:52:16 EDT, bobr -AT- tridelta.com
writes:

	<<  I felt exactly the same kind of isolation in my 20's when
I'd visit a 
	 hobby shop for the first time only to find the atmosphere
somehow cloistered 
	 and self-referential. >>

	I certainly felt the same way as a teenager in the early 1970s
at certain
	hobby shops and NMRA events.  It's many years later, but I can
sure empathize
	with the younger folks today.  I hope we don't come across that
way to them
	now, because if anything would chase someone out of the hobby,
that would do
	it.  

	Still, I also met lots of nice people both in the hobby and on
the RR.  My
	late buddy Kirby and I, rather than being treated like annoying
teenagers
	(which perhaps we were!)  were treated very well by many PC (and
LIRR) men in
	places like Sunnyside Yard, NY, in those years.

	By the way, how many PC'ers model in N scale?

	Ned Schwartz