Re: PC: Why PC?/was Demographics

[alcoman <alcoman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am 34.

I was 3 when the merger happened and we used to make 3 to 4 trips a week
to Buffalo to see my grandmother.  We lived in Springville, NY and I used
to stay up late watching the B&O switching in the small yard there.  My
parents had a car that couldnt do the Interstate due to a transmission
problem and we used to go the "old way" into Buffalo.  The "old way" meant
crossing the 6 track crossing (2 NW tracks and 4 NYC/PC tracks)at Bayview,
NY the site of BV Tower and gettting "stuck" watching a half dozen or more
trains running thru there.  The green tinted windows in BV tower always
fascinated me.  

Alas, the crossing is still there but BV tower is gone (2 years) and now
there are only 4 tracks there (1 NS and 3 CSX), it is still a good
"hotspot" for train watching but NOTHING like the activity I remember from
being a kid. 

I didnt realize at the time what I was looking at but all I know is that 
I liked it.  The PC always seemed to paralell(sp) Buffalo's fortunes.
When the PC fell into hardship and later bankruptcy it seemed that Buffalo
followed the same path.  I wasnt the railfan I am now until after
returning to the area in 1987 and by then the PC was pretty much gone gone
gone.  I dont really know why the PC appeals to me.  But it does.  

Buffalo gives the railfan a lot of opportunities to be a railfan.  Not
only present day railroading but historical railroading as well.  Buffalo
was a HUGE terminal that is sometimes forgotten.  LV, NYC, PRR, ERIE, DLW,
BO, NKP (all had large passenger stations here and LARGE freight yards).
The era of the PC is interesting because at that time MOST of the area was
still intact RR wise.  I don't wax for steam as that was long gone by my
time period.  But diesels are what I like because that is all I have
known.

  

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