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Author Previous Topic: MDC Boxcab Revival Topic Next Topic: Hobbytown UP E7  

Chops124
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 Posted - August 10 2021 :  6:57:28 PM Link directly to this topic  Show Profile  Add Chops124 to Buddylist


That is precisely the one! Thank you. It's odd how we get a bee under our bonnet for certain things, and this one has been an ant in my pants for decades.

I think it reminds me of a similar locomotive I saw, as a child, in the old USSR back in about '64. Yes, I do remember stuff from a long way back. I had an interesting, and often enjoyable, childhood.

Dad took us and the three kids on a trip to the Soviet Union to do research on the Cossacks, this back in the day when internet technology was not dreamed of, so one had to go a library and find it yourself, particularly if it was overseas, behind the Iron Curtain.

Why Dad took the entire family (under Canadian passports, as travel from the USA was forbidden) to one of the most God awful countries (North Korea probably worse) I never knew. I sometimes suspect we were used as a sort of human shield- what paranoid totalitarian government would suspect of a young man hauling is family along, as a spy?

Moreover, Dad, in his youth, did some translation work for the Pentagon, before that, as an Army officer. Man, if the Ruskies had known that...

Even at my young, young age, I easily recognized what a dismal, prison-like atmosphere the USSR was like. The wide streets were practically empty, there were almost no stores of any kind, and everything seemed to be either brown or gray. I even recall our mother being interrogated by a couple of Soviet street cops as to why she was out and about. After that, I don't think we ever left the hotel. I recall my Mom being quite freaked out, and she only spoke two or three words of Russian. I guess they let us go because it was easier than dealing with a near hysterical foreigner. We went to Helinksi after that, and I do recall that Mother was ever so relieved. We took the night train from Leningrad to Finland, and this was very much like the locomotive that towered over me.

There were two classes of travel by train in the USSR: Hard and Soft. We went "Soft," which were these iron hard bench seats covered in this greasy, dust impregnated cloth coverings that were of this "non-slip" weave- I remember they looked like cauliflowers, also of a dark, dark brown color of old mud.

They were soft as iron, and I also remember the violent pitching of the train frequently tossed me onto the floor all throughout the night. How it stayed on the rails, we can only guess they train was to be sent to Siberia if it derailed, I guess.

To this day, I remain a red,white, and blue anti-communist. Although, after that trip I was mostly black and blue.
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microbusss
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 Posted - August 10 2021 :  7:51:25 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add microbusss to Buddylist
had a teacher going to the USSR with a bunch of students from the school in Denver I went to in the 1980s & when he came back the 2nd time around alot of pictures were showing the same area he took the year before of Lenin & other Soviet Leaders on buildings etc & they were just flat out DISAPPEARING!
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toptrain
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 Posted - August 10 2021 :  7:57:11 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add toptrain to Buddylist
Jeff now that was a interesting tale. To bad your family had to live it.
frank

toptrain

" It's a Heck of a Day " !!!

Edited by - toptrain on August 10 2021 7:58:57 PM
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RP model railroads
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 Posted - August 10 2021 :  9:22:52 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add RP model railroads to Buddylist
You have quite an impressive memory, Chops, although the circumstances you described above were dismal at best. You certainly have a unique perspective of the USSR at that time in history - I can picture everything you mentioned, so vividly.

Just so you know, you aren't the only proud red-white&blue anti-communist on this forum.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16

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Chops124
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 Posted - August 11 2021 :  8:21:50 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Chops124 to Buddylist
That's interesting, Micro, so they were trying to pull down all that stuff
as fast as they could, sounds like. We were there maybe for a week,
as Dad was trying to find some stuff on the Cossacks that couldn't be
found anywhere else. So, it was just a foot note in my early years.
Got to see Neanderthal caves in Southern Spain, also, and that left me
fascinated for life. Yep, RP, I hear you!!
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microbusss
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tiger

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 Posted - August 12 2021 :  7:40:57 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add microbusss to Buddylist
quote:
That's interesting, Micro, so they were trying to pull down all that stuff
as fast as they could, sounds like.

Originally posted by Chops124 - August 11 2021 :  8:21:50 PM


you gotta remember all that was way before the USSR collapsed in 1991
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