Just wondering if anybody lives near the ROW? Can you sit out on your patio or deck and watch the trains go by, or work on your computer and see the trains going by? How many trains a day are going by in your area? Our good friends live along the C&M and the tracks are literally in their back yard, usually they see 20some trains a day plus Amtrak.
Hi!
I am about 2 miles from a ROW (UP), but spent my childhood summers at my grandmother’s in Anna Illinois (about 50 miles from Cairo) and she was right across the road from the IC racetrack. There were two mains, one passing siding, and one freight siding - 4 tracks in all with frequent multi train activity.
This was in the '50s, and the traffic was the IC name streamliners and long freights. Motive power was the E units for the passengers, and either steam or GPs for the freight. As I recall, steam was quite common thru 1957, and all I can say is WOW!
The City of New Orleans and some of the other passenger trains did not stop at Anna, and went by the house at a high rate of speed.
Oh, and there is nothing comparable to hearing that “woooo, woooo, woo, wooooooo” in the middle of the night, and eventually hearing the roar of a long steam powered freight rumbling by. The sights, smells, and sounds of all this is still in my memories after all these years.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
3 miles east of the ex-GN (now BNSF) Hinckley Sub. If your friends were outside this past Friday, they may have seen me whiz-by on the 8:05 AM Hiawatha to Chicago.
I live across the street from the BNSF Chicago to Aurora main line.
Not counting the 96 METRA trains, and 6 Amtrak’s a day, there are anywhere between 30-50 freight trains per day.
It’s alot of fun, really, but there are times when noise gets to be a bit much…
This thread reminds me of just how much I wish that I lived closer to the tracks.
Currently I live within 5 miles of the nearest railroad right-of-way, the southern end of the Seminole Gulf Railway which has had ZERO traffic for years now and even when it was in use it was barely used at all. I could catch some action 40 miles north in Fort Myers but it’s SO hit-or-miss and usually late at night and junk freight. When I railfan I usually drive 100 miles east to the Fort Lauderdale area, but South Florida rail traffic isn’t nearly as heavy as it is in Central Florida and further north. If I had a few thousand dollars I’d pick up and move but as it stands I just cannot afford to. I’m thinking maybe Jacksonville some day.
We live less than a ¼ mile from the CSX [St Louis-Indy] tracks and watch 20 to 25 trains go by from the train room or back yard most days.
inch
Not right by but I go past it or use it several times a day. About a 15 minute walk.
I live about 1/4 of a mile south of CSX’s Garrett Sub. During the winter I can sit on the computer in my office and see all the action, about 60 trains a day. Too many leaves in the summer though[tdn]
I live a few hundred yards from what was the Maine Central Rockland Branch, now owned by the State of Maine and operated by Maine Eastern, a subsidiary of the Morristown and Erie. Traffic during the summer when the excursion service is running is maybe eight trains per day (including the freights). The best part is that most trains are pulled by Maine Eastern’s FL9’s - former New Haven units operated by Conrail and then sold to Morristown and Erie.
60? I had no idea that there’s that much traffic on the Garrett Sub. Wow!!!
We live about 500 yards from the Buckingham Branch’s Doswell(Richmond)-Charlottesville-Clifton Forge, VA line. We will see 10-12 empty coal trains per day going back to WV, a few empty feed trains per week and an occasional empty sulphur train going back to Alberta. Tne Cardinal runs three times a week often meeting just west of us in beautiful downtown Crozet, VA. As I write this an empty coal train is rumbling past.
Not near enough–I hear plenty but can see nothing from here, 0.62 miles away. We have UP West’s regular schedule of Metra scoots, and probably about 60-80 freights a day.
We’ve got this friend, though, that merely has to stand on her front porch. She may get more freights than we do, but has to make do with one Amtrak round trip, usually in the wee hours. Driveway and not much lawn are all that intervenes between house and right-of-way.
I have now proven that the trains of three different railroads running within 100 feet of me at track speed have no effect whatsoever on my ability to sleep, if I need to. They don’t faze my wife, either.
In my early railfan years I lived less than 150 feet from the Santa Fe Surf Line at El Toro, CA. Today I’m less than a mile from the diamond at Grand Junction, ID, where BNSF’s Coeur d’Alene Branch crosses UP’s ex-SI main line, and just a few miles from BNSF’s doubletracked “Funnel.” One of the things that convinced me to buy our house 11 years ago was when we looked out our bedroom or kitchen windows you could see trains on all three routes, and more than once I’ve actually witnessed moments when the BN local was stopped at the diamond as a UP passed and two BNSFs were making a running meet in the distance. Trees have grown thicker over the years, and dozens of new rooftops now filter the view of the branch, but the sights and sounds are still there.
I was raised 1/2 block from a Penn Central ROW, that is what got me hooked. I now live a few miles from that same line, now NS, and I get depressed every time I let my dog out and hear that air horn.
I live about 3/4 of a mile from the NS Harrisburg line. With about 30 or so trains a day. To far to see anything, but I can hear them.
Nick
I used to live across the street from railroad I worked for. Now I live a mile away from the main line, up on a ridge several hundred feet above it, and at night the sound of the locomotives and the air horns echoes wonderfully from the hills.
RWM
Literally close enough to hit it with a rock. Less than a dozen trains a day though.
By my old house I could look out the window when there was no leaves on the trees and see the Union Pacific heading North to Milwaukee. Now I can just hear the trains off in the distance. Also can hear the UP on the Kenosha sub which is about 2-3 miles from my house.
I live about a block south of the UP Geneva sub. There are a few evergreen bushes next to the track so I can only see the top half of the trains, unless I’m watching from the second floor. I’m quite a ways from a grade crossing so whistle noise is soft when I hear it (if at all in DeKalb anymore). The nice thing is that I can be soothed to sleep with the sound of a couple of engines on a long coal train powering its way out of the Kishwaukee River “valley”.
Litterally a stones throw from the NS Fort Wayne to Cincinnati Main. Not as busy after the Conrail split, but still up to 20 on a good day.