Everyone of us have our stories of the extremes and challenges we go through to enjoy our “unorthodox” hobby. It could be bitter cold, blazing heat, storms, wind, rain, heavy foliage, bad road, no road, snakes, police, crazy people, bad food, lack of sleep, no sleep, no scanner, no train, ect. We take a beatin’. My question is what is the most extreme moment YOU have subjected yourselves to just to see a train?
Here’s mine:
A few years ago, working the night shift. Got off work, slept for 2.5 hours, threw an ice cold pop tart down my gullet and headed back out. Drove to Louisville, KY an hour and a half away to catch the morning rush. Hot!! already!! Caught some good action on CSX, NS, PAL and the L&I turn crossing the drawbridge over the Ohio river into Indiana. Got back to Lexington early that afternoon. Hot, hungry, thirsty, and very tired. This may be kid stuff to some of you true foamers, but for me…man, that was intense!
20 below, train watching, got hit by a blizzard. Was in Green River for a class and I saw somtihng new in the yard, so I went down and started walking around the bridge down there, and in a matter of a couple minutes it was a whiteout and no sign of letting up. Got snowed in Green River for the night. Good thing i have lots of friends over there!
I’d say it was two and a half years ago…the depths of february. -50c with wind chill. I sat in a lawn chair by the railway line for a couple hours while snow from the blizzard swirled around my feet and collected until I was buried nearly to my knees. Only saw one train…but that was the last time I saw a pure consist of SD40-2s up close. [:(]
When I have grandchildren, the only thing I’ll need to put in is the [2c] 12" sub, and the ‘fact’ that I walked home. Which isn’t that unrealistic, but for the record, it WAS uphill!
I had the sun in my eyes one time. Got a little wet when the window was rolled down and it started raining. Had a fly bite me once. They really like The Driver’s legs!
The very HOT weather. And what’s worse…Rain. Plus. You drive 75 to a hundred mile to go Railfanning on the UP or BNSF just find out there is Track work that has the line compleatly shut down. Now that sucks. You drive all that way for what?
Drove though miserable rain from Philly with a lousy forecast for a weekend in Altoona. Clouds stayed to the east all weekend. It was sunny in Cresson.
it was 1:00 AM and storming hard. i was in Altoona in the rain waiting patiently. 12 minutes pass and i saw the light down the tracks. yes, the CNW duo had arrived on schedule. i did too much for those 2 locomotives that night.
I was once asked a specific question about some brand-new tank cars I’d reported on. Something that could only be answered by visual observation. Sooo, I got on my trusty bicycle and went from Lombard to East Chicago, Indiana, and return, with rest stops at LaGrange, Blue Island and Dolton [;)]. It took most of the day, but that was probably the most productive 100-mile round trip I ever did.
On an even crazier note, I was taking “vestibule shots” on GTW’s International one morning in 1970, coming down from Michigan to Chicago on a railfanning trip (in less than a year, Chicagoland would be home to me, but I didn’t know that then!). Every so often, I’d feel a little spray on my face and arms. I didn’t realize what it was until far, far too late. And I had to endure the grimy visage for most of the rest of the day.[xx(]
Well, just a bit over 30 years ago I drove to Sayre PA for a prearranged visit to the LVRR shops.On the big day it was cold and snowing like crazy. I set out into that [censored] and slid around from my home in Kenmore (just north of Mudville…oops Buffalo) to Dansville where the snow stopped and a bank sign showed -10 degrees! The best was yet to come, though, Sayre was a balmy 0! It was kinda chilly on the foot bridge looking at GP38-2s, U23Bs, RS2s, C420s, SW8s and C628s. Outside the shops in the dead line were more C628s, SW8s,SW1s and an NW2. All of the dead power was returned to service a few months later by Conrail. That afternoon my companions and I drove back to Mudville, er Buffalo along the Erie main seeing quite a show, five westbounds, two eastbounds, all with SD45s, or SDP45s. Then at Hornell, light fading we looked at a dead line of E-L F3s and F7s. They, too would return to work under Conrail. The temp there was a crisp -10! The rest of the drive back was in a whiteout from Portageville on, but a bank in Warsaw said it was a balmy 9 above!
At the other extreme was a June day at the first Albany-Rennsselaer station where Amtrak’s “flying squads” were fighting with 25- 30 year old FL9s in 100 degree heat with 80% humidity. I am somewhat lucky in that I haven’t had to endure heat like that doing what I gotta do! They got their jobs done, though and the trains ran closer to schedule than they do now!
Then there was the time I went out on a very frosty cold morning to chase the WSOR HM: http://www.fuzzyworld3.com/pictures3/railroad/tc11/da.html (and following)
BRRR!!! I had to retreat to the car several times to defrost my fingers and toes!!!
And when the train crews see us out in the extreme conditions mentioned, they probably say, “Look at those FRN’s out here in this weather just to watch a train!”
Which is why, whether they like it or not, I always give them a big smile and wave.
A couple of weeks after heart surgery, I needed to return to the surgeon for a check-up and removal of about a foot of stiches. I noticed that the doctor’s appointment was just the day after UP844 (then UP8444)was schedule for a publicity run through Pocatello ID. So I decided to travel a day early and see the train. The catch was, that I was not yet cleared for driving. So I asked my wife if she would drive - with the promise of spending the night at her parent’s.
A beutiful June day dawned and we were off to McCammon. We found a good parking spot in a long horseshoe curve and waited. Of course the train was late by a couple of hours and waiting in the hot sun gave my wife a migraine headache. Finally the train came - paralleled by all the crazy railfan drivers in the area. I did not get one clear picture without an idiot driver in it - but we saw the engine.
However, by then the headache had progressed to the point of causing my wife visual disturbances - so she couldn’t drive either. I carefully squeezed behind the steering wheel and painfully drove to Salt Lake for the appointment. The next day the doctor chewed me out for driving - but I saw UP8444 at speed with the full UP business train following around a horeshoe curve. It was worth the pain.
dd
ps - I lost the photos in a move so all I have left are the memories. It was still worth it.
Bwah ha ha - good topic. I decided to camp out near Horseshoe Curve one February day in 1999. After work I packed up my mountain bike, tent, sleeping bag, stove, ramen noodles, camera and thermals and headed out to Gallitzin. Once there, I parked my car, loaded up my gear and rode downgrade along the CR main until I came to Benny Curve. I cyclo-hiked up the bluffs where I set up camp whilst the sun was setting. There I got the audio show of a lifetime as train after train roared past my perch which was a mere 5-6 feet above the top of the trains. Needless to say, it was a pretty sleepless night. Add to it the 15-20° temps, frozen toes and fingers the next morning, and a light dusting of snow…but I survived, warming myself by my puny camp stove. Later that morning I continued downgrade to MG tower, where after a couple hours I called it a day, rode down an access road and back up to Gallitzin. I bet not many people experience “The Curve” environs like that
There can be quite a wide variance in weather up there! And in February it can be pretty intense one moment, then depending on the wind, if can get worse or even worse! Now one cannot go up there since the curve is closed and NS is happy about that. They’d love to close the curve outright but that will take a classic Darwinian act by some foamer![V]
Two yeasr ago I was spending thanksgiving with my roommates family. He lived along the ex-NYC water level route in NW Ohio. I spend tow hours at the pavilion in the park next to the tracks in 30 degree snowing weather. They trains came so frequently I rarely had my gloves on (They were too thick to write with). By the time i walked to a gas station for some hot chocolate I could barely close my hand enough to hold the pen.
OK. You win! Camping out on the HSC is nuts (I’ve done that). Camping out in the winter on the HSC is insane. Camping out in the winter, alone, in the snow, hiking/biking in, is completely over the edge.