I didn’t say it WOULD DEFINITELY be fun, I just said it CAN be fun. Met a gentleman while waiting for the 611 who was retired from NS and we had a very nice conversation while waiting. He also had one of the most pronounced southern drawls I have ever heard, which truly put the “southern” into the event (in Virginia at the time).
But yes, your mileage may vary.
I’m planning on just finding a random country crossing without too much foam on the ground. A few foamers can be entertaining, too many are obnoxious.
The other issue, is if you fine a road parallel to the main (there’s a few if you look at maps), there’s a lot of trees and vegetation along the ROW that hasn’t been trimmed back in many years. Getting clear shots at anything other than xings, is very challenging.
The “tree canyon” problem is getting very real. With the codelines gone and wildlife advocates’ success in stopping mowing along the ROW’s, the brush, trees, and tall grass are filling in at an alarming rate. Pretty soon drones won’t be an option for the active railfan, but a vital necessity.
Wildlife advocates?
More like wallet advocates.
Trying to be polite.
More cost cutting?
I know that I’m going to get flamed for this, but here goes… I found 4014 to be underwhelming, through no fault of its own. When you have a locomotive with that much power pulling a relatively light consist at 30mph, it just loafs along. You don’t feel the energy like you do with 2102 or 1309 on a grade.
I was watching the Fostoria stuff online.
I had the youtube chat running next to the video.
A few things:
People on the chat freak out about the people close to the tracks. Many there are not railfans, and with no actual barriers put up, yeah, people are going to get close to the tracks.
A lot of people put coins on the track. Full gown adults, too. I can see a kid thinking it’s cool, but adults? I don’t get it. Guess it really doesn’t hurt anybody, so whatever.
A few (mostly younger) railfans wearing their “RRer” hi-viz vests. Sorry, but you look cringe. I can even forgive it if you’re on the side of an active road, but c’mon… those vests are hot and annoying.
Two more well knows (I hate to use the term famous) railfan youtube content creators were in the chat. The amount of people acting like rabbid fans talking to them? Calm down people, they aren’t that famous.
To each his own. Since it seemed effortless, it displayed more energy in my opinion than a locomotive struggling to manage the load of 12 passenger cars plus two additional tenders.
It is difficult to understand any machine until you have had the opportunity to witness or control it at the maximum’s of its ability - be that a race car or a railroad locomotive - any machine that has variable, controlled performance.
Working as a Train Order Operator, until I worked Bakerstown, PA I had never really seen a train being operated at the maximum ability of the locomotives to move the load assigned climbing Bakerstown Hill. Later I my career I was tasked with riding a train known as the Detroiter from New Castle to Akron - The SD40 was a new locomotive and the 100 nominally empty auto parts cars of the Detroiter had a single SD40. Except for making the statutory stop at Center St. at Haselton, the throttle was in the 8th notch for the entire trip and the maximum speed attained was 28 MPH. By a strict reading of the tonnage chart for the territory, the single engine was overloaded for Akron Hill, however, account of the length of the train, when the head end crested the hill there was still several hundred feet of train shoving down on the remainder of the train
UP has had various engines through multiple times with no problems. This urgency concerning danger seems to be a wet blanket.
Acting like this is their first rodeo.
We shall see
All doom and gloom. That’s a change.
My favorite UP steam locomotive is 844, which is a Northern 4-8-4 built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in 1944. Many many moons ago I was able to ride a fan trip train pulled by it from Denver to Sterling, CO and back.
From Denver to Sterling it seemed like the train stopped every couple of miles for a run by. Nearly everyone would get off the train. It would back down the line, preferably around a curve, and then come roaring by so the camera bugs could get their pictures. After stopping, it would back down slowly and stop so we could get back on board for the next run by.
On the run back to Denver from Sterling, there were no stops. I believe the engineer was Stephen Lee. In any case, he opened her up, and we hit at least 79 mph for a good portion of the run.
The child in the stroller is probably scarred for life. This big whirring machine comes blasting past in less than a foot or two from it’s face… I doubt any child that small would enjoy that feeling.
When I was a teen I rode in a gondola behind CB&Q 5632 also a 4-8-4, (unfortunately scrapped). It did the same run by, but only twice at the state park where we all got out for lunch while the engine was turned for the return to Chicago Union Station.
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