I live in Jacksonville, FL and like to video freights, but the issue is I spend hours waiting for trains that sometimes never come. Is there any way to get some sort of schedule that shows the arriving and departing times of trains so I can plan my time more effectively? The main area I monitor is the track running along U.S. 90 east/west between Baldwin and downtown Jacksonville. I was thinking of purchasing a scanner and perhaps picking up the chatter that may help me determine when a train will be coming. Any suggestions? I appreciate your time.
A scanner is a big help, although I find it more useful in identifying trains as opposed to locating them. Of course, if you are about to give up on a spot and you hear the dispatcher advise there are four southbounds coming your way, it can be most useful! I have no “inside railroad sources” so I try to stake out an area numerous times so I can start to predict traffic patterns. Good luck-probably someone on here will be able to help out with info about this line. Jamie
I see you are new. Welcome. I don’t think a scanner will help you out if you do not know where you are and where the trains are running.
Try and find a map that shows the railroads and where they go to. Some maps are cheep. Look at the rails. If it is a main line then they should be well polished and have good clean ballast.
Ask around and if they work or live in the area they will have a good idea of when the trains come. Look out for unsafe areas. Ask a Cop if He or She thinks the area is safe. Have fun and build your hobby as you go along. scanners run at diferent prices and are not cheep. Stay active here at the Forum and ask questions. Good people will help you when they can. Look for ribbing, we are good at it.
OH…HAVE FUN
I frequent a nearby CSX line,have been doing so a for nearly a year,and in probably a dozen or so trips I’ve begun to figure out what the line does. The thing that helps is that everytime I go it’s on a wednesday.
So far I’ve learned that there’s one train that likes to come through a certain area along the route at around 10 AM. There are four northbound early-mid afternoon trains at ten minute intervals,and in the late afternoon there are a couple trains at half hour intervals. I still need to make another trip to really confirm the latter,but multiple trips to the same line will help you learn quickly.
Research on the line helps as well. If I sat out by my local railroad line(a short line) or the one just 15 minutes south of me(a tourist line)with zero knowledge of that line one day chances are I wouldn’t see much,if anything at all,and I’d be wondering about things myself.
May I add a couple of things? To echo the above post, state Highway Dept. (or Transporation Dept.) maps are usually free and frequently show RR lines. Also, if a line says “Amtk” it may really be Amtrak traveling over CSX; CSX is playing “host road” to use the term Amtrak does.
Unfortunately CSX is not the most forthcoming major RR company in terms of getting info out. I’ve never been able to score any kind of comprehensive CSX route map except for extremely inferior one(s) downloaded from their site thru .pdf. A really good route map is likely to be too expensive or too old for my taste; not that I’m trying to talk you out of online research.
For a railfan like me, CSX’ Annual Report is the least trains-oriented I’ve seen among the seven Class I’s and a couple of other indy-type lines; the corp. seems almost ashamed to admit it operates trains; the past several years have been really skewed toward plumping for about their truck line – and, strictly speaking, not intermodality as such. [If you want to see an Annual Report, IMHO the ones from BNSF and CP are quite good; they also happen to show a lot of photos of TRAINS!!!]
You’re in luck if your line has any passenger movement. Even if the Amtrak is off-schedule there may be a freight train or two (or more…) before or after Amtrak’s run. If not, you can try to help determine what mode of signaling the line you’re interested in is under (usually CTC, Automatic Block System [ABS], or “dark” [nothing at all.] Signals come fairly frequently; if you can go a mile either way with no signal nor any intervening conditions like a junction or an X-type “diamond,” your route is “dark” – lacking electric signals and generally a very lightly-traveled route. Why is this a good idea? Because different signals mean dif
PS: It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that you should NOT take any photos while standing on any CSX property or right-of-way (ROW). But if you’re in public space, shoot away but don’t shoot makeable images of people – not right now, anyway. a.s.
Try this for schedules. Trains may run ahead or behind schedule.
You’re only 40 or so miles from Folkston and its “funnel”. Find those lines and you’ll have plenty of subjects to shoot, especially on the line south of Folkston. I didn’t spend enough time there to scout anything out, so you’re on your own in that respect.
A scanner is a good thing to have when you are out railfanning because most of the CSX train crews call signals and there are wayside detectors on most main lines. If you hear a train calling signals loud and clear on your scanner then you know a train may be close. The same applies to wayside detectors. Scanners also provide information about what’s going on from the dispatcher. For example, a maintainence supervisor may ask for track and time. The dispatcher might tell the maintainence supervisor that several trains are lined up to pass his location and then he can have the line from and until a certain time - a work window- because no other trains are expected during that work window. That tells you it might be better to go somewhere else during that work window, or just quit for the day depending on the length of the work window.
[#ditto]! A great point! Downtown Folkston, GA, where the train-watching location is situated, is usu. no more than an hour’s drive from the JAX airport.
Also, Rudy, I totally agree with you about scanners. I’d advise anyone in the new guy’s situation not to rush out and commit to even the best hand-held scanner unless that person specifically needed a scanner for other uses – and even then I for one would hesitate to purchase a hand-held.
In railfanning my overall impression is that people who use scanners are not the majority of railfans; and those who do use scanners, use big-sized models, more tabletop than pocket radio in format. Also they tend to have (or need) dedicated places to site and power them (a car specially equipped, for example).
Not only do the scanner owners tend to know a lot more than the average bear about the science and uses of radio transmission/reception, they almost always have already found out the RR co. scanning frequencies. Which, at least in the beginning, are slow and cumbersome to load. (Scanning the police and other public bands is way easy by comparison because “Betty Bearcat” and the folks from Radio Shack are programming the units for the majority of their consumers, not us railfans.) Also, I’m seeing some really long “whip” antennas.
Consider also that a growing number of train-watching sites like the Folkston Funnel viewing stand or Rochelle, Illinois’ Railroad Park, have their own pre-tuned scanners built in.
Best of luck