I was woundering. Do you Guys and Gals like Trains at Main line Track speed? Or do you like Slow Trains? Or both? I just love high speed Trains. Allan.
There is something to be said for standing trackside as an SDP40 blows by at 79 per. On the other hand, there is something to be said for standing trackside trying to keep track of how many cars there are in that coal drag trundling by (was that 49, or 50?).
We have a gentleman who occasionally visits the our station because he likes to experience the ground vibrations of the engine going by, including during runaround movements.
As someone’s sig says - If it’s trains, I like it.
I like em’ all. But there is something to be said for a doublestacker flying by at 70+.
I kind of like slower trains. 30mph is a good speed to watch as you can actualy see the details and notice stuff but still fast enough to make some wind and noise.
At high speed it all becomes a blur.
I love watching heavy power at full throttle hauling heavy trains at slow speed on a grade.
I like all kinds of trains fast moving ones like amtrak trains and and others like. Fast movin frieght trains espeacially when someone is held up at a crossing but anywho. I think no matter what all trains are cool to watch and even are cooler when you get to ride on them. But everyone is has there own opion on what trains they like to see from fast moving ones to slow long coal drags and other kinds of trains.
I like it when they stand still. Then you can take really long exposures of them at night!
[:P][:P][:P]
Depends… I like the high speed ones, and try to set up a shot that reflects that speed (Like an Amtrak with a plume of snow behind it in the winter, or a double stacker running off the prairie on a summer day with a plume of dust…) Slow speed trains are nice too, because I can take my time, frame my shot, and then take it. When the stacker is moving at 60-70+ getting that shot becomes a bit tougher… but , it’s fun all the same.
I live in S.D. The fast trains really aren’t an option.
I like trains, PERIOD, any kind, any speed, any color, anywhere.
When researching freight cars, I find that the slower they’re moving, the better (stopped, with me moving at will, is best!). But just for the thrill of train-watching, fast is great. We stayed at the Knox Station B&B near Galesburg before they quit business, and the trains on the former ATSF blew by there at around 70 nearly all the time. And we were treated to more of the same right outside our hotel room in DeKalb last May. Yes, the UP can move them when it wants to!
http://www.raymondloewy.com/about/quotesby.html
A couple of years ago, I did an art project about Raymond Loewy, and found these quotes on the Official Raymond Loewy website to be pretty insightful:
“… I waited for the S-1 to pass through at full speed. I stood on the platform and saw it coming from the distance at 120 miles per hour. It flashed by me like a steel thunderbolt, the ground shaking under me, in a blast of air that almost sucked me into its whirlwind. Approximately a million pounds of locomotive were crashing through near me. I felt shaken and overwhelmed by an unforgettable feeling of power, by a sense of pride at what I had helped to create… I had, after all, contributed something to a great nation that had taken me in and that I loved so deeply. And I had come a long, happy way myself from my start in fashion advertising. I had found my way of life.”
"Standing somewhere between New York and Philadelphia, I don’t know where, and seeing that engine come at high speed, shaking the ground. It was a thrill, unforgettable. There are great the great moments in a man’s life…" [this one in reference to the GG-1 of the PRR]
All trains, regardless of speed are fine with me, but there is something really cool about seeing a train blast by at 70 mph. If I had to choose my favorite speed it would be about 40 mph. Fast enough for a thrill, but slow enough to see some of the details of the cars, etc.
The sensations presented by the Panama Limted flying through Central Illinois at 100 MPH + are a unique experience…headlight visable on the horizon…rapidly approaching…a swirl of brown, orange, dust and sound…Observation Car fading quickly into the distance.
The sensations presented by a tonnage train, engines in the 8th notch, pulling for all they are worth assending the grade at the minimum continuous speed (normally 10-12 MPH dependent upon gearing)…the thunder as the engines pass…the groans and creeks of the cars from the strains of their movements against gravity…the quickening sound of the cars as the locomotives have crested the grade and are starting to pull down hill…sounds of quicker and quicker movement as more of the tonnage crests the grade and begins to use the trains own gravity to increas speed on the downhill side…shortly the rear end helper engines come into view…still shoving in the 8th notch until they too crest the grade and cut off on the fly and then begin their return to the base of the grade to assist another tonnage train.
The sensations are unique but identical…THEY ARE RAILROADING!
“The sensations presented by the Panama Limted flying through Central Illinois at 100 MPH + are a unique experience…headlight visable on the horizon…rapidly approaching…a swirl of brown, orange, dust and sound…Observation Car fading quickly into the distance.”
[#ditto]
Double Tracked " Mainline of Mid America" Flying low through the dark of the Mississippi Delta, and South Mississippi, “doing a dollar bill,” heading to Mardi Gras; sucking the trash outa the ditch on both sides of the right of way, and exactly as you said about the an orange and brown and yellow streak! [:)][:)][:)]
Amtrak could really take some lessons from those railroaders. Those were IC trains, on IC tracks and they were scheduled, and expected to be ON TIME!
I grew up around a slow train. Out one day, back the next local. We were probably the busiest town on the line as far as switching and-looking back-I’m sure it wasn’t much. Still it’s a pleasant memory to recall watching anywhere from 30-50 cars of mostly pulpwood roll by slowly enough that you could stand close and really watch them go by. Fast trains were a treat that came with visits to relatives in Illinois. Mostly, watching the C&NW’s Northwest line commuter trains (I only remember seeing one freight) but the big fun was visiting my grandmother along the old Wabash (by then the N&W) Chicago-Decatur main. We’d listen for trains as far off as possible and then try to run to the tracks to see them go by, usually catching the last half. One time we lucked out and happened to be along the track when we saw one in the distance and caught the whole thing blasting by. Awesome to a teenager.
Ah, the good old days when parents knew you were safe when you were down at the tracks watching trains, not worried about it.
I like high speed when I’m riding one, especially the Shinkansen which feels like flying at ground level. Any small undulation in the track (over a bridge for example) tickles your innards like a plane hitting turbulence. When you pass through a tunnel (“slam into a tunnel” is a more accurate description), the windows bow in and your ears pop! It is thrilling. Same goes for the TGV and the ICE
When I’m chasing a train, I beg for it to slow down. When I reach my photo spot, I want full on power! My best memories growing up were lashups of Chessie SD40s and GP40s thundering out of East Salamanca’s (NY) yard, lugging endless strings of coal hoppers. When the noise rattles your ribcage, it’s just right IMO [:)]
Fast trains are fine when I’m sitting in one spot – which I rarely do. I prefer to “hunt” for trains, and that usually requires them to go slow (though I’ve had a few good chases of faster trains).
FWIW, I got some great shots yesterday of a UP local with a LLPX unit…
LLPX 2205 on the Marsh Job
A high speed train is a thrill as it roars by, but its tougher to photograph. However I did have fun pacining a pair of GP38-2s at 50MPH last month[:D] For photgraphy, slower speeds (less than 20) are best. Which is one reason I love to watch switching- nothing ever gets going too fast, and often they’ll throttle up to run 8 for a few seconds grin.
I like em’ all, but I am kind of partial to trains moving out of yards and getting a chance to hear the locmotives pulling hard.
I live 250 miles from the nearest trains. On the rare occasion that I do get to the mainland to see a train, I want a nice slow train so that I can savor the moment. What I really miss is the sound of a far off train, late at night, when all is still.