I ask of curiousity but what are the kind of trains you like to watch?
I like the mixed or general frieghts due to the variety of railcars involved.
The one I like least is potash runs especially Canpotex. Over 100 railcars usually. Every one looks exactly alike. Boring to beat hell.
I also like the general merchandise freights for the same reasons followed by the HOT intermodals then the Amtrak trains with unusual power units and/or private cars…everything else pales by comparison.
If’n ah had muh druthers, ah’d be watchin’ big steam freights. But given that they are few and far between, I settle for freights being pulled by Dismals and let my mind substitute what SHOULD be on the head-end.
I wonder about this, Semper, because the steam locomotive is an obsolete technology and has been for many years. After all, no one talks about horse cars or the wind driven cars the B&O tries. Yet for all of that I agree with you and I share your feelings.
John
You are running in the wrong circles if you don’t know anyone that talks about horse cars or wind driven cars on the B&O. I have been in a discussion about both of those just last week! [8D]
It has been a long time since big steam freights were common and back then I was more interested in Tinker Toys so didn’t pay much attention. But I did see one in the mid 90’s when the U.P. 844 came back from a Historical Society convention in Chicago. I figured it would be hauling the same passenger cars it drug East the week before, but was happily surprised to see a short train if mixed freight cars behind it, instead. I was so surprised that I inadvertantly aimed my video camera at the ground while it went by and got no personal record of it, except in my mind. SUBLIME! (and look that word up in the dictionary to really understand what that means!)
Anything Passinger is my least favourite.
My favorites would be suburban trains, premium intermodals and 10,000 tons of coal. As far as others, there hasn’t been a train I didn’t like.
Favorite trains:
Any steam
Anything with E or F units
CSX Q010 (hot UPS train)
General merchandise trains
Least favorite:
Auto rack trains
baretable intermodal trains
Metra trains running with power at the rear.
Ed
i like them all. moving or not. i have never seen a railcar or train i did not like!!!
When I’m out and about, any train is welcome, at least until I know the lay of the land, as it were.
At home, I will not wait around if I know that the train lined up is a Metra scoot. They operate close enough to their schedules that I can get away with that.
My priorities with freight trains, as a freight-car freak, depends on what I’m looking for. I like manifest trains for the variety and the fact that just about anything can happen by on one of them. Never mind the fact that usually they carry the same mix of cars that enables me to make an educated guess about which train it is or where it’s going.
Having said that, I was somewhat dismissive of the monotonous consists of coal trains, stack trains, and auto racks. But lately I’ve had to watch them, too: some coal consists have the gons with double-rotary ends, and Umler doesn’t always tell us which cars they are. My computer files should. Stack trains, I’m currently on the lookout for some recently-rebuilt five-packs (with 40-foot wells) in the KCSM 89100 series…a couple hundred of these should be out and about soon, if not already. They’re old BNSF and SP cars that were shortened from their original 48-foot wells. And auto racks? I’m still hoping to catch a build date off those WRWK 300000-series cars with the KCS 125th-anniversary logos (I’m pretty sure they’re new), and there are some new Auto-Max cars with the same logo and KCSM reporting marks out there. Unit trains of crude oil or ethanol can be interesting when they contain new cars (most of the crude tank cars were built fairly recently) or cars with logos on them (much more common on the ethanol
I don’t have a particular favorite type of train. I suppose, if I had to choose, I would say any train on any railroad other than UP. Only because I see UP trains everyday.
My least favorite? That’s easy. A slow train (any railroad, any type) that’s going over the crossing between me and the rest room at the convenience store on the other side of the tracks. And in that instance, all trains seem to be slow ones.
Jeff
I’ve seen the KCS racks with WRWK reporting marks as well. Aren’t the WRWK marks for the Warwick Railway or railroad I don’t remember which. Why is KCS using them? Count me among those who like general merchendise trains as well, again simply for the variety of car types. There is no such thing as bad train in my opinion though.
My favorite is a train that is in yard limits and running about 10 mph. I have time to observe each car and just soak in the view.
WRWK reporting marks are assigned to the Providence & Worcester Railroad Company, but I believe that these reporting marks are used by a major lessor of freight cars (General American) to operate some of their cars for the purpose of collecting per diem revenue (cars with private-company reporting marks collect only mileage). It may be that only the racks are owned by KCS.
(For the record, the KCSM stack cars that I mentioned carried WRWK reporting marks for a brief time, with the same numbers as they had carried for SP and BNSF. This may have been only on paper, as I’ve never seen a WRWK stack car.)
Carl, how can a non-railroad get away with using railroad reporting marks? I can see why it would want to collect per diem and not mileage payments, since it will collect even it a car sits idle.
I like seeing freight trains (and I seldom see them now), but I really prefer seeing passenger trains from the inside.
Passenger trains from the inside, freights from the outside, I’ll go along with that. I’ve been on a lot of steam excursions in Britain over the last few years and yeah riding behind, say , the Tornado is pretty awesome. But I did see from lineside at the Great Central Railway, a demonstration of a mailbag pickup at 40 MPH. I don’t recall the exact type of loco, but it was a ten-wheeler from the LMS and painted dark red. That was without a doubt, a train worth watching!
I like merchandise freights and locals the best, least favorite are the garbage trains from New Jersey, especially around July and August, not pleasant in the least, but it does help pay the bills for the railroads and keep many miles of track active in the Northeast.
JIm
[quote user=“CShaveRR”]
When I’m out and about, any train is welcome, at least until I know the lay of the land, as it were.
At home, I will not wait around if I know that the train lined up is a Metra scoot. They operate close enough to their schedules that I can get away with that.
My priorities with freight trains, as a freight-car freak, depends on what I’m looking for. I like manifest trains for the variety and the fact that just about anything can happen by on one of them. Never mind the fact that usually they carry the same mix of cars that enables me to make an educated guess about which train it is or where it’s going.
Having said that, I was somewhat dismissive of the monotonous consists of coal trains, stack trains, and auto racks. But lately I’ve had to watch them, too: some coal consists have the gons with double-rotary ends, and Umler doesn’t always tell us which cars they are. My computer files should. Stack trains, I’m currently on the lookout for some recently-rebuilt five-packs (with 40-foot wells) in the KCSM 89100 series…a couple hundred of these should be out and about soon, if not already. They’re old BNSF and SP cars that were shortened from their original 48-foot wells. And auto racks? I’m still hoping to catch a build date off those WRWK 300000-series cars with the KCS 125th-anniversary logos (I’m pretty sure they’re new), and there are some new Auto-Max cars with the same logo and KCSM reporting marks out there. Unit trains of crude oil or ethanol can be interesting when they contain new cars (most of the crude tank cars were built fairly recently) or cars with l
If you lived where I do, you’d love seeing a passenger train. The occasional special business or excursion on the NS S line (Asheville-Salisbury) gets a lot of lookers. We still hold out hope for renewed passenger service on that line. It’s been promised by NCDOT for two decades but always seems to be pushed back. Now a real thrill would be a passenger train on the CSX Clinchfield line. I long for the Crescent, just once, to be detoured from Spartanburg to Marion on CSX and on over to Salisbury on NS. Just once. I’d be happier than mouse in a cheese factory!
favorites: intermodal
least favorites coal empty