I would like to ask all of you where your favourite railfanning locations are. These locations can be in North America, or anywhere else. First I just wanted to ask for North American locations only but we all travel and it would be great to know where there are great locations in other countries to watch trains as well.
Here are my locations:
The first location is south of Parry Sound Ontario. It is on the Bala sub from CN. At this location all the trains from Toronto that go to the Canada’s western provinces pass through from both CP and CN. The directions on how to get there are as follows: To get there drive up the 400 highway out of Toronto until about 15 km south of Parry Sound when you will come up to exit 217 which is for “Oastler Park Dr”. Follow this road until you see a sign for a road by the name of “James Bay Jct North” which is to the west. Follow this road, after about 1 km you will see the tracks, after about another km you will see on the west side of the road a little parking area with a concrete block retaining wall and a silver lineside building. You found the location.
If you have GPS just punch in W79.99058 and N45.31806.
The next location is Guelph Junction just north of Campbelville. The directions on how to get there are as follows: Head west out of Toronto on the 401 until you see a sign for Campbelville. Take the exit and as you enter the town there is only one set of street lights which represents the main intersection. You can either go straight through the lights and there will be a park to the right of where the road crosses the tracks- great for watching the trains tackling the 2.2% grade, or you can turn right at the lights-west-and follow Campbelville Ave west. As you head west you will cross the double tracks again going out of town. Keep driving until just before you head a S bend in the road, there is Guelph Jun
One of my favorite railfanning locations in the US is Point of Rocks, MD. You want to go there in the late afternoon-early evening when the west end of the station is well lighted. To get there from Rockville take MD 355, Frederick Road, to Gude Drive. Turn left on Gude Drive, and follow it to Shady Grove Road. When you cross Shady Grove Road Gude Drive becomes Key West Avenue. follow Key West avenue to darnestown road which is MD 28. follow MD 28 to Point of Rocks, and park on MD 28 because there is very little parking available in the MARC lot west of the station. The main attraction is the Point of Rocks station which has a cupola on its roof, and it sits on the north side of the Mdetropolitan Subdivision tracks. Point of Rocks is the junction between the Old Main Line and the Metropolitan Subdivisions where the Old Main Line tracks go to the north side of the station.
Another favorite photo location in the US is Shepherdstown, WV.This where the Norfolk Southern crosses the Potomac River on a long, high bridge. The best time to photograph this bridge is in the afternoon, and there are two vantage points for photography, one of which is on the south side of the river in Shepherdstown. The first location is the james Rumsey Monument Park in Shepherdstown on the south bank of the Potomac River.Unfortunately the trees along the river bank are growing up enough to block the view of the bridge from the elevated art of the Rumsey Monument. To reach Shepherdstown and the monument from Rock ville take I 270 to I 70 just west of Frederick, MD. Drive on I 270 to exit 29 South MD 65 Take MD 65 to Sharpsburg, MD passing the Antietam battlefield on the way. Turn right on MD 34 in Sharpsburg and continue to the potomac River Bridge in Shepherdstown. MD 34 becomes WV 480 in Shepherdstown. Continue of WV 480 to the first stop sign, a 4 way stop sign, at German Street. Turn left on German Street and drive to High Street which is the last street before crossing
One of the best places in Europe is in Munich. There is a bridge over the station approach just west of the main terminal; here is a platform obviously located there for photographers. Every time I’m there, there are people from the English-speaking world and at any one time there are trains of all types in motion. Another good spot is the upper level above the Munich station concourse in the evening when the sleeper trains depart. I was there last July with a non-railfan friend and he was impressed! Plus you can get a cold beer there too. I normally stay at the Deutsher Kaiser Hotel across the street and I always request a room facing the station and they are always happy to oblige. Another great place is the Harz Narrow Gauge locomotive service area at Wernigerode; here is a second-story platform overlooking the turntable and sheds where you can watch the meter-gauge 2-10-2s be serviced.
thank you very much for the replies. Shepherdstown and Point of Rocks sound like great places to railfan. Also thank you for the great description as to how to get there. I plan on making trips to the USA and am very interested in locations to go watch trains there so the great descriptions on how to get there are wonderful.
Next year there will be a trip to Germany, Munich is only about 9 hours drive from where I am from and Essen is a lot closer yet. So will definitely have to go there. The Harz is within a hours drive from where I was born and seeing those 2-10-2’s will probably bring back many memories from seeing the steam in the mid 70’s running under catenary.
My favourite place is Willingdon Junction in Burnaby B.C. On a good day one can watch BNSF, if they still go through there, many Canadian National trains hauling their own rolling stock and Canadian Pacific to port facilities, VIA and Amtrak.
Funny that you would mention Parry Sound and Guelph Junction as these are MY two favorite locations. Parry Sound due to the number of trains and that bridge…and Guelph Junction because it is a great location and only 10 minutes from my house. That grade from Campbellville to Guelph Junction is about as good as it gets in Southern Ontario…
I also like CN’s Halton sub through Milton and south to Burlington…This is CN’s fourth busiest line, and there’s rarely a dull moment. Lots of action although you really need to pick your spots as there’s not alot of parking available.
For off the beaten path regional action…Sherbrooke, Quebec is always interesting. MM&A and St. Lawrence and Atlantic both run through on a daily basis…interesting motive power and operations on both lines.
Parry Sound, ON mentioned a couple of times, I’ll have to get up there in the near future. But what about Washago, ON That would be a lot closer to Toronto and would have the same traffic as Parry Sound, would it not. I understand quite a few railfans gather at Washago.
Two other popular sites are Dorval Quebec and Hamilton Ontario.