This past Saturday morning was one of the best I can remember in a long while.
About 8:00 AM, I heard the rumbling of a diesel locomotive heading towards the crossing which is about 1/2 mile away from our house as the crow flies, 2 miles by driving though. I have always wanted to go and snap some pics when the trains come through, but never did. This time was gonna be different. I grabbed the digital camera and hopped in the truck and went towards the tracks… 1/2 way there, I turned on the camera, only to be notified by the camera that the dummy who took the memory card out of it the night before forgot to put the card back in… Turned around and went home.
Low and behold, 1/2 hour later I hear the loco again… Confused that it was coming through town again, as I usually only hear it once a day if at all. By this time, my 4 year old daughter was awake, and I asked her if she wanted to go see the train. She said yes, so we jumped in the truck, this time with a memory card installed in the camera. We got to the tacks just in time. A single loco was getting ready to back up across the exempted crossing. We pulled off the road across the street and started snapping pictures if CBNS loco (EMD GP50). Not sure what Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia was doing in Cincinnati, but oh well. My daughter was excited to see the loco.
I thought it was odd that the loco was by itself, backing across the road… He must have dropped some rolling stock off someplace. Maybe we can find it. I asked my daughter if she wanted to try to find the rolling stock and she was all for it. Well, as it turns out, a couple of streets up, there is a siding. He had dropped 6 cars off there, so we stopped and got pictures of all of those.
When we got home, my daughter ran into the house and was yelling for everyone to come see the pictures of the train we saw… That was the best part of the whole adventure - she was so happy and excited to see the trains. I
The first time is all it takes to get them started. Im very glad that you fianly got to see the Train. If she wants to see alot of Trains you should take her to a very busy Main line. Good luck.
BNSFrailfan.
that was great that you and your daughter were thrilled seeing the trains…when i railfan, I do it on some vacation days…usually i’ll mark out my route on the map and plan for a couple of days following the rails and taking lots of pictures …i’ll stop at small towns and set up the camera and wait on the next train to come by and photograph it…then on to the next town …i’ll also take pictures of interesting buildings or trackside features in hopes of modeling them when i get home…my last railfan adventure took me from Houston to Sanderson Texas photographing the train at the Flatonia yard, the East Yard in San Antonio, the main line thru Hondo, the crew change building in Del Rio, the bridge at Langtry, and the yard (now abandoned except for the thru freights) at Sanderson before i headed home…it took only 2 days and i got enough photos to re-create the scaled structures on my layout…my next trip will go even further …on to Alpine, Marfa, and El Paso solely on U.S. highway 90 which i model …the old SP “Sunset route”…chuck
I’ve been doing some research on the locomotive, and the railway that owns it. I would certainly like to see more trains, and I am sure that my kids would, too… Of course the biggest issue with the kids is boredom. I don’t think it would work to well to park and wait for a train to show up… It would be better to know either where the yard is, or what the schedule of trains is…
Do you think that the railway company would give me the schedule if I emailed them?
what you might want to do is go down to the train yard and get with an engineer, conductor, brakeman, or railroad official of the railroad company and eventually talk him out of a timetable / rulebook…they all get one on a regular basis and usually have lots of spares laying around the yard office…it is a very interesting book…it has the rules in it, the grades the trains will encounter within their sub division “blocks” an explanation of signalling, and a timetable for train arrrival / departure times at the various depots / spurs/ yards, ect…(the trains are never on time) but will be close enough to match the arrival /departure timetable times…Chuck
Watching trains on the Front Range of the Rockies is on of my kids and my favorite past times. There is plenty of good action on the BNSF/UP joint main, albeit mostly coal. My 5 year old son is still having a hard time understanding mid train and rear helpers. We just moved from San Antonio so that is something new. Any excuse to get out with the kids, especially for railfanning, is a good time.
I was walking around my home city of Royal Oak michigan and saw an interesting lashup.
Please forgive me that I still cannot recognize the types of locos, but,
I saw a BNSF loco lashed up with an Illinios Central and following them wre two CN locos. These four locos were pulling about 15 large flat cars, each holding two containers.
This was on the CN/GT holly sub.
Both my son(4) and Daughter(6) were with me, They were extreemly excited to see this train as it was the second one one our little walk. We had just seen an Amtrack five minutes before this one.
Ya know, I love sitting in my truck and watching trains go by…until the last time I did it.
I live in Lake County, Illinois, just north of Chicago. All of my life I have been going to Rondout to watch the trains go by. My Dad took me when I was a boy to watch the C,M&StP shoot North and South, or Amtraks. Crossing the C,M&StP at grade is the E,J&E and (now a bike trail) the old North Shore right-of-way follows IL 176 east into Mundelien. We (Dad and I) would pick up old spikes, explore cabooses and an old combine that stood for years on a C,M&StP siding. and just watch trains.
My Dad died when I was seven, but, Rondout was a bike ride away and the tradition continued until last year. I am now 35 years old.
My fiance works on Bradley Rd. about a quarter mile away from Rondout and butting up against the E,J&E Tracks and one afternoon I was to pick her up after work. I left a couple of hours early so I could train spot for a while before quitting time. Sounds great, huh?
I was there for a half-hour when a Metra Cop pulls up behind my Jeep, blocking me in. No biggie, I was one of a million trainfans who I’ve seen sit right here and just watch, take pics or video.
The Metra Cop sits there a few minutes (obviously running my tags on his SCMODS ) and eventually opens the door to his squad. He strolls up and I said “Hi” , he returned my greeting and asked what I was doing there. I said I was a Railfan and I was just watching trains.
He said “No, what are you really doing here?”
I repeated my statement.
He looked VERY sceptical and asked for my Driver’s Licence. I gave it to him and he returned to his car.
Now, let me say, I am not innocent looking. I am a broad shouldered, muscled man ( a carpenter by trade) who shaves his head and wears a goatee and a few earrings in both ears. And I look VERY Irish. I’ve been in trouble when I was a kid, so, I know what the officer is doing back in his car.
He turned out to be a nice guy, but, he informed me
Man, that sucks. Sorry you were treated like that.
I thought the same thing when I emailed the ops guy at the Cincinnati division of Railamerica and asked for more information or a schedule of trains so that my kids and I can watch their trains… not knowing me, he would most likely be very suspicious of someone out of the blue asking for that type of information… I’ll let everyone know what response I get, if any… Hopefully not the same response as Cuhail got.
I read an article in Trains a couple of years back that explained the perils of post 9/11 railfanning. It appears that you don’t even need to be on any list to arouse suspicion anymore. Unfortunately this is something we in the railfanning community will have to adjust to. I do most of my railfanning on an Air Force base so I don’t typically run into any problems, but I am sure it’s coming.
Well, I just got a response back from Railamerica. The gentleman that responded was very kind in his response, but declined providing any information regarding train locations or schedules, which is understandable considering the state of the world today.
I did find some articles on the web regarding good spots to railfan in the Cincinnati area, so I may go and check a couple of them out, find the best one, then take the kids.
Thanks Rochelle for at least ONE place I can sit and eat a local place burger lunch and watch trains! I thought the local police in small towns were bad about stuff, but forgot about other “little Hitlers” around the big city. My wife and I sometimes wait, watch in folding chairs, was glad she got into it. I’m the lucky Tomcat.
hi,
just thought id mention one wonderful railfanning location
Northtown yard in northern Minneapolis on the Columbia Heights border,
I sat there one Sunday afternoon, the trains never stopped coming
Literally!
You can follow the lines southeast and constantly see rail traffic
This may seem normal, though, this was my first true railfanning moment,
other than commuter trains where i live in the northwest suburbs of Boston
Cuhail, i feel really bad for you, im only 12, and if that happened to me I would cry for a week.
Some great Minneapolis locations:
-Northtown Yard
-Talmage Crossing
-The yard on Energy Park drive(Beautiful rail museum nearby)
All of these are on the same or nearby rail lines.
South of Northtown Yard the line splits into two double tracked parallel lines, stay between and you can catch all the action
These are places I visited, but there are other great places like the St Paul Bluffs
Check the University of Minnesota RR Club Website, they have a great list
Also if you decide to travel there, visit the new LRT line, it is more fun than I thought.
Also, anyone know why i am never able to see any CSX traffic on the Boston line to Palmer & Albany? I see commuter traffic, but i have only seen a freight mabye once. I thought this line was supposed to have heavy intermodal traffic
That stinks Cuhail! I do the majority of my railfanning in a CSX yard, so I generally don’t have any problems. I get a lot of friendly waves and hellos from the crews and personel, and only once have I been asked “What are you doing?”. I just said I was watching trains, and he said oh well that’s ok and gave me a CSX pin! Cool guys down in that yard. [8D]
There is a big CSX yard down here in Cincinnati, too. I was thinking about going down there and see if there is any public type access to sit and watch. I’ve never been there, don’t even know how to get there, but it is probable worth a try. Anyone ever been to the CSX yards in Cincinnati (west side of downtown) ?
I live in a little town in southren Oregon(Central Point) I’am about two blocks from the main line of the Central Oregon R.R.( the old Southren Pacific R.R.)I’am retired now so can do things.yesterday I used two full rolls of film around the area.Rich R.R. history here.In the old days the aera was full of loging R.R.'s and saw mills ECT.We have the WHITE CITY TRANSENT UNION three engine now a SW1500,and two GE 600 ton switchers.They take care of the mills.Then hall the cars to an interchange yard for the C.O. A.P. to pick up.The historical society of sourthren OR has a small rail road park in medford They have some neat old stuff there,Includeing the old MEDCO WILLAMETTE #4 they are restoring,So far they are doing a supper job on It and a baldwin S8 that has been restored .(MEDCO #8) As soon as I get the pictures devloped I’ll post some on here.I also have some GP 38 pictures.I have a pare of GP 38’s on my roster.Oh yah Found out the EUGENE ore,round house is stell standing along with the old turn table(witch is stell in use).
Find a busy mainline somewhere or, better yet, find two mainlines that cross each other. I’ve seen trains as often as 10 minutes apart on the CSX Birmingham to Nashville main but on a typical day they’re 30 minutes or so apart. Busy yards are good also but with our new “security” can be tough to get a good vantage point.
