wow i finally found a train forum. I live in metro boston, and i do lots of night bike rides. and since i’m also a train fan, i make a point to cross by area train tracks. I see MBTA commuter trains all the time. But freight trains are really cool. Any ideas how I can find out when freight trains are going to roll through. I know the still use these lines for freight but i just don’t know when.
Freight Trains, while totally cool, are basically random. You’ll have better luck with the lottery.
I have noticed that if you are by a yard that originates trains, you can count on scheduled trains leaving at the same time, give or take a couple of hours, every day. That is how is appears to be on the UP. Otherwise who knows when a train will come by.
There has to be a big enough hole in the commuter rail schedule to allow a fright train to go down the line stopping at every stop to drop off cars, right? Not that that will really help me but interesting idk.
What about branches? Is there a way to know FOR SURE when a side spur has been totally abandoned for good? Is there even such a thing, are or they all abandoned, until the next time they are used?
I’m amazed that, every time i ride my bike around Woburn at night, I find more and more small side spurs I never knew existed.
I have never heard of Woburn. Your railroad is Guilford Transportation Industries. Some people do not like them very much because they did not treat their workers very well.
Here is Woburn on the map.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.481593,-71.136646&spn=0.019063,0.039546&t=h&hl=en
Here are some pictures of their locomotives
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/srchThumbs.aspx?srch=guilford&search=Search
Here is Guilford’s web site.
http://www.guilfordrail.com/
This is a good web site.
http://www.railroaddata.com/
Here are some pictures from your State, 3 from Woburn.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locationList.aspx?Level=3&ID=MA,US
If you have any questions, just ask us.
I met a railfan from that area over laborday weekend.he said the owners dont care about reinvesting in the railroad or getting any new buisness.I’m thinking thats not a good way to stay in buisness.
stay safe
Joe
Joe-
What do railfans know about RR business plans?
RRs are reinvesting as much as they possibly can - which may not be as much as they’d like to. RR also hunt down new business with a vengance. Just read some of the RRs press releases concerning new business development and intermodal growth. They may not go after every single car load out there because not every single car load is profitable!
a lot of freight on commuter lines is moved on weekends because of a larger window of movement oppoertunity.
dd
Go to Daggett or Colton or Riverside or the Cajon Pass or Caliente or Hesperia all in California & you see many, many, many freight trains come rolling by you. See my web site for pix of many places you can see lots & lots of freight trains. Just click on any gallery you want to view. Once it opens double click on the pix & it enlarges big time
http://vgalleries.com/members/railfan1/The+Trainfan.vrg
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[quote]
Originally posted by l008com
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Normally freight railroads don’t publicize schedules, especially since 9-11, and freight trains can operate any time as opposed to passenger trains that are expected to be on time. Having siad that most railroads try to operate on a schedule so the trains will operate on a pattern of certain times plus or minus a couple hours and on certain days. Freight trains in commuter districts operate at night when the commuter trains aren’t out there.
Dave H.
Freight trains generally operate around the clock in suburban zones except during morning and evening rush periods. Prime examples are the Metra Chicago-Aurora line on BNSF and the Chicago-Geneva line on UP. Having said that, there are also some suburban lines with rush-only operation that have some problems with freights at junctions and crossings. A local example is Metra Southwest (Chicago-Orland Park) over NS (ex-Wabash) with crossings at grade over BRC, CSX and IHB.
If they pull up the tracks and build something else there, you can be pretty sure [:D]!!