Lets get it straight right now. My golf skills are poor. I dont play much as there are other things more important to do with my time. However, a good walk on a golf course is very enjoyable, when with good company and you are striking the ball well from time to time.
Yesterday my oldest son and I went to the driving range at Creekside Golf Course in Valparaiso and hit a bucket of balls. One of the great things about Creekside (there is a lot to like about it) is it between the NS and CFE lines with the CN line about 3/4 mile north.
So, as we were hitting the balls, a WB NS autorack passes. At the same time a herd of 7 deer passes between us and the train. Not bad for a spring day.
I nominate Creekside as a great place to play golf and watch trains.
I would have to say the course in La Crosse. The BNSF tracks (Chicago-Twin Cities and west) actually splits the golf course. Holes 1 and 18 are severed by the tracks while 2 holes follow the tracks. Before the leaves turn green, you can see the trains from most of the course. You can definately hear them throughout the course. Find it on google maps or something like that. Grand Dads bluff overlooks the course also.
I played on the course twice while my Dad and step-mom plays there every summer. Very nice course.
I have been on the bluff overlooking the golf course and the tracks. Outstanding view. It was in Oct, 1987 (right before the massive stock market crash) and somehow we drove up there. The golf course looked great, as did the railroads. One could see both the BN and Soo (?). Took a couple of photos of a Soo WB from there.
(edit) Just wikimapied it…Forest Hills Golf Course.
Another candidate might be the KATY golf course in Parsons,Ks. It is hard by the northern part of the UP’s Parsons Yard (nee KATY RR Yard and Shops). Originally,it was the KATY employees company golf course; now it is a municipal course of the City of Parsons and open to public play.
A number of years ago, my brother-in-lasw was dragging me along on a round of golf. After much convincing he talked me into hitting a long shot. I hit what real golfer would call a worm burner that sliced hard left. I think the UP enmployee walking on the gangway of that locomotive thought he was being shot at as the ball richocheted of the side of that engine. I figured I was going to jail. [banghead]
My brotherin-law still likes to tell that story, and prefaces it with the story about the golfer hit in the mouth by a lady with a nine iron, and cow grazing along side the golf course.[:-,]
Several years ago I remember watching the end of a golf tournament on TV. At the presentation the speaker was interupted by a freight train many times. The tournament was in the Dallas - Fort Worth area and the train was a BNSF train.
The East Valley Golf Club in the San Timoteo Canyon area of Beaumont Hill, near Beaumont, CA is a railfan-golfer’s semi-paradise. I’m not a golfer, but for years I’ve known of the golf course by the tracks. It is probably a mile-long, weird shaped course that is trackside on one end.
Not on a high traffic route but the MassCentral goes right through the middle of the Dunroamin Country Club in Hardwick, MA. There is an unprotected grade crossing for the golf carts. Don’t know of any collisions. Visibility is good in both directions.
well at kettering here in defiance you can watch the Maw wobble by.On the former nyc(now ns)golf courses in stryker and bryan(orchard hills) are just across the road.In hicksville you can putt around and see CSX.In celina along 703 east you can use the driving range and watch rj corman.Or you can take 127 south and use the 9 holes at the sportsclub if its still open.
Burnham Woods is a Cook County Forest Preserve District golf course that abuts on the former Nickel Plate main line next to Hegewisch. Three of my brothers and my dad used to play there regularly and it’s not a particularly difficult course.
I believe that Augusta National abuts a CSX main line and the Masters is coming up.
Not on a mainline - or even a common carrier - is the B. L. England Golf Course at the generating plant of the same name in Marmora, New Jersey. It’s the public golf course associated with the power plant - formerly owned by Atlantic City Electric, then Pepco, most recently RC Cape May Holdings, LLC. It is located about 3 miles due west of Ocean City, NJ, just off Route 9 = Garden State Parkway there, on the southerly side of Great Egg Harbor River in Upper Township, Cape May County - locally known as Beesley’s Point or Beasley’s Point - the railroad calls it ‘‘Palermo’’, though.
The railroad tracks there are the plant’s, and were used for coal and fuel oil deliveries. Various parts of the golf course abutted the yard and the 2 tracks leading into the place, 1 of which was usually used as a holding track. During the day, the plant’s switcher would often be shuffling the cars into and out of the car dumper at the far end of the yard. It wasn’t unheard of for a errant golf ball to bounce off the side of a hopper car . . . however, I recall hearing or reading that the plant may have discontinued its use of coal as a fuel, which would of course drastically impact the rail traffic.
More generally, there have to be hundreds - if not thousands - of such golf courses co-located with railroads. The golf course is a perfect open space ‘buffer’ between the RR and nearby houses - it makes use of the land without creating a noise nusiance to the homeowners. I have to believe there are many such arrangements in the southeastern US, such as the Carolinas, Florida, Virginia, Georgia, etc. I know that in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there are several others along the former Reading Railroad’s - now SEPTA’s - Bethlehem Branch = R-5 commuter line in the vicinity of Elkins Park to Fort Washington, and there have to be some along the former PRR/ now Amtrak an SEPTA’s Main Line to Paoli and t
Not sure the name of it, but south of Hastings MN is a golf course that’s right next to the old Milwaukee Road mainline, now owned by CP and used by Amtrak’s Empire Builder.
As you look straight down at the golf course, as I understand it you are looking directly at the site of the CB&Q’s passenger depot from back in the days of the Twin Cities Zephyr and other trains.
When I began to railfan in southern California in the late 1970s, the Green River Golf Course sat on both sides of ATSF’s Santa Ana River bridge near the east end of Santa Ana Canyon. Golf cart path went right under the west end of the bridge, and you could stand on some of the greens for a picture perfect view of passing trains. The bridge was single-track in those days, with the Santa Fe name and emblem proudly displayed on its side. The golf course is still there today, and BNSF’s river crossing has been replaced with a triple-track bridge.
In northwest New Jersey, there’s a golf course snugged up against NYS&W’s former L&HR trackage near McAfee, but that line only sees a train in each direction two or three times a week.
Here in north Idaho, a short distance from my house, the Prairie Falls Golf Course in Post Falls straddles both sides of UP’s former SI route, good for eight or more trains a day (OK, some of those are at night), plus a local round trip on weekdays. Just north of there, the Links golf course is along the south edge of BNSF’s Funnel, at the west end of Hauser Yard. Plenty of trains arriving and departing the yard and fuel pad; westbounds will stop right alongside the course on Mains 1 or 2 or on the yard lead when waiting for a crew, or on Mains 4, 5, or 6 when fueling their DPUs.
In Sandpoint, ID, the Elks Golf Course is sandwiched between MRL and UP, with a view of lovely Lake Pend Oreille. At the south tip of the course, you can also see BNSF’s main line where it crosses Sand Creek. Just south of Bonners Ferry, ID, a golf course with one of the prettiest mountain views is wrapped around a large curve on BNSF’s ex-GN main, dotted with trees that turn brilliant orange in fall and with a distant view of the Selkirks, as well as UP trains far across the valley.
One of the top-rated newer courses in the country is the Circling Raven Golf Course at the Coeur d’Alen
I don’t think I could list all that I know…En Joi in Endicott, NY is a major one, but there are hands full of others all over the place from dinky 9 holers and downtrodden 18’s to magnificant championship courses like En Joi. My Ridewithmehenry trip from Port Jervis, NY to Gladstone, NJ this Thurs 3/11 is a great opportunity to count the many courses, especially out in Jersey on the P&D (which reminds me of the one just west of Convent Sta. on the NJT Morristown Line and the one down by South Orange. Anyway, good thing to look for and count for you…anybody who wants to come count with us, let me know by noon Wednesday!
For those who are so inclined, playing golf could be a great way to kill the time between trains or while waiting for the next train . . . and the golf cart (either kind) a convenient way to tote the camera and tripod along. [;)]
[:-,] But what’s the proper etiquette for when the train does come ? And you’re the only one in the foursome who cares ? Or all of your foursome are fans, too - but assuredly the next foursome behind isn’t ? How many strokes is the penalty for ‘‘Delay of game account of train’’ ?
Just remembered this one. Back in 1983 we were in North Conway, NH and there was the North Conway Scenic Railroad, complete with steam locomotive. There was a golf course to the west of the tracks. Wikimapia confirms it is there.
A: Q #1: Yar!!! Q#2: Yar!!! The locals are trying to restore service From ‘Yard #12’ (Portland, ME) to North Conway, NH and beyond, on the ex-MEC line… “Rail Riders NorthEast” is heavily involved. CSRR track is intact to Whitefield, NH over Crawford Notch and runs trains. Dunno if it is still intact to St. Johnsbury, VT on TSRD (SJL), or if NHVT (MEC/BM) still connects… “Google” 'em! Crawford Notch is awesome! Cool area, and “No Sales Tax”! Cheap booze, too!
Based on some of the previous posts on this topic, and considering the restrictions imposed by the Class I railroads and Amtrak on activity on their right-of-way, I’m surprised that there are some golf courses still allowed to function nearby, where situations could arise that could result in trespassing.