Hi everyone.
I live in Canada and I am interested in learning more about trains, railroads, freight trains … I am a complete beginner.
What are the things a newbie like should do to learn more about those subjects and be able to watch more trains in real?
Thanks for your help!
[#welcome] aboard!
Everything about railroads? Oh my, so much to learn, and you may never know it all.
My advice would be to pick a particular aspect of railroading you’re interested in and follow that. A good tool is this website, there’s a lot of good information in its nooks and crannies. If historic railroading is your interest, and it’s my primary interest by the way, there’s the “Classic Trains” website, a companion to this one.
Reading the various Forums is a good way to learn. Look at the various topics, read what’s asked and the answers to the same. (You’ll also learn a lot about peoples eccentricities, trust me!) Ask questions too, you’ll get some good answers.
Here’s another good overview, “The Railroad, What It Is, What It Does.”
https://qhy92hged07.storage.googleapis.com/MDkxMTM4MjU4NQ==07.pdf
Or you can find the book on Amazon.
Although I can answer that question briefly. A railroad is a business that moves stuff from Point A to Point B in the most efficient and profitable manner possible.
I’ve picked up most of what I know by doing all of the above and really by a process of osmosis, keeping my eyes and ears open and trying to absorb all I could.
Since you live in Canada I couldn’t tell you where to go trainwatching, but a good “Almost there” is the Virtual Railfan YouTube channel. There’s remote cameras all over placed by busy rail lines, but mind you sometimes it’s like watching paint dry if nothing’s happening.
Google YouTube Virtual Railfan and you’re there.
Hope this helps. Anyone else care to join in?
Also read the quarterly and annual reports that are available on all major railroad websites. They’re a gold mine of information.
What part of Canada are you from?
You should consider volunteering at a railway museum if there is one in your area, it’s a good way to make a contribution to historic preservation while also learning about trains with like-minded people.
I’d strongly suggest subscribing to both Trains (monthly), and Classic Trains (quarterly). You’ll learn a ton just by doing that. Also, the same company, Kalmbach, has some excellent reference books. I just got one that’s a historical guide to North American railroads; it’s got anywhere from 1-4 pages for each of the railroads that formed the framework we have today, plus it has the current major railroads. Lots of good photos and maps.
Good luck! There’s so much that’s fascinating.
Great suggestion by SD70Dude.
Subscribe to Trains Magazine!
Stay OFF railroad property!
If you are smart, learn the art of being incognito.
After the 9-11 terrorists attack in 2001, some railroaders and managements became super unbalanced. Case in point: In the High Desert of Southern California, a train’s crew reported to the DS that a car with a bunch of people was following the train. The more experienced and civilized railroad dispatcher asked them if the vehicle following the train was ‘not just railfans?’
So, realize some railroaders and managements are wise and knowledgeable about their surroundings and not paranoid, and some are dumb, ignorant, and scared of their own shadows! You will play it smart if you take the more incognito approach … but, whatever you do, always stay off any type of railroad property.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but the most important thing when starting railfanning is the same as starting work on a railroad: SAFETY FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS. I have not seen this mentioned in all the preceding advice.
Always be aware of what is around you and what might happen, and learn about how different and often counterintuitive the effects of speed and higher mass can be. And never, ever relax your vigilance, no matter how great the ‘catch’ or the difficulties in setting up for a particular shot.
I was taught an exaggerated respect for firearms – always treat them as loaded and ready to fire, even when you know otherwise. The same is true around railroads. There’s an adage for employees – “expect a train on any track at any time” – and a rule never to cross less than 20-30 feet from any standing equipment. There’s also a saying ‘rules like these were written in blood’. These are not just tales told to frighten newbies.
And please don’t ‘trespass’. Railfans used to be welcome many places. Now we’re an insurance risk at best.
Watch the several railfan cams on YouTube. They are often accompanied by a “chat” with contributions by folks knowledgeable in the local operation. Some now have a log that tells what trains have passed that day.
You’ll get to see a variety of types of trains.
Trains magazine sponsors the cam at Rochelle, IL.
My favorite is Deshler, OH, but there are cams at Fairport, NY; Horseshoe Curve, PA, and Fort Madison, IA, to name a few.
While the experts on the chats are happy to answer questions, perhaps the best thing to do in the beginning is to just sit back and watch, and read the chat. Please don’t ask “when is the next train?” as nothing is scheduled as such. Oftimes the knowledgeable folks on the chat do have an idea of what’s coming, but they’ll share that if they do know.
I agree 100 percent. Life with all your limbs intact. It is the only thing that is really important!
That’s one nice thing about virtual railfanning. The worst injury I might sustain would be carpal tunnel or tripping on the way to the fridge for some refreshments…
[8D]
In the industry we call that “situational awareness”. Maintaining it is of utmost importance.
It is also what sets railfans apart from “foamers”, a term you will hear soon enough if you haven’t already.
A railfan is someone who likes trains because they are trains.
A foamer is someone who loses situational awareness and allows themselves to get into harm’s way.
Very few railfans are foamers, and not all foamers are railfans; I would argue that overenthusiastic sports fans could also be described as foamers, to pick just one example.
Rule #1 of railfanning is "don’t become part o
While I don’t know where specifically, you said you’re in Canada, and a helpful reference material is published by the Bytown Railway Society in the Canadian Trackside guide:
https://bytownrailwaysociety.ca/index.php/sales-desk/canadian-trackside-guide
This book is updated annually and includes a lot of data/reference information on current diesel and passenger car rosters on all Canadian railways (so if you want to check out what type of engine you saw you can look it up by railroad and cab #), listings of locations/mileages and names on all rail lines, radio frequencies used if you have a radio scanner to listen, etc.
Otherwise, you can start by trying to go down by the local station or other PUBLIC place to watch from a SAFE position; however depending on where you’re actually located this may or may not work out better… if the particular line only has a train once or twice a day, or even only a few times a week, this won’t work real great. Even on a busy line you can sometimes get lucky and sometimes not see anything for a block of several hours. If there’s passenger service you can sort of follow schedules for those, but there are no schedules for freight trains. Depending on the railroad there may be certain trains that “generally” run around the same time (ish) each day, but that is highly variable depending on work required, delays encountered en route, crew availabilities, etc.
Also, in learning about trains “in general” there are a lot of topics on these and other forums, there will be railfanning sites specifically about your favourite railway(s), and YouTube has lots of video content as well.
I agree, and recommend webcams where trains have to stop and you can get appreciation for the operations.
At Ft. Madison (BNSF Chillicothe sub) trains stop in both directions either for a) the swing bridge or b) the crew change about a mile west. With large ‘no fitters’ running around the crossing is often blocked.
The three Tehachapi webcams (UP Mojave sub) can show how even the overworked dispatcher can keep multiple trains moving in both directions through alternating blocks of single and double track.
Never, ever cross a track if a stopped train (or cut of cars) is blocking your view of a second (or 3rd, etc.) parallel track. Many, many years ago, I (and my innocent not-driving wife) almost got killed because I failed to follow this rule. I still shiver thinking about that dumb$#!t move.
And don’t let your focus on one moving train blind you to the possibility that another is coming on a parallel track, in the opposite or same direction. One train’s noise will keep you from noticing the second train.
And don’t assume that all trains will blow for a grade crossing. For example, here in Maine there are neighborhoods whose local governments have succumbed to residents’ pleas for quiet, and have banned horn-blowing. [:|] One neighborhood I have in mind abuts a track where the Amtrak Downeaster runs; this is by far Maine’s fastest train. There are electric crossing “crossbucks,” but no gates. Crazy, IMO.
Be careful. And WELCOME ABOARD.
In addition to the pointers already said… DON’T LITTER… Leave an area looking as if you never showed up… Some nice railfan areas have become off limits to railfans because they didn’t respect the property.
One thing to keep in mind is, if you like British trains and there is a whole lot to like about them and there you will not be a railfan, you will be a “train spotter.” In the U.K. no one will ever think you’re nuts for liking trains. Some of my friends over there are pretty hardcore but eccentricity is sort of admired in Britain. There’s bus spotters, tram spotters, even truck spotters, all with notebooks writing down numbers, dates and times and no one thinks that’s unusual. That’s the Brits for you.
Train-spotting always struck me as being a sort of weird pursuit, like fantasy football or Pokemon card collecting. None of the real fun of railroading, just noting down stats and documenting numbers…
Now if I think about this a little more carefully with an open mind, there can be disturbingly little difference between this and having to “document a particular ‘catch’ photographically” (as in the old railfan, or fisherman for that matter, adage ‘show picture or it didn’t happen’). I sometimes wondered if train-spotting were a sort of lowest-cost enthusiasm, given the tremendous investment needed to do train photography in that era. If all you need to ‘participate’ fully is an Ian Allan notebook (with simple reference material) and an all-weather pencil, and you have a large number of comparably-motivated peers reinforcing your interest… unsurprising to see it develop into a sort of national pastime. (Of a sort that just did not develop to any extent in North America, for a variety of often likely synergistic reasons…)
I have suspected since the '80s that the kind of marketing and promotion organization you often see in the entertainment and gaming industries would, at some point, try to tie the trainspotting and general Japanese Pokemon-style communities of interest together somehow (it certainly seems to have more promise than exploiting the Bazooka Joe character from the bubble gum as a DC/Marvel-style character franchise, which one of the Disney people, I think Mike Eisner, actually tried as his ‘comeback’ project in the Nineties). I have little doubt that if it were properly ‘pushed’, it would catch on. For how long is another discussion entirely.