When train watching/photo taking how do you know when a train is coming?
Watch a near by signal?
Listen on a scanner?
Have a timetable (for you rail workers)?
Listen for the rails to ‘hiss’?
Or your trusty ears?
Or a different way?
Whats your way?[:)]
If I’m going somewhere, I always check railroad signals. Green is a very good color. 
I also look down the tracks when crossing them. (Stopped and watched a train go by after safely crossing not too long ago.)
I use my ears most often. Train horns are unmistakable.
What if I am at the spot where the signal is too far away to see or even to find, does a train transmitting any radio frequency to talk or telling anyone about its coming?
Karn
what does a time table haft to do with it?
Scanner and signals.
Gotta love those defect detectors, as long as they are “up track” from you (awfully frustrating to hear it just before you get to the appropriate watching spot and discover they were headed south…). This being dark territory, and being near a yard where most through trains do some work, listening for Form Ds comes in very handy.
The train horn is great, if you’re close enough to a crossing. Again, this section of CSX was thoughtfully built with as few crossings as possible, except in some of the built-up areas. And, yes, those eyes…
One method I’ve heard of (and have used once or twice) is to put the frequency for the EOT device in your scanner. As long as there is reason for the EOT to transmit from time to time, you’ll get the noise of the data being sent when a train is in the area. I wouldn’t depend on it, though, especially if you assume that if you don’t hear an EOT device, there is no train. It’s possible that if there is no change in brake status, the EOT won’t transmit. The tech experts will have to address that.
Whistles.
ALL OF THE ABOVE! OH ONE THING:
UNION PACIFIC’S DPU’S TRANSMITS ON:
452.925MHZ.
452.950MHZ.&
457.9375MHZ. EOT&DPU.
The timetable tells you what the train is when it comes (not when it is going to come), along the lines of “Oh, a southbound steel train, it must be NY3 because that’s the only one running today!”. The timetable for this state can be downloaded from the official website, at least when I last looked.
If I’m in the mountains, you can generally hear trains coming, either in power or dynamic brake. The automatic signals only tell you if you’ve just missed a train.
At Goulburn, (the major station in the area) you can tell by the signals, which are set manually on the approach of a train, and often you can hear crossing signals from the north end of the yard.
Peter
since I don’t have a scanner I use signals
I take my dog with me when i go train watching and the hair on the back of her neck stands up when a train is coming. First noticed this in territory where the signals don’t even come on until a train is getting near. I don’t know why she does this but she has never let me down yet . Best train watching partner I have ever found. She never complains like the old lady about sitting around waiting for trains and she even saved me from a rattlesnake once. I always make sure to bring plenty of water and doggie treats.
I don’t need any fancy equipment, i can feel it in my bones when a train is coming.
We watch the signals for the trains.csx has alot of crossovers over here so the signals are absolute.
stay safe
Joe
Lets see now I just sit and think it …and it just comes!
I look for the train tracks. If you find the tracks, a train has been there…and others are likely to follow.
Sorry…I couldn’t resist that. Close to home we have no (visible) signals, but plenty of trains, so a journey to trackside is really all that’s necessary. Of course, I take full advantage of signals, radio transmissions, etc., when I have them available to me (I have a scanner, but have found it to be superfluous around here).
I watch the absolute signals if an interlocking is close. Grade crossing signals are good but don’t always leave you much warning time. If the geography allows, I’ll watch for a headlight. BNSF three-track mainline is pretty good in this respect.
Most of the signals around here only turn on when a train is near, so if the signal is on there’s a good chance that there is something moving around in the area.
If I’m downwind I can also smell the diesel exhaust from about 40 miles away, so I just sit back and wait… It’s been harder lately though, because CP has only been putting a single unit on the head end and a single unit on the tail end, so the sent isn’t as strong as it used to be.
Rule M: Expect a train or other movement at any time, from any direction. (If they can drop one out of the sky, aimed at you, they will…probably made by ACME Locomotive Co.)
I put my head on the rail and listen. Old Indian trick. lol
Signals, headlights in the distance, scanner chatter and that unmistakable sound of either a horn or even of a turbocharged EMD or GE prime mover making noise in the distance (sometimes can be heard about five minutes before the train even arrives)