Yesterday I left Hartford, WI and drove down Wisconsin highway “P” until I got to the Highway 16 bypass in Oconomowoc which would take me to I94 and Madison. Well, it was about 4:30 when I arrived at the Highway P / CN main line intersection at Highway 16 bypass and since I thought Amtrak was due about any time I drove over the track (single main here) and waited a few minutes. I was tired and did not want to wait long to continue my journey home to Illinois so after about five minutes or so I left and continued on towards I94…yes, you can tell what’s coming here…just at the time I crossed back over the CN main on my way to I94 I heard the horn of Amtrak under me but could not see the train due to my needing to pay attention to my driving…OH HECK! Two or three more minutes of waiting could have made my day…oh well, there will be other days.
One of the reasons I hate semi trucks is that they always block my view of the rails. I’ll always have them pass me at just the right moment. I hate that.
One railfanning rule my 9-year old daughter has recently learned is that if you want a train to come after waiting a while, all you have to do is pack up the camera and tripod!
You gotta do the 10 minute rule. That is when you plan to leave and nothing is around, wait 10 extra minutes and then leave. Last year I was in Rock Spring Wyo and waited there for an hour and a half with nothing coming on the trans UP line. I was talking to my buddy back in Appleton Wis and i told him about nothing being around and that I was going to leave. He told me about the 10 minute rule which i did observe. When that 10 minutes was just about up, saw an eastbound headlight round the curve from the cut to the west of me. Needless to say, another 2 hours and maybe 15 or so trains later, I was on my way to the north to Montana.
Paul
And yes, the fastest way to have a train appear is to leave.
You have a very bright child ! This rule neeeever fails !
Know what you mean, I’ve had the wife drop me off at a few places while she’s shopping. After seeing nothing for an hour or 2. Sure nough, as soon as we get down the road a piece, we’ll hear a train whistle.
inch
Up at Iona Island, I’ve almost always missed trains when going to lunch.
That’s happened to me so many. Times I have lost count there have been times where. I’ll be sitting next to a busy main line for a couple of hours and nothing will come by but. As soon As i leave to go and reload my charter group 25 trains will come by all with in 10 minutes of one another and by then I have reloaded my group and leaving to go back to drop them off.
An oldie, but a goodie:
http://www.ratbike.org/tspotsim/
My own experience is that I’ll often see nothing when crossing the tracks at my closest-to-home crossing, but before I lose sight of it in the rear-view mirror the gates are lowering. This is only a couple of blocks, and a few seconds…
Thats awesome!!! lol[(-D]
Eolafan, surely you don’t mean to imply that Amtrak trains run on time? Long-distance ones in particular??
al smalling
Usually the westbound Empire Builder is on time, or close to it. Not much chance of foul-ups, being that it starts in Chicago. Probably didn’t catch anything on the UP Adams line, either.
Should’ve stopped for lunch/supper at the depot restaurant downtown. Would’ve seen it for sure.[;)]
Sounds like you could use a better set of directions… I live in the area.
I sit at home all the week and hear trains. When I go to errands none around.
But when I get home FROM a far away place, always a train pulling thru town. It’s almost as if the railroad knows im gone and it’s safe to run thru.
Of coursse not Al, I would never be THAT foolish!
Was going to write this morning that almost no freight moves over the railline in front of my house (Rotterdam-Dordrecht 4 track mainline with a storage yard, located on the other side of the park and city road in front of my house here in Rotterdam the Netherlands) on saturdays between 12 pm and 4 pm. Decided to do the weekend shopping first. The moment I walk back into my street a Rail4Chem locomotive moves through the storage yard area that is closest to my street with the worlds fastest locomotive (that 357 km/h electric from Austria, OBB class 1216 I believe). Then, while putting the groceries away I see the combo being pushed back through the yard.
What are my chances to put it on chip do you think if I go now to have a look? It is threatening to rain again too…
greetings,
Marc
PS While typing this a freigth train rumbled by on it’s way to the harbour, powered by an ACTS combo of 1950’s Dutch electric aided in multiple (like they Milwaukee Road did) by a Belgian 1960’s diesel (EMD derivative)…
Christmas season before last, we had stopped off in Milton (near Huntington), West Virginia, to visit Blenko Glass. (It’s a glassworks that lends itself to art glass of a 1950’s-60’s style.)
I had to answer nature’s call or should I say, I HAD to. No sooner did I get up there and lock the door than (I am told) a four-unit CSX unit coal train came by WB. I felt the vibrations in the building, that’s for sure. We were told it was the old C&O mainline.
Now, why couldn’t that train have come during the 45 minutes we were down on the sales floor?
At least it wasn’t a mixed manifest!! [B)]
oh heck is…being on vacation…dropping the wife off at a mall in Harrisburg…driving to Rockville…climbing the point…waiting almost 3 hours …in the drizzle…not seeing a train…climbing down…get in the car…and hear a train coming
Sure it was Hell, but at least you didn’t spend hours in that Mall helping the wife spend money.
…Al:
Several years ago we stopped off at Blenko Glass sales and factory as such…Got to go back right to where they were blowing it into the art shapes, etc…
Also got to talk to one of the skilled fellows doing the work back where the work is created…A big curly headed fellow…don’t remember his name {that we had seen on TV on a BLenko Glass special} a short time before. He took us right back to the furnaces, etc…and really took time to talk to us about the process they go thru and so on…Really interesting.
I noted that RR track outside near the factory and the concrete underpass but saw no trains. But did enjoy the experience of visiting the factory. And of course brought home a piece of very red colored “art”…
yes indeed…