Here’s a question that I hope will spark some interesting information. Where are some of the best train streeting running spots in the U.S.
As a kid I remember the trains crawling around the Nalley Valley and Point Defiance areas of Tacoma, Ballard, Snohomish, Mt. Vernon and Seattle, Wasington. I also remember street running in Newberg, Oregon and Addison, Texas.
I know streeting running is getting rarer as lines are relocated or the customers shut down, moves or go to trucks, but I’m sure there are still some cool places where a locomotive with a freight car or two still crawls down a cities roads or back alleys to a customer or two.
10th and 11th Streets in Michigan City IN. There are also some spots on Goose Island on the near North Side of Chicago, but most of that operation is at night.
Jack London Square, Oakland Ca, dbl track mainline, freight, passenger, commuter, 24 - 7, you can even sit in a cafe chair and sip a coffee from a shop in the square,get hungry, go walk over & get a sandwich, get bored, go to the Borders bookstore, and at night go to Yoshi’s, a great Japanese restaurant with a 1st class jazz club attached, all in one easy stop. Dare anyone to top that.[8D]
CSX runs a local almost daily right through the middle of downtown Tampa, down the center of Polk Street. It’s really a sight to behold; and the horn blasts echoing off the tall buildings can be deafening too.
I actually caught this train when I stayed overnight there some years back, remember looking out the window of my hotel and seeing a train going down the street. I am assuming it’s the same one Ted was referring to. It was not far from the Amtrak station, there was a also a yard nearby with old equipment.
Hasn’t the track through Lafayette been torn up as well? I know the trains bypass this stretch now on a new route.
Vic’s spot in Oakland sounds hard to beat. But I suspect that the South Shore’s line in Michigan City is the only place where passenger trains and freights have to negotiate grades usually reserved for cars. That track is anything but level!
Michigan city for me also. The track twists and turns through streets and climbs up grades, and the trains come inches away from cars as they head down the tight space on the street.
Great spots…thanks to Google or Microsoft maps, a person can visit these sites electronically.
I can’t imagine a better situation…eating a good meal, sipping a cup of coffee or drinking a cold beer and leasurly watching the trains pass by…the only way to top that would be on the train itself.
Before moving to Texas, I used to take my wife to some nice restuarants along the Edmonds, Mukilteo, and Everett, WA waterfront (she had a silly notion that it was for the food- how naive). But as we enjoyed the evening, I’d always be listening for any distant rumbling of a BNSF locomotive heading our way…seemed to recall that all the guys would careen their necks to get a look as it passed by…sort of like a bunch of cats with a bird at the window. Probably takes the window washers an hour just to remove all the face and hand prints off the glass every time a train goes by.
NS(ex-Wabash) & CSX(ex-Monon) got together on a new alignment 5 years or so ago. It goes through town down by the Wabash River. Trains did a feature article on the new line a few years ago.
FT Collins Co on the old C&S ( and we blew for EVERY crossing in town!!) and as WIAR mentioned.Bellvue Iowa and I would guess parts of Clinton ( we run right between two streets lol.) IAIS has some “street” running in Davenport.Also up in Dubuque Iowa IC has a spur to a lumber company running in the streets.Not mainline but still in a street.
The main street of Ashland, Virginia, is also the main line of the old RF&P, now CSX’s Washington - Richmond line. All Amtrak’s NY - Florida, Washington - Carolina, and NY - Newport News trains used the line. Station is also the town’s hospitality-civic center. It is center-reservation running, north auto lanes on the east side and sourth on the west, of the double-track line, not paved except at crossings and in the immediate station area.
I believe the Manufacturers RY still runs in New Haven with street trackage on Forbes Street. including a drawbridge. Old streetcar line that always also saw freight service connecing with NHRR. Diesel now, of course.
Lansing, Iowa and Bellevue, Iowa on “my mainline” - the ICE/CP. Really love Lansing as the mainline goes right past a few shops and a restaurant near the downtown area then goes right along the street both ways out of town.
Where is Lansing? if North of Marquette I will neve get to see it ( please tell me south lol) Bellvue has a quiet zone enacted so… cant play like I did in Ft Collins.
