I just got home from a trip to my grandparents. We did some railfanning both ways, between Schenectady and Catskill (on the CSX). I caught four trains, and missed (didn’t see engines/pulled off the road when I saw them, etc) 6 trains. Well, ok, one of those trains I missed because there was roadwork and we had to detour, but I am seriously depressed. What am I doing wrong? I have a scanner and I am listening for Defect Detectors/crews calling signals, but my handheld can only pick up stuff a couple miles away, and by the time I figure out where it is it’s already passed. The other problem is I can’t drive, so my time is dictated by the drivers/complaining little brother. If I was driving myself I would just sit back, relax, and wait for them, but I can’t do that. What can I do to not miss so many trains?
For the scanner, invest in a good mag mount antenna, assuming your parents will allow you to place it on the family ride. You won’t believe the difference.
If you’re within radio range at home, get yourself an outdoor antenna. You can still hook up your pocket scanner to it, and you’ll hear a lot more than with the rubber duck. If you can’t afford a commercial outdoor antenna, look up “J-Pole” and find someone with plumbing skills to help you to assemble it. The pipe and fittings might cost you $10-15 - the coax and adapter for your radio will likely be the expensive part.
Check on rail cams in the areas you haunt. Most Virtual Railfan sites have a chat, and some fans are now keeping a log of trains that pass.
What’s important about that log is that you can develop a sense of when trains consistently pass that cam. While the railroads don’t run on a schedule (other than Amtrak), they are often quite regular, which might help allow you to plan your outings.
Another thing you can draw from the rail cams is symbols and consists.
Keep a log of your own.
To me this is the best antenna. Been using this brand for 15 years.
Some good advice from tree68 and SD60 Harrison, but I’d advise you of one more thing.
Relax. Railfanning’s a bit like hunting, some days you get the eight-point buck, some days you get skunked, that’s just the way it is. It’s not the end of the world, not by a long shot.
You’re a young man, and statistics being what they are you’ve got at least another 60 or 70 years of railfanning ahead of you, as hard as that is to fathom. You’ll see things we never will and possibly can’t imagine. Your adventure’s just beginning, so hang in there! You’ve got plenty of time.
Harrison, I’ve gone train hunting all day and never saw a single one. It sounds like you did okay to me.
When you get out to the hole before sun-up, and throw in a line and retrieve the bait about 400 times, catch nothing, and then trudge back home near noon to do other things, have you been fishing or washing the deck?
Tree68, Larry, you are amazing at giving good advice. A real friend.
Even on a busy mainline, there will be lulls. I’ve seen that happen at Utica - sit in the overhead walkway for an hour or more and nothing comes through.
Even my favorite, Deshler, with up to 60 trains per day, experiences this. An hour or two with nothing, then a traffic jam, sometimes three trains at once with another in siding and more in line behind them.
Thanks for the help and encouragment everyone. I’m still pretty down on myself but it sounds like it happens to everyone.
It does! You’re not the first and you won’t be the last!
Missing an unscheduled train is nothing to be down about. You never know - the train you were expecting might have been anulled today. Or any of a large number of other reasons.
Work your way into better being able to find trains. That takes time and experience.
Remember this… There’s always a better train in the future. Another highball eventually shows up[:)]
I usually get to see the crossing lights go on in my rear view mirror as I have pulled away after spending 45 mins inspecting ballast.
It’s the nature of the beast. Unless you’re watching light rail or rapid transit, you’re bound to get some dead time, occasionally a LOT of dead time. Even on a slow day, it’s still fun to get out.
Check out this spreadsheet from December 28 at Deshler. They saw a total of 56 trains for the 24 hours. As you glance down the list, note that there were several spans of an hour or more with no trains. Between 1248 and 1421 - going on two hours - nothing. Yet there were several spans of just a half hour with four trains passing through.
As CSSHEGEWISCH points out - it’s the nature of the beast…
I’d like to have a quarter for every time this has happened to me.
Curt
Another tip is to learn to read the lights of the lines you’re watching. Keep in mind that not all are the same. In my area, the green lights on UP used to be meaningless because all they indicated was that the track was clear. Now that they are ‘approach lit’, when I see green it almost certainly means that something is coming.
On the other hand, CN empty tracks show red around here…anything other than that typically means a train has authority to pass. It’s especially helpful if you can see signals in both directions.
There’s a Trains article that I’ve seen printed a couple of times that shows the various signal aspects. Learn which ones apply in your area and use them to your advantage. Unfortunately I don’t have my library at my fingertips to point you to them, but I’m guessing someone else on here we’ll know which issues they’re in.
Good luck!
There are two different means that railroad use when lighting signals. Constant lit or Approach lit.
Constant lit signals always display ‘some’ indication, that depending upon the specifics of the signal’s specific purpose in the signal system may or may not convey any valid ‘warning’ of impending actions to a railfan.
Approach lit signals will only light up when the track circuit ‘approaching’ the signal is occupied by something, normally a train, that ‘shunts’ the track occupancy detector by creating a completed electrical connection between the rails - each rail carries a low level electrical current that gets completed by the steel wheel & axle combiniation of railroad equipment. The Approach Lit signal is displaying a indication of the condition of the track segment beyond the signal.
[quote user=“BaltACD”]
Ajsik
Another tip is to learn to read the lights of the lines you’re watching. Keep in mind that not all are the same. In my area, the green lights on UP used to be meaningless because all they indicated was that the track was clear. Now that they are ‘approach lit’, when I see green it almost certainly means that something is coming.On the other hand, CN empty tracks show red around here…anything other than that typically means a train has authority to pass. It’s especially helpful if you can see signals in both directions.
There’s a Trains article that I’ve seen printed a couple of times that shows the various signal aspects. Learn which ones apply in your area and use them to your advantage. Unfortunately I don’t have my library at my fingertips to point you to them, but I’m guessing someone else on here we’ll know which issues they’re in.
Good luck!
There are two different means that railroad use when lighting signals. Constant lit or Approach lit.
Constant lit signals always display ‘some’ indication, that depending upon the specifics of the signal’s specific purpose in the signal system may or may not convey any valid ‘warning’ of impending actions to a railfan.
Approach lit signals will only light up when the track circuit ‘approaching’ the signal is occupied by something, normally a train, that ‘shunts’ the track occupancy detector by creating a completed electrical connection between the rails - each rail carries a low level electrical current that gets completed by the steel wheel & axle combiniation of rai
tree
That is quite an impressive spreadsheet. I assume you are monitoring Deshler by a web cam and on line scanner…correct?
I am doing the same with Berea, Oh at this time. Have done the same with Chesterton, In (10 miles from home) and Fostoria. At my station in life (working at home and in mid 60s) I find this virtual railfanning is ideal. My “spreadsheet” is not nearly as detailed…it is a notebook with train movements for the time I watch. Berea web cam gives me the CSX mainline and the NS mainline…lots of activity.
Are you finding the trains run on pretty regular schedule? I am impressed with both CSX and NS abilities to run trains on very regular time slots. Not only the hot priority intermodals (UPS trains) but also the general freights are very regularly ran.
An interesting pair on the CSX are Q168/169. I do not understand these two trains…but run with very small intermodal loads, often 30 - 100 international containers. These two trains fly against the grain of PSR. Seems like these two could be combined with other intermodals.
I am not going to make any friends here, but the PSR seems to have certain benefits. These trains are running “on time”. I am not making an overall endorsement of PSR, but while the train counts are down compared to years ago, that seems to have given more capacity to the lines. Yes, the trains are huge - Q364 just rolled thru Berea with 764 axles - about 187 cars, but once these trains are rolling out of the terminals they seem to move well.
So, to the original poster, perhaps you fill in your time with watching a webcam and listening to the scanner activity to gain an idea of operations in your area.
Also…a better antenna helps also.
Good luck…and tree - I am impressed!
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