Down here in south east Texas where I am all of the trains are freighters (Union Pacific), and most of the rolling stock is composed of old and well used box cars, gondolas, tankers and covered hoppers coming out of Houston headed to Ft.Worth and beyond. I’ve seen very little in the way of modern container cars on this particular track, but twenty miles away on the BNSF line, container cars and modern stock is about all you see.
Tracklayer
P42 Genesis
Here in Milwaukee we’ve got the Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, Union Pacific and Wisconsin Southern for freight and Amtrak for distance passenger and commuter service. The heaviest line is the CP, which is the ex-Milwaukee Road mainline. Just about everything from doublestacks to pulpwood goes down that line. Every fall we get the grain rush, with dozens of grainer unit trains on every line, but usually it’s just mixed freight. Amtrak runs an extensive commuter service between here and Chicago but our only long-haul train is the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle & Portland. Cheers! ~METRO
well, I am lucky and live in the bay area. We have a UP mainline, a BNSF mainline, Caltrain ( communter rail like metra and metrolink ), Bart, VTA ( light rail ), muni ( light rail ), ACE, amtrak ( coast starlight, CA zephyr ), amtrak california ( capitol corridor, san joquins ), and some others I can’t remember… [:)]
I live on the CSX main line between St. Louis and Indy in Martinsvill, IL. We get bout every thing through here, CSX, UP, SP, IC, SF, BNSF, WS once in a while, some times an old Conrail and a host of lease engines. A lot of containers, haz mat, grain and normal freight mix. Box, tank, lumber, flat cars, auto cars, and just about any other kind or road name you can name comes through
In Effingham, IL [40 mile W.] is where the IC and CSX tracks cross. We see the mostly IC, and CN, also Amtrak
Robinson, IL [30 mile S.] is Indaina rail. See mostly tank cars, grain, and coal drags there.
Charlston, IL [30 mile N.] is the Eastern IL railway, a short line. We use to see semi trailers shipping out and metal going into Trailmobil, now out of buisness. Now it’s mixed freight and grain
We get to do some great rail fanning here some days
inch
Here in Leesville, you’d see a lot of old boxcars, coalporters, hoppers (open and covered), gondolas, flats, well cars, container flats, tank cars of all descriptions. Motive power is a wide range, KCS mostly, some UP, BNSF, TFM, NAFTA, Texas de Mexico, Western Gateway, NS and CSX. The only passenger trains are special tourist excursions and the KCS business train.
Canadian National and VIA Rail:
Containers,
Grain,
Coal,
Sulphur,
Limestone,
Passenger,
Lumber,
General Freight (Box Cars/Tankers),
Peroxide,
Oil,
What-have-you…
Here in the Washington, DC area from Washington to Fredericksburg, VA and beyond we have CSX that runs coal and freight, Amtrack and for local commuter traffic Virginia Railway Express.
I have seen CSX delivering coal hoppers to two different power plants in the area. One in Southern Maryland and the other in Northern Virginia. They also move freight and tankers directly through Washington, DC. I’ve seen gondolas, open hoppers, box cars, and tankers of several railways being pulled through by a CSX loco.
Amtrack has a terminal in Lorton, VA for passenger pick-up/drop off and they also load the auto train at that location. Most of the traffic is heading to Florida usually.
The Virginia Railway Express (VRE) is a local commuter train that runs from Fredericksburg, VA to Washington’s Union Station then goes west to Manassas, VA and returns.
All of these trains run on the CSX tracks.
Bill
Here in middle Tenn. we have Con Rail B-30 type units switching plastic pellit hoppers and coil steel cars. Get to see a Family Lines loco doing box cars on occasion. Just small local stuff.
Here in NE Dallas, we have BNSF (KCS&UP) old black and white BNs pulling mostly container, but sometimes mixed freight. All on the same set of tracks.
The CSX runs through Orlando. There are AmTrac passenger trains, long unit coal trains to feed the local power plant, the tropicanna orange juice reefers, auto racks , inermodal and general freight.
Here in Los Angeles area we have, well, everything. Actually I don’t see too many coal trains anymore which is a shame. BNSF, UP, Amtrak, Amtrak Surfliner, Metrolink, Etc. which I’m sure everyone knows. The only one that really excites me anymore is seeing the Surfliner. It is such a beautiful passenger train. It’s even better to ride it back to see my family in San Diego. To me it’s probably one of the best scenic rides as it glides along the coast line
Here in the Medford and Central Point area of Oregon we Have CORP and it is all fright,no passanger or contaner,But a vary busy railroad all day long!!
JIM
In Mid-coast Maine all we have is the old MEC Rockland branch, long since abandoned by MEC, now owned by the State of Maine and leased to Maine Eastern RR. They run a freight every couple of days, usually behind a GP-7, and spring to fall passenger service between Brunswick and Rockland behind a pair of FP-7s. http://www.maineeasternrailroad.com/
There are also a couple of 2 ft narrow gage RRs:
The Boothbay Railway Village Museum has some old German steam locos, as well as a model T railbus. They also have a nice exhibit of antique cars and trucks and old buildings from the area that have been moved to the site and restored. http://www.railwayvillage.org/
The Wiscasset Waterville and Farmingtom is a volunteer group restoring the original right of way of the WW&F in Alna, ME. They have an 0-4-4 steamer made by the Portland Company in 1891 (currently awaiting restoration) an 0-4-4 Vulcan from 1904 which is operational as well as a couple of engine powered critters. Their rolling stock are either original coaches around 100 years old or replicas built by the Edaville RR. http://www.wwfry.org/index.html
Not the exciting big stuff most of you have been talking about, but interesting and worth a visit if you are headed up Maine way…
In Southern Ontario, in fact in my backyard (which is on the CN Toronto to Windso Corridor) - I see everything. Most motive power consists of pimarily CN. Now throw in a few leased UP, FURX, NS, RailLink, CSX, and BNSF. I’m lucky enough to see everything imaginable in these consists.
Toronto
CN & CP double stacks, alot of auto racks, covered coil, cyclindical grain, covered hoppers (sugar and cement) down by the harbour. Tank cars up in Snyder/North York (tank farm).
GO transit bombardiers (I’m on them for 2+ hours each day).
Union Station, VIA Canadian Stainless Steel with Domes, renaissence cars, ONR decrepit looking passenger service, AMTRACK Amfleets.
Foreign power very rare, almost all pure CN/CP consists.
On the local class I (UP, LA&SL route,) stacks, spine cars (lumber) and general freight. No coal, no grain, not many auto racks.
Off the local class I, a monorail that sometimes works and a cable operation that runs horizontally. Also some articulated busses that look like the b-----d offspring of a TGV.
Chuck
I live near the BNSF/UP joint line, and we see mostly coal heading south. They head south full and head north empty. Every now and again, you will see a unit grain train or a mixed freight. There is no revenue passenger service through here at all.
Here in Central Massachusetts, there is the east/west tracks of the former Boston & Albany, that run from Boston South Station to Albany, New York, over the Berkshire Mountains ( Berkshire locomotives were initially built and named for the hills that they were designed to conquer carring long drags of freight.) Now, Amtrak and CSX use these rails. They carry many new car carriers, over 100 cars long, plus all sorts of chem tank cars, box cars from many road names, flat cars, coal cars, hoppers, etc. Then there is the former Boston & Maine tracks that run from Boston westward across the northern border towns of Massachusetts and eventually through the Hoosac Tunnel, under the Berkshire mountains into North Adams, Ma, and then on to Selkirk, NY. Thirdly, there is the former New Haven tracks that run from New Haven, CT to Worcester, Ma, and then east to Boston. Now the Providence & Worcester RR runs on these tracks as well as a SE route into RI, and NW from Worcester into some of the north central towns and cities of MA. I see many tankers, coal cars , freight cars and hoppers on these run, as well as some car carriers.
Mainly passenger and auto. I live pretty close to an Amtrak station, and there’s a Mitsubishi plant just a few miles away. I don’t get to see freight trains coming through very often, but when I do, I usually see Norfolk Southern engines, and occasionally see Union Pacific and Conrail.
I think I saw a UP GP15 a couple months ago, because it looked a little shorter than other GPs, and had a tunnel motor.