Did reading David Lustig’s “Arizona or Bust” in the June issue of TRAINS remind you of your favorite railfanning road trip? Tell us about it!
1st rail fan trip to CA. T/Loop then Daggett & Barstow. Seeing all 3 tracks filled with trains at the same time at Daggett was a real treat. [:o)][:p][:)]
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Originally posted by apusztai
I have been on too many excellent trips to narrow it down to one. But here is one.
One in 94’ started out taking amtrak from Glendale to Redding. There I hooked up with my dad. Then we went to the Weed/Dunsmuir area for a day catching lots of SP action. That night we went up to Bend and called it a night (K-Falls was home turf for us so we bypassed it). The next morning we went up to Hinkle for the day. Lots of UP action but we had to convince the yardmaster that we were interested in some bird that the locals adopted so he wouldn’t kick us out. By late afternoon we had to get away from the stink of the neighboring Simplot plant.
We continued on and by the next morning, after getting a room , we were in Pasco. There we watched the yard jobs (BN) do there thing as mainline trains came and went. The next day we worked our way up to our first objective, the funnel. I think we spent two nights in Sandpoint but I’m not sure. Anyway we did a lot of exploring around Sandpoint and along the funnel. Then we worked our way east along the MRL. We had a wierd series of encounters with a group of older gentelmen that appeared to be cross country golfing along the MRL right of way, not exactly a main stream sport but they were enjoying themselves. They never actually got close enough to us to talk to them.
We stopped for the night in Deer Lodge. Then next morning we went further east and by nightfall we were in Billings. The next morning we turned around and headed west back to Butte and then followed the UP down over Monida pass and tward Salt Lake. On this streach we basicaly followed one train as it progressed into Idaho and through Twin Falls and into Pocatello. We found out the hard way that I-15 doesn’t always have onramps at every offramp, an annoying feature. Pocotello was very busy so we stayed the night there and spent the next day in that area. I was suprised at all the things we found there like a lot of odd maint. of way cars & equiptment.
The next day we went d
Here is another:
I, my father,his brother and his sister all met at woodford siding (on the Tehachappi line) on the first day of a week and a half adventure. We spent the rest of the day around the loop / Tehachappi area. We got a room in Tehachappi and carried our lounge chairs over to the tracks where we watched heavy SP & SF action till late at night despite the cold & wind. We awoke the next morning to find it snowing hard so after breakfast we went to the overpass east of town. The engineer of the first train by us tossed us a train lineup. It revealed that there were not going to be any trains for a while so we went down to Mojave where we found the weather much more fovorable. Traffic pick up in the afternoon and lasted well into the night. We got a room and ate at a resturant with a view of the tracks.
The next day after breakfast we worked or way twards Barstow, stopping at North Edwards for a few hours. After bagging a couple there we headed to Lenwood for action on a bussier line. We spent the rest of that day and all of the next around the Barstow / Dagget area. We spent most of the daylight hours at Dagget and the rest of the time around the Barstow yard.
At this point my uncle left us as he didn’t have as much time as us. Or was it that he lost interest once we left SP territory as he is a die hard SP fan? I’m not sure. Anyway the three of us worked our way to Needles spending several hours in the Cadiz area where we caught the A&C exchanging cars with the SF. This area is where the SF really flies. We stayed the night in Needles right across from the yard in a hotel room that looked like it was used as a Harly repair shop a few times.
In the morning we drove to Topock and spent many hours on the Colorado bridge approaches. After many trains zipped by we headded for Williams, following the tracks through Kingmond, stopping several time to take in the action. By the time we reached Williams it ws dark and snowing a little. That didn’t stop us (
I’ve been on way to many to mention, Galesburg, IL was cool, as well as Chicago, which was reached by Amtrak.
I’ve got three, and they’re all “a bunch of guys” trips.
The first was a weekend trip from the Albany NY area to the Horseshoe Curve in May 1977. About a half dozen of us actually camped out at MP 241 (here’s proof http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=14871). Got lots of good shots that weekend like these
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=8717
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=14958
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=15067
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=15790
- although I didn’t get much sleep.
2nd trip was a year later - between the end of my senior year in college and graduation. Three of us went ot Maine, via Boston. Saw PA in commuter service at South Station, lots of Alco switcher in Rigby Yard - after signing a release at the yard office, we wandered all over the place. Then, we visited Waterville shops and got to climb all over a freshy painted GP9 and caboose. We also visited the BAR and got pix of those BL2s and F3s. Finally, we chased MEC train up through Crawford Notch. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=8660
The third trip was a “Farewell to the Frisco” trip, with 4 of us making a big loop through MD and WV, KY, St. Louis, Springfield and Chicago
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=20739
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=9267
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=90226
Most of my “adventures” these days consist of seeing if the signal’s cleared up on my way back from buying gas http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=98594 or seeing if there’s something in the siding on the way to my son’s Little League game http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=91404
Or, wandering out at lunch for a few pictures
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=98834, http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=103655
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=91
- Nebraska. Heading west on US 30. I caught up to a 55mph westbound manifest. As I approached the head end, a westbound Z-train on the south track dusted us at 75. Sublime.