My piece of junk 83 Ford. Id rather own a Chevy instead!
BNSFrailfan.
In a 90 Toyota Tercel,mostly I sit and watch them go by.
My 1987 Plymouth Grand Fury, V8 and expired tags…ever in Missouri? Look for a Burgandy 4 door grand Fury with plates 646 SRW and a “Ban Bumper Stickers” bumper sticker on the back…watch it! My car is “Slippery”
My Ford Ranger Pick Up. It has a built in photo taking area with it every where I go.
Ha ha, I have a Chevy, although it is a 76 and it hasn’t moved since I could drive.
In reality I am usually being driven around by one of my parents in our 4 wheel drive 98 Chevy. This means that I can only go where they want to go and have to leave when they get bored, but I can get good pacing shots out of the passenger window!
Sccccchhhhhhhhhwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttt!
Gads…I made the mistake of driving one of the '05s (with the 400hp LS2) at the AutoShow in Motion a couple weeks back. Now I’m picking up an S10 or Ranger so I can take the cruiser out of service, and give her the attention she deserves (this will include a boosted LT1/4, T56 tranny, and a beefed up suspension. While it’ll take a little work, and some cash, I think it’ll still be cheaper than a new GTO ($34K, unfortuntately).
Nice ride, Mike!
Right now I am crusin’ in a 1988 Honda Prelude (seems like the foreign cars are horribly out numbered here!). However, just yesterday I took a road trip down to Santa Fe to check out a 1959 Ford Thunderbird, beautiful car, I am just worried about it passing the stupid emissions program here in Colorado. That would be a great car to chase trains in, or at least I would think!
And, to add an air of railroading to this post, on the way back to Denver from Santa Fe, I passed a junk train with 9 engines in the front, 4 regular (orange) BNSF engines, one BNSF with the new paint (#7687, my first one!), one old blue and yellow Santa Fe, an old Santa Fe war bonnet (#613 and still said “Santa Fe” on the side!), a CSX engine (#4722) and a DJPX (Joseph Transportation Incorporated) lease engine.
Hey Scott,
You might want to check your emissions regulations, usually they don’t have any testing for cars built prior to a certain date! (1959 would probably be ok, at least it would here in Cheese-land.) Good luck, and happy railfanning!
-Mark
www.fuzzyworld3.com
I prefer to use the Purple People Eater,
She is a 1995 Ford Ranger, with a 4.0 Liter V6 engine and she can tackle almost anything I want to put her through(note I said Almost) But I think when it comes time to trade her in, i gotta go with the ram, possibly Cummins powered, I don’t think I really want another Ford, I Especially don’t want a Power Smoke, Been left High and not so dry a couple too many times, in the middle of october with a foot of snow on the ground, not fun.
Usually my mom takes me train chasing, and we use my dads truck. Its a 2004 ford Fsomething50
Started in a 1964 Rambler Classic, then had a Dart Swinger, a Beetle, a couple of Fords and a Rabbit.
Here, to coin a phrase, “Limey’s don’t chase”, the trains go too fast and the roads are way too windy, and narrow.
Well, first car was a 1993 Citroen ZX 1.9 Diesel - great little car that, manual everything so weighed almost nothing and went like a rocket. Head gasket failure killed that one so now I’m driving a 1996 Land Rover Discovery - 300TDI engine, manual transmission, pulls like a train when you get the hang of driving it. Chasing trains over here is more about making sure you’re in position to take photos then moving well ahead of it again - as Hugh said, they move too fast to drive alongside taking photos and there’s not usually a road directly alongside the line. Having said that, I frequently pace the local passenger service out of town - they’re only doing about 50MPH which isn’t a problem…
Awww Matt, TDI in a land rover! sweet, would love to have all the choices of diesel cars and trucks yall have.
And Chris, my buddy got a blown LT1 in a 93 ex cop car, and let me tell ya, that thing can almost beat the diesel off the line. However, with my gearing for towing, I cant cross 120 without going past the 3000rpm redline.
Adrianspeeder
Since I trainfan in the west but live on the E/coast it is whatever rental car I secure. The last one was a 4 door Ford Taurus [:I][:p]
A 2002 Chrysler Town & County LX. Its outfitted for DVD, scanner with outside speaker. reference materials.
My work ride is a un-marked 2003 Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor Midnight Blue with all the toys! Don’t get to chase trains with it, once in a while it works out well as I can get into certain areas off limits to the public. these times lately are few and far between.
Adrianspeeder, you might well be able to buy them if the oil prices don’t drop - I get 30something mpg on a run with the Disco, which is about the same as those new “hybrid” 4x4s - difference being that mine doesn’t haul around a load of extra electronics and other kit and will probably still be running in 20 years time due to having simpler mechanical components and being easy to fix (also purchase cost is lower). If enough people demand diesels the manufacturers will start offering them, it’s taken a while but they’ve now got to the mainstream over here.
Today, I use either a 1994 Ford Ranger pick-up or the wife’s 2005 Ford Escape. During 1999 I was inbetween LTL driving jobs and chased UP’s steam move to CSRM’s Railfair 1999 between Winnemucca and Sparks, NV with a 1999 Freightliner, which is pictured below.
Jim
Now that I’m thinking about it, before I got the Ram, I drove a 1990 Chevy S10, 4cyl, 5-speed, bare bones truck (didn’t have power steering even!)
Both trucks were set up with scanners, though the one in my current truck is MUCH nicer than the Uniden Bearcat handheld I had. My current Bearcat has just about all of the most used goodies (police, fire, marine, weather, and uhf).
I still have the same CB radio, a Uniden Grant XL that has been tweaked to put out a bit more than stock, coupled to a Wilson 1000 antenna.
Next truck I’d like to get would be another Ram pickup, crew cab, diesel, Manual trans, and if I ever decide to drive semi, I’d have to find a Western Star, I used to work for a dealer, and they were nice trucks to work on (and drive).
Randy
'02 Chevy Blazer. V6 engine and 4-wheel drive. Bearcat scanner and Magellan Meridian Gold GPS inside as well.
Lockheed P-3C Orion. 4 Allison 4600 SHP T-56-14 turbines, coupled to Hamilton-Standard variable pitch constant speed propellers.