I have been watching You-Tube on my big screen TV and find that the Virtual Railfan Group is quite a large operation. They have "live" tv cams that are run 24 - 7 situated through out the USA and the world,
You can search one of them and sit for "hours" and watch trains til your heart is content. There are 3 cams that I pay particular attention to....LaGrange, Ky, La Plata, Missouri, and Chehalis, Washington.
The City of LaGrange, Kentucky has the old L&N Short Line from Latonia, Kentucky to Louisville, Kentucky. The railroad runs right through the city on "Main Street". This is now a CSX Line. Back in the day when CSX took over the family lines, they were going to moth ball it or sell this line. Not a brilliant idea on CSX part. Today, this short line is a "short cut" for trains from Cincinnati, Ohio (Latonia,Ky) to Louisville, Kentucky. They run 100 to 150 car trains right down the middle of Main Street. It is amazing to see these big diesels pulling these trains at a somewhat slow speed through this town. Once the engine gets back onto private-right-away, the engineer increases the speed of the train and the last of a very long train is moving along at quite a clip. All kinds of cars are seen on these trains. The usual consists of these trains are 1 to 4 big diesels, a mix consists or just rack and double stack cars plus a DPU in the Center of the train or at the end pushing. Ah the world of radio control. On February 10th 2020, a large crew of CSX Construction Workers closed off LaGrange Main Street and started working on removing the track. By February 14th, the men had removed the old track and replaced it with brand new "ready made" track brought in on flatcars. By the 16th trains were again running down the middle of Main Street in LaGrange. Sometime in April 2020, a crew of CSX Construction Workers removed the old tar on Main Street and replaced it with new asphalt. Road strippers came in and painted the lines on the street for parking, etc. Well the people of LaGrange are happy that Main Street never looked so good as it does today. You can watch a lot of this construction on You-Tube.
The City of La Plata, Missouri has a double track main line with a station. This is a very active main line for the BNSF. I have never stayed up to watch how many trains transverse this line but it is "a lot". The other night, Wednesday Night and Thursday Morning...I counted 8 trains in 1 hour passing this cam. These train are moving quite fast and they usually consists of 1 to 5 diesel engines, about 100 to 200 cars, a DPU or 2 DPUs are at the back end. It takes a fully loaded trains about 2 to 3 minutes to pass this spot. So you know it is really moving on. Also a day and night Amtrak Train Stops at the Station were the Virtual Camera is located.
The City of Chehalis;, Washington has a double track main line going through it. The Virtual Camera is located on an old Station next to the tracks. Both BNSF, Union Pacific and Talgo Trains are racing on this track. They have a way of increasing close ups on this section of track and one of the local BNSF switchers shifting cars on a siding was seen the other day.
There are plenty of Virtual Cameras in the USA and the world. I found a camera in Tokyo, Japan and I think there were over 12 lines and an elevated subway in the picture. There was a train every minute or more passing the camera.
Enjoy your trains
railbear601
