Top Moments of Rail Fanning?

My trip "to the North Pole of course".   This was 4 years ago, my youngest was 8. She just recently can "no longer hear the bell".   But I can. Great folks at the Steam Railroading Institute. Nothing beats being 2 cars behind the tender and hearing that whistle at every crossing, like going back in time.

Visited Steamtown in Pennsylvania a few years ago and entered the cab of the steam engine open to the public.  Showed a few kids how to open the doors to the firebox (lever near floor) and shovel coal in (obviously no coal around, LOL).  They loved it, tried it, and passed the info on to the next group of kids that boarded.  Watched it get passed on several times before I left.  Of course, pulling the bell rope was also great fun for all.

Chuck

Both Ohio Central Railfests. In 1997, there was a moment when the photo line was awaiting a 1293 runby early on a summer morning with a light fog burning off. Behind us, 1551 brought a freight train down the other line. One of us--I think it was Vic Hand--turned when I nudged him, looked, and called out "Attention, everybody, while we're waiting for the varnish there's a steam freight over there and I don't know where to point my camera first!"

Then there was Owosso, oh goodness was there ever Owosso. Someday people will find pictures of an SP steam engine going by that beautiful station in Durand, and they'll wonder what the heck happened.

Really, anytime we rode Sugarcreek to Baltic behind steam--we used to make that trip maybe once a month when Gabe was little. We not only got to ride behind four steam engines, but also watched the Amish farms work through the seasons from May to October. The spring's skittish foals were half-grown colts by the end of season, either ignoring the train or happily racing it down the fence line. (We weren't going that fast. The horses always won, and they were smug about it.)

I miss East Broad Top, and everybody else does too.

Going to St. Louis in 2001 was a real adventure. Our car had a ton of miles on it, Tom had been sick, the weather was dicey and I had to drive through rush hour traffic with the Eads Bridge closed...and it was totally worth it to see 3985 roar past.

Durbin is a treasure. If you have to choose between there and Cass, go to Durbin at least once.

I have a couple...

Company meeting in Lake Tahoe circa 1995 - took the afternoon to go hiking around tunnels near Truckee - caught the American Orient Express - now that was a surprise

Spiral Tunnels BC - Got to the overlook about 10 minutes before a loooonnnnggg CN train wrapped around itself on the loop.

Saluda Grade - I was on the last passenger excursion to go down this amazing grade - back in 1997. (I think)

Saluda Grade - Railfanned the last year in action and caught a mixed freight doubling up the hill, very cool indeed.

Portland - private visit to 4449 in the shop by one of the volunteers.

Alameda CA - great street running and saw my first tanktrain here.

Hillsdale NJ - very nice Erie Lackawanna crew tied up in the siding for the evening passenger rush. Had me get them a pizza and then invited me up into the caboose to join them in a slice. They put me in the cupola to watch last two passenger trains go by. I was 12.

Worcester MA - love going out in heavy snow. Caught the Jetblower in action clearing the switches and yard.

Gardiner MA - caught a very rare high hood GP9

Kingston RI - best place to see the fastest train in U.S. scream by.

Was just out this morning taking pictures of the sunrise over the SeaView Transportation Yard here in North Kingstown RI. They have a working 44 Tonner and do some very interesting moves for GD / EB (General Dynamics / Electric Boat).

Yeah, I enjoy taking my camera and heading out - especially when the weather turns bad.

Paul

Railrunnin posted:

Spiral Tunnels BC - Got to the overlook about 10 minutes before a loooonnnnggg CN train wrapped around itself on the loop.

Better dust off your memory...  The spiral tunnels are CP trackage.

In 1979, our NMRA tour bus chased this train from Banff practically to Field before the park rangers caught up with us and politely asked us to turn the bus around and leave.

Rusty

Witnessing 3985 in steam...now parked cold and silent is disgusting.

I was a bit stunned when I watched N&W 2050 roll by being towed to the IRM via the C&NW...that was back in April 1978....wish I would have had a camera.  

Rusty Traque posted:

Railrunnin posted:

Spiral Tunnels BC - Got to the overlook about 10 minutes before a loooonnnnggg CN train wrapped around itself on the loop.

Better dust off your memory...  The spiral tunnels are CP trackage.

 

 

Indeed it was... where is that second cup of coffee...

Paul

A few months ago - I was wandering back to my car from a local pub - and along came the NS Office train (F7s and variety of passenger cars)!

Im used to seeing the black NS Diesels on this line - so this drew a big "whoa!"

As soon as I saw the headlight and number boards - I knew something cool was coming.

Looked empty - but all the cars were lit up.

Mine will be in 2 years.

I'm only the most casual of railfans, but ... when our 3 sons were small, we spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania at Strasburg, Steamtown, and the EBT RR. My kids came to believe that the "BigBoy" at Steamtown was the coolest thing on earth.

So, my wife and I are already starting to make plans to bring our now grown sons and their wives to the Golden Spike celebration in Utah ... where UP will have their restored 4014.

Have lots of photos of my little boys in front of 4012 at Steamtown. Want photos of my grown men in front of 4014 under steam.

Happy Railroading, everybody.

Didn't realize it at the time; but watching NKP 765 race and beat a double stack up Horseshoe curve.  At the time, was upset that the screeching of the freight was drowning out the sound of 765.  Later realized what an amazing thing to see!

This past summer, spent a good three hours wandering around the back lot at Strasburg with my 14-year old son on a blue sky weekend day.  We traced out how they move the freight cars around in their transload area, watched a forklift unload  lumber,  counted up all the different types of grain they have unloaded by looking at the spillage on the ground, looked at each of the locomotives in storage, talked about the differences between camel backs and other steam locomotives, examined the truss rods of a stored wooden coach (we had just modeled an n-scale wooden coach), looked over their small critter locomotive, found a speeder just like one on our layout at home, identified everything from steam locomotive tires to signal towers to old stay bolts.  All the while, not one, but two steamers came an went like clock work.  It was like something my father might have experienced around the PRR 20th street shops in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1940s.   Just amazing and something I hope my son keeps in his memory for decades.  We didn't ride the train that day (chased it later), but spent some bucks in the gift shop as a token of appreciation for the RR employees that didn't seem to mind us poking around.

Bob

Not referred to "rail fanning" back in the 1940s, but my very first memory of "train watching" with my dad was watching the famous Reading Crusader, race through Cranford, NJ in about 1944 or 1945. I was obviously pretty young, but I'll never forget that streamlined steam locomotive, with the flashing side rods and that stainless steel streamlined passenger train. 

Hmmm,  as a kid -ACL West Coast Champion to Florida, my face glued to the window the whole trip,  an excursion ride behind the D&H PA's to Saratoga Springs in the 70's, I can still remember the acceleration as we exited Binghamton !  A cab ride in a pack of Reading electric commuter cars north of Philly @ 105 mph on the NE Corridor,  foolishly hopped a Milwaukee Road freight in the Quad Cities area - fun until it picked up speed ! ,  New Hope & Ivyland rides, Hi-speed (302 kph) train from Kaiserslatern to Paris, it didn't get fast until we hit France and then this summer - Durango & Silverton - at a much slower pace.  Actually I'd ride most any train anywhere.

About four years ago I rolled up to the River Road crossing about a mile or so east of Mattawanna, PA and decided to set for a couple minutes.  I was no more out of the car when the crossing protection activated and sweeping around the curve east of the crossing was NS' office car train headed west.  I got it all on video.  About an hour later as I was getting out of the car at Anderson Road crossing just west of Granville, PA, I dropped the camera, scrambled the disk and lost the video of the NS office car train I'd shot earlier.

To paraphrase Charles Dickens; it was my best rail fan day - it was my worst rail fan day.

Curt

A couple of vignettes pulled from a lifetime of railfanning:

- -  Late one Saturday afternoon,  driving through the Chicago & North  Western freight yard in West Chicago, about 1979, came upon 6 pristine commuter F units swinging around the wye coming off the old Freeport line, with a "Belvidere turn" freight train of some 75-100 cars.

- - Same year, overnighting in Spooner, Wisconsin, woke up about 3 AM and drove down to the Spooner Omaha Road depot; a GP7 was idling, awaiting any switching activity that might pop up.  Have a recording of an Omaha "Zulu" (class Z) 2-8-0 there, at night, kicking cars down the ladder track in 1955. I was reliving the same scene again. Adding to the environment was the still extant roundhouse and turntable across from the depot.

- - In Escanaba, MI last August (2016), and saw two nearly new  Canadian National SD "somethings" (not well versed in the finer points of today's motive power) idling quietly in the yard, fronting a long iron ore train. In reading C&NWHS "North Western Lines" publication, was advised that CN shut down shipment of iron ore from Escanaba 2 months following, in October. A quiet and historic moment.

Standing inside the snowshed at the west end of the big hole near Donner Pass, watching the overhead door close the tunnel entrance,  then as the engine approached the door coming up hill, the door opens and out comes a cloud of black smoke followed by the engine, all making a deafening roar. The switch inside the shed was lined straight and we were on the siding track inside the shed, relatively safe. 

I guess two stand out for me; both happened at night.

1. During a steam trip from Omaha, NE back to Cheyenne, I got a phone tip from someone in the UP office telling me that they were going to run the 3985 west sometime after midnight.  I quickly made plans to intercept it at Fremont, NE.  I loaded my minivan and drove south on I-29, not wasting any time!  I parked the van along the tracks and tried to sleep, but that proved impossible.  So, I moved a few blocks north, set my alarm clock, and curled up in my sleeping bag.  About then my brother in Dallas called and asked how things were going.  I told him, "Well, I'm in Fremont NE and sleeping along the tracks in my van."  He replied, "So, it's come to this for you?"    Anyway, I got a little rest, and then went back to the tracks and set up my big flash.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  It was a beautiful summer night, perfectly calm, the stars shone bright.  Finally I heard the deep throated whistle off to the east--I tested my equipment.  Train came, I popped a shot.  However, the shot I took was not the one I should have!  As the train quickly thundered off to the west I saw a perfect long "tube" of white exhaust just hang above the train and the tracks behind it in the moonlight.  It was one of the most gorgeous things I've ever witnessed, and all I could do was stand there in awe.  I was completely alone and doubt that barely a handful of people alive today have seen such a sight.

2.  Two years ago in December my wife & I were in Pittsburgh, and we ended up in Frostburg MD for the weekend.  I had five small flash, my Nikon D800E, and my Nikon 24mm PC-E lens.  We decided to catch the WMSRR that Friday on its nightly run!  So, we parked the rental car and began hiking the mile or so up the mountain to the tunnel.  I knew I really wanted a shot with train emerging from the tunnel, so we set up as the light began to quickly disappear.  We waited alone in the dark, sitting on a big rock.  Everything was as perfect as I knew how to get it.  We waited.  We waited.  Finally, I heard a whistle way down somewhere in the valley.  As time went on the whistle grew louder, and finally we could hear the engine struggling up the mountain.  We sprinted across the tracks and I popped a test shot.  My wife said all flash fired; we were ready!  The engine grew louder and finally we heard it just a few dozen yards away roaring in the tunnel, the headlight lighting up the rails in front of us.  Suddenly, the engine burst out and even though it was dark we could see smoke pouring out all around it. My wife screamed, "Shoot it!"  I held my fire--the engine had not yet reached the mark I made on the tracks.  "Shoot it!  Shoot it!" she yelled, but I held off until it reached exactly where I wanted it, and pushed the button.  The flash all fired perfectly, and the shutter probably clicked but I never heard it over the roar as the train rolled by.  We stood there in awe as it passed, and listened as it faded off in the distance.  We collected the equipment but had to wait quite awhile before the smoke cleared from the tunnel.  We walked back down to the car in silence, still thinking about what an awesome experience we had shared.  My wife spoke first.  She asked, "Are they going to do it again tomorrow night?"  Dang, what a great wife I have!

Kent in SD

A few come to mind:

• Riding numerous times at 90 MPH behind twin Alco-GE PA1's on San Diegans.  Feeling the impressive acceleration of the big Alcos as they raced away from station stops.
• Sitting in the dining car of the San Francisco Chief between Amarillo and Clovis and eating chicken croquettes in the dining car as A-B-B-A Alcos raced us across the plains.
• Sitting in the observation car of the City of Los Angeles across Utah and Wyoming, as we overtook Big Boys and Challengers working hard in freight service on adjacent tracks.
• Sitting at Verdemont, on Cajon Pass, at 2:30 a.m., and listening to the raspy exhaust of the four Alcos on Number 8, the Fast Mail, working hard on the 2.2% ascending grade, as they approached, passed, and faded into the distance.
• Sitting at the throttle of the six rednose F3 and F7 units on Number 17, at dawn, looking back at the morning sky reflecting off the stainless steel engines and cars, while holding the speed down to 80 fthrough the curves at Hodge.

Just found a group of CN director's cars in Sioux City, IA Sunday pulled by 2 GEs.

1. Riding the 582 miles of Chihuahua al Pacifico from Ojinaga, Chihuahua to Los Mochis, Sinaloa and back over a span of 12 days.  Standing with the engineer of a Fiat RDC through the Chihuahua desert, taking my first ride in a dome car over the Sierra Madres, through 84 tunnels, over 39 bridges and trestles, dining in an ex-FW&D observation lounge, and sleeping with cousins in a pullman drawing room.

2. While honeymooning at Lake Louise, AB catching the Canadian to Calgary, making an across-the-platform transfer there and riding back to Louise for a perfectly beautiful day trip along the Bow river.

Although I've had a number of railfan experiences riding trains and taking in steam engines of all sizes, I think now my most treasured memories revolve around the many railfan camping trips I've done since I was a high school student.
I started out seeing the last days of the Western Maryland Railway Connellsville Division at Big Savage Tunnel in 1975-76, and spent the last several years "camping" in leisure at Earl Cummins' A- frame at Fairhope, PA., on Sand Patch.

Camping trackside was pretty common 20-45 years ago, I recall Tony Koester writing about the RMC crew doing it about 1973.
My high school friends and I camped at Falls Cut Tunnel from 1977-84 several times a year, while the swimming hole was the main attraction, the Chessie cats were putting on a show. The train count back then was much like today, and the RR workers seemed mostly bemused by the antics there, until inevitably someone got hurt.
After becoming serious about 35mm photography by 1990, that decade would see camping trips at East Brunswick, MD., all along the Magnolia Cutoff east of Paw Paw, WV, a trip to Thompsontown, PA. in Conrail's last year, and finally a return to Sand Patch in 1999 during CSX's Conrail merger indigestion period.
Magnolia Cutoff camping continued into the 2000s, even after 9/11/2001, our riverfront spots were safely off RR property.

Starting out with lean-tos and borrowed Boy Scout tents, our comfort would evolve to regular backpacking tents by the 1990s, and finally a cap-equipped Ford Ranger. The Ranger was used for about 7 years, and was pretty comfortable with a thick mattress.
Our victuals also improved, with frying pans over open fires replaced by Coleman gas stoves, it is difficult to mix scrambled eggs and  do morning train photography.
Besides the opportunity for photography all day, camping trackside also gave a close-up view of operations, enhanced by scanner traffic and lineside detectors.
Except for the Conrail trip and  the most recent trips to Cummins' cabin, I always had at least 1 friend along, and at times 6 or more.

I was a train nut as a kid, and spent MANY hours watching LIRR steam from the Hollis station in the late '40s-early '50s. After that, not much "train watching" (steam passenger trains at 70 mph is a hard act to follow). Many trips to the Strasburg RR, since it's only a one hour drive for me and the grandkids. I sometimes watch the many trains on the Ashland, VA live-cam.

I've often wondered what it would be like on a over-nighter train trip. Guess I'll find out, going to Florida on the Silver Meteor March 7.

Two23 posted:

 

Kent in SD

Well, Kent, you've earned yourself another ten merits, a very unusual thing, I might add, as we are not supposed to allow them to accrue past total of ten.  These are for your two fine narratives and this superb photo.