The Railfan Thread

Carlos


It happened again :lol:
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Good thing its "lightweight". :P

Found a photo of Norfolk Southern's latest new toy, the SD70ACu. NS rebuilt their ex-UP SD9043's with SD70ACe cabs and other goodies, and if it's a success NS will be buying more units from UP. Gotta say, the ACe cab fits the SD9043's look well.
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Shame the contrast is garbage. :odd:
 
Donner Pass has been snowy lately, and the old veterans of the pass are hard at work to keep it clean. :D
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Also...may I present...terrible ideas, by some grain hauling shortline. :odd:
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WHY YOU DO THIS TO GP9 ADM?! :banghead:
 
That last pick reminds me a little of Norfolk Southern's paint booth. :D

Just found this great shot on RailPictures, a very short 38 car CN manifest weaves through the Cheakamus Canyon behind a single GEVO.
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I miss the west coast. @-@
 
I really miss the Valenta engines on the Class 43s here... In fact I miss the Intercity liveries on those. And soon they won't be 43s around here now at all. Sad timez :(
 
Driving Park
Why did I enjoy that as much as I did?
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Because railfan? :D

You know what the best train music is?
The Last Train to Clarksville.
George Benson. Trumpets blowing Nathans. Snares snannzing sleeper slits and cymbals sizzling screeching wheels.
That's the best version.

For me, a necessary part of railfanning is the sound. Silent trains kill me. The sound of the engine, the shriek of wheels or whistle, the clickety-clackety and hiss and puff and chuff and groan and high speed throbbing whine . . ..
Even riding a train has that effect, just as a passenger - a train and its sound (and movement, of course, too) lulls people into somnambulism. (Unless Jaws is around. :lol: )

Train sounds, when heard from outside, as it rushes towards you and doppleganngers past shaking every bone in your body - that's another excitement altogether.
Benson's version of the Monkees' Last Train to Clarkesville captures some of that for me - that mad, lovely rush of the train on its tracks - firmly on the way to adventure, shrieking and stomping, and galloping on rails with all the brakepipes blown. Give it a fair bit of volume and crank up that equaliser and you're on rails, at least train-soundwise.

I've never found a single railfan-music video though that uses it. The one I posted is not too bad though - I like the way he brings in the train horns. Good clips, too.
 
@photonrider I'd heard the Monkees' version of that song before, but not George Benson's. Cool version...some nice bass trombone action in it too! Unfortunately, I'd imagine people don't use it because a) they don't know about this version, and b) it (at least when played by the Monkees) is associated with the Vietnam War.

The sound is one reason I've always wanted to railfan steam (I've ridden on a few, but never watched them go by), as along with the sights a steam locomotive is pretty much the most romantic thing ever, in the sense of pure, unbridled Americana.

That said, the combination of the sound, size, and shake is why I love trains in the first place. Diesel-pulled consists still give that to me in spades, and the bright and colorful schemes add another element to be excited for (will there be a foreign unit on this train???).

Which brings me to another point...

The surprise.

Lots of railfans these days will bring their laptop and a scanner to a train watching day, so they know exactly where the trains will be, how many axles they have, what locomotives they have on the front, and what they're hauling. I find that that kind of ruins the fun. I don't like knowing when the trains will come, and I really don't like knowing what will be on them. Half the fun is waiting around and suddenly seeing a headlight down the tracks, and having no idea what will be behind it. The raw excitement I get when I see a distant headlight or hear a distant horn will never leave me.

Would it be nice to know when there's going to be a dead spot for the next three hours (which often happens at around 10 am at my favorite railfanning spot) so I can go grab a bite to eat? Of course. But I would rather deal with the dead spots with my snacks in my car than to know everything that's about to happen. To me, it's like having the end of a movie spoiled before I go see it.

At one point I used to bring my camera to train days, so I could photograph at least some of the trains that went by, but eventually I even stopped doing that, because I found it detracted from my enjoyment of the experience, because half of my brain was always thinking about the pictures. Call me a purist, I guess, but I much prefer train days where I have no equipment to record or predict what happens. I feel more connected with the action.
 
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SecretAgentZero
STEAM NERDS, QUESTION:
Name one class of locomotive you wish would've been preserved.
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I think the greatest tragedy is the fact that none of the NYC J1E Hudson's were preserved, the most famous locomotive in the world aside from the Flying Scotsman 4-6-2 #4472 and the PRR K4s, gone forever because of accountants. Could easily be argued with, in line with the Western Maryland 4-8-4's and the PRR J1 2-10-4's. But the Hudson, the glamorous and elegant symbol of 30's passenger service, should have had at least one survivor.

In all, the NYC is only represented by a few locos. The 999, a 2-8-2, and a 4-8-2 Mohawk. Which is sad considering how the NYC and PRR were the two largest railroad's in the world.
 
PRR T1!

That said, other than the J1Es @catamount39 mentioned, I'm pretty happy with what has been preserved. CN 3254, Southern 4501, PRR 3750 and 1361, the Durango & Silverton K-36s, UP 3985 and of course the Big Boys are plenty for me. (Can you tell that the Mikado is my favorite wheel arrangement?) It would be a real shame to me if any of those (especially the K4s) were extinct, along with the N&W 611, etc.
 
That's a quite difficult question to answer as the UK has a lot of preserved engines of almost every class; http://www.onlineweb.com/rail/locomotive_listing.htm

Although I would've liked to have seen this bad boy preserved.
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Big Bertha, an LMS Fowler 0-10-0, specially built for banking heavy freight trains on the Lickey Incline.


I would've said the original LNER Gresley P2 Mikado as well, but No. 2007 Prince of Wales is due to be finished by 2021, so that makes that irrelevant.
 
Since the UK does have a whole bunch preserved, I am not sure... maybe an original A1 Peppercorn. But I mean we do have the Tornado now and that's an A1...
 
Ironically the best thing that happened to the UK was the nationalization of the "Big 4" into BR. By doing that, there was such a mass of locos and stock, they solely focused on scrapping stock for the most part (quicker to cut up and get money). Because of that, a lot of locos were saved, not every loco, but a lot of them. Sadly, that never happened here. Steam could and should have lived on into the 60's here, had it had, a lot more would have been saved. Look at the DRGW narrow gauge locos. Ran revenue freights up to 1970, and a lot was able to be saved if not everything that was still running.
 
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Two things wrong with this:
1) This train should be in mainline service, not just special shows. People love her
2) WHY THE HELL DOES IT NOT HAVE ITS ORIGINAL RUNNING NUMBER? This bugs me about a number of restored trains. #4472! Not #60103, that number means nothing!

Apart from that, I have been waiting for this! Hopefully I will get a chance to see it around.
 
ECGadget
Two things wrong with this:
1) This train should be in mainline service, not just special shows. People love her
2) WHY THE HELL DOES IT NOT HAVE ITS ORIGINAL RUNNING NUMBER? This bugs me about a number of restored trains. #4472! Not #60103, that number means nothing!

Apart from that, I have been waiting for this! Hopefully I will get a chance to see it around.
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Actually I just noticed that....why the hell is it 60103? :odd: I know during the war she wore 47, but this is weird.
 
ECGadget
Two things wrong with this:
1) This train should be in mainline service, not just special shows. People love her
2) WHY THE HELL DOES IT NOT HAVE ITS ORIGINAL RUNNING NUMBER? This bugs me about a number of restored trains. #4472! Not #60103, that number means nothing!

Apart from that, I have been waiting for this! Hopefully I will get a chance to see it around.
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catamount39
Actually I just noticed that....why the hell is it 60103? :odd: I know during the war she wore 47, but this is weird.
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It ran 60103 following the nationalisation of the Big 4 not long after WW2 until it was retired from service in 1963. It also briefly ran that scheme from 1993 to 1995.
 
AudiMan2011
It ran 60103 following the nationalisation of the Big 4 not long after WW2 until it was retired from service in 1963. It also briefly ran that scheme from 1993 to 1995.
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I know why it is running it but I don't know WHY, if you understand what I am blabbering about xD
I would love to see it in the LNER scheme. I know the Gresley has it too, which bugs me too.
Shouldn't be hard to keep original numbers with old designations under LNER, LMS, GWR etc, for certain trains. Mallard still sits with its number, as does Bittern I believe and a number of others. Granted, they don't really run but still...
/rant xD
 

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