So... where is your fav. train watching spot?

[RobertF]

So, back when I lived in Naperville, IL. the local Metra/Amtrak station was a great place to watch the trains. The BNSF freights would be running though there full bore and you could just FEEL the power. Used to play hookey from church once in a while to watch Amtrak slide in if it was on time... (don't tell my wife!)

Now, I live in Utah... there is this nice spot that is very remote and a great view of the tracks. Not nearly as much traffic though, which is a shame.

So, where is your favorite train watching spot and why?

 

[p&sr]

So, where is your favorite train watching spot and why?

My home station, Martinez CA. More Amtrak arrivals & departures than anyplace west of Chicago! And on the UP Mainline for freight traffic as well.

Besides watching from the station platform, you can walk out into the adjacent Shoreline Park. From there, you can look west to see the trains winding along the edge of Carquinez Straits and into the UP yards. And to the east you can watch them cross the 1930 RailRoad drawbridge... the longest and heaviest double track railroad bridge west of the Mississippi.

 

[AlanB]

Not that I make a habit out of going to watch trains, sorry guys but I'd much rather just be on one. But if I were to go watch, my favorite spot would be the rooftop parking lot of the local supermarket where I go shopping. One can park one's car right on the rooftop, sit in it and look out over the split between the LIRR mainline to Jamaica and Amtrak's route to the Hell Gate Bridge and Boston.

During rush hour, one can easily watch at least 50+ trains roll by.

 

[printman2000]

No passenger service here in Amarillo. <_<

Not too interested in watching freights. When Amtrak did reroute through here one winter, I was out watching every day. I picked a spot outside of town on the BNSF transcon and followed them through town, including a stop at the BNSF station for a crew change.

 

[RobertF]

No passenger service here in Amarillo. <_<
Not too interested in watching freights. When Amtrak did reroute through here one winter, I was out watching every day. I picked a spot outside of town on the BNSF transcon and followed them through town, including a stop at the BNSF station for a crew change.

I love freights.... the sound of 2-3 or more engines passing by at high speed... Listening to them as they start to accelerate...

the sound of the cars as they roll by...

There is one spot here in SLC where I watch that the ground literally shakes when the trains pass by!

 

[gswager]

My 2nd favorite watching mobile spot is driving on the bridge over the railroad track which is Transcon and Clovis railyard. My best mobile watching spot is stopping at any railroad crossing with guards down.

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

In a bass boat on the Coosa River under the Riverside Railroad bridge in Riverside, AL. You can watch the trains, then catch a fish in between.

 

[MrFSS]

I don't live anywhere near an Amtrak route and only close to one freight line. But, we do have the headquarters of R J Corman Company in the area and I stop by to see what they have in the yards now and then.

Caught this sight a few days ago.

I guess you never know what you might find.

 

[Milwaukee Road]

Foxbrook Park, Brookfield, WI. There's a lake with a walking path around it that's about a mile long. Twice a day Amtrak goes through. I get my exercise and get to see the EB.

 

[frj1983]

I don't live anywhere near an Amtrak route and only close to one freight line. But, we do have the headquarters of R J Corman Company in the area and I stop by to see what they have in the yards now and then.
Caught this sight a few days ago.

I guess you never know what you might find.

Cool picture MrFSS,

If I remember right, that's one of the Chinese Steam engines Corman recently bought!

 

[saxman]

Dallas Union Station is a good spot. With DART, TRE, Amtrak, and several freights that pass by, its a good, and right in a nice part of town. Sometimes, good train spots, aren't always the best place to leave your vehicle. And pretty much all over Fort Worth, especially near the old Tower 55. Now that a huge new freeway interchange is right over Tower 55, I try to catch a glimpse when driving over the tracks. I've been really tempted to pull over just to watch from the bridges. I wonder how fast a trooper would be asking me why I'm pulled over on the freeway ramps, with a camera taking pictures. I can alway pretend I have a flat.

 

[cfbush2000]

I live 30 yards from the tracks, and 30 yards from an Amtrak station that closed the year before I moved in. Now I drive 30 miles to board Amtrak.

I can watch trains from my bedroom window. Amtrak goes east at 1 AM and west at 5 AM so it is usually dark. I will be going west on the 26th of this month, so I will drive 30 miles east and see my house as we go by.

Chuck

 

[RobertF]

I live 30 yards from the tracks, and 30 yards from an Amtrak station that closed the year before I moved in. Now I drive 30 miles to board Amtrak.I can watch trains from my bedroom window. Amtrak goes east at 1 AM and west at 5 AM so it is usually dark. I will be going west on the 26th of this month, so I will drive 30 miles east and see my house as we go by.

Chuck

LUCKYYYYY!!!

 

[printman2000]

I live 30 yards from the tracks, and 30 yards from an Amtrak station that closed the year before I moved in. Now I drive 30 miles to board Amtrak.I can watch trains from my bedroom window. Amtrak goes east at 1 AM and west at 5 AM so it is usually dark. I will be going west on the 26th of this month, so I will drive 30 miles east and see my house as we go by.

Chuck

What town are you in that they shut down the station? What station do you now have to drive to?

 

[the_traveler]

My favorite spot is at the KIN station. Regionals stop there an average of once every 2 hours each way. And because the AE does not stop at KIN, but within a mile or so north of the station is a 150 MPH stretch, AE regularly pass through KIN at 110-130 MPH! B)

I may be prejudiced, but I think KIN is one of the most stations & grounds in the country!

 

[cfbush2000]

I live 30 yards from the tracks, and 30 yards from an Amtrak station that closed the year before I moved in. Now I drive 30 miles to board Amtrak.I can watch trains from my bedroom window. Amtrak goes east at 1 AM and west at 5 AM so it is usually dark. I will be going west on the 26th of this month, so I will drive 30 miles east and see my house as we go by.

Chuck

What town are you in that they shut down the station? What station do you now have to drive to?

I live in Larimore, ND (the station was closed over 20 years ago, shortly before I moved here), and I drive to Grand Forks, ND.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Newark Penn Station is my favourite. Its a beautiful building, there are plenty of food options, the platforms are open access, and it is served by hundreds of trains a day- including 10 or 11 long distance trains, 6 or 8 of them with sleepers.

 

[jis]

1. Bedroom window - The NJT Morristown Line goes by a little distance away. Fun to watch those ALP-46's shoving 10 multi-level cars up the Summit ramp.

2. Metropark station - nice 90mph action on the center tracks, trains leaning into the curve as they go by, Acela's even more so.

3. Princeton Jct. - nice 135mph action on the center tracks.

 

[abqdave]

My favorite place is actually Youtube. I love seeing the different types of trains, streetcars and light rail systems all over the world.

My favorite 'real' place is from I-40 west of Albuquerque. The bright orange BNSF trains shine against our usually bright blue skies, the ground next to the tracks is the stereotypical southwest...green scrub brush and cactus, black lava rock, and reddish rock escarpment/hills all around. It is a quite a beautiful mix of colors and of nature vs. man. The BNSF trains are incredibly long, and there are lots of them, but you are watching from someplace that (other than the highway and tracks) mostly has never been built on by man.

I also like the ABQ rail yard. It is alot like New Mexico in general...a mix of old unused buildings that are still beautiful and new or rehabilitated buildings that pay homage to the past. The NM Railrunner trains (which have a big red RoadRunner bird painted on the sides of the locomotives with long tails going down each passenger coach) look great and are quite a contrast when going past the old Santa Fe RR machine shop building, which is huge, dark and lots of glass on the sides (not broken, amazingly)...it looks something from a time warp from the WWII era.

 

[gswager]

The NM Railrunner trains (which have a big red RoadRunner bird painted on the sides of the locomotives with long tails going down each passenger coach) look great and are quite a contrast when going past the old Santa Fe RR machine shop building, which is huge, dark and lots of glass on the sides (not broken, amazingly)...it looks something from a time warp from the WWII era.

Yup, I keep seeing that building whenever I ride on train- RailRunner or Southwest Chief through the ABQ yard. It has a lot of history- roundtable, long table with rails that can slide sideways to one of many bays. I think that building had saved a lot of electricity to allow natural light into the huge shop.

 

[JayPea]

The best train watching spot for me used to be my front room; a branch line runs less than 50 feet from my front door. Unfortunately, since a fire a couple of years ago burned a trestle a couple of miles away, and the trestle hasn't been rebuilt, no trains run on this particular portion of the line now. The best spot, now, I guess, is out my mom's back window, when I'm at her house; this same branch line still runs past her back yard.

Spokane has a lot of opportunities for train watching, at least as far as freights go, as 70 or so trains a day run through the city. Unfortunately, Spokane is an hour away; that's a lot of running around just to watch trains (though I've done it a few times before!!!) As for Amtrak viewing, forget it. With the ungodly hours the Empire Builder runs in and out of Spokane, if you want to see it in daylight, you're required to drive AT LEAST 2 1/2 to 3 hours, and that's when the daylight is the longest. Last summer, though, I caught a big break: I drove to a usually busy crossing near the town of Ritzville, 70 miles from here, to film some of the BNSF freights that run through there. (70 miles just to watch trains. Is that dedicated or what??? :lol: ) At any rate, I waited at that crossing for over an hour, in the dust and the wind, wondering all the while what was going on, as trains usually run through there at a rate of one every half hour to 45 minutes or so. Finally, on the horizon, the headlights of an approaching train appeared. And, lo and behold! it was a passenger train. Not Amtrak, but a BNSF excursion of some sort, on its way to either Portland or Seattle via Stampede Pass. Apparently, that passenger train had bottled up freight traffic, because just as I was starting to my car, another set of headlights appeared, and this time a freight came through. And not one minute after I'd filmed that one, and had gotten in my car and started back home, ANOTHER BNSF freight appeared. So, after waiting for over an hour waiting for trains, three had appeared in the space of just a few minutes. And on the journey back home, I followed the BNSF main line for 15 miles or so. And I encountered several more trains along the way. With the price of gas, I don't think I'll be driving 100-150 miles every day just to watch and photograph trains, but it was well worth it this day.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I'd love to find a home near a rail-line.

 

[BobWeaver]

As far as southeast railfanning goes, Folkston GA is my top pick for sure.

 

[the_traveler]

The best I can do is that the South County Bike Trail begins/ends at the KIN station. Thus I try to time my walks to either begin (or end) near train time! :lol: (Sometimes both! :lol: )

I really like to time my walk to be at KIN at 6:37 PM, when a southbound Regional stops and a northbound AE goes through at 130 MPH! B)

 

[RailFanLNK]

The most "comfortable" is in the seat of my delivery truck. I have to cross the mainline to get to work, then proceed acrossed the mainline in my delivery truck, then back to the center at night to return my truck and cross over the mainline again and then back over it again going home. Nothing stinks more than when I see the #6 go by. (that means its about 4-5 hours late) Even though I enjoy seeing the CZ.