What's your favorite railroad spot or railroad line?

[JanOlov]

Mine is the Milwaukee Road's pacific extension. Just love all those trestles and tunnels.[:D][8D]

[Anonymous]

Zoo Interlocking in Philly.

[Anonymous]

Norfolk Southern's W line, especially the portion that parallels the Broad River. The scenery is gorgeous but hard to get to unless you're on a train. South Carolina re-introduced bald eagles near Parr Shoals and they put on quite a show for the train crews lucky enough to be on duty during daylight hours.

[andrechapelon]

Tehachapi Loop.

Andre

[PBenham]

All time? Bellows Falls, VT where the CV/B&M crossed the Green Mountain (nee Rutland) has to rank up there. Then there's The former Station Mall in Altoona PA, which is now a medical center, where one can watch the old PRR main where NS DASH9s do almost all of the lead work and ex-Conrail SD40-2s push on most trains! Finally, despite it being illegal to be there in the idiotic non-minds of the [:o)]Buffalo NY Police[V][D)] ("Broadway", to the railroaders), Old Broadway off the intersection of Broadway and North Odgen in Buffalo,NY sees a ton of rail action. I spend inordinate amounts of time there and 98% of the people I meet there have no problem with my being there![;)] That having been said, there is that other 2%[:o)][B)][X-)][*^_^*]. CSX has the occasional crew change there and there's yard action in the west end of Frontier yard's south side. How about 20 (Monday) to 35 (Thursday) trains in daylight? Amtrak is there, too,-for now! Two eastbounds and one westbound in daylight at this time of the year.(286 M-SA,64 Daily, 63 Daily, 288 SU/ major holidays)

[Anonymous]

Milwaukee road pacific extension even though I was 9 years after the last train departed tacoma. The last over the Pacific Extension departed at 10:26 PM March 15, 1980

[kevikens]

Rdg Anthracite: Zoo is very busy but tough to rail fan. Where do you park and view from ?

[Anonymous]

It used to be the Pennsylvania RR, and the embankment above the 4 track main between Phila. and Paoli just east of the Narberth train station. Now I enjoy CSX trains at the old station in Palmer, Massachusetts when I'm home. Another favorite is in Durand, Michigan. There's a double diamond at the station there and I believe the traffic is predominantly CN, Illinois Central and Grand Trunk.

[Anonymous]

Wichita,KS at 13th & Santa Fe st at mp 210.8 on the BNSF (ex SF) Ark City sub. This is where I grew up from the preiod 1965-1972 and have many enjoyable memories of the SantaFe passing by the house.

[TheS.P.caboose]

For me, it's a tie between Mojave, CA and Santa Barbara, CA.

[andrechapelon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheS.P.caboose

For me, it's a tie between Mojave, CA and Santa Barbara, CA.

Incidentally, there's a Motel 6 right across the highway from the tracks at the northern end of Mojave. Get a 2nd floor room on the track side for the best view.

Andre

[cnw4001]

Hard to pick a favorite.

Among strong contenders,
Cassandara PA
Gallitizin PA
Altoona PA
Cumberland MD
Conway PA
Alliance OH
Berea OH

All within three hours driving time and all see lots of traffic.

A bit further away
Newtonville Ontario
Bayview Junction Ontario
Skywalk at Toronto Union Station
Rochelle IL

Even further away
Clapham Junction Station London

[Anonymous]

[:)]My Favorite line is the NS Chicago to Toledo line, specficly at either Waterloo
or Butler Indiana. especially since the building of the new wye at Butler which allows W.B. NS trains to run from the Detroit to Fort Wayne line onto the W.B.
line to Chicago. as this is the route that CP uses instead of CSX and if your listening to the scanner how you tell if you have a CP train approaching is the
the train number, all CP's have a letter R behind the number.
My next favorite spots are Deshler Ohio, Fostoria Ohio,Toledo ohio.

[Anonymous]

Roosevelt Road Bridge, Chicago

[cnw4001]

QUOTE: Originally posted by guinsPen

Roosevelt Road Bridge, Chicago

That would indeed be a great place and even better, I think would be the Chicago Railroad Club's overlook of the same area. I've not actually been there but have seen photos and can imagine how great it would be to watch the trains from the indoor location year round.

This thought brings to mind another favorite of mine, the Cincinnati Railroad Club's Tower A location in Cincinnati Union Terminal. The former control point for CUT is now operated by the club and overlooks 99% of the rail traffic to/from Cincinnati.

[littleboom]

I know this sounds generic, but I love Horseshoe Curve at Altoona PA. Tons of trains to gawk at and there's a neat museum and stuff for the kids(and some of us adults).

Mike

p.s. There's also the Altoona railroaders museum for the rainy days [8)]

[Anonymous]

It's gotta be the Rio Grande Southern. Besides my Grandad being an engineer on it, it was such a underdog railroad with great souls keeping it going. Plus it was in a really pretty area with really great engineering![:)]

[Anonymous]

Anywhere along Marias Pass.

[Poppa_Zit]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnw4001

QUOTE: Originally posted by guinsPen

Roosevelt Road Bridge, Chicago

That would indeed be a great place and even better, I think would be the Chicago Railroad Club's overlook of the same area. I've not actually been there but have seen photos and can imagine how great it would be to watch the trains from the indoor location year round.

The 20th Century Railroad Club ended its lease on that space about two years ago. Shame.

[Train 284]

My favorite railroad is definitly Southern Pacific. Cab Forewards, Daylight, Pacifics, can;t beat it!

[penncentral2002]

Perhaps the best place I've been is Bluefield, WV - the Norfolk Southern has the Bluefield Locomotive Shops, a major freight yard, and a busy line for the coal trains - all within easy view of U.S. 19 with free parking available right across from the locomotive shops.

Downtown Roanoke is quite good as well - again, you have the major Norfolk Southern Shops (the freight yard and addtional shops are a bit further north), and its right on the main line so it has lots of through traffic. Plus you have the Virginia Museum of Transportation right there which has a pretty decent train collection.

Another good spot I've been to is Aberdeen, Maryland where the Northeast Corridor crossing the Susquehena River - some good river crossing views of a busy line.

[stevechurch2222]

Mine is the Iowa Division of the Milwaukee Road,now long gone.I remember trains in Perry and Madrid back in the late 70's to 1980 just before the shutdown. Steve Church Milaukee Road Iowa Division

[steamfanatic]

Sand Patch and Latrobe PA.

[passengerfan]

I'm lucky being within just a few hours of the Coast Line, Tehachapi, Cajon, Donner and the Feather River. And even luckier that I am going to spend some time with my new Canon Rebel at each of these locations this summer.  

TTFN

[jayhawkden]

along the levee in Lawrence, KS 1 UP train every 10 minutes all day and night, and the BNSF runs 1 train every 2 hours plus Amtrak  trains 3&4.  Don Ball liked it too.  I also like the area in the West Bottoms in Kansas City at 10th and Genessee and under the 12th street bridge with the KCT's offices

[Tom Curtin]

Always my favorite: The ex New Haven 4-track electrified line west of New Haven.

[switch7frg]

 My spot was the Pennsy steep grade from Linden av. to Smithville rd.in Dayton Ohio. The stall point was Klee av.on that grade. A trip to the call box for a pusher was a nice time to chat with the fireman.

[daveklepper]

East coast stuff: 

For passenger trains:   Harrison PATH (ex-Pennsy "H&M through service") NJ station, easy access, no hasle, all the variety of equipment on the NE Corridor, including some diesel trains headed to Hoboken and the NJT  "Manhattan-Transfer" area yard.   Subway-type equipment on PATH, NJT mu's ("Jersey Arrows"), push-pull electrics, Amfleet with AEM-7's and the Bombardier power, also with Horizen sleepers, NJT double-deckers, Acela.

South end of the 125th Street platforms on Metro North with all the variety of Metro North equipment and the skyscraper background.

Banerman's Island for views of the Hudson Division, Amtrak and Metro North and a rare freight.  Freight on the CSX River Line across the Hudson. 

For freight, west portal of State LIne Tunnel on the Boston and Albany of CSX, plus one Amtrak each way each day.  

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I have a few:

In my formative years, my favorite spot was Hammond Crossing, where the IHB crossed the N&W, EL/C&O and MON.  There was rarely an extended down period.  My current favorite is Blue Island Junction, lots of variety and very accessible.

Away from home, my favorite would be Jamaica on LIRR.  I spent an entire day in 1982 shooting pictures and just watching.  Not a lot of variety but I've always enjoyed suburban operations.

[binder001]

Union Pacific from WW2 to the present, especially the old Eastern District.  Being from Nebraska I tend to like watching the trains in eastern NE and northeastern KS.

 Gary