What's your favorite railroad spot or railroad line?

[Great Western]

I am totally biased of course but the seven miles from Paignton to Kinswear (opposite the ancient Port of Dartmouth) tales some beating.  For the first part of the jouney to the iintermediate summit station of Churston (where I am often to be found) countryside and sea are the views.  The drop down to river level is again countryside, woods and a very beautiful river and estuary.

Incidentally the train passes in a tunnel beneath the home of the late Agatha Christie of "who dunnit fame".

[Fadingechos]

My Favorite railroad spot is Station Road right here at home.

 http://s333.photobucket.com/albums/m388/class_for_cats/?action=view&current=HPIM2394.jpg

The tracks have been removed and the.  Trains never leaves town.

[Los Angeles Rams Guy]

My favs:

(1) By far and away the former MILW mainline between Samoa (Sabula, IA.) and River Jct. (La Crescent, MN.) now belonging to the ICE and soon to become part of my employer, Canadian Pacific, again.  The River running and street running in both Bellvue and Lansing are awesome and the little River hamlets are neat as well.

(2) The CN's Iowa Division (ex IC/ICG/CC) between Dubuque and Waterloo but also like NW Illinois as well.

(3) The UP's (ex-CNW) "Overland Route" mainline and the CN's Iowa Division mainline between Denison and Missouri Valley/Council Bluffs that parallel each other.     

[nickinwestwales]

Al-Hi !-Right,slightly weird description ,but roll with me here-looking at a map of Britain try and see it as somebody sitting in an armchair seen from the left in profile--still with me ??-well Devon is the bit between the waist and the knees,more or less-has both N&S facing coastlines with some fairly bleak moorland between-Dawlish is on the south coast,between Exeter & Plymouth--well worth a visit if you are ever over here A.T.B Nick

[al-in-chgo]

Plenty of good spots in the old country-what do you want ?-Dawlish in Devon where you can do your spotting lounging on the beach or eating an ice-cream on a bench on the sea-wall img{}/img Or perhaps North Wales where they have gorgeous little steam engines winding through the trees... img{}/img My favourite would have to be:-anywhere in Ireland,50 years ago img{}/img Well-it works for me............... A.T.B  Nick

Please remind me what side of the Isle Devon is on?    - a.s.

 

[Packers#1]

Nick:

lol, I have both Welsh and Irish blood in me.

[nickinwestwales]

Plenty of good spots in the old country-what do you want ?-Dawlish in Devon where you can do your spotting lounging on the beach or eating an ice-cream on a bench on the sea-wall img{}/img Or perhaps North Wales where they have gorgeous little steam engines winding through the trees... img{}/img My favourite would have to be:-anywhere in Ireland,50 years ago img{}/img Well-it works for me............... A.T.B  Nick

[Great Western]

Mine is the Milwaukee Road's pacific extension. Just love all those trestles and tunnels.

 

I agree and would have loved to see The Little Joe's at work  

 

[dorfantiques]

The stretch of former RF&P (now CSX) between Doswell and Ashland, VA. Constant action with CSX, some NS and Buckingham Branch (at Doswell), Amtrak and Auto Train. You basically cannot run the two mile stretch between the north end of Ashland at Randolph-Macon College and the small Baptist Church at the south end of town without seeing a new headlight. The old RF&P Main Line splits Main Street down the middle, and the station and interlocking tower (now o/s) at Doswell make this area a real winner. Would be a shame if the plans ever come to fruition to reroute traffic over the old C&O between Doswell and Richmond, thereby bypassing this bit of interesting trackage.  

[Packers#1]

There's this one spot in downtown aiken. It is basically this huge hill that the Railroad just cut straight through. Let's put it this way: I think the land extends past the top of GP50 on the rails. There are several bridges over it, and the first one (which we just so happen to drive over to get to school) Is this wierd one. It rises, tops flat, then falls down. let em go to paint real quick and make a schematic of it.

Rough sketch of bridge:

[al-in-chgo]

I guess the Folkston Funnel in extreme southeastern Georgia.  Almost always very busy with freight of all kinds, even manifest, and gets three Amtraks a day:  Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and AutoTrain.  Also Tropicana (fresh orange) juice train, though I've yet to see it myself. 

 

[bigboy50]

I would say the New York Central's water level route. Well, I guess maybe we should call it Amtrak's water level route now.

[southpennrailroad]

 
The South Pennsylvania Railroad and a great exploration access for me is on the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Latrobe, and Connellsville and even Ohio Pyle and Confluence. For a railroad that was never completed it is my only interest as to how this line would have impacted our area. I often tell others had it been completed I would have no interest in railroads at all. With all the detailed maps I have I have been exploring this route for the past 14 years looking for all things drawn on them. This includes farm houses, barns, creeks, bridges, tunnels and all things drawn by the railroad on their maps.

 

This link on trains shows a lot of what I have been doing. enjoy. It begins as a topic of one thing but eventually gets into the South Penn moderator Ok'ed the hijack as this is part of the beginning opening but was worth the stay and change by him to a different topic but slightly relaited. 

 

http://cs.trains.com/forums/1/783723/ShowPost.aspx#783723 

[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

[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.

[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.  

[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.

[Tom Curtin]

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

[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

[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

[steamfanatic]

Sand Patch and Latrobe PA.

[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

[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.

[Train 284]

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

[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.

[Anonymous]

Anywhere along Marias Pass.

[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![:)]

[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)]

[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.