Freight Train Schedule ? (for railfanning)

[Train1725]

Greetings,

How do i find out when a freight train is scheduled to come to town ?

I live in Mansfield MA and my 3yr old daughter and I love seeing the trains along the Boston to New York line. Now, i can always find out when an Aclea (the fast train) or a Commuter rail (the purple train) is schedule. But theres is a bit of freight service to various industries in the town. How do i go about finding out when the freight train (slow train)is scheduled? I really want to show her the switching at the factory. Thanks to the Thomas the Tank stories, she thinks every freight car holds ice cream !

Thanks for any help

[Anonymous]

Unless you are lucky most freight will probably move at night in an urban corridor.
A lot of freight (switching) happens "as required".
You have a great opportunity to teach your daughter to be safe around trains... may seem over-the-top but if she learns once she will stay safe - "get 'em young"!
You need to stay safe and legal around switch movements... both to stay safe and to stay popular with switch crews... stay popular and they will tell you when they are around... may even phone you to tell you when they are in town if they get to really like you... let them get the idea... they have work to do (but we can all be friendly with the right encouragement).
You might even get help from the factory with the right positive/safety conscious approach.
If you can afford it get a scanner... you'll know everything that's going on and where then. This will be a great toy for both you and your daughter. (Someone tell us the frequencies for this area please???)

If you know the RR you could try writing/e mailing their PR dept and/or their "Operation Life Saver" to get their advice on safe railfanning, train times and maybe trade some good-will/PR with the community... maybe help them get a link with your local school(s)... maybe that's in a couple of years... Little girls can be great copy for local papers and good PR... (Let them think of it and with enough good will you might (that's MIGHT ) get a cab ride...

You mean they don't all contain ice cream?![:O]

[Train1725]

Thanks for the tips. We often wait at the station for trains to pass and she already knows about the "Yellow Line" and i even tell her to keep her toys/dolls of of her Thomas tracks ! But you can never be too safe, so i guess calling Operation Lifesaver would be a good start.

I've seen freight trains mostly in the late morning, around 10am so this seems like a great opportunity. Also seems like theres a lot of sidings in Mansfield. I believe it was once a junction(?) between to RR's. Old maps even show a roundhouse and a substantial yard.

[Anonymous]

Watch while people go green!

If you post some fairly specific questions here you will probably get answers pretty fast.

Try RR through Mansfield? ... that way you'll find which other Mansfields had RR through them!

You might also feed back by going to Q's like the one about switchers and commenting on what locos you see switching.

Glad to hear you're keeping Thomas safe!

[tjsmrinfo]

heres the website for Operation Lifesaver www.ols.org. My girlfriend lives in Hyde Park and hrides the purple line to and from work. Plus she has the tracks right out her backdoor.

Tom