Well I never ceased to be shocked.....

[Anonymous]

Here i was driving around town today, approached a set of rails, and low and behold the lights start flashing. Here i'm thinking yea right, probably the wet weather again (Note that you hardely ever see trains in the day here, and that most crossing signals short when wet).

But being that a car is in front of me, i sit idlely and wait. I didn't have to wait long, for from behind the trees comes a nice Blue (looks freshly painted) Loco with a broad yellow strip belonging to the Iowa Chicago & Eastern. but wait, he pulls forward and there's another one Multied to him (an even rarer sight here).

So Here I am looking at this shiny clean engine, pulling a dirty old one (it had a name, "City of P..." Not sure what city, it started with a P though, was short). So I start getting excited, looks like along train is coming through. then i realize, My Canmera is at home, so no pics. I scramble around the car to find something tio write down the numbers, nothing in the car.

30 cars later, the train finally ends, i sigh realizing it was a short one. But it was nice to see a train again, only other time i can see one is when it's the middle of the night, seems that's when they all roll through town now.

Just thought i'd share this strange story with you all [8D]

Jay.

[Anonymous]

When it comes to train watching I'm just very lucky. The company I work for is located less than a mile from one of the BNSF's minor yards here in Washington, so I see trains petty much all day long. Most of the trains are Intermodal (a great deal of both well and spine cars), Auto Rack trains, covered hoppers in unit trains, some mixed freight, and even maintenance trains. There's also plenty of Amtrak and the local Sounder (commuter train) going through too.

I lived about 5 minutes from the BNSF and UP main lines that run here and they are close enough together that in the right spot you can watch both at the same time ;)

If I'm feeling more ambitious, it's about a 15 min drive to see all the dock intermodal dock operations downtown. Always fun to watch. The steal mill is generally entertaining too.

Warren

[Jetrock]

Trains are an everyday thing here--we live at the nexus of two major rail lines (former SP and WP, now both UP but still heavily traveled.) The old WP main goes straight through town and stops traffic several times a day, plus there's a light rail line, which may not seem like "real trains" but for trolley nuts it's okay. The Sacramento yard is gone but we still have the passenger station and lots of through freight, and some freight is still switched downtown. If I want to see more I can drive out to Roseville to see the Roseville Yard, or across the river to the Port of Sacramento--and then, of course, there's the railroad museum.

[Hawks05]

i know your feeling NTDN. when i was little there would be like 10 trains a day go through. now there is maybe 1 every other day during the day. usually at night, well after dark anyways we have 3-4 go through. the other night it seemed like an enternity because the whistles blew then all i could here were the clanks of the wheels and i was trying to get to sleep because it was midnight. i live about 3 blocks from the tracks. its nice during school though to look out the window and see a train go by. usually around noon or so one goes past. i wish i could take pictures at school.

[Anonymous]

My old schools play ground was right next to the mail line tracks of the Grand Rapids Eastern Railroad. Everytime I went out for recess I saw a train! I was lucky...........