How close do you live to the tracks?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

Used to live about a block away from the old Santa Fe ROW thru downtown Pasadena. But that got shut down about 6 years ago to make way for the Metrorail Gold line light rail system. Now I'm about 10 miles from the nearest tracks (SP ROW thru the San Fernando valley) and they are not in the best parts of town, so no viewing without an AK-47 at your side.

I don't need to carry any guns, I just take Duchess with me. Funny noone even thinks about giving me a hard time. And what is more funny than that is the fact she is about 15 months old and still very much a puppy at heart. She would rather play with someone than bite them. She does play real rought, scratching and nipping. Just about 2 nights ago she tore my shirt while I was typing at the computer. She thinks I should spend that time with her and not the computer. She really loves to go for a ride so what little railfanning I do she gets to go.

[Modelcar]

....Railroads in our fair city of Muncie branch out in many directions....In from the northwest: N S....In from the north: N S....In from the northeast: N S....In from the east: CSX....In from the south: N S.....In from the west: CSX....and I'm within 3/4 mi. of N S and about 2 mi to closest CSX......These are class one main line type lines. In the past we had Amtrak through here on former Cheasepeake and Ohio and later CSX and now the Cardinal Greenway Trail...[with a beautiful Depot being totally restored], and it will be the Trail Head....To be finished in about a month.
In Pennsylvania, my home state and when growing up had the B & O branch, the Somerset and Cambria coal hauler...and haul coal they did and up steep grades to drag coal out each day...with steamers both pulling and pushing....[Up to 3% grades].

Silvio510....Have located on the street bridge there in Gallitzin and looked into the tunnels and photographed much in that area several times...Just now looked at the Photo gallery you mention...Looks like an interesting collection of photos of the area...Will get back to them and do some more looking.....Wondering if at any time you can feel any vibrations from the trains passing under your property or is the cover too much to feel or hear it....? I've been through those tunnels several times in the past on the Pennsylvania and later on Amtrak. A very interesting area.

[Anonymous]

The house I grew up in was about 200 feet away from the Grand Trunk Western - Holly subdivision. The place is called Andersonville, and it is the first siding West (really North on the map, all GTW tracks run east/west even though they may point north/south) of the yard in Pontiac, Michigan. There is also a short repair track there. After I bought the property from my father, I built a new house and demolished the old one. The new house is about 70 feet closer to the track, and the "front" of the house faces the rails. I have a good view of the tracks from the dining room, living room, and master bedroom, as well as all of the upstairs rooms. I even keep a ladder by one of the basement windows, so I can "prarie dog" and pop up to see what is rolling by while I'm down there. Next spring I get to remove some brush and bushes to expand my field of view.

Admiral

[techguy57]

I'm in the process of moving, and the new house is about 100 yards as the crow flies from the UP/Northwest line that runs from Chicago to Rockford. Most of the traffic is METRA but there is also a lot of auto train traffic from the auto plant in Belvidere.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

Used to live about a block away from the old Santa Fe ROW thru downtown Pasadena. But that got shut down about 6 years ago to make way for the Metrorail Gold line light rail system. Now I'm about 10 miles from the nearest tracks (SP ROW thru the San Fernando valley) and they are not in the best parts of town, so no viewing without an AK-47 at your side.

How far are you from West Colton?? Isn't that a good spot?? [:D]

[tree68]

13 miles from the CSX Montreal Secondary through Jefferson County, NY. Cross same to and from work each day, and work less than a mile from a power plant, so can get a quick rail fix anytime CSX delivers or picks up, or the plant switcher is moving hoppers for unloading.

Grew up about a mile from the CSX (then C&O) Saginaw Sub in Milford, MI - 2 miles, 4 crossings, constant horn. Used to swim occasionally from "the arch" - the 1888 railroad bridge over the Huron River.

[Anonymous]

I live about 10 miles north of the former UP (ex-MP) mainline and 17 miles west of the Gateway Arch outside of St. Louis, MO. The BNSF (ex-Frisco) mainline is about 1/2 mile south of that. I grew up in northeastern New Jersey about 100 ft. from the NYC West Shore line just north of milepost 16. The Erie Lackawanna's Northern Branch was about two miles east.

[Modelcar]

....Silvio510: Went back and scanned a better look at the Galleries of photos from Gallitzin and even down into Johnstown. Much enjoyed as I'm a native of nearby Somerset County and I'm familiar with much of what the photos depict.

[CShaveRR]

Techguy57,

Let me offer a correction, without name-calling or rancor:

If your new home is along the Northwest Line, those autos and auto parts aren't for Belvidere. They're for GM at Janesville, Wisconsin.

Cars for Belvidere leave the West Line at West Chicago; that line runs through Elgin, Union, and Belvidere to Rockford and has no Metra trains (yet!).

The Northwest Line runs through towns like Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Palatine, Barrington, Crystal Lake, and Harvard, then on up to Janesville. It used to go on to Madison and the Twin Cities, but UP has sold off everything beyond Janesville.

Good luck on your move!

[Anonymous]

Modelcar........ This is a great area, It is good to know someone who has experianced this. Very hard to describe to someone who has not been here. Those photos are not mine, I found them on that great yahoo site about Central PA railfaning. I have been filming trains for over a year now, And have quite a gallery. If your ever in the area let me know, I live atop the tunnels in a little convience store. I have felt the trains, mostly just entering and exiting the tunnels though, not ever while they were in them, too much earth I think. Standing above the double track tunnel down on the east end, you can however feel the trains coming, it is very interesting how the tunnel acts as a bass tube when there is a train in it. The Locomotives can play games with your mind living up here on this hill, sometimes I race down the mountain to verify what tunnel is being used, and usually it is both.

[CP5415]

About a kilometer from CP's Belleville sub another kilometer to CN's Kingston sub here in Oshawa..

Gordon

[Modelcar]

Silvio510....Fair enough, as we do get in the area several times a year..[Somerset, Somerset Co]...and I'm about due for another visit to the tunnels and maybe Horseshoe on the next visit and we'll keep your location in mind. You sure live in a unique location to have a railroad interest. It sure is right at your fingertips. My first trip through the tunnels was 1942...and I don't know which one we would have been using at that tiime. I suppose Allegheny one way. I believe Portage is the one they used when they went down through the Muleshoe route.....Again, a very interesting area. Thanks for the response.

[Nora]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Silvio510

I live directly above the former PRR, Penn Central, and Conrail- currently NS mainline between Altoona and Cresson, PA, Close to horseshoe curve. I reside above The Gallitzin Tunnels, exactly in the middle of them.

That's neat -- I take my kids to Gallitzin to see the tunnels and the trains now and again. Usually when my husband has to get something done and needs several hours to do it; we live about 2 hours away, maybe a little further since we moved.

While we were busy moving a couple weeks ago I took the boys over there and we watched a few trains from the bridge. We could see right down into the cabs of the engines and we saw one conductor who was, I believe, playing a ukulele. He definitely had a ukulele. I don't know if I could put up with working conditions such as being stuck in a confined space for 12 hours with someone playing a ukulele.

As for my answer to the original question, I live 80-100 feet from the tracks; will be moving in two weeks to another house a (very small) block further from the tracks, then after a few months we'll wind up in a house maybe 40-50 feet from the tracks, two houses down from where we live right now.

--Nora

[mudchicken]

Welcome back Nora! Had not heard from your side of the fence in a while!

Live about a mile east of the Denver Joint-Line. Close enough to hear the whistle and ocassionally the engines charging the hill; far enough away that the throbbing, the vibrations and the visual aspects are not encountered every day.

Mudchicken

[Anonymous]

100 feet away from the tracks

[wabash1]

I guess i win this one leave the engine for a totaql of 10 hrs and the rest of the time i live on a engine. so i guess i live on the railroad.

[Anonymous]

I live within a four mile radius of three lines in Bay City, MI.. These are the CSX , CMGN, & the LSRC. I have lived in this town all my life. The roads were the C&O, NYC, GTW, & D&M. My father was a conductor for the NYC.

[starwardude]

I live 1 mi from the New York to New Haven Metro-North/ Amtrak/CSX main.The CSX serves an ExxonMobil plant where they probably make the plastic oil cans that you see at the auto lube place. It's a small 1 line branch. It passes once a week.

[glenalan]

I live about eight blocks east of the NS New Castle district south of Fort Wayne.
I grew up near Kingsland, IN, less than a mile from the Erie. I used to visit it when I was a kid. There was a lane that led back to the tracks through my uncle's farm. The tracks split a 20-acre field in two (because he always planted both sides in the same crop, he considered it one field). Now my uncle plants soybeans where the railroad was. It's all gone and the 20-acre field is an unbroken 20 acre field again. You can't even tell where the railroad was.

[Anonymous]

The main line in Lafayette is about 10 minutes down Main St from here.At times trains can be heard up here at night as they pass thru.