As of now, i aleardy saw plenty of things on the railroads, i saw cabooses, work trains, and even a transCAER training tanker, but i think my best catch was CN's inspection RDC, since they are quitte rare on my line, my second best catch would probably be a long Herzog ballast train with 2 engines on the lead and 2 engines helping on the rear (DPUs are a very rare thing where i live) and my third best catch is probably that training tank car. What about you?
My rarest was a Rattlesnake sunning himself on the base of the rail. Don't see many of them where I live. He posed for a photo.
Norm
Norm48327 My rarest was a Rattlesnake sunning himself on the base of the rail. Don't see many of them where I live. He posed for a photo.
Without your picture it didn't happen.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy SidingIn southeast Michigan?
Why not? We get them in northern NY. In fact, the Cicero Swamp, just north of Syracuse, is one of two known remaining habitats of the Massasauga rattler.
Can't think of any really significant catches. Usually what I see is just locomotives (or cars) well outside their natural habitat, or perhaps with fallen flag markings still visible. Like the Soo and Wisconsin Central locos that came in occasionally to the cogen plant at the fort.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
The three Hamersley Iron C36-7 units on an empty Iron Ore train at Mount Tom Price in Western Australia in 1977. They were still on trials. They were rarely together when in general servce.
All three came to the USA owned by NREC but didn't find a home together like the five SD50s on the Utah.
M636C
U.P. #844... actually not a surprise to see it, I knew it was returning from a National Railway Hysterical Society meeting in Chicago and I was waiting for it, but the surprise was that I was expecting to see it hauling the passenger cars that it took to Chicago, but instead it was pulling a short "General Freight" of random freight cars and looked like my old Lionel trainset... LOVED IT! I hadn't seen a steam hauled freight since my childhood and so it was quite special to see this!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
I just saw UP 2010 a few minutes ago. My proudest one, though, is probably the BNSF Golden Swoosh unit.
While driving by Taylor Yard in 1977, saw a Chessie and BN Geep's bookending an SP DD35. Wish I had a camera ready for that.
Trainwatching at the station in Burlington, Ontario: on the outside track of 2, a headlight appeared, then soon another on the inside track...the outside turned out to be a freight moving at track speed, a formidable clip, the inside was a VIA passenger with Alco/MLW FPA-4's flying at 79 mph track speed...watched as the FPA-4s gained on the freight and both were dead even simultaneously right in front of me there as I stood. The station was closed at this point, no longer used as such. That was amazing.
Mine was similar. I went for a day of watching/riding Metra in Chicago and started with the morning (inbound) rush at Brookfield (on the BNSF's three tracked ex-CB&Q mainline). Plenty of trains, including an outbound and inbound local scheduled to stop just a minute or two apart. Well, one was late and/or the other was early and the two outbound ends of the train lined up in a perfect match-just as an inbound express came through between them on the middle track! It simply could not have been timed better if we had practiced it for a month.Of course, I didn't have a camera...
The best I got was three trains going through the interlocking at Alliance Ohio at the same time.
My husband has 4 pics. One is of a GP7 mated up with a set of GP60M's on a Hot pig train on the old Santa Fe in the mid 90's before the merger and the GP7 was throwing sparks. His second is of Santa Fe's only GP40 before it was wrecked. Another one of his is Santa Fe 7200 the only SF30B built. His last one he is the most proud of however is Amtrak 450 and 451 their experimental AC units pulling the SW Chief thru here.
This is a tough one to answer, especially since the context changes over the years. The first one was in 1969 when I got a bunch of ex-PRR Baldwin and FM switchers, a C&S E5 and ATSF 51 in the scrap line outside of Pielet Bros and EMD. In 1981, I got ex-NYC RS32's on C&NW in Green Bay, not knowing that they were just re-assigned to that location. In 1982, I shot rush hour at Jamaica on LIRR, simply overwhelming. In 1988, I ran over to Clyde to shoot a CDOT FL9 in NH colors. And just last month, I caught a BNSF local freight at King Street Station with two 737 fuselages, totally unexpected.
I caught two rare cars. one was a schnabel car with a reactor vessel and the other was the old helium tank cars in grey paint marked USNX (US Navy). Saw these twice.
I think that perhaps rattlesnakes were more common in Michigan at one time than they are now. I remember hearing (but not seeing) them south of Grand Haven when I was younger. And sunning themselves on the tracks would fit right in with my experiences.Lots of folks here are going for the rare locomotives in their lives. Having grown up in an area where BL2s prevailed, I thought they were common. By the same token, when my family would take trips to Chicago, I'd go back home with tales of the Lima road-switchers I'd seen on the NYC...nobody would believe me, because those were among the rarest of the rare. But yes, I was accurate in my sightings.Locomotives today don't present as much of a challenge. I guess I would consider sightings of NS heritage units as the good find on any given trip (last one I saw was the Southern heritage unit on the CP, west of O'Hare).For most of my adult life, I've appreciated the sightings I get of rare freight cars. That could be anything from a very unusual paint scheme (like, in 1979 when a friend and I saw a UTLX tank car lettered for Baker's Chocolate, in a paint scheme that would have fit right in 30 years before that), to a one-unit roster (MISX 235731 was the only tank car that Milwaukee Solvents and Chemicals owned for three years; I saw it several times). I remember a couple of trips past the Winifrede Railroad in West Virginia to take note of the ancient hopper cars they used--former C&O and N&W cars of types that had long vanished from the rosters of their original operators. The area around Ludington and Scottville, Michigan, used to be home to many rarities in connection with the Richter Vinegar Company, including a couple of wooden vinegar tank cars that survived into the 1980s and some old General American milk tank cars, complete with sides rounded at the bottom to better fit in with the passenger trains they once operated on.With carload freight business dwindling, these one-off cars have also disappeared for the most part. Just recently, though, I saw an ATW box car that had a number from its days on the Mississippi Delta Railroad, and remnants of its original paint scheme for the Detroit & Mackinac Railway. It turned out to be the only car left in that series (the others may be around, but I haven't figured out where they are yet). So rare sightings are still possible, and keep me going--or, on this rainy day, longing to go--trackside.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
i am very new here but wanted to get my feet wet, Probably not as interesting as what you saw but i was in Petersburg, WV last weekend and was able to watch as they replaced some ties and were removing one of the three sets of rails from the siding there, no longer needed i guess, but as i walked down the passenger siding side of the tracks i picked up enough old rail spikes to keep me on Pinterest a little longer. It was just a peaceful day watching them work on the tracks. The tourist passenger train only goes thru there on certain days and i just happended to pick a day it did not come thru. So we just enjoyed the Senneca Rocks jutting up into the sky and the warm sunshine.
In the early 70's I got a shot of one of the last trains to run the
Valley&Siletz, a small logging railroad in Indepedence, Oregon.
It had two GE 70 ton units. The line ran from the Willamette Valley
to the top of Oregon's coast range mountains.
In the mid-70s, caught the Lehigh Valley bicentennial caboose stopped on a train in Buffalo. Never saw in passing nor photographed a bicentennial diesel.
I think the most interesting was this situation (in the spring of 1977):
This isn't one of my pictures of it, but it gives you some of the flavor.
I recently went to see the NYC t motor and s motor sitting, rusting, in a Huston River floodplain, in Glenmont NY. I had read about them and watched the youtube video but part of me could not believe such historic locomotives lay abandoned.
When I saw them poking through the summer overgrowth, I went through a series of emotions. I believe they deserve better than this.
A magnetic four wheel self propelled crane from Sullivan Steel in Holyoke on the Pan Am Railroad in Holyoke, Ma not far from Easthampton, Ma town line that was picking up steel somewhere.The yard this crane normally works at is at least five miles south in the Center of Holyoke where they load scrap steel into large hopper cars. Quite a ways for hotdog lunch unless he was picking up scap from the Pan Am. Track was bad at the time. Twenty mph for the freights. Many spike heads at least a half or more inch high at the time.
A hotdog stand called the Smoking Caboose parks right next to the mainline. At one time. loco crews would stop for quick lunch and maybe a crew change. No more crew change that I know of as Amtrak is now running through this area though it is still double rail in the area up into Northampton. I bike on a rail trail nearby.No idea what I did with the picture.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
This. American Freedom Train on it's way to its first stop. March 29, 1975. Spent the day railfanning the corridor. Had no idea this was coming.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
Just a few off the cuff...
I caught an experimental BN EMD with a 3 axle front truck and a 4 axle rear truck on a gravel pit local working the ex GN highline south of Klamath Falls in the mid 80's. (sorry Balt, no pix)
Was hanging out at martinez spur up on Cajon pass one day when not only did the 3985 show up, but it did a photo run by right there!!!
Caught an Amtrak MEET!!! at Caliente, Ca. (Amtrak had only detoured over Tehachappi 4-5 times since it's inception in 71').
But to me the rarest was seeing a derailment happen in Mojave around 06'. A westbound split a switch after 2/3 of the train went by, a rare event in it's own right) and piled up about a dozen cars. It was the same weekend as a SoCalRailfan.net gathering at caliente (on Tehachappi). By mid-day the place was a riot of UP and Hulcher people mixed it with a bazillion railfans and locals all lined up and down hwy 14.
Well.. I was railfanning in Milton, ON one evening along side CP's double track mainline. I was the only one in the little park adjoining the track that warm summer evening, and comfortably reclined on a park bench.. when suddenly.. all hell broke loose. An SUV tore into the parking area and two men jumped out and ran into the bush. About 20 seconds later a police car tears in, lights and siren on. Two policemen jump out and walk briskly towards me.. "YOU THE GUY WE'RE LOOKING FOR?" the younger officer shouts. I told them I was not, and that the two men they were after had run into the bush. As the police officers went in the direction I pointed to the older officer followed behind, and his reaction was priceless.. he rolled his eyes at me and mouthed the words "he's a dummy" as he discreetly pointed to the other officer who had gone ahead. They soon returned with two men, cuffed them, and away they went. And oh yeah.. just as all this was going on a west bound freight came by..
Well, that certainly qualifies as the best catch they got while you were railfanning! Kudos for assisting them!
Mine was spending a couple of days in Memphis, Tn. watching the UPRR Steam Crew work on the 3985. The location was at what had been the site of the former NC&STL Lenox (St) Station. The last switch on the UPRR before the CSX trackage started. THe 3985 lost its smoke box (air pressure nozzle?). a small casting in the bottom of the smoke box. The train was left in Sargent Yard(nee: MoPac), and the 3985, with water tenders, and the steam generator car and machine shop car, were stopped just before entering CSX territory.
The 3985 had to be cooled down so the smoke box could be entered (overnight). The next day they opened the smoke box, and the mechanics entered, to replace the small casting. Then 3985 had to be refired, when they had steam, a tanker truck refueled it. the engine then had to be pulled forward (on to CSXtrack) to reach the closest fire hydrant.
That required a CSX employee to call Jacksonville, and request permission to open the swithch and for 3985 to occupy their track. The CSX dispatch asked him, if the move was 'protected'. He answered in the afirmative !
I personally,knew several IC managers, and shop persone from Johnston Yard Roundhouse. A few assorted BNRR supervisors. and several CSX supervisors, The UPRR Steam Crew guys, and some other personnel....The one time the railroaders outnumbered the railfans....The area was awash in all kinds of railroad transportaion. The highlight was watching them (Steve Lee, eng.) use 3985 as a switch engine to sort the cars (to their normal order)!
Yep, I did have some pictures but where? several moves have disappeared them,but still have some memories...
Hmm rarest catch Locomotive? The SP 4449 in Owosso Michigan in 2009 at Steamfest.Car? would have to say an articulated algoma central wood car on q 501 as it went through Defiance.So many more memories I could share.You never know what's coming next.
stay safe
Joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
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