Top four train watching spots

[Anonymous]

I have to add another 2 places to watch trains at: 1) is in West Chicago where the local metras come in and others go through there all day long. It also has a crossing with the E.J.& E. There are said to be about 15 "J's" through there everyday, but the other trains have close to 150 runs a day. 2) the other one is in Downers Grove where the BNSF crosses over the top of the IHB. There is a switch area there where trains from the IHB deliver to The BNSF. In the old days of being a switchtender, I remember it when they called that the C.B. & Q. and there were trains going and coming back from...!
So add these two to the other four.

Make that three more: out in Portage, Indiana there is another crossing of the CSX and IHB. The trains through there are running fast and smooth, and occasionally you will see a CSX or NS come from one line and go around the bend toward the IHB. So there are 3 more places that I have discovered.

[Anonymous]

Yep csx4ever.. I'd also vote for Abrams Yard. I spent a lot of time there when I lived in the Philly area. By the way, it was a forrmer RDG yard, as was the double track line on the west side of the Schuylkill.

In New England, there's not too much, but I can recommend Palmer, Mass with CSX,. ATK and New England Sthn (ex CV). And a new restauranat in the old station. See New Railfan Mag for details.

Station platforms at Springfield MA. CSX, ATK, Guilford and Conn whatever from Hartford.

And my sentimental fave is the railfan bridge at the west end of the BM yard in E. Deerfield MA. Left on River Road off rte 5, 10 on the south bank of the Deerfield River just south of Greenfield. Duck under high truss bridge (BM Conn River line) and take a left about a mile up. They're fussy about getting on RR property but you can see and shoot everything from the bridge.

[ValorStorm]

Sandpoint Idaho. BN, UP, MRL, POVA. Traffic density? It's at the top of The Funnel... THE Funnel. Good access. Unparalleled scenery.

U.S.30 across Nebraska.

Oh yeah, I agree that the I-84 rest area at Mountain Green Utah is fantastic. Climb the hill to the picnic shelter and get some great photos.

Ummm... Nothing else.

[Anonymous]

A good spot to watch trains is on the PA. and Del. boader next to the Delaware River and I95

[Trailryder]

#1
Clinton, Iowa
has a nice spot to watch trains. right by the UP office is a road bridge with a fenced sidewalk. it goes right over the tracks and the engines stop directly under the bridge to change crews. you can look right down the exaust stack, but this will give you a headache so I don't advise it. you can see Union Pacific & local ADM switchers at work, you should also see ICE in the area. It's called Beaver terminal ,I think?
#2
Savanna Illinois
the ICE and BNSF come together in parallel yards, you may have to move a little, but good train action.
#3
Sterling, Illinois
In Sterling Illinois you can go to the Dillon home Museum and see NWSW steam engine #73 (former GTW) on display. #73 has the distinction of being the last steam engine in regular freight service in the United States. the UP line runs right behind the display. With a little work you can get shots of steam and diesel engines in the same photo. the Dillon Home is open to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays from 10-4 and Sunday from 1-5

I'm saving #4 for some place with a tunnel and good train traffic, I haven't found it yet any suggestions.

Later Bill

[dldance]

I like comfort when watching trains so high on my list are parks and rest areas with a good view of the track:

1) I-84 west bound rest area at Ogden UT - the UP is right at track level on the Weber river
2) New Mexico travel information station at Texico NM. Across the road from triple track BNSF just east of Clovis NM
3) US 6 rest area at the base of Soldier Summit, Ut. Not as many trains as there used to be but still a comfortable spot. on the old DRGW.

I haven't found #4 yet - but I am still looking

dd

[davews]

...or, how about one of the worst? Denver Union Station? Impossible to get a decent shot of any of the great variety of trains.

[dmcclendon]

1. St. Louis - TRRA trackage downtown
2. Rockview Mo. (SE Missouri) UP(ex SSW, SP, MP) BNSF (Frisco) diamonds
3. Memphis TN. Mississippi River bridges (Harahan & Frisco) UP & BNSF come in and out here.
4. Memphis TN. Johnson Yards (ex IC) CN. Lots of interchange (BNSF, NS, CSX, UP) with CN

[Anonymous]

tolono, ill.
savanna, ill.
galesburg,ill.
folkston,ga.
[:)]

JESUS IS LORD OF ALL !!!

[Anonymous]

1. Dalton, GA. CSX and NS cross on a diamond in the middle of town. 2. NS's Inman Yard in Atlanta. 3. CSX's Tilford Yard in Atlanta. 4. Howell Interlocking in Atlanta. CSX and NS non-stop action on a large wye.

[CShaveRR]

1: Elmhurst
2: LaGrange (either down by the IHB or up by the station).
3: Dolton
4: Blue Island

Simple.

Carl (living in or near to Paradise!)
And yes, Sarah, I hope to show you all of these places! AMG

[CSXrules4eva]

Ok I don't really have a favorit spot to watch trains in my area partly because, the great state of PA droped from a high trafficing freight rail network into a major Amtrak, NJT, and Septa corridor. lol. There is a heck of alot more passanger action here than ever. Espually, the NEC. So, I'm going to have to say my all time favorit, number one train watching spot is in the area of Lombard and Elmhurst, Illionis. Which also happens to be the area in which my dearest friend, Carl lives.

Ok here in Philadelphia my top spots are.
1. Abrams Yard. Ex PRR yard now owned by NS. Located on Henderson Rd. on the outskirts of Norristown and Phonixville in the state of PA. About 25 mins in the car from my house here in Philly. (spelling.) Main action is NS, highest power AC4400CW.

2. West Conschohocken, PA. Trackage is apart of the NS Harrisburg Division once owned by PRR then Conrail. Double mainline track territory, with sidings. Nearest access River Rd or route 23. About 20 mins from my house. Main action NS sometimes CSX. Lots of coal traiffic here. Highest power seen: AC4400CW.

3. Landsdale, PA about 30 mins from my house. CSX and Septa owned Terminal. What I like to call the "mini yard". Trackage owned by CSX, ex Reading. Has a five track grade crossing at Main St. in Landsdale. Highest power seen there SD50 ex Chessie units.

4. Last but not least the good old NEC at North Philadelphia, about 15 mins from my house. Main action Amtrak, NJT, ans Septa. Sometimes has Conrail, or CSX traffic. Highest power seen AC6000CW. This portion of the NEC sometimes has interesting lash ups if your lucky enough to see a freight.

[Bob-Fryml]

I've had the good fortune to do a lot of "commuting" by car this spring between Cheyenne and Omaha. The middle 320-miles along U.S. 30 (between Pine Bluffs, Wyo. and Grand Island, Nebr.) are the best! Yes it's a two lane highway, but the traffic is relatively light. In the nearly seven hours it takes to cover this distance, I've counted as many as 70-trains!

The 111-mile, triple-track C.T.C. segment between Gibbon and North Platte is busy enough to kill the boredom of driving through a landscape that's just about as flat as a pancake. Coal buckets, mixed merchandise, double stacks, and lots of foreign pooled power make for some interesting variety.

The best segment, though, is eastbound and it starts around Sidney (M.P. 408). Invariably I'll catch a 50 or 60-mph mixed merchandise sailing along the gentle downhill grade somewhere around the east side of town and can easily pace the train for nearly 40-miles before it hits the "Block Swapping Traffic Jam" at Julesburg, Colo. (M.P. 365). Sometimes I'll luck out and won't part company with the train that I've been chasing until Big Spring some 11-miles further down the road.

I've been a railfan for over a half century and those familiar "twin streaks of rust" have provided me with a very interesting livelihood for over three decades; but even at that, "I STILL GET A KICK OUT OF WATCHING THEM HIGH CARS ROLL!"

[Green Bay Paddlers]

1) People are leaving out the coup de grace! The old bridge at Highlands on the BNSF/METRA/AMTRAK triple track near Hinsdale, IL. This bridge has been the source of countless TRAINS MAGAINZE pics over the years including the cover of the racetrack in 1987.

2) Top of Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort in Galena, IL. Great views of the BNSF along the Mississippi River.

3) Union Station - Chicago, IL.

4) Titletown Brewery in Green Bay, WI. Brew Pub built in the home of the old CNW station in the heart of Green Bay. Lot's of railroad memorabilia and plenty of freight rolling through on the CN line into the Green Bay yard on the north end of town. Lot's of local freight too.

[TimChgo9]

1. CP LaGrange, on the Indiana Harbor Belt. There is a crossing at Shawmut Street, and a vacant industrial building with a large parking lot on the east side of the tracks. The BNSF Aurora Sub crosses the IHB via a bridge about 100 yards south of the crossing. On a busy day, there is plenty of traffic, UP, BNSF, NS, CN, and CP Rail. also, you might get lucky and catch a transfer to or from the BNSF's small Congress Park Yard on the north side spur, or a transfer to downtown on the south side spur. And there is a CSX coal train that drops all of it's hoppers in the LaGrange yard once a week. The coal is used by a power plant in the south suburbs, but they stage the hoppers in the yard, and the IHB takes them, one cut at a time to the power plant throughout the week.

2. Anywhere along the BNSF from Chicago to Aurora. I prefer Belmont Rd, Metra Station or Stone Ave. Station in LaGrange.

3. Anywhere along the UP's Geneva Sub from Chicago. Elburn is a good spot, as is Turner Junction in West Chicago, where the EJ&E crosses the UP at grade.

4. Rochelle is such a cliche at this point, I'll pick something else. I would have to say it would be either, Bryn Mawr (which is now inaccessable) along the joint UP/CP Rail trackage on the west side of O'Hare airport. Or, the CN/CP Rail junction in Franklin Park, where tower B12 used to stand.

[emmar]

My favorite train watching spots are the Salton Sea and Dunsmuir ,CA.
1)Union Pacific line along the Salton Sea in the Salton Sea State Recreational Area, CA. The area gets almost non stop UP trains all day long and there are lots of oppertunities for both action and roster shots.The area is very accessible. The tracks are about twenty to fifty feet from the road and there is no vegetation between the road and the tracks. I like this spot because of the great photo oppertunities and the friendly engineers. Also there are so many trains on this line that you hardly have time to change your film between trains!
2)Dunsmuir,CA. The station in Dunsmuir is a good train watching spot. It gets mostly UP and Amtrack and it is fairly accessible. I like it because you can get photos of rairoaders at work and you can get shots with interesting backgrounds. The only thing I don't like about is there is not a lot of traffic and the station is not that visually appealing.Also the lighting is bad in the afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Technically you could say both N&W and NKP owned that line since NKP was merged into N&W on October 16 or something like that in 1964.

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JoeKoh

andrew
the ns line through fostoria does go to ft wayne and on to chicago but it was a former nkp trackage.
stay safe
Joe

Who owns the line that runs between Leipsic OH and Fort Wayne because according to an old Conrail system map, NW owned it.

[Anonymous]

1. Sandpoint ID - BNSF, UP (with a lot of CP overhead traffic), and MRL, all within a stones throw of each other, and very little dead time between trains. Plus, Sandpoint is one of the world's most beautiful locales, with or without the rail action.

2. Lyon's Ferry/Palouse Falls WA - UP and Great Northwestern Railroad (the former Camas Prairie RR). A lot less action, but some great visual dynamics. UP's Joso bridge is rather imposing from below. The UP line through the Palouse River canyon is rife with cuts and tunnels for some great overhead shots. The area around Palouse Falls is very stark, sometimes the quiet can unnerve you while you wait for some rail action. Fighter pilots often train overhead, and sometimes will dip into the canyon at Mach (they come upon you very quickly, once scared the living daylights out of me while hiking up the trail parallel to the UP line). You also get some barge and the occassional riverboat action, and it's always fun watching a semi cross the old and narrow cantilever bridge, taking up both lanes, not a place for a camper to be coming the opposite direction (The bridge was the old U.S. 10 bridge at Vantage WA).

3. Bonner's Ferry ID - Almost a carbon copy of Sandpoint, sans MRL and the lake. The south part of town sits on a bluff overlooking the valley where the BNSF tracks are immediately below and the UP tracks about a mile off in the valley. Other great oversights lie east of town.

4. Cheney WA - BNSF, UP, and PCC. Plenty of great public access sites and trails toward the west of town to Marshall Canyon.

[TheS.P.caboose]

My four are;
1. The UP coastline in Santa Barbara, CA. It's right off of the 101 at State Street. Sterns Wharf is where I like to be, because of the shops and ocean view.
2. Along the Colton Line at Sandcut. Just off of highway 58 at the base of the mountain range a railfan can see 12 miles into Bakersfield and about a mile from Bena and leading towards Ilmon and Caliente.
3. Beamont Hill along I-10 just about anywhere between west Colton and Indio.
4. Las Vegas, NV on the Cima Subdivision. At the Rio All-suites hotel and casino. Some of the rooms are close to the UP mainline.

[spbed]

Unless you have seen them all it all depends on what you have seen. As a example the 4 places you mentioned I have not ever seen. On the other hand places like the Cajon Pass, Daggett, Colton & Riverside all in California so far to what I have seen are on the top of my list. [:o)][:o)]

Originally posted by gabe

Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR  Austin TX Sub

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