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Hi JSC01, Congrats on wanting to take your son out for some railfanning. I think that's great. My dad started me on that about 20 years ago and we stil do that when we can. I did a Google search on Richmond, IN Railroad and hit this: http://www.railroaddays.org/ It looks like you have an active RR preservation group in Richmond. They have e-mail addresses to contact members on the website. I bet these guys would be more than happy to share the local scoop with you. Search the internet for hobby shops, model train clubs or rail preservation groups in your area. These folks will know the lay of the land. You might make a friend or two as well. Although I can't address a lot of specifics about the Richmond area (I'm from WI ), I have a couple thoughts around things that I do when I'm traveling, that helps give me a leg up in a strange area. DeLorme atlas company publishes atlases for most states. I'm sure that if you go to a local Barnes and Noble (or similar) you could get one. (About $12). They have about 60 pages (avg) of topo maps including good detail on rail lines. Sometimes they show sidings, double track, and often have the names sidings or former station points on the railroad. Having the topo maps helps me find "interesting" places along the line (i.e. bridges at river crossings) or places where I can take a back-road to the tracks. Once caveat is that sometimes they don't keep up with abandonments or name changes (i.e.mergers). Sometimes you can gauge how much traffic a line gets by the condition of the track (i.e. do they have welded rail vs. jointed rail. Is it heavy rail (usually corresponding to heavy trains.) Look for signals (sometimes signals are approach lit (only light up when a train enters the adjacent block.) In any event, signalled track is usually a sign of better than average volume of traffic (not always, but often). Look for shiny rails. Rusty rails aren't active (obviously) but look after a rain storm. Do the rails have time to develop some rust in a half day after rain or have enough trains passed to poli***hem up. For my money, a railfan's best friend can be a programmable scanner. Although dispatchers don't talk to trains a lot on signalled track (CTC), there is always some chatter. Even if the crew is just switching cars at a local industry, you might pick up the chatter. I bought a portable (about the size of a walkie talkie) and then a adapter that allows you to take off the short rubber antenna and plug in an magnetic roof-top car antenna. That really helps my reception range. Here's the deal. Get a copy of the scanner frequency book that Kalmback sells. Find the map for your state or listing for your railroad and plug in some frequencies on a Saturday, while you're working around the house or garage. See if you get some chatter. If you do, listen to the references to where they are. If they're close go chase them. See if there's a pattern to the time of day. I've found that I can scout a pretty broad area (15 mile radius or so) without ever moving. That helps me find them, then I can make my actual "train chasing" time more productive. Option 3. Go to RIchmond, find a business that's near the track (i.e. feedmill, gas station, etc) and ask the attendant if what time of day they see trains go by. As was posted above, freight trains don't really run on a schedule, but I do tend to find that in a lot of cases, a given train leaves its home terminal about the same time each day and passes through the towns along the way in a relatively close proximity to the same time each day. Tell the person whom you're asking why you're looking so they don't think you're a terrorist, looking to derail a train. (You're not a terrorist, are you???) Take your son along to increase credibility. Finally, a good bet is to find a line between two major towns. It should be more heavily trafficked. i.e. There must be a NS or CSX route from Detroit to Columbus to Cinci. That's not too far east of you. That might be a place which is busy enough to just find a safe place to sit (i.e. a part adjacent to the tracks where you son can play while waiting). Then wait for the trains to show. Check the CSX.com and NSCORP.com website for terminal locations (including intermodal terminals.) That will give you some clues. Also, check www.triplecrownsvc.com for Triple Crowns lanes for roadrailer trains. They run via NS and I believe have a lane from their HQ in Ft. Wayne, via Cinci to Atlanta. Hope that helps - Stack -
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