CSX coal trains through Columbia, SC are pretty boring. Mainly two AC4400CW's and a long string of cars that all look the same. The exception are when they are CSX coal cars. Every once in a while, we'll see an old Rio Grande coal hopper..... with CSXT marks.
JOe H.
Intermodal, of course. Just like watching a line of trucks go by on the Interstate. Coal is usually boring, but sometimes BNSF will have a train of red oxide cars and those are interesting to see. Looks old-timey. Once in a great while I get lucky and there's an old ribbed car in there with the letters F-R-I-S-C-O. Faded of course.
Since I'm a freight car freak, I find the Metra trains a little dull--unless, of course, they're adding to the picture in a complicated tangle of traffic at Elmhurst or West Chicago.
Among freight trains themselves, I find intermodal trains the most dull, but something in the way of new or relettered equipment comes along often enough to keep me from ignoring them entirely.
Same with coal trains--sometimes new equipment, often relettered/renumbered cars (I'm still trying to get the old BN numbers off cars in the CTRN 1-1050 series!). And did you know that some of the gons on the WEPX coal trains are drawbar-connected? No kidding! I wonder whether I've seen them all.
Just about all of the cars on unit ethanol trains are new--the series that have markings for specific lessees are most interesting, otherwise it's just amazing to see big, brand-new tank cars by the hundreds.
After reading Corwinda's post below about auto racks, I have to say that they can be pretty boring--unless I'm lucky enough to find a relettered flat car underneath them (TTX has about 1000 of these, if you know where to look), or new flat cars, or new racks. Today I saw some brand-new UP trilevel racks on new Trinity-built flat cars. And the thought of all of those vehicles not being carried by trucks (I come from the pre-auto-rack era), and the revenue they're bringing to whichever railroad I'm looking at, brings a smile.
My favorite trains are the weekly perishable trains--might get to see this week's train come east tomorrow. This is one train that is to me better when viewed from a distance--all big, white reefers (if you're lucky the surrounding terrain or landscaping will hide the lower portions of the cars, with all the graffiti). Those trains I watch with the computer--see how quickly they're coming, how many cars they have this week, what they're carrying. For them, it's just the thought that this service could be good enough to pull some trucks off the road. I hear that a second train may be added soon--I'll keep my fingers crossed!
So it's the manifest trains that I live to see--watching for new cars, relettered and renumbered cars, rebuilt cars, privately-owned cars with lessees identified, and watching the blocking on the UP trains to see if there's any unusual business, or just (in some cases) giving myself advance warning of what I'm going to be switching out in a few hours. Or what I humped yesterday or this morning.
And you know what? Sometimes even the motive power can make things interesting!
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)
My train videos - http://www.youtube.com/user/karldotcom
Ted M.
got trains?™
See my photos at: http://tedmarshall.rrpicturearchives.net/
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