Live Far From a Railroad?

[Boyd]

Reply to "WIAR": go to google maps and select I think what is satellite photos for address 13000 n Mckusick road Stillwater Mn 55082. Zephyr line is just south of Mckusick road. You can move the arrow to the left to follow the line west. Zephyr tracks ends right where it was to cross what I think is the old NP roadbed which is now a trail. The spot is just south of 96. There is parking area right next to 96. You can follow the old BN roadbed right into Mahtomedi. No trail on the BN roadbed west of the NP line. BN ran last train in 82 out of Stillwater. The retired engineer the ran that last train lives just down the road but he is not a railfan. I bought a nice RR print from him at a garage sale last year. I'm not a huge fan of light rail here in the cities but I sure hope they use these roadbeds when the extend out to Stillwater instead of blowing millions buying right of way in a different route.

[trainboyH16-44]

I'm about a mile from the CP Laggan sub. This is pretty much perfect. You can hear the trains if you listen, but they don't drive you crazy! Also, if you hear something over the scanner you can get down there in a hurry, and because of the hill, it's actually faster to bike....

[kolechovski]

I live near the NS Keystone route to the Keystone Generating Station in PA.  I have a decent view in the winter.

[grampaw pettibone]

I live about a mile from the CXS "A" line, and can hear the trains quite well. Unfortunately, the ROW is lined with trees and not a good viewing location. Being disabled, it might as well be on the moon for me,,,,

[BNSF_GP60M]

Well I'm just like TimChgo9. BNSF is right across the street from me. 45 trains a day plus 12 Amtraks. My advatar pic of a BNSF GP60M was taken from my front yard. Also live about 10 blocks from the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. SJVR runs right pass our Walmart and Sonic. Working across the street from Walmart, I daily see the SJVR train with a BL20-2. UP is 13 miles to the east. But if I need a big train fix, I hop on Amtrak, head to Fresno and visit both BNSF and UP yards.

[Cricketer]

As I look out of my window I can see five tracks of the ex London Brighton and South Coast Railway through South Croydon station. I could throw a large rock out of the window and hit the nearer track, and a golf ball all the way over all five. Only problem is that the trains are mostly electric multiplr units which though frequent are rather boring. On the plus side the trains stop around midnight so sleep's not too difficult.

[Anonymous]

OK - since this thread is actually about how close we are to railroads:

I'm 3 miles east of the BNSF's Hinckley Sub (former GN) between Northtown Yard and Superior, WI.  Plenty of BNSF action including a Mon. - Sat. local, with CP and UP trackage rights action as well (CP and UP are all through-jobs to Superior with no industries being served by their trains along the way).  CP is exercising their grand-fathered MILW rights that originally were negotiated with the NP (and were transferred to BN and shifted west to the Hinckley Sub when the NP line was pulled-up).  UP is doing the same with their rights originally negotiated by the CNW & BN I believe.  I also see some SOO units, and several times I've seen matching CSX units pulling trains.  The UP must have something going with CN on that route, since every UP train I've seen is a mixed freight with lots of CN-owned rolling stock.  CP seems to run the least number of trackage rights jobs on the line.

[CRIP 4376]

I live about one block from MP 219.0 on the BNSF Chicago - Denver main line.  We get about 50-60 trains a day and I do take it for granted.  It was sure quiet during the flood with only rock and ballast trains.

[NW in the Midwest]

I'm about 150 yards from the BNSF in Chalco (west of Omaha) with a few trees blocking my view in the summer. UP mainline is about a mile north of here. Photo ops mostly from grade crossings though.

 

                                                             Errol

[NP Red]

I'm a avid railfan but we lived in south Baja Mexico for 8 years. That's was 850 miles from the nearest railroad. Our home was in Oregon near a UP mainline. Though it was tough, It also had a bright side. About twice a year we would visit Oregon and the trip back would allow me to stop at some classic railfan spots in Calf. Without living in Mexico, I would never have seen Tahachapi loop or Cajon pass.

[dmitzel]

I live close to MP 12 on the former GTW Cass City Sub - also known as the PO&N branch. Down the road about a mile-and-a-half east was the NYC Mackinaw Branch crossing. Unfortuately, this Penn Central secondary line has been gone since 1976 and the GTW last ran in 1985. Both are rail trails now (NYC = Paint Creek Trail, GTW = Polly Ann Trail) so the only "traffic" these old ROWs see are bikes, walkers and the occasional non-ferrous horse. It's a shame, as Oxford used to be quite an active junction town through the mid-70s.

I now have to travel 15 miles north by state highway to Lapeer (CN Flint Sub, MP 290) to see any mainline action. This is CN's former Grand Trunk NAFTA main between Chicago and Toronto. For a little variety CSX also has trackage rights between Flint and Port Huron, MI. Amtrak's Blue Water (364/365) also makes a visit at the depot on a daily basis. The remaining stub of the PO&N line still serves a GM assembly plant a few miles south of me - if the wind is blowing the right direction I can hear the air horn when it is still at night. I'm glad this is a mid-sized car plant so they may go to a third-shift soon - all the better for rail traffic down there with $4.00 gasoline seemingly here to stay.

[PMWood]

I'm near Athens, Georgia, and two minutes away from a busy CSX line headed into South Carolina.  Can hear the trains at night, during the day, whilst mowing the lawn.....  NS has a line forty five minutes away in Gainesville, Georgia also. 

 

Peter

Athens, GA 

[choochin3]

At the bottom of my street is milepost 4 on the busy CSX main for the Capitol,and Old Main Line subs.

I can watch trains from my deck, or living room window.

Carl T.

[wcaudle]

I was raised in Eastern OR, 25 feet from the main line (OSL) east of the Hinkle yards.  It has been in my blood for nearly 60 years.  Today, however, I must travel 90 miles North to Abilene TX to see the UP main line, and 315 miles North to Amarillo for a real show.  Amarillo is nearly all BNSF, with UP trackage rights.  Whenever we head to the Northwest, we go due North to North Platte, then follow old US 30 all the way to Oregon, which parallels the UP.  North Platte has the new Golden Spike Tower opened, which gives a majestic overlook to the largest rail yard in the world.

[singtom951]

I have lived much of my life about 3/4 of mile from the Santa Fe, now BNSF, Transcon (Los Angeles to Chicago).  The Union Pacific, their Los Angeles to Chicago mainline, is about one and one-half miles away.  My former office use to abut the BNSF main where the Union Pacific joined for the trip through the Cajon Pass and onto Barstow and points east. The old warehouse where I worked for several years and at least one other building at my former employer were removed in 1999 to allow an additional track for smoother transition of the Metrolink onto the UP to Los Angeles. My current office is about 1/8 of a mile away from the BNSF mainline. I can no longer hear the horns in my office, but take a walk outside and the bark of those Dash 9 diesels or those new shrill horn combinations on the SD70MACe or C45ACCTE call you back to the mainline to take a look at what is coming through.

[waynej]

  Me I used to live in Aroma Park,Il. And they would go back and forth 3-4x's a week if I'm lucky. I seemed to get more into trains.Basicly one kind,route,engine,name,and connecting route ect.  

[Boyd]

1st farm we lived on was 1 block south of Milwaukee road in Grand Meadow MN. I learned how to count watching the trains go by. At 6 we moved to another farm 5 miles north of same town and 3 miles west of Racine MN which had the CGW which was not run much in the latter half of 70s. Both lines now gone. Moved to Rochester Mn in 81 and didn't get my liscence till 83. Not much action on that CNW line till DME took over in 86. In 88 I started working at a Napa where we could see the tracks. In 91 I started working at a Pizza Hut deliveringin the evening just on the other side of the tracks from the Napa I worked at in the day delivering auto parts. It made my work more fun.

[loadmaster747]

Wow, I didn't realize it until I thought back... first place I can remember (age 5-7) was a rented house near Fullerton and Cicero in Chicago, with a freight line on an embankment across the alley from the back door.  Family moved to Northlake, IL, about 1/2 mile north of the C&NW Proviso Yard.  We couldn't see the trains but we sure could hear them!  The first house I ever bought was 4 doors north of the west end of the Milwaukee Road Bensenville Yard... right about where the engineers brought their throttles to notch 8 to get the heavy freight trains moving.  Later, I bought a house in Bartlett, IL, with a single IC / Amtrak track across the back fence.  When the Amtrak Blackhawk Limited blew its horn for the Rt. 59 crossing, it was usually right behind the house.  LOUD!  And for the last 15 years, I've lived between the Bensenville and Proviso Yards, with the elevated north/south double UP tracks across the street in my neighbor's back yard.  Besides the unit trains -northbound full of coal, southbound empty- and the mixed freights, twice a day there are the Roadrailers to and from Minneapolis, usually with NS power.   I would have to guess that the furthest I've EVER lived from an active railroad was the time I spent in East Dundee, where the rails (now trail) that ran from Elgin to Crystal Lake through town were only 6 blocks east, but I can't recall ever seeing a train use them.  And here I thought it was only the Lionel train set I got for Christmas at age 4 that started me railfanning!   

[clipperw]

While I grew up within a city block of the CB&Q (now BNSF) Chicago raceway, I now live more than 50 miles from the nearest active railroad. To the north is the Union Pacific KC - St. Louis line in Sedalia, MO and to the south is the BNSF St. Louis - Springfield line. The closest non active rail line is the KC - St. Louis Rock Island line which, while officially active, hasn't seen a train since early in 1980 when the Rock folded. Today, the line is overgrown, paved over and cut in many places. Most of it is now owned by the power company in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois, Ameren UE. I do, occassionally travel to KC and get to see some trains and railfan a bit. I also have a son who is an engineer on the UP between KC and Parsons/Coffeyville, KS. By the way, while now retired, I did spend 36 years in the railroad supply industry, so I definitely got my share of trains, including riding, in those years.

Cllipperw

[CNW4ever]

I live 4 blocks due south of the Rochelle Diamonds. As a Rochelle native those train sounds are a part of the environment, badly missed when I go out of town.

[crewshuttle]

I used to live about 5 mins from a crossing where the evening shortline would leave Walla Walla, Wa to set out at Zanger Junction (short of Wallula, Wa). This is according to UP's website. The shortline is a Watco company Railroad. Blue Mountain Railway Company. They do refers and mixed freight out of the Walla Walla area and long strings of grain cards in the fall. Mostly night moves and I loved listening to the old hands pull the whistle at the grade crossings. There used to be a direct crossover in the old days with the BN switch local (long dead) and I could count the cars by the wheel clicks and listen to the hogger open it up after he got his engines and first batch over the crossover or diamonds as I guess is the correct term.

Then I went to live in Seattle and got up close and personal with the BN trains and crews working for CSS (crew shuttle services) but I railfaned around downtown and Balmer Yard and Stacey Street alot. So I was never to far from BNSF/Amtrak/Sounder commuter trains.

Saw unit grain trains, intermodal unit trains, stack trains, mixed freight, garbage local going from Balmer to Roosevelt, Wa. Also on occasions I would time it right for the multiturn(?) from Renton Boeing setting out empty fuselage cars or taking a 737 fuselage piece with them along with mixed freight to Reton from Balmer Yard. Half of it's run is gone going through Bellevue to Woodenville from Renton. I am not there anymore so no idea how the north end is served unless it is from Everett.

I started railfaning in Seattle with SD-40-2's and then watched the B-39's come and go and many more. Still love listening the the SW-15's barking under a heavy load when they were working strings of cars at Stacey or doing a dual loco pull at maximum speed on the way back to Balmer with the garbage. I gave up the CSS long haul job as the money was not good and living a 24/7 on call job was not for me. But I did learn alot abou the railroad.

[Sunnyland]

Not far at all from BNSF Lindenwood Yards (used to be Frisco).  My Dad worked there and he'd walk to work, said it was about 1/8 of a mile.  I can hear the whistles all the time.  About one mile farther is UP main line that Amtrak uses to Kansas City.  When the wind is blowing in the right direction, I can hear the wheels clicking on the freights and whistles blowing at a crossing.

I wouldn't want to live where I can't hear trains, since they have been such a big part of my life with both parents working for Frisco and taking trips all over the US, pre-Amtrak, on Dad's pass. 

[kicksvette]

Since I'm a denizen of Chicago's western burbs you can count me among the spoiled. While at work I can walk out on the loading dock at the back of the building and watch the action at CP ex Soo ex Milwaukee tower B17 on the west end of the Bensenville yard. That means viewing CP, ICE and Metra throughout the day. When I get home i have to travel just a bit further. The closest track is about 2 blocks away. It's a UP ex CNW ex CGW spur from the West Chicago yard through the industrial park in St Charles. The UP/Metra west mainline is about 2 miles away, the west end of the West Chicago yard and autorack terminal is about 3.5 miles away and it's about 5 miles to the east end of the yard and the JB tower crossing of the EJE. If I want to drive a bit, I can get to BNSF's Eola yard in about 15 minutes. And my playtoy can do a highspeed run to Rochelle in about 45 minutes. The trip back usually takes much longer since I tend to stop along the UP line quite often just to see what's backed up and waiting to move. Am I complaining? H*@# no!

[TheS.P.caboose]

I live about 5 miles awat from the Union Pacific coastline.  It's not bad really with Amtrak, Metrolink and freight traffic in both directions plus locals.

[oldyardgoat]

Well, it was sweet while it lasted.  For two years, until a divorce got in the way, I lived 45 feet back and 65 feet up from the BNSF main between Portland and Seattle, with 55 to 65 BNSF and UP trains a day.  It was on Carrolls Bluff between Kalama and Kelso, WA.  The only whistle I heard, unless there was work being done, was No. 11 to L. A. every other day.  One engineer blew near an underpass about a half-mile to the south, the other guy didn't.  Now, I live in town in Longview and the Weyerhauser train (Columbia & Cowlitz RR) blows for three crossings near my house.  The old place was my ex's dream; mine was north of Kelso where the same double-track main goes about a hundred feet behind the place I liked, plus a thirty-foot high wood trestle of the same C&C line I now live near, literally right in the back yard!  My retirement fund is also gone - in the fancy house on the bluff.  But hey, I still have a place for the N-gauge layout, where I can now have time and money to work on it.  

  Ardenastationmaster

[MackDaddy]

I have the BNSF behind my backyard here in Hanford, CA. I also work at International Paper's Hanford Container plant right next to the same tracks. I live up the road from the YMCA, and trains stop right behind the house to wait for signals from the control point just off Grangeville Blvd. (CP Mingo) I love it all! My wife yells at me all the time for stopping to watch trains go by. The tracks must be less than 100' (here goes one now, sounds real slow) from the back fence. Loved watching the action when (here goes another one, passing the slow one) the line was double tracked a couple years ago. I like to look at the reporting marks, but a lot of them aren't in the Trains reporting marks listing. The kids like to wave and the engineer will wave back and blow the horn. Some time ago, it looked like a person was laying on top of the cab of one of the locos at the rear of a northbound train. He kept raising his head up. I called 911 and BNSF's emergency #. Dispatcher said they would stop the train and arrest the person. Never heard if he was caught. I grew up in Albany, CA, on Santa Fe Ave. The Santa Fe ran through there from Richmond to Emeryville until the tracks were torn up in 1979. I was shocked when visiting while on leave from the Navy to see that the tracks weren't there anymore. Part of my childhood was taken away from me!

[wcaudle]

I used to travel from the NW to AZ and come down 99 through the San Joaquin. I found Hanford and started using Hwy. 43 down to Hwy. 58, then out to Tehachapi, then Barstow, etc. I found Hanford to be a busy spot, and would hang out at the depot. But after my father's passing, I have not been to Hanford.  Nice to hear the increased capacity led to double-tracking. My wife used to become slight agitated with me, but after 5 children, and now (so far) 13 grandchildren, she tolerates my love of the trains.  Most engineers and conductors will give a short blast of the horn when waved at, especially by children.  The love and lore of the rails will never fade.

[Shreve Rail]

We live about 2 city blocks from where the UP (Chicago-Houston all southbound) crosses the Red River and the KCS (Kansas City-New Orleans both directions) crosses on the same bridge from Bossier City to Shreveport, LA.  I walk over there all the time, and a walk without a train is pretty much wasted.  The view of the Red River is gorgeous.

There are plenty of trains here though I'm not sure how many.  This is not the same rail as the Meridian Speedway.  It crosses the UP about 4-5 blocks north of here.

The best train watching is just south of downtown Shreveport where you can see all this plus the Speedway traffic.

 

 

 

 

[trainfan1221]

I have the NJTransit Bergen County Main line right down the road from me and either ride or go past it several times a day.  NJT operates a good full schedule here, but sadly this former Erie Lackawanna main is almost completely devoid of freights now.