The Railfan Thread

Driving Park

Driving Park

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United States
Los Angeles
GTP_DrivingPark
Finetales
I made a thread about model railroads, but who in GTP is a real, bonified railfan? Many people get stopped at crossings daily, and they hate it because they have to wait. I rarely get stopped at the gates, but when I do I love it. Every once and a while I go train spotting, and as you can see in my sig my favorite hotspot was banned. So who's a railfan?

This thread is also where you can talk about railroading in general. Share your views on principle operators, express ideas on how we could make railroading better, and support the railfan community! Until someone makes a railroad forum (which I doubt will happen), the railfan thread is the place for all things railroading!
 
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Railfan here! I was always infatuated with transportation when I was small, but my interest in trains had wained until I moved into an apartment with a great view of a NS line and a small NS yard. (Sound, fortunately, wasn't an issue as the complex is only a year old and was built with the trains in mind.) All the activity was fun to watch, and prompted me to start learning more about them. Intermodal trains powered by a set of GE ES40DC's are my personal favorites, those articulated well cars are whisper quiet! I've also had a few other interesting sightings, including a rather long collection of Loram rail grinders and ballast cleaners. Cool stuff. :)

What was great about your Petersburg, VA, lookout? Do you have any pictures? Ever seen any cabless engines?
 
Well first off I'm very proud to say you're on the list.:sly:

Intermodal trains are also my favorite, but even though I love the AC's and DASH 9s, I for some reason have a sweet spot for Spartan Cab SD's and GP's. But considering how long trains are nowadays, you need the 6000-hp locomotives. As for cabless boosters, also known as B-units in carbody diesel tradition, I've never seen one in person but I do know what they look like. And I've never seen a Loram train in person. Wow, you've been lucky!

Ah, and Petersburg. It was great because it wasn't well known so not a lot of people were there. We would park right beside (and I mean RIGHT beside) CSX's main Virginia double-track mainline. Several hundred feet to the left of where we parked, the single-track NS line went right under the CSX line. This made for many meet opportunities, and I've seen one 3-way meet there. But in Petersburg, the CSX trains came about every 10-15 minutes, and the NS trains anywhere from 10-60 minutes. The best day there I saw 27 trains. There's also a gate about a half mile down the road from our parking spot where we like to catch Amtraks going 70-80 mph. Combine all this and you get one great hotspot.
As for photos, my avatar is a photo of a rare BNSF locomotive, followed by a UP locomotive, also rare (both only rare in Virginia by the way) hauling a coal train on the NS line. The photo is taken from a spot just across from where we parked, and the train is about to pass under the CSX line. I'm sorry but I don't have any of my own photos, but there are MANY Petersburg photos at www.rrpicturearchives.net (including my avatar). Once you're there just click "by location", then US, Virginia, then Petersburg. It starts from oldest to newest, so click "last" in the page number and my avatar should be pretty close to there.

Nice to meet a fellow railfan! (especially someone like the GTP operator)

:-)
 
Railfan here, big fan of the british railway network and its recent history. Walking distance from the local mainline and I do enjoy watching the trains go by. Particularly in London:D

also play a lot of Microsoft Train Simulator.
 
HiQQory - you have been added! As for the train you showed, it's obviously European and I know NOTHING about European trains. Que Famine.

Allianz - you also have been added! And I too play lots of Train Sim. I recently got Trainz 2006, but haven't got it to work yet.

We have 3 railfans so far!:sly:

:-)
 
I wouldnt bother trying to get Trains 2006 to work, its not worth the hassle. I went back to MSTS after a week or so.
 
You should make me a bus thread. :)

I'm sort of into trains, ever since I rode the R143 and R142, R142A, and R142S. The R143 tells you the next stop with a titilating computer "girl" voice. :mischievous:

That same train has an air ride suspension, better door placements, faster, and gears that confuse me. It just skips RPM's accelerating and decelerating. :confused: Never happened in the previous R142A.

These trains are monufactuered by Kawasaki and Bombardier. I would get pictures if I wasn't in Utica with this beat up computer and internet.
 
Allianz - yeah, I do the American routes. Right now I'm traveling the whole length of the Marias Pass route. Normally all I do is "explore the route" so I can just drive and not worry about objectives. Sometimes though I take an American train onto the mountain Japanese route.

racerx510 - First of all, you're added! Second of all, I take it those R trains are subways? And as for the in-train voices, you should see the Disney World Monorail.:mad: :banghead: And finally, I think you should make the bus thread.:sly:

:-)
 
R143
r143.jpg


R142, the R142, R142A, and R142S all look the same, but have differences with thier engines, and tiny touch ups that is hard to notice.
r14224.jpg


EDIT: Driving Park, I don't have the balls to do make a bus thread. :lol:
 
Type of train I travel on regularly.
class165large.jpg

Class 165.

OUr undeground trains are quite different to yours racerx510.
92stockWTC.jpg

92 stock

AstkFLRlong.jpg
 
I used to be, but for only steam trains, I was completely nuts on them. Recently I acheived one of my earlier dreams which was to go on the Snowdon Mountain Railway (Which was fantastic!), I also wanted to go on the Ffestinogg Railway as I used to find the twin engined trains so cool!

I suppose really I am still a railway fan but not as much as I used to be.
 
speedster502 - good enough for me! You're added!

Allianz - well of course your trains are different, you live in the UK! But I think I know some about the first train - is that a Connex South Eastern Class C1365 Networker EMU?

:-)
 
Driving Park
speedster502 - good enough for me! You're added!

Allianz - well of course your trains are different, you live in the UK! But I think I know some about the first train - is that a Connex South Eastern Class C1365 Networker EMU?

:-)
Click to expand...
:confused:

You know too much for a 13 year old.

Golly gee... :lol:

EDIT: Who says golly gee anymore? :grumpy:

But Driving Park, we get like 45 trains in one hour depending on where you are at, and you only have to pay $2, then you can take as much trains as you want until you leave the turnstile.
 
Used to be a train fan as a young child but not so much anymore cars kinda took there role, but one thing i was fascinated with trains was the speed records they set.

Especially in the 1930's with the Mallard and all them steam trains and also that more recent train in france TGV i think that went like 300mph!!
 
crooky369 - ha, I'm still both! Should I add you? Your choice...

racerx510 - I cheated. I looked in my World Encyclopedia of Locomotives. But when I saw the picture I knew it was in there so you can credit me for that. But 45 trains an HOUR????!!!! That's insane! Of course, subways come like every 6 minutes (at least in Washington DC).

:-)
 
Driving Park
Allianz - well of course your trains are different, you live in the UK! But I think I know some about the first train - is that a Connex South Eastern Class C1365 Networker EMU?

:-)
Click to expand...

Heh, goodd guess, but no. Network SouthEast Class 165 DMU. Top speed of around 90. Most, if not all of the 165/1s were built for the thames line division of NSE, in 2 and 3 car unit variations. 165/0s were built for the Chiltern division of NSE and are still used on Chiltern railways now so been around for a fair while now.

Facts of Londons underground now:P 45 trains per hour is pretty insane, I not sure if LUL can top that:
System length: 408km, 253miles.
Lines: 12 (Metropolitan, Circle, Piccadilly, District, Bakerloo, Central, Jubilee, Northern, Waterloo & City, East London, Hammersmith and City, Victoria).
Stations: 275.
Passengers: 3 million per day.
The tunnels have diameters as small as 11 foot 8 inches.
Only 45% of the underground is in tunnel.
1 fatal acident for every 300million journeys.
Shotest distance between 2 stations is 100 meters.
Longest is 3.89 miles.
An estimated half a million mice live on the Underground system.

:)
 
Driving Park
racerx510 - I cheated. I looked in my World Encyclopedia of Locomotives. But when I saw the picture I knew it was in there so you can credit me for that. But 45 trains an HOUR????!!!! That's insane! Of course, subways come like every 6 minutes (at least in Washington DC).

:-)
Click to expand...
And Buses that comes every minute and a half, to bad I'm in Utica where the buses are scheduled to come 3 hours on a damn weekday noon. :grumpy: In New York City, it takes 20 minutes to come if you just missed one at 2AM. Same goes for trains. But that is if MTA actually relizes that they have a schedule to follow up. :lol:
Allianz
Facts of Londons underground now:P 45 trains per hour is pretty insane, I not sure if LUL can top that:
System length: 408km, 253miles.:)
Click to expand...
I counted nearly 100 buses on Fordham Plaza, and that was only going eastbound. :scared: Somehow people still complain about the service here.
 
Another railfan here!

Also was a keen MSTS-user for a couple of years,... untill I got myself a Mac two years ago. No Trainsims available for OSX I'm afraid :guilty:

Anyway, I missed it so much, I finally imported myself a copy of the PS3 game Railfan Taiwan High Speed Rail. Played it fot the first time yesterday. I thought it was fun to finally do a trainsim again, though it's very limited off course (1 line - 1 train).

Anyone else got this game?
 
OnlyMe
Another railfan here!

Also was a keen MSTS-user for a couple of years,... untill I got myself a Mac two years ago. No Trainsims available for OSX I'm afraid :guilty:

Anyway, I missed it so much, I finally imported myself a copy of the PS3 game Railfan Taiwan High Speed Rail. Played it fot the first time yesterday. I thought it was fun to finally do a trainsim again, though it's very limited off course (1 line - 1 train).

Anyone else got this game?
Click to expand...

Does Trainz (any version) work on Macs? If you haven't tried that maybe you could see if that works. Trainz is what I use, and I love it.
 
All Windows-only, I'm afraid. A couple years ago there were some rumours among the trainsim community that Auran were indeed doing a Mac-version of Trainz. When asked, Auran said that it was indeed a possibility but sadly it never saw the light of day.
 
I HATE trains, I HATE them. I have to catch them everyday too and from school which is just a pain. I was in Japan just a week ago, the train network there is brilliant, everything works as it should and is on time however, I live in Queensland Australia. This place has the most terrible train network in the world, now some of you Queenslanders may disagree with me but if you catch it everyday surely you have experienced the not so uncommon half hour delay, the 'omg, signal failure' delay, the train is broken delay, the train has derailed trying to back up to the platform cause it overshot (yes it has happened), the 'some stupid Australian has decided to inject drugs and pass out' delay.

It is ridiculous, maybe my first comment was a little lying, I like trains that do not belong to Queensland Rail. Thats what I have to say about trains...
 
OnlyMe
All Windows-only, I'm afraid. A couple years ago there were some rumours among the trainsim community that Auran were indeed doing a Mac-version of Trainz. When asked, Auran said that it was indeed a possibility but sadly it never saw the light of day.
Click to expand...

That's too bad. Well at least Auran thought about it, they have no idea what they're doing right now I'm afraid.

Haha Legendary I can see why you hate QR. It doesn't sound like anything in the way of reliable.
 

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