Rail-fanning on The OGR Forum 🚂 Welcome: Pictures YOU have taken! • Hope to see you out rail-fanning.

The trefoil window at the top is in the middle section of the building that includes the stairs to the second and third floors. When you are on the third floor looking out through the window, this is what you see. Note that the American flag establishes the construction date of the building.

Great photographs of a tremendous structure, Doug.

Spotted a few covered hoppers in this grain train west of Boone Ia. I have not noticed “ribs” cars before.

A swing bridge ove the Mississippi at Clinton Ia. I was thing ex C$NW now. The engines are UP and KCS?  Not sure whose bridge. Possibly shared. T

Delaware and Raritan River RB-1 is viewed over a period of several days as he makes his way from Lakewood back to Red Bank, NJ over the former Central Railroad of New Jersey Southern Division. In the first image, the train passes under the Garden State Parkway in Tinton Falls. The next two photos show him approaching Lewis Street in Eatontown. The flashers are inoperative here so the conductor flags the crossing. Lastly, RB-1 is seen crossing Shrewsbury Avenue in Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury Avenue is a very heavily traveled route so this grade crossing is protected by gates and flashers.

Bob

More shots from Napavine Hill in WA state:

Swing bridge Bettendorf-Davenport. At a Mississippi River lock to allow tug to pass with its barge tows. I was on the foot bridge and had to run for it when the horn sounded. I guess the ride on the bridge would have been safe though. Double tracked on the top. Don’t know what RR uses this yet.  If any? Maybe was for streetcars.

Currently the Iowas Interstate, formerly Rock Island. Government Bridge

@Erik C Lindgren posted:

Sweet!

Ive taken a liking to rail photography the last few years again and especially enjoy others work!

Erik really nice shots. I was wondering if you go out to take pictures do you have a schedule of times that trains run these routes ? Also what type of camera do you use ? And lastly do you sell your work?

I live in Spokane  Washington and can access a rail that they call the funnel I believe.  This route is 70 miles long and has close to 50 + trains a day. I love going to a town in Idaho called Sanpoint where there is a  7000 ft crossing over lake Pend Oreille there is a constant movement of trains. This is one of the busiest rail routs in pacific northwest. After viewing some of the rail fanning pictures I thought this would be something to get involved with . Any suggestions on how to's would be much appreciated.  Also just to add This is a BNSF Northern Transcom route.

@Bill Grafmiller posted:

I live in Spokane  Washington and can access a rail that they call the funnel I believe.  This route is 70 miles long and has close to 50 + trains a day. I love going to a town in Idaho called Sanpoint where there is a  7000 ft crossing over lake Pend Oreille there is a constant movement of trains. This is one of the busiest rail routs in pacific northwest. After viewing some of the rail fanning pictures I thought this would be something to get involved with . Any suggestions on how to's would be much appreciated.  Also just to add This is a BNSF Northern Transcom route.

There was a feature on Sandpoint in the 2010 Locomotive special edition that Trains put out, they might have some location-specific info. For The Funnel, there's so many trains you probably don't need to worry about finding out when stuff runs. If you're a retiree who has the time to spend a few hours each day, I'd start by just sitting down by the tracks and making a note of what trains go by. With enough visits, you can start to get a feel for when certain trains may show up, and what train they are; for example, after about a year on the Fort Wayne Line, I could identify the local freight runs by their locomotive type and the cars they usually hauled (coils, a few reefers, gons, and some coal hoppers). A tool that may help in train identification (and giving heads-up, sometimes) is a scanner radio; you can tune in to railroad channels and hear the engineer calling signal indications at certain mileposts and getting permission to depart (on some lines), they'll often mention a symbol. I use a Baofeng UV-82HP with a standard antenna, which can pick up conversations about 5 air miles away depending on weather conditions.

There are also public symbol Wikis online (e.g. http://railroadfan.com/wiki/in...p/BNSF_Train_Symbols), but like any Wiki, the information can be outdated or not accurate.

To get a better idea of typical train symbols, and to hear about special runs or units, I usually join a Facebook group, and there are also Messenger and Discord groups. These are usually line or region-specific, I imagine there's at least one covering the Funnel. People living up and down the line will provide reports when they see trains, and occasionally railroad employees provide advance notice of trains on their way.

A word to the wise; railfans in these groups can be very picky about formatting of heads-up, and often get irritated if there's too many requests for updates or information; i.e., they can be nerdy cranks (I've gone off on one or two people, and have a feud going on at the moment; I'm not proud of either of these things). Read any pinned posts or announcements when you join, and have thick skin.

Finally, if you're interested in specific railroads or operations, often a good way to get info is reach out to a person who's posted photos that you've admired. Occasionally, they'll be willing to provide you information or meet up to chase a train with you. Case in point; if you ever find yourself on Maryland's Eastern Shore on a Friday, reach out to me, I'm happy to show you around the Maryland & Delaware and Delmarva Central as long as you don't mind my Pittsburgh-born, DC-perfected aggressive driving.

As for cameras, I use a Fuji XT-4. But, what's more important than the camera body is you lens, using manual settings, and your editing. Shoot using all manually-defined settings like ISO, shutter speed, etc., have your camera output a RAW file if you can, and download a photo editor to adjust your colors, lighting, etc. after the shot. Also more important; lighting and location. Start by finding some spots where there's good lighting (on both the nose and sides for a given direction at a given time of day). Find a setting that intrigues you, and that you can use to help frame the train.  

Marshall Michigan Roundhouse

June 6, 2023 - This roundhouse was built in 1884 for the DT&M railroad. They used 225,000 bricks for Dundee Michigan and 150,000 bricks from Battle Creek Michigan to built the roundhouse a shops. Let’s just walk around and check out the roundhouse.

Thanks for taking a look. Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary from Michigan 🚂

Visited Steamtown on Saturday and there was a good bit of activity going on - a fan trip getting ready to depart and the short yard trip behind Baldwin # 26. But first… what is a trip to Steamtown without a picture of the cosmetically restored 4012!!!

A pair of F3’s backing up a consist of Jersey Central coaches so they can be switched onto the track alongside the passenger platform on the far side of the yard.

Baldwin #26 pulling a caboose on a short yard trip.

I posted additional pics over on a separate thread:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...c/176694689225174807

Here's something you don't see everyday, broken draft gear.

This happened northbound on Napavine Hill. Over 2 hours later, the train is still stuck there to set out the broken car.

Some moral E8s turned murals in Cleveland.

Second one is still work in progress.

Good afternoon y'all,

Paul, At the end of video img 2850, could you tell me more about the 4-6-0?  I feel my railroad needs an O gauge 4-6-0, late 1880's

Thanks,

Odenville Bill

@Odenville Bill posted:

Good afternoon y'all,

Paul, At the end of video img 2850,

Do you mean "2350"?

could you tell me more about the 4-6-0?

Believe that is a 4-6-4T from Canada.

I feel my railroad needs an O gauge 4-6-0, late 1880's

Thanks,

Odenville Bill

Centralia, WA, right before I picked up my pups from the groomer near there:

Hello everyone,

   I wanted to share a photo that a friend of my wife's recently took. Both of these ladies are semi-professionals and they routinely share photos with each other. Cathy (the photographer of this shot) was recently down in Maricopa, AZ (south of Phoenix) at sunrise to photograph a field of blooming sunflowers when she heard and then saw this Union Pacific train approaching. She waited for the perfect moment you only dream about as a photographer where all aspects of the perfect shot come together to make a once-in-a-lifetime image. She clicked the shutter, and here's the result. Enjoy, my friends!

Tom

@Just Havin' Fun - Beautiful picture and note, all the sunflowers are facing the same way, towards the sun as they should be.  Just beautiful, thanks for sharing.

Don

Tom, I agree Cathy got that once-in-a-lifetime shot on that one!  Beautiful!

Paul at least your post here didn't get turned into, "what a bad job NPS is doing!".  Good job getting both the 26 and F3s moving in your second video.

@Odenville Bill posted:

Good afternoon y'all,

Paul, At the end of video img 2850, could you tell me more about the 4-6-0?  I feel my railroad needs an O gauge 4-6-0, late 1880's

Thanks,

Odenville Bill

Bill;

The sad engine you saw is actually a Canadian National 4-6-4T (aka tank engine) built at the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1914. Lionel did a run of 4-6-4T’s a couple of years ago, including a version of CN #51.

Created in 1979, NJ Transit celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019. In commemoration of this event, the agency decorated several pieces of equipment in “heritage” liveries belonging to railroads which operated commuter services in New Jersey long before NJT was formed. One such locomotive is ALP-46A 4636 which I photographed at Long Branch as it departed eastbound for New York Penn Station on March 22, 2021. The 4636 wears the classic Pennsylvania Railroad Tuscan red five stripe scheme which was applied using vinyl wraps.

Bob

I saw this caboose in a park in downtown Front Royal Virginia this past July 4 weekend.  I just had to snap a photo!  

For this week's video, nothing too special, but I did get the lead locomotive's ditch light burning out on-camera. These are a pair of the GE Super 7s that used to run on the Monongahela Railway, and now are largely due to be scrapped (save 3185 and one other).

Sunday morning, 23 July, the Tygart Flyer trainset rolls by the Tygart River on its way to Elkins, WV for its 11:00 departure. (cue the rail sounds !)

Rich in WV

Rich, do you know what the last car was? Sounded like it had an engine inside it.

Thanks, Dan Weinhold

@sleepmac posted:

Rich, do you know what the last car was? Sounded like it had an engine inside it.

Thanks, Dan Weinhold

Looks, and sounds, like it is the HEP car, which provides electrical power for the passenger cars.

Hot Water, thank you. I was under the mistaken notion that the F units could do that on their own. I noticed an interesting mix of passenger cars. <VBG>

Dan Weinhold

The grade crossing nearest where I grew up in North Florida. They rarely run in the daytime.

Florida, Gulf and Atlantic RR, SD70M #107 on point.

Yet another video from my summer 2022 traveling...after waking up early that morning to catch some GO Transit F59PHs, I hung around Canadian National's Kitchener Yard, since the symbol Wiki suggested a local would go on duty shortly. While the video turned out hecka backlit, I'm glad I took it, since I got to see both a semi-rare GP38-2 in the CN Zebra scheme, and a rarer GP38-2 in former GATX leasing paint (Smurf paint).

This is from a summer trip in 2018 on a very rainy Saturday in Mauch Chunk, PA, as Reading & Northern 425 arrived at the old CNJ station. I recorded this on an older phone, but I just love the way 425's whistle echoes through the mountains. Hauntingly beautiful.

Day one of visiting the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (former Southern Railway Murphy Branch).

Looks great, Trainmaster04!

Here's rail-fanning from a different angle. Back in September my wife and I rode the New Tygart Flyer on the Durbin & Greenbrier out of Elkins, WV. Half way through the trip, I was invited to ride in the cab of the F7. The video is from my cab ride. The pictures are of the pair of F7's heading the train. If memory serves me correct the WM unit was ex-CN.

Ryan,

I never rode in a F7... until now!   Thanks for sharing that video.  I love the tunnel ride.

Mike

Interesting video, and thanks for posting. Wonder who taught that Engineer how to use the air horn?

@IRON HORSE posted:

Ryan,

I never rode in a F7... until now!   Thanks for sharing that video.  I love the tunnel ride.

Mike

Absolutely! That was such a fun (and unexpected) experience. The tunnel was awesome. Interestingly, the passenger cars only clear the walls by a few inches on each side, I was told.

@Hot Water posted:

Interesting video, and thanks for posting. Wonder who taught that Engineer how to use the air horn?

The engineer that day was the president of the Durbin & Greenbrier.