What Railroads or other train related companies run near where you live?

Hi Tim

     We have the Detroit People Mover...........

  Click on The Detroit People Mover, Promo to enlarge. 

BNSF & UP tracks are very close, within a couple of miles. Used to live just a few blocks from the BNSF tracks, but we moved in 2013. KCS, NS, & CP all come to town in one part of it or another. Those tracks are much further away, probably 25-30 miles. More toward the downtown area and east of Kansas City. NS goes to the BNSF Argentine yard for intermodal service. That is a little closer to where I live.

 

Seems like CN or maybe CSX came here too, but I can't find any evidence of that just now. I do see their engines quite a bit though, but they are on BNSF tracks and part of BNSF trains.

ATSF, UP, and Metrolink operate out of the San Bernardino Depot & Yard.

Here in Houston, I see the UP where I work and live and play.  The BNSF lines are to the east of me and far north, where I don't generally venture. 

 

So it's all UP rail fanning for me

 

.

NS and CSX

Amtrak, CSX and NS run through here.  Occasionally we see some foreign power pulling Oil Trains.

Nj Transit,Us Navy Train,Amtrak,NS,Csx,

The BNSF ex-Frisco St. Louis-Memphis line is about 1/2 a mile from my house, and I see trains on this line quite often as I drive on Interstate 55 south of St. Louis. 

UP is a bit farther away, but I sometimes sit and watch a few UP trains go by as they pass through Valley Park, MO.

 

Once in a while I see a NS train crossing the Missouri River bridge near St. Charles, MO. I really miss the Santa Fe railroad--if I modeled modern stuff I would definitely be a pre merger ATSF modeler.

 

Jeff C

Adrain Blissfield R.R. Grain, Ethanol,lumber and Heavy Haul

Here in Thurmont,MD. we have the Maryland Midland Rwy., part of the Genesee & Wyoming's empire of shortlines. Originally part of the Western Maryland Rwy. until 1973 when WM was merged into the Chessie System, it became part of the MMID in 1983. G&W then bought the line in 2008. Rebuilt EMD's run the 3 trains a week through town. There are a couple of abandoned lines in the vicinity, but it is at least a drive of 10-15 miles to get to another active rail line.
There is 1 active shipper in town, NVR Homes. 

We have NS, Reading and Northern, Kempton and Wanamaker, Delaware Lackawanna,  and of course, the Allentown and Auburn, where I'm a volunteer.

L&C, CSX, and NS, I share a common property line with NS.

 

If it wasn't for the houses in the way, I'd be able to watch the Puget Sound and Pacific (a former NP branch) running by. I hear them all the time.

Just south of me, the PS&P (some local fans call it the "Pee-Sap") meets the BNSF main at Centralia, WA. UP and Amtrak are on the double-track main all the time. You never have to go far to see a train around here.

I've never gotten over that, having grown up in an area (SCL at the time, CSX now)where the 'main' looked more like a long industrial branch instead of a portion of the transcon between Jacksonville, Florida and LA and you could wait hours to see one train.

The CN/ Bessemer & lake Erie  and the B&P main lines are close. The B&LE is less than a mile and B&P about 3 miles.

NYS&W

2 Miles away, the local park railroad. 1 mile of 2 foot gauge track. 3 locomotives, 10 coaches. When I was employed by the county park's department, I was the primary locomotive engineer, track worker, manager, jack of all trades. 

 

 

 

7/20/13. Yours truly, with my favorite locomotive #281, in bound. This was my last day on the railroad, and this is me returning with my very last revenue run. This is what got me into trains. I've grown up hearing the whistles from home. #281 doesn't seem to get the same treatment as I used to give it. It is now rarely used. With the preference to use the two newer engines, #281 rarely sees the light of day and when it does, it usually only pulls one or two trains before going back inside. An excellent engine. Rode well, accelerated very well, it would pull a building down. I always kept it washed, waxed - gleaming. Of course, a fresh set of American flags occasionally as well. 

 

 

The ex-B&O (Now CSX) Metropolitan line is a short drive away, depending on where exactly you go. Here is D765, the local trash train, heading west. 

 

 

The National Capital Trolley Museum is about a half hour away and they have a very scenic 1.5 mile run through a park, along a creek, woods, etc. 

 

 

The Smithsonian on the Mall in Washington houses several historic locomotives and cars. 

 

 

About an hour away, I occasionally volunteer on the Walkersville Southern Railroad. 

 

 

WMATA is also about a 15 minute drive down the road. 

 

 

Several abandoned trolley lines in the area as well. Some have been abandoned for 80-90 years or less. Lots of little things from them still survive. One of the trolley ROWs runs right through the campus of my employer and supposedly there are still  some rails in the woods on our campus but I haven't explored that. 

 

Also in my are is the B&O's Georgetown Branch. I was a bit late to remember the branch in operation but there are many wonderful tours and photos out there. It also terminates near my employer and it is now a very popular trail. Lots of former B&O remnants from it. B&O Emblems stamped into concrete bridge piers, rails in concrete, tunnels, bridges, etc. Walking the trail, you can still see track, scrapped rail car pieces, etc. The Dalecarlia tunnel is just beautiful, etc. 

My favorite line of the railroads around me is the defunct ex-New York Central's Putnam Division (photo from circa 1980) which is maybe a mile and a half away. It now has a new life as a rail trail for walking, jogging and biking.

 

Besides that I am surrounded by the Harlem Divsion (ex-New York Central) of Metro-North Railroad, the New Haven Division (ex-New Haven Railroad) of Metro-North and the Hudson Division (ex-New York Central) of Metro-North. Years ago, it was a good period to watch the waing years of the classic FL-9.

 

Tom

 

 

Norfolk Southern, some CSX, and Pan Am for freight and a nice little shortline track. MBTA commuter rail for passenger cars; you have to travel a bit for an Amtrak station 'though. Otherwise, it's a little bit of heaven. I can hear the commuter rail horn from several miles away but not as often as years past.

 

Commuting to work and around neighboring towns, I see quite a few intermodal trucks, which I include in my definition of railroading fun/research. The most common at the moment are white J.B. Hunt 18-wheelers with the yellow logo and "Intermodal" in bright green letters on the side - hard to miss. Some day I hope to track them to their spawning ground with camera in hand. Speaking of which, I walked part of an abandoned Boston & Maine track yesterday that will be converted to a rail trail. Do rail trails count? 

 

Tomlinson Run Railroad

U of M? Those trolley rails have been gone since at least the sixties. A former B&O siding to the power plant may still be there although the connection to the main was lifted many years ago. Note that the siding crossed the trolley line; somewhat north of the loop.

 

 

I live a mile from Gilly@N&W....NS is the closest of the 2 railroads near us.....to expand on what Gilly said: the NS line near us started out as the Richmond & Danviile RR.....150 years ago, this was Jefferson Davis' escape route out of Richmond in April 1865.

 

Peter

Norfolk Southern about 5 or 6 times a day tracks from my drive way maybe a football field away

Railroads and "related companies" all located within less than 5 miles from our house:

 

1) Original CB&Q three track main line, now BNSF with METRA and Amtrak service.

 

2) Original AT&SF main line, including thee huge UPS Willow Springs facility on the former GM Fisher Body property.

 

3) IHB Belt Railway of Chicago, with trains from UP, NS, BRC and INB.

 

4) EMD plant in McCook, IL

In Newnan, GA (6 miles from my door): CSX AWP/WofA Subdivision Atlanta, GA to Montgomery, AL. Crosses the Lineville Sub at LaGrange, GA with connectors west for Birmingham and east for Manchester. Traffic from Mobile and New Orleans, Birmingham, Waycross and Florida. Lots of UP and BNSF run-through power. Fairburn Intermodal facility is located on this line about 17 miles north of Newnan.

 

Hot intermodal Q042 often operates via Newnan when it has Fairburn setout/pickup work. Sometimes it's routed via Peachtree City. Q042 usually has a cut of 6 or 7 Tropicana Juice cars on the rear end, bound for Cincinnati.

 

 

In Peachtree City (About 9 miles away) CSX Atlanta Terminal Sub/Manchester Subdivision Atlanta, GA to Manchester, GA (ultimately to Waycross and Florida)

 

In addition to the usual intermodals, there are autorack trains, coal loads and empties and merchandise trains on this line.

 

 

The Morristown & Erie RR delivers building supplies to the "84 Lumber" a couple of minutes from my house.

 

 

The former PRR Ft. Wayne Line is about a half mile south of our house.  It is now owned by CSX who leases it to Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Eastern.  NS has trackage rights.  I see quite a few NS oil trains passing through town.  CSX occasionally has a run through unit grain train.  CF&E does all of the local switching.

 

RJ Corman has a line in Lima.  The DT&I (now IORY) also ran through Lima.

 

A couple of "Ghosts" also lurk nearby: The AC&Y and Nickle Plate both had shops in Delphos, about a half mile north of our house.  All gone now but for a few pieces of embeded rail and an old signal at the former PRR interchange.

 

The Ft. Wayne RR Historical Society keeps the 765 about 45 minutes from our place.

 

Tom

Canadian National (1+ mile), "Uncle Pete", and Iowa Northern (5miles) are the locals in Cedar Rapids IA area.

I'm currently working on a history of roads in St. Louis -  I cross both BNSF and UP mainlines on my way to work everyday - the former Pacific Railroad right-of-ways that were at one time Frisco, Katy, Atlantic & Pacific, and MoPac.  Also pass by the St. Louis Metrolink which runs on the St. Louis, Kansas city, and Northern right-of-way (Wabash). Just across the river from us is Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, CSX.  Everyonce in a while I see the T.R.R.A. or the Alton & Southern.

We are like Gilly, NS and CSX... Just closer to the port so that we get the 15 miles per hour container trains blocking crossings in a Suffolk as they go to the main terminal.

 

But when we start looking at what was here in the 1950's, it gets to be a lot more fun. N and W, Virginian, Seaboard, N F and D, local  beltline, and not far away C and O, Southerm, ACL. 

 

Plenty to to choose from.

Growing up in the Boston area I had a good view from my bedroom window across a field to the Lowell line of the MBTA Commuter Rail (the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority was formerly the MTA of "Charlie on the MTA" fame ).  Amtrak also runs on that line, mostly the Downeaster heading up to Maine.  Occasionally we'd see a freight train, but it was always at night, so never knew what line.  In the winter when it snowed and the trees in the field lost their leaves we'd have a great view of the train passing through; my mother always says when we see it at night with the lights falling on the snow it reminds her of the Polar Express.   Occasionally when we took the train in town we'd see some old Boston and Maine cars on sidings; particularly I remember a string of three or four boxcars down by the old Navy Yard.

 

When I went to school in Worcester (about an hour west of Boston), we'd have the Worcester line of the MBTA, Amtrak, and most of the freight was Providence and Worcester.

 

I'm currently wrapping up a two year contract in Southwestern Connecticut.  My first year I live right next to the Metro station which would take you into NYC, and every so often there'd be a short New Haven passenger train.  Sitting in traffic on the intersection between routes 91 and 84, I noticed two vintage streamline aluminum PRR passenger cars that were on a siding outside a factory for the longest time.  Then on one trip one was gone, and a couple weeks later, the other was gone.  Would have liked to see the inside of those.

Providence & Worcester.

• Canadian National 
• Metrolinx GO Transit 
• VIA Rail
• Orangeville and Brampton Railway

The New Hope and Ivyland R.R. is right here in New Hope, PA. It's a tourist line as well local freight services line for industry connecting to CSX somewhere near, or in Lansdale, PA. Then 1/2 hr. away is Amtrak, NJ Transit, SEPTA in Trenton, and Hamilton, N.J. (NJ Transit only). Also CSX runs through Hopewell N.J. area which is (I think) their line from Philadelphia to the yards in around Kearny, N.J. Also SEPTA commuter trains run from Doylestown, PA to Philadelphia.

• BNSF mainline from Chicago to west coast is 2 miles north
• Illinois Rail Link (former BNSF) is a block north in my subdivision
• UP Mainline from Chicago to west coast is 10 miles north
• Canadian National (former EJ&E) line is 10 miles east

Art

Running through Oxford, Pa. on weekdays is the East Penn RR:

 

 

In nearby Newark, DE. some Northeast Corridor action:

 

 

Not too far away is Perryville, MD. on the Northeast Corridor:

 

 

And also some Norfolk Southern action in Perryville:

 

 

And the CSX Tropicana Juice Train too:

 

 

And all around the area are the SEPTA commuter lines:

 

 

 

Harrisburg, Pa.:

 

 

And last but not least, The Strasburg Railroad:

 

Here in town:

KCS 

UP   

BNSF 

We also are home to the corporate offices of Hulcher Services, the big derailment cleanup contractor.

 

 

I'm a few miles from NS tracks that run right through our town.  I can sit on our deck and listen to them.  I keep a scanner in my train room and listen to NS while I'm playing with/working on trains.

 

I'm often in the downtown area of the adjacent town where the tracks cut right through the middle of downtown.  There's a restaurant in what was the railroad station.  It's great to eat lunch and watch the trains go by.

Norfolk Southern, CSX, & Winston-Salem Southbound (Ran by Norfolk Southern & CSX)..........rogerw.

CSX and the home of Tropicana in Bradenton.............

 

Mark

At work I'm within a few blocks of the BNSF Afton and Fort Scott subs and the MNA.

At Home I'm within a few miles of BNSF,KCS, and SEK.

 

Listen to them all on the scanner.

Now there's some modeling possibilities!

CSX formally Conrail formaly penn central formally NYC formally Boston & Albany.  Also have New England central, Pioneer Valley RR, Central CT nearby.

Not my place, but somewhere I frequent:

 

My grandpa's house is a stone's throw from the "Sierra" crossing on the main CP line in southern Alberta, running through Coleman, AB

 

There are also a few relics around reminiscent of the mining days. The Coleman Collieries tipple (loadout) was torn down in 2013, the coke ovens, a few buildings and the little yellow GE engine are all that remain of the whole operation.

 Ex-CP CLC DTC-2 Switcher (courtesy of W.Langford)

 

The tipple in the 80's...

 

 

...and before demolition in 2013

 

The forlorn little GE shunting engine, left to decay. Vandals have broken almost every window and the interior looks torched.

 

The CP mainline, east of where the tipple would have stood, looking towards the bluff in the bottom right of the earlier photos

I live very close to the LIRR Ronkonkoma line. I see mostly LIRR M7 trains, but every once and while I catch a New York and Atlantic freight train headed by GP38-2's, MP15's, and the occasional SW1500.

 

In additon to that, I work fairly close to the Port Jefferson line, so i catch DE30 lead double-decker trains fairly regularly.

 

We live about four block from a little narrow gauge train that runs in Maui. It's not running now but the new owners are fixing it up to start running in December again. We love hearing the little whistle in our back yard. don

BNSF, SRY Rail Link, CP, CN, BCR Port line. Passenger trains running on these are VIA, Amtrak, Rocky Mountaineer, West Coast Express, Fraser Valley Heritage Railway and a light rail line.

Often see the CP and CN running each others lines with directional running (sharing each others Railway line) through the canyon and access to the Port line, with a mix of trains.

Love hearing the trains growling away pulling a long trains and the house shake when they sort long trains in the yard knocking strings of cars together.

 

I had a great time growing up living near several railways really enjoyed in particular the colors of the Great Northern Railway at the time.

Nice thread, Tim.  It made me realize how many railroads (7) run near me!!  Here's a list in order of proximity...

-Providence & Worcester
-Grafton & Upton
-CSX/MBTA/Amtrak
-Pan Am Railway/NS

here in Metuchen, the NEC runs through the center of town, with CSX's Bonhamton Branch connecting to the Raritan Central RR. on the north side of town near my home NS runs on the Port Reading secondary. the ex LV original mainline is now a greenway trail.

 

I have seen NS and CSX trains near where I live, along with NJ Transit trains. There is a local shortline that amazes me, the town I live in used to be a mill town many years ago (primarily paper mills),so I could see how the railroad had revenue, but over time as the area has become increasingly more and more white collar, the little railroad that could seems to thrive. It is called the Morristown and Erie, from what I can tell its roster is mostly older GM and Alco units. It seems to have expanded over the years, I think they also are running operations into Staten Island and serve a big refinery as well from what I have heard. 

Yesterday I crossed under the BNSF Lindenwood Yard in-between Shrewsbury and Maplewood, MO  (St. Louis County) and saw a Soo Line GP.  Can't imagine there are many of those out there!

Sioux City has BNSF, UP, CN, D&I. In addition we see KCS, CSX, NS and all kinds of ***x units.

 

Dick

Austin area has Union Pacific (former Missouri Pacific; International & Great Northern) and two short lines:

 

- Capital Metro runs commuter service on a former Southern Pacific branch. Freight service on this line is provided by Austin Western Railroad (formerly by Austin Area Terminal Railway, Longhorn Railway, and Austin & Northwestern).  Finally, the Austin Steam Train Association, operating as the Austin & Texas Central, operates historic excursions out of Cedar Park with an Alco RSD15 and hopefully soon an ex-SP Mikado that has been out of commission since 1999.

 

- Georgetown Railroad.  Georgetown is also home to GREX, which specializes in railroad maintenance equipment.

 

The former Missouri-Kansas-Texas also used to run through here.  Part of the old roadbed crosses Hwy 79, and the north-south UP line that runs through Taylor is also former MKT.