Friday 10-6, Near or Far?

TomPM

Another Fried Egg Fan
Good morning folks

I finished decaling the Reading Atlas ARHS two-bay hopper and I made eight coal loads last night.

Do you live or have ever lived near railroad tracks?

For me I grew up 500 feet from the B&O Philadelphia Subdivision in Delaware County, PA. I used to sit at the window in the kitchen and watch the trains roll by. The Penn Central, now Amtrak NEC, was within walking distance from our house. On quiet nights you could here the trains traveling along it. When I finally moved from there I moved to an aprtment that was across the street from the NEC. Where I live now the closest tracks are about 3/4 mile away and they are the SEPTA Route 101 Media Trolley LIne.
 

Herc Driver

Active Member
About six miles from an active Norfolk Southern line. One of these days I'm going to figure out how to get a schedule so I can take the kids and sit by the tracks so they can see and feel a train go by. Pictures are fine, but there's nothing quite like feeling the ground shake beneath your feet when a string of diesels roll by.
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Lived next to the ex-TG&B (became CPR Bruce sub, now operated by the Orangeville-Brampton Rwy) when I was a kid.

First house we owned was two blocks from a siding that serves a fertilizer plant. Interesting thing about the siding - it was originally the Bytown & Prescott - the first railway to reach Canada's Capital (Ottawa, known at that time as Bytown).

New house is within earshot (and about 10 minute walk) of VIA's line from Ottawa to Toronto.

Andrew
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
Growing up in NJ, we lived close to an Erie line. When we moved to Wickenburg here in Arizona about six years ago, our house was less than a half-mile from a BNSF main line. It was neat waking up to the sounds of a train coming through. We drove parallel to it for 30 miles on the way to town. Two and a half years ago we moved again to the City of Surprise and now those same BNSF tracks are about three miles away, but on a crisp morning we can still hear the trains faintly from where we are.
 

MCL_RDG

Member
I grew up...

...in Manayunk. If you ever saw/see a book "Rails Through Manayunk", on page 35 there's a photo- the "Breyer's" ice cream sign at the corner store, well, that's the corner of my block. We lived about 10 houses up from the corner and played at the RR retaining wall. Watched trains, mostly Reading electric MUs. we walked to school a couple miles away, every day along the "Chinese Wall". Across the Schuykill (skoo-kill) River we coul;d watch Reading freights and Pennsy trains going through Bala Cynwyd (bala kinwood).

A cousin who had a twisted passion for trains would occasionally get into trouble for wagging a flashlight to get the trains to stop at that stretch of RR. Of course he was much younger then.sign1

Mark
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
I don't live so close to the tracks probably about 10-12 miles away, so I can't sit in my window and watch them go down the tracks:cry:

My grandparents used to live in Yorba Linda, CA and I used to go to her house almost everyday because she would take care of me when I was a baby and till I was about 12 and there are a pair of tracks that run of there. I used to see trains everyday but now I am lucky if I see them once a month!!:cry:

But I do see everyones layouts here and it kinda makes up for that because everybodies layouts here are great:thumb: :thumb:
 

Chessie6459

Gauge Oldtimer
I live about a 1/2 mile from the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Division. On a daily basis there is close to 50 trains running through town.
 

LoudMusic

Member
I'd say relatively near. About a mile, probably less. The scary bit is crusing down the interstate watching a train instead of the road ;)
 
I live about five miles from the BNSF (formerly ATSF) mainline from Ft Worth to Oklahoma City. It carries at least 35 trains a day. That's where I do most of my photography. It's good for a lot of unit trains like intermodal, grain, and automobiles as well as Amtrak's Heartland Flyer and mixed freights. On a good day I can hear the horns that far away. A bit further (about 10 miles) is a junction with KCS in Krum TX that sees about six interchanges a day.At work, I am right next to another BNSF (formerly BN, formerly Frisco) mainline, from Dallas to Sherman. It only carries mixed freights, maybe 20 a day. About 1/2 mile north of work this line makes a triangle with two UP lines that are now leased to DGNO. One of these lines is a former MKT line from Dallas to Denton, The other is a former SSW (Cotton Belt) line that runs east-west. That spot used to be a great railfanning (bad for local auto traffic) area since the three tracks make a triangle no greater than 100 ft. per side. No shortage of railfanning sites for me.
 

Ralph

Remember...it's for fun!
As a boy I lived within two miles of the NYC's former West Shore Line which then became Penn Central's River division. I'd usually see a train daily on my school bus trips out and back.

Right now I live within a mile of a junction of the CP's Wisconsin Central and the Minnesota Commercial RR. The junction includes a 90 degree diamond and a small yard. There's often a lot of action around there.

Ralph
 

jetrock

Member
My current home is a block from the old right-of-way of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, the first common-carrier railroad in California. It later became the Southern Pacific's Ione Branch, and today carries passengers as part of Sacramento Regional Transit's Light Rail system. There is also a freight spur, running from the line that used to be the Western Pacific mainline about four blocks away, bringing cars full of newsprint to the local newspaper, that is still in active use. The local community college operates a switcher that transfers cars to and from the site, and they use a tiny Trackmobile to shuffle cars back and forth on the site--it's a mini layout waiting to happen. The site was originally a brewery, also served by rail.

A half-block in the other direction is the former home of the Pacific Gas & Electric's P Street streetcar line.
 

viperman

Active Member
In 96 we moved to Crystal Lake, which put us within earshot of the UP northwest line to/from Chicago. Now I'm living in Winfield, and am about 2 blocks away from the UP line out here
 

Iron Goat

Member
Our home is less than a mile from the KCS tracks.... and in Kansas City, it seems you are never very far from tracks and trains.

Bob
 

AndyWS

New Member
I grew up in Madison, WI just about 2 blocks from the Johnson Street yard. Our house near Stoughton (which we moved to in 1999) is a couple miles from the WSOR Madison subdivision (between Madison and Janesville) but we can hear the train horns pretty clearly as they blow for the crossing at County Highway B.

I sometimes hear train whistles on campus, I'm not sure where the tracks are exactly I'll have to look for them one of these days. The railroad would be either CN or CP (whichever one took over the WC LTD), although they still have a lot of locomotives in WC livery.
 
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