Has anyone done any railfanning here?

[Torpedo423]

So, story time kiddos! I was riding Amtrak's cardinal out to see my grandparents in Charleston, West Virgina a few weeks back, wonderful ride. Along the route, I looked out the particularly dirty window of the amfleet car I was in to see an old caboose painted in Norfolk & Western colors, along with an old Texaco gas station, complete with what appeared to be original sign. So, after doing some research, as I was told the line I was on had a decent amount of traffic, I found it on Google earth.

It is in Clifton, Virgina. It is right on the NS mainline by the looks of it, I have read that it sees VRE, Amtrak, the occasional CSX train, and NS. I only live about 2 hours from here so I started planning a trip.

Now, my question, Has anyone here done any railfanning in Clifton, Virgina? Not Clifton Forge, these are two different places.

I want to know if this is a decent place to go to watch trains, I don't want some run down part of town that I really shouldn't be in. Although the stuff I have heard about it says the people are friendly and I should be perfectly safe there.

 

[wva-usa]

Clifton, VA and vicinity has more than enough historic railroad-related "diversions" to fill a book. And you're just a hop, skip and jump from Bull Run/Manassas Civil War battlefield. But you'd be knee-deep in history just about anywhere you'd go in that area of Virginia...

Where to start...? How about a visit to the Bunny Man Bridge?

To scary? Then just visit the N&W caboose and read the historic marker next to it.

Seriously, if you managed to return unscathed from your visit to Charleston, in "wild and wonderful" West Virginia, you should be safe in Northern Virginia.

 

[Torpedo423]

Sweet, thanks!

 

[stagecoachdriverdave]

To scary? Then just visit the N&W caboose and read the historic marker next to it.

but don't take a look inside! (seems to be used as a storage place for Halloween decorations among other things)

Clifton is a cool place - there is no bad area of town, in fact there isn't really much town beyond the main st. The traffic can be quite sparse at times, your best chance of catching action would be before 1pm or around the evening rush. I only managed to catch a couple of trains during my most recent visit:

 

[Torpedo423]

Nice, I will definently plan on going there sometime then. I programmed the NS channels into my scanner from this site: http://www.shortwaveaudio.com/norfolk-southern-railroad-frequency-list/

I am assuming those are correct? I haven't done much railfanning on the NS lines due to the fact that I am up in Baltimore and everything here is MARC and CSX