Google Maps Railfanning Section (READ RULES!)

JCitron said:
Change the date back and take a look again. :)
Click to expand...

Wow! You have the keenest eye.

Central New England RR 3006 & 3760
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.877...4!1sSnd55VHgD1lbBdYouqUFng!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

29 UP switchers and you'll also see HLCX 1842 and a Southern Pacific unit way off in the distance
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.783...0kOq6ptw!2e0!5s20201201T000000!7i16384!8i8192

Also various UP engines with HLCX 3828 & 3883
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.790...RmQzWKUw!2e0!5s20140401T000000!7i13312!8i6656


BNSF 544 & 120 and others and ATSF 2953
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.700...DbsLpI2g!2e0!5s20140501T000000!7i13312!8i6656

Southern Pacific Dash 9 and various UP units
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.934...4!1sNKgy28gFBvp6v4JySFfZ7g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

BNSF executive scheme and two Citirail engines and a KCS unit
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.135...cMNczqLcw!2e0!5s20070801T000000!7i3328!8i1664

Gold mine! Too many BNSF units to count, 22 Executives , 2 Heritage 1 schemes, 7 Warbonnets, a BN unit, A CN unit, 3 Citirail units, 2 KCS units, a CSX unit and lots of track worker thingies! Some of these engines are hard to spot and i'm certain i missed some. You also might have to move up and down the highway. One more note, the time is really annoying sometimes.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.150...hV1nYWag!2e0!5s20210501T000000!7i16384!8i8192

I'm not writing everything for this one, but you got NS, ATSF, executives and BNSF
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.122...8TK7s61g!2e0!5s20210501T000000!7i16384!8i8192

NS GP 9, and other stuff probably
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.131...2_fJQqLg!2e0!5s20150701T000000!7i13312!8i6656
 
Central New England RR 3006 & 3760
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8775...7i16384!8i8192
Click to expand...

Check out the switcher down on the far left.

https://goo.gl/maps/Uyk6x5DNXG2GN5Fy7

The New England Central was once the Central Vermont Railway which was wholly owned and operated by the Canadian National. The line runs straight up from New London, Connecticut to Montreal, QB Canada. The former Boston and Maine has trackage rights over a portion of their line in New Hampshire after the B&M gave up their own line in the mid-1970s. The line runs about 130 km west of me and runs due north from CT to Canada.
 
JCitron said:
Check out the switcher down on the far left.

https://goo.gl/maps/Uyk6x5DNXG2GN5Fy7

The New England Central was once the Central Vermont Railway which was wholly owned and operated by the Canadian National. The line runs straight up from New London, Connecticut to Montreal, QB Canada. The former Boston and Maine has trackage rights over a portion of their line in New Hampshire after the B&M gave up their own line in the mid-1970s. The line runs about 130 km west of me and runs due north from CT to Canada.
Click to expand...

Woah. I go past that depot every day and iv'e never noticed that. Recently iv'e been seeing a pink GP9 , same paint as 3006 just the green is replaced with pink.

CSX unit, Ohio Central System 4028, a red and grey engine and 3 Genissee & Wyoming engines
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.764...cYDR3QSA!2e0!5s20140701T000000!7i13312!8i6656

Two BN units, Rail America 4056 (and another RA engine, may be same one IDK) , Southern Pacific 9352, an Indiana & ohio unit, two NS units (a bit farther away) a Genissee & Wyoming unit and three CEFX engines, a grey NREX unit and what looks to be a Nickel Plate RR GP9 which is very hard to spot so I put it as the first image you see. (some of these you can only see from the other side of the tracks and in the right time.)
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.060...4!1s7fcuI1BWiawoacfgIaiNtA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Two Elkhart & Western units and a cupola caboose
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.690...6HaYu8MA!2e0!5s20130801T000000!7i13312!8i6656

Three Evansville Western Railway units and two blue GATX units
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.927...4!1sH-CwvnshD23jYO_qokM34Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

3 Chicago South Shore & South Bend units, 2 Iowa Interstate RR units and many South Shore commuter trains
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.713...4!1sG1gVNK_CtIDx7MnsyxgSVg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

2 Louisville & Indiana units and if you move over to the highway, you can see 2 CP engines and a thoroughbred
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.300...PcUTFI8g!2e0!5s20161201T000000!7i13312!8i6656

L&I 2003 and a L&I slug S10! (two other engines on the other side of the yard)
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.241...4!1sYA4MyZvi7fO7sumOzPYHLw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
Nice stuff!

Heres my fill,

UP 5916 and one other in North Platte, NE. Farther down the road is UP 5933 and then farther is UP 6161 & 5920. At the end there is this UP & SP pair.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.135...TQk1iMAw!2e0!5s20071001T000000!7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.134...9ptM161g!2e0!5s20071001T000000!7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.128...O6RA9AhA!2e0!5s20071001T000000!7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.124...UDNf_N-AQ!2e0!5s20080901T000000!7i3328!8i1664

More UP on this highway;
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.119...DjIml94Lw!2e0!5s20080901T000000!7i3328!8i1664
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.114...4bqWIZCoQ!2e0!5s20080901T000000!7i3328!8i1664
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.094...1RZNBdUww!2e0!5s20071001T000000!7i3328!8i1664
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.087...DB39SLdw!2e0!5s20120301T000000!7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.083...qjdPOahw!2e0!5s20120601T000000!7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.078...xTTJRSGPQ!2e0!5s20071001T000000!7i3328!8i1664
 
Yep, That's the main haul for UP. North Platte is a great place to stop at the park and hop on the Challenger, the RPO and baggage car, and the Diesel unit. Then go out to the Golden Spike tower and watch the activities at the world's biggest yard, including the hump sorting. Also you can read the statistics on what they do there, like replacing 10,000 wheels per month!
 
Yup. I recognized the location. I've been there twice during storm-chasing trips with Silver Lining Tours. The first time was in 2008 and the second in 2013. In 2013, we stayed at the Microtel Hotel because it was the only one open in town and they had posters and advertisements on LCD screens for the big yard and tower. We weren't there for trains, although I would have been happy for that, and instead we left the next day and headed up to Valentine and then on to the Sand Hills were we saw some good lightning.

I saw lots of freights whizzing by on the former CB&Q mainline and met the track maintenance supervisor because she got reports of people on the tracks. I kept telling my fellow travelers to get off the tracks, but they didn't listen until she came along and yelled like a US Marine's Sargent! :)

One of the tour drivers and I were the rail fans on the trip and we struck up a conversation with her and another BNSF coworker. At the time, I had applied for a job with CSX and was waiting for my application to process and I told her about it. She was ecstatic to hear that and we've kept in touch off and on ever since. Sadly, I didn't pursue the career path due to some health reasons which forced me suddenly on to disability sometime later anyway.

The saddest part of the trip that year was seeing the old CN&W Cowboy Line now turned into a bike trail. What a waste of railroad that is!
 
Great anecdotes, John. My ridiculously insane hope is that they are actually PRESERVING these ROWs by making them into trails, and maybe someday someone will get smart and use them for trains again. Expensive, I know, but all the grading is done! :eek:
 
Forester1 said:
Great anecdotes, John. My ridiculously insane hope is that they are actually PRESERVING these ROWs by making them into trails, and maybe someday someone will get smart and use them for trains again. Expensive, I know, but all the grading is done! :eek:
Click to expand...

Thanks. I wish I could take more of those trips, but that's both physically as well as financially impossible now, but anyway. Yeah, good point. I'm afraid though that even if that is the intent it'll never happen because once the NIMBYs get to ride their bikes on the ROWs, nothing happens after that. The Minuteman Trail is a good example between Bedford and Cambridge in MA.
 
yes, I thought the state of Washington was very smart when they bought up the Milwaukee Road ROW from the Idaho Border to west of the Cascades summit and turned it into a park system. Unfortunately, they did not keep some of the overpasses/bridges, and while the bridge over the Columbia River is still there I believe it is blocked to travelers. A safety measure most probably, but it does cause barriers to actually traveling the route. The nearest crossable bridges are miles and miles upstream and down. And without overpasses you have to cross the freeways on your own.
 
Forester1 said:
yes, I thought the state of Washington was very smart when they bought up the Milwaukee Road ROW from the Idaho Border to west of the Cascades summit and turned it into a park system. Unfortunately, they did not keep some of the overpasses/bridges, and while the bridge over the Columbia River is still there I believe it is blocked to travelers. A safety measure most probably, but it does cause barriers to actually traveling the route. The nearest crossable bridges are miles and miles upstream and down. And without overpasses you have to cross the freeways on your own.
Click to expand...

Bridges seem to be a barrier quite often in many locations perhaps because of their condition in the first place. It was a smart idea to bank the ROW, which was the intent of the R-to-T program. Unfortunately, though, once the rails come out the nearby residents forget about the fact that the railroad built the community they live in today, and worse as happened in my area recently, a Walmart moved in and built right across a ROW of a branch and that effectively killed it from ever coming back even if the traffic was viable for the branch to come back to life. This happened in Amesbury, MA where I used to see local freights moving alongside the state Rt. 110. The same occurred in Salem, NH on the old Manchester and Lawrence, and in many other locations in and around Boston such as the old Watertown branch between Waltham and Cambridge. This line could be a perfectly useful light rail line, but a shopping mall takes up a large part of the ROW in Watertown. In Revere, the old Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn ROW is used partly by the Blue Line subway out to Suffolk Downs. Beyond that, condos were built right across the ROW killing off a planned future expansion back to Lynn unless the "T" uses the nearby commuter rail ROW on the former Eastern Railroad (B&M) line.
 
Sad to hear, but inevitable I suppose. Reno, NV is on a main haul route to California, and it appears digging a trench for the ROW through the middle of the city was less expensive than trying to bypass around, so they had their own "Big Dig". You never know what they might think up if someone wants it bad enough. Portland Oregon was smart and put light rail ROW down the freeway medians when they built them. I wish our Treasure Valley here in Idaho would be that smart. They actually have ROW from southeast of Boise through Meridian to Nampa going right through town, used for local freight, but no attempt at light rail (eight-lane freeway that clogs in accidents, bad weather and early morning sunrise though). They are still digging up the old trolley tracks in downtown Boise when they improve the streets! Talk about short sighted!
 
Forester1 said:
Sad to hear, but inevitable I suppose. Reno, NV is on a main haul route to California, and it appears digging a trench for the ROW through the middle of the city was less expensive than trying to bypass around, so they had their own "Big Dig". You never know what they might think up if someone wants it bad enough. Portland Oregon was smart and put light rail ROW down the freeway medians when they built them. I wish our Treasure Valley here in Idaho would be that smart. They actually have ROW from southeast of Boise through Meridian to Nampa going right through town, used for local freight, but no attempt at light rail (eight-lane freeway that clogs in accidents, bad weather and early morning sunrise though). They are still digging up the old trolley tracks in downtown Boise when they improve the streets! Talk about short sighted!
Click to expand...

The same Big Dig occurred in Hingham, MA. The folks didn't want the commuter trains stinking up their downtown so we paid a lot more for their commuter rail line that runs out to Scituate.

Yup... They still find a lot of trollely lines here too. Lawrence had a line that ran up from Boston to Canobie Lake Park in Salem, NH. The park is still there, but the trolleys are long gone. My grandmother used to ride from Boston to the park for 25-cents and spend all day on the rides before taking the trolley back home to Cambridge.

We've got the famous Rt. 128, now I-95 in parts, that's similarly clogged. the nearby rail lines are mostly ripped up and no trails and part of the road is built on the ROW in places.

Sad. Shortsighted is an understatement.
 
Statin Island Railway.

774 ?, 777, and 778.

There's a couple of cabooses too off to the left along with some subway cars including a maintenance or garbage train,
https://goo.gl/maps/vGJKuKGrnGjAUwgB7

778 and 779, cabooses and subway cars.

https://goo.gl/maps/n6y7p8VZ6xNJhCCw9

Cabooses again and a work locomotive, and a subway car sitting outside the shed.

https://goo.gl/maps/XwocGdBm21mik7759

Subway cars hiding a couple of locomotives.
https://goo.gl/maps/mb4ZcLbqPHZKWxGP8

Not trains this time, but worth noting. Note the old B&O CPL signals. The Statin Island Railway was once owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
https://goo.gl/maps/WYenh7J6Cjv2YoGbA

Sadly, the north branch has been abandoned after the yard. The ROW is grassed over, closed off and abandoned subway ROW. Where there could be a station, or the line run out to Richmond, is blocked by a junk yard, and the ferry terminal isn't served at all by any service on the north side. When this was closed, there was quite a controversy because the very busy rail line was closed in favor of buses!
 
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Those Locos would sure look nice in Trainz! I see there are cars on the DLS, but no engines like those! BTW, Just thought I mentioned that an original trolley that burned to the frame has been restored and is being used by a local brew pub for private parties. A beautiful restoration with all wood interior and etched glass in the clerestory ceiling. Too bad it will never roll the streets again, but makes a nice bar car!
 
That's nice the old trolley car was restored. Sadly, I agree it's too bad it's not put back into service.

I agree these would make nice locomotives, hint, hint out to Jointed Rail or RR Mods. :)
 
NorfolkSouthern1036 said:
Here's an old Conrail Locomotive in Philadelphia, PA.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.934...m4!1sxZbnHOL3hpLfbkOFDjeDUA!2e0!7i3328!8i1664

Two CSX locomotives.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.944...q9drElQKZqNMdZoDXSLii!2e10!3e11!7i5504!8i2752
Click to expand...

Nice!

Here's another. A few CSX and some other I can't read in the same yard, but near the B&O bridge and dated 10 years later.
https://goo.gl/maps/SnTXDU3uhnnKD6b2A

Also note there was once some track that ran along that warehouse too.
 
Nice stuff! (For some reason my computer is changing the links into the place names . . weird)

Here's a Japanese double decker passenger train.
Chiyoda City, Tokyo - Google Maps

Metro North Train in New York, an older one
399 Parkway Homes Rd - Google Maps

NS 6150 in, Allentown, PA
613 River Dr - Google Maps

NS slug set in the distance, with one more even farther
632 River Dr - Google Maps

Bunch onNS engines on the bank of a river.
Norfolk Southern Allentown Terminal - Google Maps

Same thing . .
Allentown Canal Park Access Point - Google Maps
 
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