Google Maps Railfanning Section (READ RULES!)

[JCitron]

LOL! Thanks again John! I may just be able to sort it out when I visit back there next. We were out there in 2016 staying across the bay from Boston and going into Boston by rail, figuring out the line colors and levels to get to the waterfront and Cambridge. Lots of fun!

Nice. The next time you're back east here, PM me and I'll show you around. The T system is pretty small overall and it's a great way to avoid the traffic.

[aryadwi_ef641030]

Another shot from Indonesia:

https://www.google.com/maps/@-6.2628...7i13312!8i6656

This is the April 2013 shot taken from a small road beside Serpong Line track near Pondok Betung area, where former Tokyo Metro (Eidan Subway) Chiyoda Line 6000 series trainset 6115F (F = formation) served as commuter train service heading to Tanahabang station. Unfortunately the location where that Street View photograph was taken is not far from the site of two tragic accidents occured in the past: the first one was happened on October 19th, 1987, when two passenger trains packed with lots of passengers slams into each other due to operational mistakes, with more than 100 deaths and 200 injuries recorded. On the other hand, the second accident was occurred on December 9th, 2013, when Tanahabang-bound commuter train #1131 served by former Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line 7000 series trainset 7121F slams into a fully loaded tank truck that went stuck at a grade crossing just a few hundred meters to the north of the site of first accident (the accident itself was caused by both traffic jam and mistake done by crossing guardman), triggering explosions and large fire that eventually forced the railway company to scrap the whole trainset* and repaired overhead line equipments damaged by the fire.

*although the fire only harmed the driving car #7121 that directly slammed into the tank truck when collision occurred, but structural damage within the body due to collision and fire was rendered by the company as "beyond repairment cost", as the body was manufactured using lightweight aluminium. Even today the workshops of Indonesian Railways does not have capability to handle repairment of aluminium bodied-trains damaged by collision or fire.

[speedracer72]

A foreign sight in Texas, Canadian Pacific #8867 is seen passing T&P station in Forth Worth about to cross tower 55 with Union Pacific #9466 trailing behind the Canadian locomotive.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7447...7i13312!8i6656

[JCitron]

A foreign sight in Texas, Canadian Pacific #8867 is seen passing T&P station in Forth Worth about to cross tower 55 with Union Pacific #9466 trailing behind the Canadian locomotive.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7447...7i13312!8i6656

Nice!

If you go up the road a bit, the date changes to April 2015 and you see this:

https://goo.gl/maps/QNSJB4TVq4hWeHm2A

TRE 126 (an F40 Ph?) and a work train of some kind. I don't recognize the loco, but we could do a reskin of a foreign unit and have something similar.

Also in Nov 2019:
https://goo.gl/maps/dxg3cLPURH6vkdf89

We can't read the road numbers, but this is a way cool selection of rail traffic!

[JCitron]

Another shot from Indonesia:

https://www.google.com/maps/@-6.2628...7i13312!8i6656

This is the April 2013 shot taken from a small road beside Serpong Line track near Pondok Betung area, where former Tokyo Metro (Eidan Subway) Chiyoda Line 6000 series trainset 6115F (F = formation) served as commuter train service heading to Tanahabang station. Unfortunately the location where that Street View photograph was taken is not far from the site of two tragic accidents occured in the past: the first one was happened on October 19th, 1987, when two passenger trains packed with lots of passengers slams into each other due to operational mistakes, with more than 100 deaths and 200 injuries recorded. On the other hand, the second accident was occurred on December 9th, 2013, when Tanahabang-bound commuter train #1131 served by former Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line 7000 series trainset 7121F slams into a fully loaded tank truck that went stuck at a grade crossing just a few hundred meters to the north of the site of first accident (the accident itself was caused by both traffic jam and mistake done by crossing guardman), triggering explosions and large fire that eventually forced the railway company to scrap the whole trainset* and repaired overhead line equipments damaged by the fire.

*although the fire only harmed the driving car #7121 that directly slammed into the tank truck when collision occurred, but structural damage within the body due to collision and fire was rendered by the company as "beyond repairment cost", as the body was manufactured using lightweight aluminium. Even today the workshops of Indonesian Railways does not have capability to handle repairment of aluminium bodied-trains damaged by collision or fire.

A trip on the street north shows a grade-crossing removal that was done in 2018, or sometime in 2017 after the pictures were taken. Given the amount of traffic, I can see why the track was separated from the level crossing in that location!

[aryadwi_ef641030]

A trip on the street north shows a grade-crossing removal that was done in 2018, or sometime in 2017 after the pictures were taken. Given the amount of traffic, I can see why the track was separated from the level crossing in that location!

You're right, and it was the grade crossing accident on December 9th, 2013 that eventually triggered the grade crossing separation project. The first stage of this project saw partial stripping off of the grade crossing by making it as a one-way road to prevent traffic congestion, as the accident was happened when the road was still bidirectional. Construction work for the overpass itself was later started in mid-2017, and it was completed in early 2018. While the grade crossing itself was completely abolished in 2018, the disused crossing lights left there were completely removed as late as early 2020...

[speedracer72]

Shortline railroading seen at its finest, FWWR 2007, FWWR 2002,and FWWR 2019 are seen switching railcars out of a industrial complex along TX 171 on the north side of Cleburne Texas.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3963...7i16384!8i8192

[NorfolkSouthern1036]

Norfolk Southern Reading Bee Line (1067) and Virginian (1069) Heritage Units in Conway PA.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6670...7i13312!8i6656


I didn't find these by myself, I watched a tutorial from this guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrWrawroacx
So yeah, I guess I cheated a little. lol.
Maybe someday I'll be able to find a heritage unit on Google Maps with no other sources.

[speedracer72]

One last post for the DFW area for now.

Canadian Pacific 8856, BNSF 7078 are seen pulling a road railer train out of the former Triple Crown yard in Saginaw Texas.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8275...7i13312!8i6656

A bunch of BNSF SD70MACs are seen in a line in the same former road railer yard in Saginaw Texas, BNSF 9568, 8838, 9921 along with countless other SD70MACs are seen parked in the yard.( any info as to why they are here would be helpful, my guess would be a deadline maybe going to Galveston)
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8308...7i13312!8i6656

[Forester1]

Curious about CP Rail. I see there locomotives with BNSF, and with UP, in Texas and in the Northwest. Has CP hooked up with multiple US rail lines across all of North America?

[JCitron]

Curious about CP Rail. I see there locomotives with BNSF, and with UP, in Texas and in the Northwest. Has CP hooked up with multiple US rail lines across all of North America?

CPR does a lot of run-throughs with American roads today especially with NS up here in New England with CPR and NS owning the D&H, and CPR now owning the remnants of the Bangor and Aroostook, With their ownership of the former MILW via the Soo purchase, they interchange and work with BNSF and UP in that part of the country.

[Forester1]

Interesting. I did not know how widespread it was. I first saw them with UP along the Columbia river and between Portland and Seattle with what appeared to be CPRail grain trains, so I thought it was an easier run through the US to the seaports, but I recently posted a railfan Google image of one with a UP tanker train, so I was beginning to wonder.

[aryadwi_ef641030]

Though I'm Indonesian, I would like to present a shot from the neighboring country of Malaysia:

https://www.google.com/maps/@2.58075...7i13312!8i6656

Class 26 #26107 of Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) hauled a long consist of freight train loaded with tanktainers owned by YTL Cement (one of large-scale cement and ready-mix concrete manufacturer in Malaysia), seen here took a stop at the-then recently renovated Gemas station in Negeri Sembilan state. The Streetview photograph itself was taken in March 2014, only a few months after the completion of electrification, grade separation and double-tracking project of KTM West Coast Line from Seremban to Gemas in October 2013.

[Forester1]

That is a unique looking train! Thanks Aryadwi!

[aryadwi_ef641030]

You're welcome!

I found that the method used by YTL Cement of Malaysia to transport bulk cement on the freight train using tanktainer is basically similar with the ones found in West Sumatra division of Indonesian Railways (where the cement is transported by rail as a bulk product before being packed into smaller sacks at the destination station), albeit those in West Sumatra division is transported with a specialized bulk cement tank car rather than using tanktainers loaded into an ordinary flatcar (of course each methods had their own strength and weakness ).

Cheers,

Arya.