Google Maps Railfanning Section (READ RULES!)

Amtrak #101 and another one but the number is blocked, and there's even a F40PH #406, which is probably used as a DPU. This is in Boston, MA.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.331...4!1sxEzbDoBOFafkEWO64e3ZVQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192


MBTA #1069 in Boston, MA.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.335...4!1s8SoCwbUeBJ6b_AeeLD-s4w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Some more MBTA commuter trains in Boston
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.344...4!1skT1p4Ra_XLVJPzn7w33O5g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Main Eastern Railroad 344 in Old Town, Maine.
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.932...4!1sF1CZv4Gp1mAdBe_bazopIg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

NS #6128, 881, and 6187 at Irondale, Alabama
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.541...4!1slytkC3XS06k37sWrWpfK6A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
 
All taken in South Boston.

Amtrak with the Cabbage unit is most likely used on the Down Easter to Brunswick Maine - it runs up through the city where I live.

This is the Red line subway, and this is their Cabot Street yard. Boston's subway, bus, and trolley system are managed by the "T", but are not related to the commuter rail. At one time it was much more extensive and included trolley lines as well before the NIMBYs moved in and put the park in and everything else. The yard was built sometime in the early 1910s so it's not a recent thing.

This area in Southie had a switching railroad as well called the Union Railroad which was once a New Haven subsidiary. If you continue past the yard (turn around), you can see Boston its self across the Fort Point Channel. I worked a few blocks from that side of the channel and used to park out on the old piers for $5.00 per day! There were once tons of railroad tracks, yards all over, ship piers, and warehouses. Today everything has been turned into condos and expensive office buildings.

The MBTA commuter rail commuter train is located on the balloon loop once used to turn long distance passenger trains with a locomotive on one end. It's still used today to hold commuter trains and to turn some Amtrak equipment, but not like it was before. During the Boston and Albany and New York Central days, the Lake Shore Limited and New England States Limited were turned here. In the 1970s Penn Central had a derailment when one of their passenger trains derailed while taking the curve too fast and ended up across the nearby highway.

The Old Town, ME view is actually Guilford, or rather Pan Am Railways and not the Maine Eastern. Sadly this line was mothballed a bit past Old Towne Maine where they interchange with the Maine Eastern, which its self is a shadow of what that line used to be thanks to Guilford. The line past Old Town was mothballed when the paper plant down in Bucksport, located at the very end, closed. There has been some reported activity up on the Bucksport end so there might be some good news. Let's hope it is good news and not Pan Am doing their usual and ripping the tracks up.

The good news is awful Pan Am is for sale. The rumors floating around are saying it's either going to be CP Rail or CN. CN still has dibs in the nearby St. Lawrence and Atlantic, or the former Grand Trunk (not Western, but related company). If this is the case, then the Maine railroads will come under Canadian control once again.

The slug is cool on the NS train!
 
Another shot from Indonesia:

https://www.google.com/maps/@-3.708...4!1sSOa6k5FWAgJRFITayfIz6Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

This one was photographed from Central Trans-Sumatran Highway running right beside Tanjung Enim Baru station (which is actually a freight-only station built for serving coal mine of state-owned PT Bukit Asam in Muara Enim regency), with an empty coal train headed by 3 units of EMD G26MC-2U number CC202 90 15 (CC202 30), CC202 95 02 (CC202 32) and CC202 86 09 (CC202 09) waits for its turn for entering the coal loading facility at PT Bukit Asam's Tanjung Enim mine. Only the 3rd unit (CC202 86 09 a.k.a CC202 09) that still retained its original side window; the other 2 units were already modified to CC201-style side window with aluminium frame. Unfortunately the 2nd unit (CC202 95 02) had its side number plate completely blurred by Google due to "accidentally similar with ordinary number plate of road vehicles", prompting myself to rely on identification letterings sprayed on the locomotive's bogies for identifying the road number of that locomotive.
 
Nice capture!

It looks like the driver is waiting at a red signal too for something to come the other way or to switch tracks.
 
From the satellite view there are two coal loading chutes located on two separate area; probably the train was simply waiting for the scheduled time to get its load, or waiting another coal train to finish loading process (since the mine is not only served by Tarahan-bound coal trains, but also those heading toward coal unloading terminal within the territory of Palembang city (the capital of South Sumatra province).

The departure signals on southern end of Tanjung Enim Baru station itself are actually only contains a single red signal and shunting signal, due to the fact that trains heading toward coal loading chutes are considered as "shunting trains".
 
OddRails said:
Looks like the unit behind #101 is #112 if you read through the fencing.

Touring around in Street View allows voyeuristic traveling. It was interesting to snoop around in places that I've only seen on a map.
Click to expand...

Isn't that cool! I do it all the time all over the world where I can. It's a nice inexpensive way to travel too!
 
Over on the North Station side...

MBTA 2012 sitting at platform 1 (I think this is either the Newburyport or Gloucester train. They usually use this track.

https://goo.gl/maps/Z2VZG48XFiKUgpHz5

MBTA 1128 pulling a string of Horizon cars

https://goo.gl/maps/7u5msXPxYCUKyB3k7

Not a loco, but a couple of snow plows:
https://goo.gl/maps/uptmWPdHEertg6LK6

This was once the extensive B&M engine facility that once had a huge roundhouse, cleaning racks, and a passenger car repair facility. In the early 2000s, the engine facility was rebuilt and greatly consolidated. :(

PAR 345 peeking around the bushes.
https://goo.gl/maps/KqByYFMiDkeMdrq16

This was once a huge hump yard, reduced to a flat yard in the late 1980s, then eliminated to a few tracks when everything was sold off to real estate developers in the 1990s by Guilford. Today there's hardly any freight switching on the north side and whatever switching is left is done up in Lawrence and brought down the mainline as local LA-2 or SA-1 Lawrence-2 switcher, or Salem-1 switcher. The Salem switcher does Salem, what's left there, and the Grace chemical plant in Peabody where they receive bones hoppers and tanks. The switcher also does the scrap dealers in East Boston and the food distributors in Chelsea, or whatever's left of them which isn't much. There's a big oil distributor in Chelsea as well, but the NIMBYs blocked the trains from coming in!

MBTA 1053 pulling a string of commuter cars towards Lowell.
https://goo.gl/maps/BTbTsQapLCBCze3e8

This was once part of the hump yard and now an industrial park. Poke around and you'll still see the big overhead lights, and some track. There's some track being rebuilt here as an extension of the Green line light rail to Somerville Union Square and to Medford.
 
Last edited:
Oops. You can't see a number on the loco. Deleted. Sorry.
It was another display loco.
 
Last edited:
OddRails said:
Two six-axle GE locos -- BNSF #4942 and BNSF #5021 -- near East Glacier Park Village, Montana. Maybe helper units?

Satellite view shows single track to the left and double track to the right. It appears that they are just past the single track sitting on one of the double tracks.

https://www.google.com/maps/@48.440...4!1sqt-eeWwQGhZzAEuQ4OcPVQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Click to expand...

That's what it looks like. I saw some great action along this route during a trip out that way in 2012 on a storm-chasing trip with Silver Lining Tours. We visited Glacier National Park and we stopped at that station for a break before continuing into the park. We also got to visit Devil's Tower that trip as well since there were much fewer than normal storms that year.

We also traveled through Gillette on the way to Devil's Tower. We stayed overnight in Billings then headed up to Great Falls, MT. When we traveled up to Great Falls from Billings, we traveled up to Forsythe then on US 12 west before heading up to Great Falls. Forsythe, MT has a good-sized yard that held some long coal trains back then. We then headed out from there on US 12 west. US 12 west follows the former Milwaukee Road Pacific Northwest Extension.

No one else except for one other guy, one of our drivers actually, and me that knew it what that was. It was sad seeing bridges in place without rails, empty roadbed, telegraph poles, old sidings, and big swaths where yards once stood. At one location, US12 swings a bit north and it was obvious there was once a yard to our left. You could see the old train-order loop and the location of other yard buildings.

Thank you for bringing back some memories of an eventful trip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

kaw4014
Map of every Google Maps Railfanning train I've ever found (in the USA)
Replies
0
Views
328
kaw4014
kaw4014
M
Not Dave Snow's Google Railfanning thread
Replies
0
Views
659
mjolnir
M
S
Remote control locomotives
Replies
3
Views
1K
butter
B
R
Rail-related Art and Architecture
Replies
7
Views
2K
mezzoprezzo
M
G
Why to avoid Lat/Long-Reader with TransDM routes
Replies
9
Views
5K
RPearson
R
Back
Top