How many of us are IRL railfans? (hi def images)

kcwright_rm

Cumberland & Eastern RRTC
This topic has always been interesting for me, as i see many people with knowledge of trains but they dont actually go out and shoot trains with a camera or just watch them. I was wondering, how many of us railfan in real life and not on trainz?

I do quite a lot, here is some stuff i caught today.
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Well, before that annoying pandemic I do went to the trackside or stations for shooting trains, though sometimes I also do it when I rode trains to or from the campus (during the days when I was still university student):

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Station-Shot-3.jpg


(of course all of the shots were taken in Indonesia)
 
I started out as a rail fan when I was about 2 years old. My dad used to bring me across the street from our apartment house to watch the Boston and Maine trains pass by on the tracks below. There was a small yard there and we'd watch them switch freight cars in the yard destined for the paper mill on the former Bradford to Georgetown branch as well as other local industries located along the line. The Haverhill side also had a bigger yard and there would be transfers. We would sit there for hours near the fence watching the action which included commuter and long distance trains back then. It was hard to tell who was who because both services utilized Budd Liners (Budd RDCs). Located in the yard was a small switcher that was stationed there and I got a cab ride when I was young. I remember glimpses of it, but not the complete trip because I was very young. I remember seeing a dead rat along the tracks though, because my dog rolled in it and my dad had to giver her a bath. Combine this plus riding the Budd Liners to Boston for various visits and appointments where I also rode the subway and trolley system and I was addicted and ended up loving anything with rails ever since.

I have pictures tucked away from various times and places including some recent ones, well if you consider 2016 recent, while out storm chasing in the Midwest. We stayed in Denver not far from the Airport line, which runs next to a UP branch, and I caught their electric trains and saw some UP freights as well. In 2012 we were out in Montana along the Marias Pass line and I caught a container train out there near Shelby as well as watched the Empire Builders meet in Havre while eating lunch at the McDonalds there, and also watched a slew of coal trains lock down in Forsythe MT in the yard there while waiting for repairs on our van. During that trip, we also passed through Gillette, WY and I caught some pics of coal trains waiting to be dispatched from the yard there and some of the coal loaders near I-90.

When I was around 7, my dad built me an N-scale model trainset that fit under my bed. This was the old Aurora Postage Stamp set and early N-scale equipment from Rapido. I had that set for years and eventually expanded the layout and included the components (foolishly) into other bigger model railroads. My model railroad career ended in 2004 after some neurological issues affected my ability to do things accurately and I also knocked an expensive locomotive on to the floor. I also discovered Trainz in 2003 and that spelled the demise of the layout. Today all that stuff is packed in a plastic crate.
 
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