NJ/NY railfanning-Boring these days

I was thinking about the last 10-15 years since I've been railfanning and it has gotten boring lately and here is why I think so in MY opinion.
1. Mostly ALL widecabs-
2. NYSW- M/W/F schedule for road trains..used to have 2 daily back before the split--
3. Trains on the tier- CR ran some trains on the tier-couple that with the NYSW trains, it made life exciting west of Port Jervis and worth the trip. Today..wouldnt even go up there
4. NJT engines..again boring, I will say that having some of the GP40FHs and ex CNJ geeps around are probably the best thing we have now. All the comet 1s are gone
--So I ask myself as someone who is documenting railroad history..what will change in the next 5 years
1. NYSW-Cross county service-I guess shooting NYSW locals between Hawthorne and Hackensack we should be doing now, since this is happening
2. Hiking..yes..I know..hiking the cutoff before it comes back(at least to Andover)
3. Getting the CSX local on the northern branch-Assuming NJT approves some form of light rail(not likely for a few more years)
Other than overdosing on trains in Bound Brook which is fun, and doing the shortlines once in awhile, times have changed and not for the better IMHO
Any thoughts?

Your starting to sound a bit like SJ....Be careful now!! You want some fun railfanning come out to Michigan with me for Owossa railfest July 23-27.

Agree on a lot of points. I do miss fanning the NYSW and their daily intermodal through NJ every evening. The tier has pretty much always been boring. Always a lot of promises but nothing ever worth seeing. The OIBU and BUOI werent much to look at on most days and the only intermodals ran through in the dead of night. Remember when we all used to complain about the lack of trains under Conrail on the tier?

The problem, in the past year, is that because traffic has been down, there have not been any new train symbols anywhere to get excited about. Trains are shorter and therefore, more boring.

NJT is cutting schedules instead of increasing service giving more time in between passenger trains.

There are no visible projects going on right now such as double tracking and not much news about new factories being built. Unfortunately, status quo in the railfanning area seems to get boring.

There are only a few good things going on right now in the industry. ML's are making appearances on the Hoboken side making for some nice photo ops and at least MTA has decided to lengthen trains and keep all their service. Hopefully this leads to better things in those areas in the next 5 years.

Also, if Amtrak could ever get out of their own way, they might be able to do some exciting things in the next decade.

SJ-The tier west of Port Jervis was busy in the mid to late 90s..Often times I would get up early on a Sat and find TV-203, NYSW 555 and OIBU somewhere heading west..usually closer to Starucca by daybreak. The NYSW often ran 258 late..or a 252 east and with BUOI in the mix you had 3-5 morning trains..If only I could go back to one of those saturday mornings in 1997 or 98.

northjerseybuff wrote:SJ-The tier west of Port Jervis was busy in the mid to late 90s..Often times I would get up early on a Sat and find TV-203, NYSW 555 and OIBU somewhere heading west..usually closer to Starucca by daybreak. The NYSW often ran 258 late..or a 252 east and with BUOI in the mix you had 3-5 morning trains..If only I could go back to one of those saturday mornings in 1997 or 98.

Yeah, the 1996-99 timeframe was good for freight on the Tier and the NYSW.. That is when I just started getting into freight, unfortunatley things change and never stay the same, and life goes on!

I wouldnt call the tier busy in the late 90's, but it is definitely better than now. In the 90's we were all calling for NS to take over the Tier... Then again, if they didnt, it may be a bike trail right now... especially in this economy. Conrail didnt want to pay the taxes. It could be worse.

While its a shame that there is a traffic slowdown and trains are shorter and combined, I think this is a tremendous time in NJ railroading!

First and foremost, one of the biggest public works projects in this region in decades is going to be built (the tunnel - whatever letters we are calling it this week.....). Agree with it or not, its destination, the routing, whatever, you still have to admit that the fact that its actually going to be built is amazing.

railroading still has tremendous potential, and that is shown in the fact that instead of cutting infrastructure and capital investment, the railroads are continuing to invest in the physical plant, something that hasn't happened in other slowdowns. There isn't track being ripped up and tracks are still being added and improved.

Local Freight traffic seemed to have held up relatively well through the recession, and there have even been some new and reactivated shippers and lines (Staten Island comes to mind, as well as WAS fuels in Newark) I think this has been helped because of the sky high fuel prices last year, but it hasn't exactly plummeted this year when gas prices tumbled, so that is a good thing as well.

However, I think that in some sense, we are witnessing first hand, a major shift in motive power for the RRs. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the stored locos won't be bought back in service at least for their current owners, sort of like how one day there was steam, and then the next day (figuratively at least) there wasn't - same with the recession in the late 70s, early 80s where the first generation power was largely replaced in one fell swoop

northjerseybuff wrote:I was thinking about the last 10-15 years since I've been railfanning and it has gotten boring lately and here is why I think so in MY opinion.

Gotta leave home once in a while to get some variety. The world of railfanning won't come to your door, you have to go out there and find what interests you.

Remember railroading is a business... not a entertainment venue.

Now that you've listed your list of things that bore you... now what? How do you intend on challenging yourself in the enjoyment of the hobby?

If you're bored with railfanning in New York, then you are NOT visiting the right places. I could share with you the list of things I find interesting, but then again, that's only my opinion, and it don't mean much.

-otto-

Love the wise answers otto..I actually DID say what i'm doing in my original post. Trying to get stuff that will be changing in 5 years. NYSW locals between Hawthorne and Hackensack since the light rail is coming, hiking the llackawanna cutoff since its coming back(very exciting..all the talk and at least 7 miles will be coming back, maybe more) and shooting NJTs oldest engines..the ex CNJ geeps and GP40FHs. One big thing I did leave out is the DL railroad out of Scranton. The trips I make out there makeup for the NYSW chases.
This is my opinion..not fact.. I would like to see what you think is exciting? or at least in your opinion

btw..the idea for this topic was railroading in our backyard..yes, of course if I left the area there are exciting things to do. I've been to Chicago, Horseshoe curve..etc..that isin't the point..the point was here in the NY Metro. If I could fly to california for 2 weeks I wouldnt be complaining one bit!

Mainline fantrips of the 1980s and 1990s made for interesting railroading in New Jersey during the 1980s and 1990s. We had Erie E8s and LV F7s pulling URHS excursions, interesting JCRHS trips over the NYSW with either F45s or a trip with one of the C430s, and the NYS&WTHS trips over the NYS&W with E9s among other units. Fortunately we currently have tourist/exursion trains running over the BelDel, M&E/Whippany Ry Museum, and the BR&W.

Actually, I think the most interesting times to railfan (or at least be on this forum) are around times when there is some sort of news on the Tier. Seems like every 6-12 months, there is a rumor that trains are going to be taking that route. Unfortunately none of those rumors ever come true and we go back to our daily lives.

northjerseybuff wrote:This is my opinion..not fact.. I would like to see what you think is exciting? or at least in your opinion

Who cares what I think? Seriously...

Sounds like you have found plenty of interesting things to do already.

Of course we can look back and lament about all that we have lost... don't worry, someone 15 years some now will be doing the same thing.

Otto Vondrak wrote:

northjerseybuff wrote:This is my opinion..not fact.. I would like to see what you think is exciting? or at least in your opinion

Who cares what I think? Seriously...

Sounds like you have found plenty of interesting things to do already.

Of course we can look back and lament about all that we have lost... don't worry, someone 15 years some now will be doing the same thing.

Otto,

That last point hits it right on the head.

Railroads are constantly changing and that is part of the fun. Yes now things seem to blend in with one another but you take what you can get, I rather be railfanning wide cabs than not have anything to go see trackside at all.

This is one reason why I moved to Central PA, rather than spend a day on the River Line only to watch the rails rust because CSX always has a stupid work curfew going and they can't run trains during the day I now sit on the NS Pittsburgh Line where I can catch much more action. Granted most of the power is the same, but there's more variety in the trains that run. As for the Tier, it's a dead piece of garbage IMO....real trains will never use it again and at this point it'd probably see better use as a bike path!