Railway timetables (Looking up freight schedules)

Is there a way to look up timetables for specific rail lines? I would like to find out what time the CSX line runs through Akron. It seems every time we try to catch a train, we miss it. With a 3 year old, we cant just go and sit there for hours, it would help if I knew about what time to head down. Is this even possible? Thanks!

Christine
Mommy to future engineer Nicholas

Freight railroads are not publically scheduled like they were decades ago. Most trains run as needed. Only the most important trains run on anything resembling schedules, and those are rarely made available to the public. Your best bet would be to talk to some other local railfans who know the scene and would be able to suggest times that are busier than others.

If you are a frequent Railfan they are pretty predicatable. I was one at your Sons age at least we live by a Mainline that has 150+ trains a day.

Christine, try this Site. Maybe someone can refer you to another group that is in tha Akron area if nobody knows about the line already.

Thanks for your replies! We started listening for the train whistles and found that there is a CSX train at about 8:20, and another one at 8:45. We took our son there on a Friday night and he just loved it (and so did we)!

i am going crazy i have talked to crew a few days ago and they told me what time and where the train came but it started to pour so i had to go miss that train and have now been stuck here for 3 more days and really want to to figure out how to ask them again w/ out being to sketchy. how do you think i should do this? they all know what i look like and what i am doin so they know if i walk back into that yard again to talk to the crew they are goin to be gunning for me dammit i hate how paranoid the workers can be about giving out information

Wow! Talk about paranoid!

Did you consider that the train time that they told you is good for more than one day?

ACLfan

Hobgoblin wrote:if i walk back into that yard again to talk to the crew they are goin to be gunning for me dammit i hate how paranoid the workers can be about giving out information

First off, you don't belong in the yard, it is private property. This is one of the biggest reasons that many railroaders do not like railfans, because they often trespass and put them selves in danger.

Secondly, some railroads have a policy that states that you are not to disclose company info (i.e. train location, schedule, contents of cars, etc.)

Believe me, you are better off on platforms, even if the company has restrictions. In many places, yards are totally off limits. You never know when equipment moves. Learning from railcamp, people have gotten hurt or even killed by equipment. Do not play any tresspassing games with NJT. If you think not being allowed to photograph from there platforms is bad enough, wait till you go into Hoboken yard. Big brother will have you in handcuffs right away.

For CSX schedules try this site:

http://www.bullsheet.com/FreightMenu.html

Note that this is only a guide and trains can operate pretty much anytime, although from what I've seen the intermodals (Q100 series) generally seem to run on schedule if everything is normal.