Has anyone observed street running first hand? This type of operation fascinates me. I guess the reason of my fascination with it is that it seems quite dangerous simply because the sharing of streets with trains, motorists, pedestrians, etc. I am guessing most street running happens out west simply because of pictures I have seen of the UP, Bnsf, etc. Does anyone know of any rr's (no trolleys mind you) that do street running on the east coast?
Regarding the "East Coast" area, three examples that come to mind are:
Albany, GA The Norfolk Southern (x Central of Georgia) main line from Albany to sw GA and to Dothan, AL runs down the middle of a paved city street for approximately 12 blocks.
Ocala, FL The Florida Northern (x Atlantic Coast Line) line through Ocala runs in the middle of a paved city street for about 10 blocks.
Tampa, FL CSX's line from Tampa to Port Tampa runs down the middle of a paved city street on and off again for about 8 blocks of street running.
Obviously, these trains do not operate at high rates of speed when they are street running. Speeds are between 5 and 10 miles per hour (and less), depending upon the amount of vehicular and pedestrian traffic that are encountered. A crewman usually is standing on the front porch of the lead unit ( I guess because they are required to).
ACLfan