So WHY are you a rail fan?

[wborys]

Can you put into words why you (we) are so fascinated by trains?

I see a train approaching on a track, and my breath litereally stops for a
few moments. Why? I'm not even a foamer.

Is it the power, the visceral vibrations, the roar? (for me, yes)

Is it the strange feeling of stability, the train approaches from the same place,
and will always pass on to the same 'vanishing point' in the distance? (for me, yes)

Is it the strange perception that each train is almost a living organism, with its own
will and personality, that chose to run past me (maybe)

Or was it the result of riding a train many weekends on end as a 3-5 year old
and having these experiences burned into my synapses? Like memories of
walking past giant (to me) idling CNJ engines in the Jersey City Ferry Terminal- or
waiting in the twilight, Sunday nights in Bound Brook, anticipating the headlights
in the distance, to take me back home to Brooklyn? (for me, probably)


Please share, if you can put it into words...

[southern sec. kid]

Id say the one thing i enjoy about railroads is seeing a train run slow on real beat up, industrial tracks. I like the look of a train riding on rails that are covered in dirt and only the railhead is visible. Basically I enjoy seeing trains travel down tracks that would look like they shouldnt be seeing service anymore. Old power also does it for me too. I live close by the southern Secondary and i think it is more Enjoyable for me because a local only comes once a week. If i lived by a rail line with 10+ trains a day, I feel like i wouldnt be a railroad fan as much. Not a foamer either. But thats just me.

[photorailfan]

For Freights it's about the anticipation of not knowing what's coming down the main line. What locomotive will it be? What paint scheme? Maybe something unusual? With yards it's about seeing locomotives switch to other tracks like nagotiating a maze. It's about time, listening to crickets in summer and then hearing that rumble in the distance slowily growing. Then a few minutes of noise from the passing train and then back to hearing crickets as if the train never passed at all. And it's about the photos. Capturing time. Looking into old books and magazines from a generation before you and wishing you were there to capture what you will never see with your own eyes. Getting all the pleasure in the world when you photograph an old loco in origional paint that isn't in a museum but rather running wild in revenue service on track covered in weeds.

[southern sec. kid]

I'd say another reason is im a rather "old school" kid. Im 17 and alot of things Im into most kids in my school wouldnt find interesting. I don't want to sound like a steriotypical a**hole but most kids like me usually seperate themselves from the pack. I'm in the "in crowd" I guess you can call it and im into trains and my favorite Band is Van Halen (Hagar Era Preferably) but music is a whole different story lol. I feel like I get railfanning from my grandparents because from the way they talk about railroads, it seems 30-40 years ago, people were more knoweledgable about railroads and trains. Most of my friends don't know the difference between a passenger train or a freight train. And to bring up music again, most kids now don't know the difference between a 6 string guitar or a bass guitar! But that's just my 2 cents on why I like railfanning!

[Don31]

I just never grew up.

[Jtgshu]

I just never grew up.

I like that answer Me neither!!!

[Don31]

I just never grew up.

I like that answer Me neither!!!

I hear ya JT! Seriously, when I think about it, I remember being 5 years old and getting candy from the Rahway Valley crew at the Colfax Avenue crossing in Roselle Park, where they would stop for a few minutes to talk to my cousins and I; or sitting on my Dad's lap in the car at Linden Station watching the PRR scream by or the 2 of us watching an LV drill at the old Cranford Station and getting a cab ride from the engineer (on his lap of course).... The good old days....

[Don31]

I just never grew up.

I like that answer Me neither!!!

And you're very lucky JT, not many people can fashion a career out of a childhood love.

[kilroy]

For me it was the GG-1. I remember going to Rahway station to pick up my dad and watching the train pull in with a red G with the big keystone on the side. It was so big and powerful looking and it could pull a long train without making a noise.

[trainfan]

I just never grew up.

I like that answer Me neither!!!

I hear ya JT! Seriously, when I think about it, I remember being 5 years old and getting candy from the Rahway Valley crew at the Colfax Avenue crossing in Roselle Park, where they would stop for a few minutes to talk to my cousins and I; or sitting on my Dad's lap in the car at Linden Station watching the PRR scream by or the 2 of us watching an LV drill at the old Cranford Station and getting a cab ride from the engineer (on his lap of course).... The good old days....

I guess it's the "little kid / boy" in me. Trains are big. Trains are cool. There's nothing like a train rushing by!
And this summer I was at the Eisenhower museum in Kansas with my family and a train pulled up and stopped by it temporarily. Remembering my own childhood, I told me son we should put pennies on the rail in front of it and watch them get squashed when the train pulled away (one can never have too many flattened pennies, I've found all kinds of uses for them over the years). Anyways, my son had never done this before and asked if it was ok to do that, and I said let's just ask. So we walked over to the locomotive and got the attention of the engineer, and asked him. He said sure. My son grinned really big and put down his pennies. We then waited in the shade of a tree to wait and then watched the train pull away (with the engineer waving). Anyway, my son still has those flattened pennies and I'm guessing will always remember that hot summer day. I know I will.

Release your inner child!

[bigblue5277]

I find quite a few parallels between bird watching and rail-fanning. Both require patience and being in the right place at the right time. Both involve identifying the species/ locomotive model and marveling at the different colors and sounds. One of the ways these two hobbies differ are that it's easier to spot, identify and photograph a train.

[charlie6017]

Train fan said it very well. I still feel that sense of excitement when I see a train coming in the distance up
here on the "Water Level Route" in NY State or see the signals light up for an imminent move. It never gets
old, and I'm in my early forties. Been that way since I was a kid!

I grew up in Western NY State along what is now GVT's Falls Road Railroad. It used to be NYC's and PC's "Falls
Road Branch and after Conrail took over, "Falls Road Secondary." It was a busy line under Penn Central and I remember
seeing PC's black locomotives come blasting through the village at 50 mph, and my older brother and I used to come outside
when the trains came by and count the cars.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Charlie

[painterman]

I'm in it for the chicks!

No... wait.

I grew up with the Raritan River RR mainline about 400 yards from my house. When I was a kid in the 70s into the 80s - I'd watch them all day long.
I always liked watching trains. A few years ago I got into photography - and then I got into photographing trains. That's about when I became a rail fan.

I do it because I enjoy it.

[jmp883]

A few reasons as to why I'm a railfan. First, and probably the most influential, is that I have lived in major railroad towns my whole life:

I was born in 1964, in Sayre, PA, which was a major yard and shop town for the LV. The EL was a stone's throw away from Sayre, and the D&H also made frequent appearances. Even though I was too young for a camera when I was living in Sayre I remember all the activity in the yards during the late 1960's and early 1970's. I still have a lot of family in Sayre and sadly witnessed the decline of the LV, EL, and the D&H every time we'd go back home to visit. The shop buildings are all gone now and what is left of the railyard is just a ghost of what it once was but I still have a lot of memories.

For just a couple of years in the early 1970's I lived just north of Scranton, PA, at the top of the grade in Clarks Summit. Between watching, and hearing, the trains coming through Clarks Summit there was also the yards and shops in downtown Scranton that always had something to see. That's when I got hooked on the EL.

I moved to NJ in 1973, living in Wanaque for over 30 years, just recently moving out to Wharton, NJ. Imagine my surprise, in talking to a neighbor in 1975, when I found out that Wanaque was on an EL (former Erie RR) branch. He told me that the elementary school I was attending was built on the site of the old rail yard. Sure enough I found the water tank foundation, some pieces of rail, and spikes all over the playground. He also showed me beautiful black-and-white pictures of EL trains coming in and out of the station at Wanaque, usually GP-7's and Stilwells. I don't know if he took them or not but I've never seen any of those pictures published in any of the railroad books in my extensive library. He then told me that the NYS&W, which ran through nearby Pompton Lakes, was once part of a line to the Great Lakes that eventually became the NYO&W. Then, just to the north of Wanaque is Suffern, NY where there was a yard to support the Mahwah, NJ Ford plant and the EL (and later NJT) commuter trains. Talk about being in railroad heaven! If I had only one wish it's that I should have been born in 1954 instead of 1964.

I now live in Wharton, NJ and I've just started researching the history of the Wharton & Northern RR.

Of course, I too, am also still a bit of kid. I was in awe of trains as a child, and still am as an adult. I still get excited when I see a train, train tracks, or even an abandoned ROW. I tried working for a railroad, being a train dispatcher trainee for NJT for about a year. It didn't work out, but I don't regret the experience. I learned even more about railroads and it has enhanced my enjoyment of trains. I love being trackside with or without my camera. I can't describe the feeling I get as a train approaches but I can say it's a good feeling, and one that hasn't diminished at all over my almost 50 years

Trains....there are worse things you could be hooked on!

[kilroy]

One of the ways these two hobbies differ are that it's easier to spot, identify and photograph a train.

Not so sure about that. I've spent many days trackside when it's been easier to find and photograph the birds than the trains!