Post Your Best Train Shot......

Earlier this evening 70d with 18-55 STM

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/CLMH​mi

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Dh4M​s5

bigdog33 wrote in post #17869593
Is there any way to find schedules for freight trains? Got 2 Union Pacific tracks through this tiny town.

The majority of rail companies no longer use time tables to run their trains. With CTC they can run the trains as fast and as many as the network can handle and CTC will keep them seperated/safe.

So it really comes down to - are you on a mainline or branch line. Is the line a transcon line (Coast to coast or major line)? Is there a major yard nearby or heavy industrial customers?

So where I live in OKC - we get 25-40 trains a day via BNSFs mainline to Dallas/Houston. We get a lot of unit grain and oil trans, then intermodal and mixed freight.

But....just 2 hours away up in NW Oklahoma (Woodward) is the BNSF transcon from LA to Chicago......100-125 trains a day lol.

Brules wrote in post #17884837
The majority of rail companies no longer use time tables to run their trains. With CTC they can run the trains as fast and as many as the network can handle and CTC will keep them seperated/safe.

So it really comes down to - are you on a mainline or branch line. Is the line a transcon line (Coast to coast or major line)? Is there a major yard nearby or heavy industrial customers?

So where I live in OKC - we get 25-40 trains a day via BNSFs mainline to Dallas/Houston. We get a lot of unit grain and oil trans, then intermodal and mixed freight.

But....just 2 hours away up in NW Oklahoma (Woodward) is the BNSF transcon from LA to Chicago......100-125 trains a day lol.

My father was a railroader from roughly 1935 to his retirement in 1975 starting with New York Central retiring from Penn-Central working out of the yard in Elkhart, Indiana.

Is there a way now to find out roughly how many trains travel thru Elkhart anymore?

Also Dad always told me when the Elkhart yard was built (I am guessing in the 1940's to 1950's) it was the largest railroad yard in the world. I know now that is no longer true, but it is still huge

Not really. The RR's don't publish any info like that. They are pretty hush hush on their movements/routes/traff​ic etc.

I google map'd/satt viewed Elkhart - that yard is a pretty big/major yard. You could camp at the museum at the east end and see a ton of trains I bet. It looks like a major main line with a full hump and classification yard as well as a minor engine shop.

This might help you as well, links to good phot/railfan spots:

http://www.railfanguid​es.us/in/elkhart/

The only pic of a train I have

Brules wrote in post #17888134
Not really. The RR's don't publish any info like that. They are pretty hush hush on their movements/routes/traff​ic etc.

I google map'd/satt viewed Elkhart - that yard is a pretty big/major yard. You could camp at the museum at the east end and see a ton of trains I bet. It looks like a major main line with a full hump and classification yard as well as a minor engine shop.

This might help you as well, links to good phot/railfan spots:

http://www.railfanguid​es.us/in/elkhart/

I thank you for this information, and especially the link!! Good info and pictures at the link....
I know Elkhart very well as I have lived here all my life. There are very few places to get good train photos, and no great place. I do wish there were viewing areas above the yards, but that will never happen here.

One of the 'better' places you mentioned is the museum, but better than that is right across the tracks is the parking lot for the Amtrak station.

There is a museum at the rail yard in elkhart? The only museum i know of is the one near downtown. Why i never thought to try and shoot near the yard is beyond me. Ill have to check it out one of these days

Cormac wrote in post #17889058
There is a museum at the rail yard in elkhart? The only museum i know of is the one near downtown. Why i never thought to try and shoot near the yard is beyond me. Ill have to check it out one of these days

The ONLY (railroad) museum is in downtown, nothing near the yard.

There is no place near the yard to take pictures really. Sure wish there was.

Do you mind saying where you are from? PM me if you wish.

Oh man, id love to walk around that yard and just shoot till my battery died!

Couple from today. Same train. Different approach to editing the shots.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/DJyy​2L

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/DLLi​X6

As a kid I was in the yard several times before my dad retired from my early child hood to my early twenties.

Here is a shot I took of the yard from the tower at the 'hump'