Hello, fellow rail-fans... just wanted to create a thread where folks can share their rail-fanning stories- places visited, special memories, locomotives seen, etc. I’ve listed one story below, would like to hear yours too. Thanks in advance for sharing- I look forward to reading all of them! I used to visit the Stockton Tower area here in California many years ago (back when there was a Stockton Tower) with my wife and daughter. We all practiced safe rail-fanning while we were there near the tower and diamonds- filming as many passing freight and passenger trains as I could in a 8-9hr day (typically 19-24 trains). Visiting Stockton in the summer was the worst... it can be very hot there, with basically little to no shade anywhere in the tower area at high noon. We always brought a cooler on every trip (left in our vehicle) with enough snacks/food/water to last us, until we visited one of our favorite nearby restaurants for a proper dinner at the end of the day before heading home. Once, an engineer on a passing ‘warbonnet’ Santa Fe freight (likely a Dash-8 or 9) actually tossed out several bottles of water for my daughter and I as I was filming next to the tracks on a hot summer day. Three bottles landed nearby, and needless to say we were both surprised (my daughter thrilled) that he did that! We also got the chance to meet one of the Stockton Tower operators, who was a great guy... and I also talked to a DRG engineer once who gave me some insight into the workload they typically have to deal with in their jobs... that was a very interesting (and revealing) day-in-the-life conversation. So many fond memories for me and my entire family filming in Stockton and being part of rail-fanning in general. I do wish I had the chance at some point in my life to become a railroad Engineer, and get a taste of that life... guess that’s why I found TSW 2020 so irresistible early last year (despite its numerous issues)- it’s about as close to that as I’ll ever get.
When I lived in Cardiff I used to sit on the platforms watching all sorts go back and forth (1993/4) or there is a commercial park just off Newport road where you can see the HSTs powering up properly after getting out of the station limits I've lived in rural Gloucestershire and watched the sprinters doing the Cardiff to Birmingham run, always good to hear their little diesels at full chat through a heavily wooded cutting I actually worked on board the trains (hospitality) for a while doing Cardiff - Birmingham and Cardiff - Manchester via Crewe runs Since then I've moved to Kent and had several sessions in Liverpool Street (just before the 90s stopped working), Paddington (just before the HSTs stopped), Kings Cross (91s) and a few stations around Kent I also have a nephew who loves nothing more than going on the underground so we've been to the LUL museum, museum depot open day and also the steam special LUL did a year or two ago
I have many great memories of rail-fanning with my Dad. We spent a lot of time traveling to all the Pennsylvania hot spots when I was a kid. Horseshoe curve, Altoona, Gallitzin Tunnel, Conway Yard. We would go out and film and take pictures of the trains. Some of our favorite times were Altoona railfest. Especially the year they brought the PRR E8s back. We developed a love of steam trains as well, Strasburg Railroad, Western Maryland Scenic, Steamtown, we were always exploring new places. In recent times we had the fortune of getting to operate a few steam locomotives together. I operated the Norfolk and Western 611 and my Dad got to ride in the Cab with me. He ran the Norfolk and Western 475 and I fired for him. They were both really cool experiences. We were also able to take a family trip to Europe before the pandemic, and were able to ride some of the amazing European trains over there. The ICE, Railjet, even the Achenseebahn cog railway. Trains and Railfanning have been an amazing shared hobby with my father, and really brought us together over the years. It is always fun to go train watching, or to a rail fan event together.
