The Illinois-Iowa Railfan

Hello everyone,

Any of you been out railfanning recently? Now that the weather is warmer I hope to get out more and hope to catch a few SD40-2's and the like before they are gone!

Anyone else have any news, photos, etc.?

See ya trackside

railzfan wrote:Hello everyone,

Any of you been out railfanning recently? Now that the weather is warmer I hope to get out more and hope to catch a few SD40-2's and the like before they are gone!

Anyone else have any news, photos, etc.?

See ya trackside

I check in here at least once per day (sometimes more often).

I also manage to go "railfanning" maybe once or twice per week (I thought that once I retired I would be railfanning everyday or so, but it seems I am doing it less than before... go fig. ???)

When I go railfanning, I used to try to take a photo of each engine, but found that I was no longer seeing trains, but rather seeing a camera viewfinder image and I can get better images on my computer screen or from a magazine photo page, so I gave up on photographing trains. Besides all Dismals tend to look alike to me.

I tried writing down the engine number of every one I saw, but found that I was, again, not seeing trains anymore, but rather looking at a sheet of paper where I am writing. I tend to forget the numbers if I try to remember them until the train is past and thus the record was quite incomplete.

I had a very small (toyish) digital "voice recorder" that would record a few seconds of audio, so I tried to say the numbers into it and write down the numbers later. This also was more trouble that it was worth. It didn't record long enough to get more than three engine numbers into it and for some reason, when I was using this method, I tended to see meets of two triple-headed trains at my usual railfanning spot... and again that left my record as incomplete and inaccurate. I was also questioned by passersby (and others) as to who I was, and who I was communicating with on my "microphone"! Showing the device (a brightly colored "toy" recorder) and my list of engine numbers and my computer spreadsheet where I transcribed the info. between trains just raised eyebrows and elicited "requests" to leave the area. So I gave up on the whole thing.

I began to question why I was railfanning. Now, being retired, I can spend more time contemplating the reasons and have discovered that when I am out watching trains I am watching Diseasels whizzing by with unit coal or alcohol trains, but actually seeing Steam Locomotives crawling by in front of general freights. At the yards where I sometimes watch some flat-yard work I am watching one Utility man on the ground throwing the switches and pulling the cut levers, but I am seeing 6 or 7 men on the ground directing trains with oil lanterns, knocking on wheels with hammers and with long spout oil cans they are oiling around on simmering Steam Locomotives. It may be air-horns echoing off the nearby buildings and my scanner may be crackling with "Bring 'em back 2.", but I hear short blasts of a steam whistle and a sudden rapid chuff as the wheels slip in a couple of rotations before they grip the rails and the chuff reduces to a slow working rhythm.

Unfortunately, if I come here the next day and report what I "saw" it would be less than informative to the rest of you, so I tend to keep quiet about it.

I don't mean to disparage those that enjoy watching today's trains, but if U.P. didn't stencil the locomotive nomenclature below the cab window, I wouldn't know an SD40-2 from a Centennial.