Where is that Train going?

Question

Is there away to find out where a train is going in your town? I love to hear the train at night and always joke with my son , that one day I'm going to jump that train and see where it takes me..lol.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hey Nefarious. First of all, it is nearly impossible to jump on a train that's moving more than 12 mph. Just can't be done. If I knew where you lived or which railroad you are seeing, I could answer you better. But, I can tell you that most railroads run two types of trains. One is the through type. Going cross country, or partially cross country. The others are termed "Locals". Which means they leave a terminal and either return later that day, or the next day. I work on a local train in Minnesota. We take empty cars out to various industries alonga 90 mile stretch and bring back the loaded cars to be picked up by the through trains.

Answer 2

The only thing I can suggest is you go to the company's website. Sometimes they'll make freight train schedules availabl to the general public. I hope my answer helps you.

Answer 3

A radio scanner would be a neat thing to invest in. You can look up the railroads' frequencies online and then listen in on them. There are also railfan websites with train symbol information, so once you have them you're pretty good to go.

Answer 4

You did not say if it was a freight train or an Amtrak psgr train.  If a freight train, it could have multiple destinations, but an Amtrak psgr. will be going , say from St. Louis to Dallas then on to LA.

So, if an Amtrak, then call it up amtrak.com and type in your town and another logical destination. Through that site it will slow the schedule and where the train is destined.

Answer 5

Well, start by looking at a map and see just where the line goes. You will undoubtedly see it connecting with other lines like highways do but perhaps you can see a large city with a rail yard wherre trains are taken apart and put back together according to their destination. There are rail fan web sites that will answer lots of questions for you, try trainorders.com for starters.

Ask one of the crew members, we are not bad guys and dont mind talking about what we do.