RailRoadFan.com

Is Amtrak a joke, or what? Let's do the numbers. Each and every day, Amtrak will transport approximately 2000 people to Chicago and back. Are 2000 people worth the necessity to maintain over 300 miles of track? The answer should be more than obvious. Imagine I-94 from Detroit to Chicago carrying onl...

Subject isn't new. About 8 years or so ago, ... The project, known as the Detroit Intermodal Freight Terminal (DIFT), has been in the works since 1993, which is very close to being twenty years. But the final hurdle seems to have been cleared. The environmental impact study has been completed and t...

I suspect the reason there are not any in the US is most waterways can be spanned by other types of bridge that cost less to build for rail. If they wanted to build one then they could build one. But in this case there are other factors that are probably more important. The Detroit River is an inte...

I have to differ,. Check out No. 8 The Hitsuishijima Bridge, a double-decker cable-stay bridge that opened in 1988 Those rail lines are for light Japanese passenger service. I doubt if American heavy freight trains would be allowed on that bridge. In the first place, Japan has a narrow rail gauge (...

~Z~ wrote:If you have enough zoom, you don't need to stick the DSLR lense through the hole, just zoom in.

It works best if you can get back far enough from the fence. On Bagley street, there is about four feet of clearance before you are forced to step out into traffic.

I know where i will be taking pictures this weekend. These photos were taken from the Bagley street overpass, and that is the only vantage. As is customary, the bridge is enclosed by a heavy cyclone fence. When I was there, someone had cut a small hole through the fence and I was able to stick the ...

IDK if anyone here has thought/posted about it, but if they were to ever build that new bridge Snyder wants, maybe they could add a rail line down the middle :wink: AFAIK, the new bridge (which has just been announced as final) will be a cable-stayed suspension bridge. These types of bridges are no...

Notice the tube on the left, yup taller to accommodate to taller equipment. Done back in the 90's. It's not much of an improvement, but that is literally all that can be done. Those "tubes" really are just steel tubes that have been welded together, dropped to the bottom, and covered with dirt. The...

I thought that they were supposed to be upgrading or building new tunnels to support double stack trains. They have had plans to do so for quite a while, but as with everthing else in this backward and comatose region, those plans will probably get nowhere. Metro Detroit has only itself to blame. M...

Here are a couple of photographs that I took at the Detroit-Windsor railroad tunnel a few years ago. Although it seems obvious, I would like a comment, if possible, on what is going on here. In the first image a CP freight train is seen approaching the tunnel from the Detroit side. Also seen is the ...

IIRC, this is one of the scheduled improvements that is associated with the Detroit Intermodal Freight Terminal project. But what about the DIFT project itself, which is to be located only about a half mile from this new connecting track? Is the DIFT project still alive or has it fallen with the eco...

Who pays for the clean up? Clearly, the truck driver is at fault and his company must carry insurance. Will the insurer for the trucking company pay the bill? I hate to think that the taxpayers have to subsidize both Amtrak regular service as well as the clean ups following an accident. What about t...

They get rolls of paper in by rail HESR, The paper is newsprint paper for the Saginaw News, Bay City Times, and the Flint Journel, Paper is trucked to Flint, the Flint Journel is on First street in Flint, and paper is trucked to an industrial park west of Bay City off of US10 for the Saginaw News a...

Most police-related problems experienced by the RR, like vandalism, thefts, robberies, and accidental deaths /injuries, are almost all the result of trespassers. This has got to be one of the most egregious abuses of ordinary logic that I have encountered in some time. Of course, every illegal act ...

Another story. Railroad Worker 1: Hey look! Over there! There's a guy standing about 100 feet on our property. I think we should report him! Railroad Worker 2: What for? Railroad Worker 1: What for???!!! Are you kidding???!!! He may be about to perpetrate some insane terrorist attack. Railroad Worke...

Everyone has missed the obvious solution. If the railroads don't want tresspassers they should be required to surround their property with a six-foot steel cyclone fence. After all, it is stupid to leave large tracts of very dangerous property completely open to whoever happens to pass. Small sporad...

Here is a shot of a westbound Amtrak barreling through Livernois yard. Where else can you get this close? http://home.comcast.net/~frank.peters/amtk3.jpg The shot was taken from John Kronk street and I was standing about two feet on railroad property. But tresspassing is tresspassing. Two feet may a...

Do what I do and shoot in the country; no one ever bothers you. :) That is true. Except, for me, the country is a long distance away. In the city (Detroit) I can check out all the hot spots in less than hour. To do the same in the country would require most of the day and several tanks of gas ($$$)...

That's it? Questioned? Were you told to leave? If not, where is the problem? Oh...my...God. The police wanted to check on you and see what you were doing. Big deal. You make no mention of further 'harassment' by the police, so I assume they let you stay on the public street? As I mentioned, I don't...

If i felt like going thru the hassle, I might just tell them to arrest me, but they better make sure they have a legal case for which I will be prosecuted or I will sue them for false arrest. That's brave talk, but have you considered the consequences? The arresting officer will go home after his s...