I got the idea from a thread on RP forums. I was just wondering what's the coldest you've ever railfanned in?
For me, it's been -10F. However, I was hanging around in shorts and a t-shirt when I heard the 326. I didn't have to time to grab a jacket, so I went and shot the 326 in shorts in a snowbank on the side of a busy road in shorts in early January. It was 15 degrees out. You know you live in Michigan when your not cold at all in shorts in these conditions.
Or when your walking around town at midnight when it's 20 degrees out and snowing and you take off your jacket and start complaining that it's too warm out.
Does -15 F count. Reason for that was during the arctic temperatures, I was out one of those frigid cold nites catching the TSBY making a stop in Clare. Didn't realize how cold it was until i went back to a friends house and found out how cold it was.
I usually only waddle out of the car long enough to take pictures when railfanning in the winter, which makes getting the job I applied for in Charleston, South Carolina sound even better. Nothing like watching CSX, NS and Amtrak trains with sunny skies and 70 degrees in March. Man I can dream....
Not sure what the coldest I've ever railfanned in is...but sustained cold time would be the several minutes I spent waiting for a train to switch Durand before dawn the day of the polar bear meet in Durand...
Patrick, Matt, and I can say we were railfanning in -20+ degree temps this winter.
BOY WAS IT COLD!!! OK, got the picture run back to car to warm-up. Another train, out of car and do it over again.
Rule #1: BerkshireKid is God. Rule #2: God is always right. Rule #3: If you think you may actually be right refer to Rules #1 & #2.
ok not exactly railfaning but I remeber spreading straw as a kid on dad's farm when it was -16 for the high, I'm sure I saw a train or two as the property comes within 20 ft of the CSX willard sd.
What smells like lube oil and diesel.... Oh wait it's just my "Locomotive Breath"
this year when I went to Durand and it was in the single digits and below depending on windchill. Very very cold... oh and that is will hopefully be the last time I do that.
Well I didn't know how cold it was but last week in Bay City me and my buddy stood out in the cold for over an hour every day. On one of those days, once the train had come through, I couldn't feel my feet afterwards. That's why other days I ended up puting on two pairs of socks and a coat plus a hoodie along with hat and gloves. Yes I have finally crossed the line between railfan and extreme railfan, in a sense of weather speaking.
Railfanned the MSO in the early 1990's on a blistering cold and windy January day. Highlight of the day was when MSO pulled 3 tanker cars from the Darling rendering plant in Coldwater. As the train pulled the cars from the plant the skin of the tanker cars looked like those insulated tankers. But as the the train pulled closer I could see the cars were covered with those little gnats. Remember, this was a cold windy day. Shortly after leaving the plant the cold and wind killed off the gnats. I shutter to think what the conditions must be like inside the plant
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...
-20 with in a November Blizzard up in Marquette County during Hunting Season, it was so windy, that in 3 hours, our 2 foot deep foot prints would be completely covered up again, no trace of them at all. At least I wasn't alone in the cold, I watched SORE-1 go by in their heated SD45. I would kill to get back in those temps, I love huge amounts of snow, and crazy weather like that.
Back when we had the bad snowstorm in early Feburary I went out for a while. I think my car said -14 degrees. Jumped out, got picture, and jumped back in. I can't tell you how pumped I am for warm weather railfanning!
