Railfanning on Rumble with KBucky Rail Video

Thanks for watching. Likes, comments, and subscriptions are very much appreciated! Here's one of those examples when a railfanning trip doesn't go as planned, but ends up turning out pretty darn good. After waiting for the Rochester & Southern GW1 running from Rochester to Silver Springs, NY on Monday, October 10th and getting skunked with no train, we tried again on Tuesday. Our persistence paid off with a great chase and an NS "bonus" at Silver Springs. A shout out to Tim Wakeman (DH7409 on YT) and Mike Stellpflug. 0:16 Setting up at the yard 7:25 The chase begins 9:00 The whole train 11:44 Pavilion 13:08 Working at Warsaw 14:44 Norfolk Southern bonus

In 1989, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad was formed to take over operation of the Island Pond-Portland section of Canadian National's Berlin Subdivision. (Grand Trunk Railway). In June of 1990, along with a friend, I visited the line for a few days and followed a few trains that operated between Berlin, NH and Island Pond, VT. I am unsure of exact locations except for the obvious (sorry). Today this historic line is still active under the ownership of Genesee & Wyoming. Comments and subscriptions are really appreciated!

20 years of Conrail’s split between Norfolk Southern and CSX is/was on June 1st, 1999. Here is our final part of a 3 part series. Trains in Charlton & Spencer, MA dominate the action. With little to no graffiti, even into 1999, many trains are shown in their entirety. The show starts with a “lost footage” look at a train filmed in 1992. The train was seen as a “fixed position” shot in part one of this series. Apparently I was using two video cameras at the time, although I don’t remember the details! The shot in this part of the series is quite different, although it’s the same train. After that we move right into the mid 1990’s with a wide variety of power, including C30-7A’s, SD40-2’s, B23-7’s, GP40-2s, the new SD80MAC’s and much more. Getting to the end of the Conrail era, the power stays quite varied. A bunch of trains filmed in Charlton & Spencer in March of 1999 would have never made it to this presentation as the Hi8 material had already reached the end of its life (I hated that format). Fortunately with some effort and a bit of dubbed audio, I was able to revive it.

Here is part two of a three part series showing Conrail in Eastern & Central Massachusetts. As in the first part, trains are seen in Charlton & Spencer, MA, but visits to other locations were made, Including East Brookfield (CP 64) which marks the west end of the controlled siding, The Wachusett Reservoir in West Boylston, MA and Southborough, MA. In this show, many trains are shown in their entirety. Enjoy the mostly graffiti free rolling stock still sporting many different road names and heralds from railroads throughout North America! Please subscribe to our channel!

This part features action in Charlton & Spencer, Massachusetts in the early 1990s. Charlton (CP 57) marks the east end of a controlled siding for westbound trains. The west end of the siding is at East Brookfield, MA (CP-64). A grade of about .88 percent will make heavier eastbound freights work hard. Some westbound trains can make noise too as they have just finished climbing a grade that began since departing Worcester, MA. A personal comment… I can’t stand the graffiti that has turned every modern manifest freight into something that belongs in the ghetto or junkyard. I also fondly remember these days when there were still many railroads displaying their names and logos on the rolling stock. Therefore in this show, many trains are shown in their entirety. Enjoy the wide variety of road names and logos along with some pretty rare stuff, even for the early 1990's! Please subscribe to the KBuckyRailVideo channel if you haven’t already!

On this day even if the Delaware Lackawanna did nothing else, the morning show at the yard would've been worth it! An "Alco Dance" starring a variety of models and two DL crews to make it happen! After this, the DL ran a PO74 with ten cars of lumber for Bestway in Cresco. Enjoy, you "ALCO-Haulics"!

On the morning after a modest snowfall, I had info that the Providence & Worcester Railroad was going to be delivering a loaded coal train to the Guilford Rail System at Gardner, MA. This is imported coal that the now closed Mt. Tom (in Holyoke, MA) generating station was using for several years. The train was loaded at the Port of Providence, RI, and normally ran to Worcester, MA during darkness. Another crew took it from Worcester to Gardner the next morning. The Guilford Rail System gets the train at it's interchange with the P&W at Gardner, MA. Sometimes hauling the train as a unit train and other times adding it to a westbound already in the vicinity. In this case I believe the westbound was symbolled POED (Portland, ME - East Deerfield, MA). On this day Guilford was utilizing a set of BNSF power that arrived on its system almost two weeks earlier and a leased GP38.

The sound alone should be enough for any railfan "ALCO-haulic"! A variety of Delaware Lackawanna's classic Alco & MLW motive power moving around the compact Bridge 60 yard in Scranton, PA on the morning of October 9th, 2020.

On two different days we see Delaware Lackawanna train PO74 arriving and departing Cresco, PA with deliveries of loads and removal of empties from the Bestway Lumber facility. This is one of the DL's biggest customers on the Pocono Main which was formerly the route of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad.

As a railfan, traveling by train isn't just a relaxing way to see the country, it's an opportunity to see other trains from a unique perspective. However, getting anything close to a decent photo or video of another train presents many challenges. So many factors have to be on your side, including timing, patience, knowledge of your surroundings, a close ear to the scanner to hear chatter about meets, and especially luck. What's sad is that the five class one railroads shown in this video are now "fallen flags"... Conrail, Burlington Northern, Southern Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande and the Chicago Northwestern. This trip was from eastern Massachusetts to Las Vegas, Nevada. Starting with the "Lakeshore Limited", the big score was a Conrail freight with 7 engines including 3 Burlington Northern cabless "B" units at Elkhart, Indiana. The next highlight was a bonanza at Denver, Colorado while aboard the "California Zephyr". This included a beautiful morning closeup look at a BN freight as we arrived, the D&RGW Ski Train and another look at the same BN freight shot from the station platform as it departed Denver. The opportunities took a step in the wrong direction from Denver as a private car was at the end of our train, making shots from my favorite spot (The rear window of the last car), difficult. I was surprised however when I reviewed my raw footage and realized there were no passing trains captured for the rest of this trip. A wonderful visit to Barstow, Tehachapi and Cajon Pass followed for the next several days before making the return Amtrak trip. This time while aboard the eastbound "California Zephyr", there was no private car, and my sleeper car was the last car of the train! I called the rear vestibule "home" for practically the entire trip! (well, almost). I was rewarded with a decent amount of passing freights which included a D&RGW train roaring upgrade on Soldier Summit! Another highlight was a passing train at Omaha, Nebraska with two CNW engines and a CNW caboose! The daylight trip on the eastbound "Lakeshore Limited" was not filmed. Capturing train audio from the confines of an passenger train is rarely possible, so I have dubbed in some classical and other music to most of this video.

MARCH, 1987 - As another great day of railfanning in the Tehachapi's was coming to a close, we set up on the west side of Tunnel 9 and hoped for some over-under action before sunset. In short time the sound of EMD's, working upgrade in the distance was unmistakable. Suddenly, the whining of dynamic brakes was also being heard, and it was clear that a train was coming downgrade on the loop. I pointed the video camera at the tunnel and the drama unfolded with a Santa Fe mixed freight coming to a stop on Walong siding. As it stopped, the upgrade EMD's were becoming louder, and within moments we saw Southern Pacific engines coming toward us. What I still did not know at the time was this SP train was an unusual move of a unit coal train! Five SP engines in the lead, 38 loads of coal, 6 more engines, 31 loads of coal, 4 more engines, 15 loads of coal and a caboose! The Santa Fe mixed freight wasn't bad either! The sights and sounds that were upon us were "railfan nirvana", and this sequence remains one of my favorite railfanning experiences of all time. This moment is also just a small part of BKVP's popular 3 disc DVD set, "Railfanning Tehachapi and Beyond, 1987 & 1989". Available from Pentrex.

Filmed by Dan Millette, who made brief visits to The Deseret Power Railway, The Black Mesa & Lake Powell Railroad and The Escalante Western Railway. On screen graphics & maps will give more information about these lines. Unfortunately the BM&LP and the Escalante Western have ceased their operations.

Norfolk Southern and SMS Rail Services interchange a long string of autoracks at Delanson, NY in 2012.

While I had railfanned at Charlton, Massachusetts many times over the years, new motivation of finding a perfect driving route to get there from my home just southeast of Worcester had me making a visit on 2/13/ and 2/20/2004. Although not getting there until afternoon on day 1, and day 2 getting cloudy and dark, I filmed a decent amount of trains. Symbols on-screen may not be 100 percent. The tiny Lake Shore Limited really threw me off!

Making the trek from eastern New York State to Ralph Wilson Stadium several times over the years, I made sure each time to film some trains at Bayview Road, where CSX and Norfolk Southern run pretty much side-by-side. Here is some of the HD footage I took in 2012 and 2014.

Although it was owned by the Canadian Pacific, the line still had a few reminders that it was once the D&H. A GP38-2 of Lehigh Valley heritage leads a GP9u and (oddly) an ES44AC trailing. I followed it from Delanson, NY to Richmondville. I then closed out the day with a couple trains at Esperance, NY.