Lots of railfans ask me for my secrets to findings trains on a typical outing. Using research, maps, timetable and the radio, here's how I've improved my odds over the years.
I have loved trains since I was a very young lad. Danny's videos let me railfan from my living room. I'm not burning gas nor am I out there sweating in the Florida heat and humidity. A cup of coffee, a Distant Signal video, and I'm good to go!
Riding an amtrak at high speed is incredible. Took one to NYC from Chicago for a wedding. It was a fun trip. Good scenery. Nice people, great train crew.
Grady is one of those special civil engineers, he can do as well as explain how the REAL world works, and his train series takes you through the whys and hows (and sometimes 'whens') of railroading. Danny, you are both class acts and every video opens my eyes a bit more about stuff I've lived with from the beginning. For example, grew up in the 60's listening (and sometimes riding) the Edaville trains in Carver, Massachusetts. I'd be working the garden or the cranberry bogs and you could hear the whistle throughout the day. Thank you for the glimpse of scanner traffic, although it might be nice to breakdown what they are saying by each phrase/code word. Take Care Sir!!!
$11 dollars for that chicken dinner? Ya shoulda bought a few of them and stocked up for dinners through the week !!!! Grady !!! Yes, I watch Practical Engineering all the time. Awesome shoutout for him - he deserves it. Another great post !!! A lot of hard work goes into these things, we love every one of them.
I love practical engineering, been watching him for three quarters of a decade now. The detail of the information, interesting content matter, clear explanations, all of it is great. Much like your channel, Danny. But I will still give the edge to you in terms of style. The cinematography, the lunch discussions, the before and after back yard discussion, all of it is wonderful.
You are the Bill Dance of railfanning! Hours of boredom and waiting for a few good bites and a catch or two, then edit it into an exciting show! Thanks for doing what we don't have the time or patience to do (yet!).
Seeing Practical Engineering on this channel is world's colliding Danny! Another great video explaining what all that radio chatter means! Cannot wait to see the next video!!
It was so good seeing you again with a new Distant Signal video Danny. We really enjoyed this and will watch it again. Lots of new stuff and information. Thank you so much. Take care and God bless!❤😊
A few years ago you released a video talking about your scanner. Now for the longest time I felt that i didn’t need a scanner, well your video convinced me to buy one. Within the second time we went out I heard a nearby defect detector go off when we were about to leave. We stayed an saw the train. I have my eye on a timetable and thinking of getting it soon. Thanks Danny for all you do! Much Love!
Gradys channel is excellent. I've watched much of his content but when I get a notification from Danny I stop what I'm doing. Two absolutely great gentlemen 👍🏻
Or diverging on the NS, lol. But yeah, basically it prevents a full clear or approach from being given. On NS's absolute signals, they also use a single fixed red light underneath the head(s), to indicate that the signal is an absolute.
@@freebrickproductions NS sure does like its three-head absolute signals... They used to do lots of third-head Yellows for (I presume) call-ons, but maybe they don't do that as much anymore? CSX likes Lunar White on most all of its absolute signals for that reason.
@@freebrickproductions NS? Yes, definitely. The only exceptions to that may perhaps be found in old Conrail territory. The FEC is the same, but there is some flashing Red in spots, it seems.
The scanner is the KEY to the railroad universe. You nailed it! Interesting zoom shot of #92 at the end - it looks like the train is in danger of tipping over. Great work as always, Danny!
I live 30 miles from Altoona, PA so I don't really have a problem finding trains. There's always something to see. A lot of the places I go have dedicated viewing platforms that I always meet other railfans. Part of the fun for me is meeting different people from literally around the world and sharing stories. Some of the best afternoons I've spent I may have only seen a train or two but did get to hear some very interesting tails.
Hey Dan. Back to your channel after a long hiatus. Introduced a lady who rails(but not against the night😅)to your channel. This episode was very pleasant. You always bring calm and easy viewing. Best to you. Thank you for your work.
Danny that was an exceptional video. It whetted my appetite to do more research. Just got home to Ohio from a ride on the Amtrak Autotrain. What a great experience.
Great to see you again Danny! Its like an old friend dropping by for a coffee and a chat about all things railway. I am one of your fans from across the pond in the UK and I am a retired railway signal engineer (41 years from 1977 - 2018). Really enjoy your content. Wish we had such unrestricted access to train-watching in the country. Everywhere is fenced off here. Love your drone footage too - really adds to the story. Take care, Mr Harmon, and we’ll see you again next time. Best wishes from the UK! 🇬🇧
Here in Atlanta, we have a pretty good network of railfans that have become friends who have set base radios with remote access and MANY Facebook chats for the different subdivisions and districts. From points north, south, east and west, we share a lot of information with each other via the chats. For example, we had the CSX OCS run down the Abbeville subdivision recently and eyes were on it from SC, through and out of Atlanta. I was able to time my lunch break just right to catch it in a local city. Great content as always, Danny!
Hello Danny! Good to see you again! I never miss a video that either you or Grady puts out. Y'all have the very best of railroad and railfan info on the net! Thanks for all you do and God bless you! 🚂
That traffic backup waiting 20+ minutes is pretty patient. Not too long ago, at one of those "no horn zones," the driver in front of me decided to back up when the gates were down. I blew my horn and she still backed into me.
Man oh man, i can’t tell ya how much i love watching these. Super informative, and absolutely spot on narration. Keep up this amazing work Danny! Take it easy and have a great rest of your week! 👍
In my part of the country (UP and BNSF), it's much more common for the bells to be continuous even with gates. Having them turn off when the gates are down is much less common.
4:40 Here in Hialeah, we had the iconic Hialeah Speedway that opened in 1954 and closed in 2005 after 51 years of racing. it was home to the famous Allison brothers, Bobbie and Donnie. A Target and Lowes stand on the property today which is about 30 acres (6 city blocks). Complaints from residents who moved in after the speedway was there knowing full well what was there, lack of interest on the part of Hispanics, and rising property taxes to the tune of $90,000 a year finally killed it. It was very sad to see it go.
Amtrak Empire Builder runs up to 8 hrs late, heading for Seattle. I got into Chicago 8 hrs late last time. Often about 6-7 hours late in Sand Point Idaho when I sat by the closed station in the night.
Good Sunday morning Danny! As always your input is most valuable to any level of railfan. I was told long ol time ago that the fixed red means you've reached the end of your track and a divergence onto another track is inevitable. These signals are typical for ends of sidings and at junctions where CTC is used even on dark tracks. They are springing up all over the old South in places where dwarf signals were used and had the same meaning. Ironically a fixed red on a dwarf signal had a completely different meaning altogether. It meant the track / switch is for faster traffic so pick em up and put em down! That's why in the signal books a single green on a dwarf indicates SLOW CLEAR while a fixed red over a green indicates MEDIUM CLEAR. Several of the old dwarves on the A line had just three lights but the top red stayed on constant while the green in the middle or the yellow on the bottom illuminated simultaneously when given a permissive aspect. Now this is just what I was told, but I only worked there. 😊
You've got it! The multiple-lights-in-use-on-a-dwarf-signal thing is very common on speed-signaled railroads, but it's rare on route-signaled roads in the western US. It's also nearly unheard of on high signals-but not _completely_ unheard of-one of the Canadian railroads operating in the US (I forget which one) likes having signals like that, in spots. One of the oddest quirks to me about CSX's standard signal schema is that, on dwarf signals, Red-over-Green is _Medium Clear_ but Green-over-Red is _Slow Clear._ In the grand scheme of things, that just seems very un-intuitive. It also amuses me that a lone Green dwarf is _Slow Clear_ but a lone flashing Green dwarf is _Clear._
Additionally, dwarf signals usually indicated that you were entering a signaled track from an unsignaled track. Even if you weren't staying on CTC territory, maybe you are just crossing it. I've not seen a dwarf at a diamond but at several crossovers where you couldn't get out on the mainline, the dwarf had only two colors; Red and Lunar. The red was always on the bottom lens and extinguished when the lunar was lit. Nowadays with new PTC-friendly signals they have that fixed red over a red and lunar only signal to indicate the same thing. Personally it seems like way too much hardware to achieve the same thing, but I'm an old school railroader and I've been told it's not the way we railroad anymore.
I tried that open railway map. It even showed the long removed narrow gauge line that run from Durango Colorado to Chama NM, along with the many branch lined that connected to it. Very cool map. Thanks for that Danny. Randy
That Diamond antenna is the key, You could strap it to a Mattel Barbie walkie talkie and get the reception you desire! About the only thing better than that antenna for portable us is a portable Yagi, but then you have to contend with directional signal strength.
The reason for those signal that only display red on the high head is to keep train speed down at switches ahead. For example in my territory we have a few sidings and spurs with pot signals or signals that can only show slow clear as their best indication because you can’t exceed slow speed through the switch. This just allows you to pull out of the turnout, siding, spur, ect. At the speed for that track and then immediately blast off after the rear clears the switch.
It's always a great day when Danny has a new video to watch! The man has great content and his tutorials make his videos that more interesting! Thanks again Danny for all you do to keep us railfans tuned in as subscriber's of your channel. Cheers from Laurel, Delaware. KABOOM
Well done Danny! Anytime I her your opening segment it reminds me of simpler times ... thanks for all you do! Also, your railroad radio content is the best on RU-vid, so please keep sharing that, it is the best!!
Omg I was just there! I’m a truck driver and had a load to pick up at the Tropicana yard in Bradenton. What absolutely amazes me is the sheer size of that plant/yard! I always enjoy that route!
Love your detailed informative videos. I always loved to watch trains but had no clue what-so-ever what all the jargon meant. You're voice also makes this very easy to digest!
10:05 Exactly correct, Mr. Harmon! The track ends, so it can't give any non-diverging, track speed indication at all. It has to be Limited or Medium or Slow.
Listening to you talk about the train with Ronnie the conductor it reminded my of two of my master sergeants I had in the army both had work railroads before going in service. They both told me that the way to judge the economy was to watch the trains. A weak or bad economy would create fewer but longer trains. A strong economy would create more and shorter trains. Over the years I have found that to be solid advice
I must commend you on your choice of lunch establishment; that looked delicious! And you can't go wrong with baked beans and mac n cheese for sides...all for $11! Oh yeah, and the rest of the video was great as well...lol.
We only have one mainline in our area UP Sunset Route Lordsburg Sub. Last time we went, they were fleeting westbounds and we saw four westbound double-stack trains within 20 minutes. Best railfanning we've done in awhile.
Haha old one-eye there either had a failure in-route or someone forgot to do a complete inspection before they left. Let's hope they fix it at the next terminal.
That top comment reminds me of the old commercial:”When E F Hutton talks people listen.” Yup that’s Danny’s reputation as well. I’ve been in Florida 1.5 years and Danny’s videos have led me to all these spots. That US 41/old 41 is interesting to head up there - it will eventually take you back to 41. The CSX rules that allow the conductor to mount/dismount on moving trains is certainly a time saver. BNSF rules require full stop. Danny’s restaurant reviews are always great as well. Sooooo blessed to have another one of his videos to watch!
11:38 Yes and no. It is CSX policy to have at least two red lights on each absolute signal-that's that safety factor you spoke of, should a Red light go out. So, the signal could be ⚪🔴L/R over 🔴R, *_or_* 🔴R and ⚪🔴L/R. As the signal is for a leg of the wye that ends just ahead at a turnout, and train movements past the signal will _converge_ onto the other track, and such movements are usually made at Slow, Medium, or Limited speeds (with a Red-over-____ signal), it's more consistent for this signal to also be a Red-over- signal. Even though it doesn't actually matter which position the Lunar White light is in, it's more consistent for it to be shown below a Red.
I pick up from the Tropicana facility in Bradenton all of the time in my truck, it’s always cool seeing or hearing about areas I’ve been around in your videos!
Thank you again for another interesting and informative video Danny. We really like the drone footage in your videos which gives us a birdseye view and the food segments are delish! 😋
Grady, of the Practical Engineering Channel, recently solved two perplexing questions I had: how railroad axles cope with not having differential gears' and how continuous, welded rail can be free of distortion caused by seasonal thermal expansion and compression.
Isn't that ironic: Your sentiments of Grady are *exactly* what I have very frequently put into the comments on his channel: "The WORLD ought to see these videos". As Paul says below, "Two class acts" ... and I couldn't agree more.
Mr Danny when my signal goes off I am right to your chaNNEL. i LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. I was in La Plata VRF channel and we were all chatting about your channel. So many love your channel. I have been with you about 2 years now and I enjoy it God Bless Sir and be safe.
