Your Favorite Railfanning Times/Day(s) you had

[Daniel The Cool]

I thought I come up with a thread like this so whats your favorite railfanning times/day you had?

 

My favorite days I ever railfanned was 3/13/2010 cause I caught an empty R68 Train via local. 5/15/2010 and 5/16/2010 because I caught alot of interesting G.O that weekend. My first railfanning with a digital camera (which was 1/27/2008) because I learned a few things about railfanning and it was my birthday lol and 10/9/2010 and 10/10/2010 because I felt in CPW Heaven that weekend.

 

 

Now lets hear your favorite railfanning memories/times;)

[4P3607]

my favorite was when I caught the R68A . I always loved them on that line. Rode the train end to end. Also alot of the ride there were no people on board. I also happened to catch an R32 going to lefferts blvd that day (unfortunately I lost the video :cry:) and RFW'ed it.

[EE Broadway Local]

During the summer of 1988, (August was the month) I took my very first-ever ride to the Rockaways. I took the and enjoyed the ride in an R27/R30 Redbird.

 

When my train reached Rockaway Boulevard I moved to a window and watched in amazement as we crossed Jamaica Bay and turned left through Hamel's Wye then seeing those station names I had seen only on subway maps: Beach 90th Street-Holland; Beach 98th Street-Playland; Beach 105th Street-Seaside and Beach 116th Street-Rockaway Park.

 

That same summer, I visited City Books on Chambers Street and purchased my very-first ever copy of Uptown Downtown by Stan Fischler.

[2 Train Master]

Every time I rode the R-32 on the ( that was a treat even loved it when it came into the Bronx.The R-32 was fun in 2010.R-44 in the Summer was a hit everyone loved it the passengers,crew(b\c they finally had a full cab instead of a closet)LMAO even my friend loved it b\c he hates them.My R-160 catch on 2-26-10(SNOW DAY) there was no school.

And beyond 2010 well...I don't remember much but the last cat on the in 2008 1535-31 was half and the other numbers Idk.

[Forest Glen]

It was the first time I caught a PA-5. I think it was sometime in February 2009.

[4P3607]

Every time I rode the R-32 on the that was a treat even loved it when it came into the Bronx.The R-32 was fun in 2010.R-44 in the Summer was a hit everyone loved it the passengers,crew(b\c they finally had a full cab instead of a closet)LMAO even my friend loved it b\c he hates them.My R-160 catch on 2-26-10(SNOW DAY) there was no school.

And beyond 2010 well...I don't remember much but the last cat on the in 2008 1535-31 was half and the other numbers Idk.

 

cat???

[Urbanfortitude]

One Saturday I went slant hunting on the . I had worked an IT gig the night before and got home a bit late so I was a bit sleepy. I met up with Joe, had my roommate with me. A slant shows up on the uptown side of Fulton St., and I'm waiting at the front end of the Queens bound side of the platform. The doors open on the slant as I'm trying to get a picture of the back of the train. Julio steps halfway out the train and waves the three of us to step on. I call that an epic way to show up for a railfan trip and I'm never gonna forget it. I admit I slept most of the ride uptown. But other than that I had a blast.

[R160]

via Queens Blvd Express

R32 train at Queens Plaza signed up as the

( via West End

Caught 2 R62's on the last year.

[Brighton Local]

-A couple of times, when the was split between Brighton Beach & Stillwell; They sometimes relayed them off A5 ( CI Bound Layup) Track back into Brighton.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

-Anybody remember that awesome G.O. in June 2002.. One of my favorites-

Shuttle Buses replace trains between Prospect Pk & Atlantic Av.

Shuttle Trains; Prospect Pk to Stillwell.

No Trains running; Take the or instead.

Trains ran on the & between Stillwell & 42 St-Times Square.

-Manhattan Bound (Q)s via Sea Beach/ 4 Av Exp / Manhattan Bridge/Broadway Express to Times Square-42 St.

-Brooklyn-Bound (Q)s via Broadway Express / Manhattan Bridge / 4 Av Express & West End Local back to Stillwell.

Trains to/from Manhattan terminated on the platform at Stillwell, while Brighton Shuttle Trains used the regular Brighton Platform.

 

The Brighton Shuttle was R68/R68A.

The Brooklyn-Manhattan was R40 Slant, R68/R68A.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

April & May 2006

 

No Trains running - The Prospect Park interlocking was being reconstructed; Take the Instead.

 

Trains ran between Astoria to Coney Island, then via Round Robin to The Brighton Line, making all Stops to Kings Highway where Trains terminated.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

May 2002

 

Manhattan-Bound (N)'s via the Stillwell to Dekalb Avenue.

 

The Train was already by then terminating at 86 St. So, 86 St-Bound Trains ran normal to 86 St, then to Stillwell Av on the platform, then ran Manhattan-Bound via the between Stillwell And DeKalb Via Brighton Express. In essence, Trains really didn't have a south terminal, because it ran round-robin at Stillwell, to come back up to Manhattan & Queens Via Brighton Exp.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The to Prospect Pk was / is always a small but cool G.O.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Back in November of like 1997, There was a cool G.O. that had Trains going to South Ferry. I remember that one well.

 

Im sure I have more tales of favorite fan times, but these came to mind.:cool:

 

Zach

[lilbluefoxie]

one of my favorite trips was the one in May I took, got to ride the <M> and

 

The Rockaways trip I took was a fun one too, that I took the train home from Long Island City station woulda been nice to catch the lower montauk express that day but they have since canned that, and I dont feel like getting up at 5-6am to get to jamaica by 8am to catch the morning one out there.

[MattTrain]

Too many to name to be quite honest with you. Best ones were on the ( and lines, using R-32s to R-46s to R-68/As

[2 Train Master]

cat???

Yea I call the R-62 'cats' b\c they are pretty fast for their age and they are lightweight.If you think the is fast with these cats you must had missed out when they were on the .

[MainStreetBound7]

Mine would have to be sometime in 2000 or 2001, I don't remember exactly. But i was with my dad when I was either 5 or 6 depending on the year, and we were waiting for the / somewhere and a R33 mainline came in and for some reason I didn't like them (probably because the windows were square instead of the rectanglular windows on the 33/36 WF) so we let it pass till a R62A came in on the . Now that I think back on it, I was really stupid not to have ridden the R33, Now I would give anything to ride it.

 

Also, that was my last time seeing a R33 mainline in service.

[harpomarx42]

R32 train at Queens Plaza signed up as the

 

You wouldn't happen to have a pic on you, sir?

[Brighton Local]

Yea I call the R-62 'cats' b\c they are pretty fast for their age and they are lightweight.If you think the is fast with these cats you must had missed out when they were on the .

 

I miss them on the , however, one of my favorite spots to watch R62s speed by is at the Columbus Circle Station. In either direction, the flys by :cool:

[553 Bridgeton]

My favorite is the:

 

Brooklyn Bridge via Lexington Ave Local(Havent seen that GO in years)

Pelham bay Park(I dont know if anyone remembers this but it happened sometime ago, there were still some R62s running the )

Prospect Park(Love that GO)

137th Street

Astoria Shuttle

Fulton Expres/Local

Queens Blvd(Whenever the hell they chose to send it there lol)

 

R142 Shuttle, I thought that was pretty cool.

R68 trains along 8th Ave to West 4th Street

Anything that ran a R32 during a GO was FTW!

R40M on the Yankee Special

All running local on Lexington Ave to Brooklyn Bridge, lol what a jam they had getting trains in and out of that loop. A train every 1-2 mins, cant get any better then that.

[CTK246]

 

You wouldn't happen to have a pic on you, sir?

 

I love you for that post.

[TrainFanatic]

My favorite memory occurred last summer. I was heading to my dad's, but instead of transferring to the at Broadway Junction, I decieded to stay on the to experience my first ride out in the Rockaways.

 

The ride was very nice - long, smooth and of course scenic. I also loved the sounds the train made along the tracks in the Rockaways. (NTM I loved how the a/c on that 46 rapidly came on/off.)

 

Yepp, good times. :cool: :tup:

[2 Train Master]

I miss them on the , however, one of my favorite spots to watch R62s speed by is at the Columbus Circle Station. In either direction, the flys by :cool:

OO yea that's the spot! Shyt the even feels fast on the local feels like those cats are doing 35mph-40 in btwn stations eventho they're really hitting 30-35mph.

[LRG]

Waiting for over an hour on June 12th, 2009 for the last R40 Slant train. I'll never forget that day.

[INDman]

My favorite railfaning day is when I brought the Low-V trailer back to transit museum using the 8 arnines. The look on people's faces was awesome. Then the real fun was making the cut outside of the museum where they filmed both Pelham 123 movies.

[R42 M Train]

My favorite is when I caught the R32 out of nowhere going to school last year.

[Law]

Catching the Rush hour R32 (, It sticks out from the R40 Slants and the R40Ms & R42s that were used.

[bigrene18]

As for riding in the 60s and 70s - there were tons of wheezing, creaking R-types (R-1, R-4, R-6, R-7 and R-9), especially on lines like the "E", "F" (yes, they were there), "EE", "GG", "CC", and later discovered to have completely infested the entire Eastern Division (except for R27s/R30s on the "QJ"). The last of the BMT Standards were sputtering out (we saw the last one, on the "M" on our August 4, 1969 marathon trip). Slant R40s were new and exciting, especially the air-conditioned ones. And R42s were starting to make their appearance, the first fully-air-conditioned fleet. Some of our late 1969 trips were spent seeking these cars out. Every line (except for the "HH") had at least one train of them. Air-conditioning was a novelty and a blessed relief (especially in the summer). In 1972, the first R44s appeared on the "F". I just missed one at 47th-50th one day and rode clear to Coney Island just to ride it back. One of the cars I rode that day was #140, later to be renumbered #5282, and later still to suffer a horrible fate at 135th Street. By early 1973, they were in full evidence on the "F" line, and the R-1 and R-4 cars were for the most part gone. R-16s replaced R-6s and R-7s on the "EE" and "GG". R-6s and R-7s moved over to the "CC". The one thing that I miss most about the 60s and the 70s was the faster express runs. Today, with all the GTs and modifications, you're lucky if you get above 45MPH even under a full green (although I DID get lucky on December 11th aboard an R38). Flourescent light in the IND was a rarity - you only saw it in midtown (some mezzanines still cling to the ancient bulbs, especially in Queens). On the IRT, yes, there were Redbirds, but without rust. There were Redbird predecessors like the R17, R21 and R22, and also cars like the R12, R14 and R15 about. Whole trains ran mixed consists. In fact, the entire IRT, with the exception of the Flushing #7 and some solid R17 trains on the #6, was one big mixed bag. The #8 line gave up the last of its Steinway WF Lo-Vs in 1969 and acquired R12s. It gave up for good a few years later. The oldest cars running were the Q-types on the "MJ" (Myrtle Avenue El, which ran until 1969) and some of the last BMT Standards, a couple of which ran on the Culver Shuttle and the "LL" and "M". R32s ruled the "D" train, as well as the "AA" and "B" trains. R10s were still just about the only thing you'd see on the "A", except for the occasional R42 and the even rarer R-4/R-6/R-7 mix (which was what they usually ran on the Aqueduct Express).

 

By the mid-1970s, the R46 began appearing and the last R-6/R-7/R-9 cars were withdrawn by 1977. Slant R40s moved over to the "A". Deferred maintenance set in. Graffitti was everywhere. The decline had begun. It wasn't until 1985 that things began to improve.

 

My earliest "AA" line memories go back to the day when the R-1/9's were the domain there, while the R-10's were dominating on the "A" line, during the late 1960's (I was 7). So many memories that would be said here, but I have seen and rode basically all the 60-foot cars that operated on that pioneer IND route, from the R-1/9's to the R-42's.

 

My best memories of the "AA" were from 1971 thru 1973 when I used it to travel from 59th Street to 86th Street on weekends when I went to visit friends on West 90th Street. The stock was particularly R32 in nature- RARELY did I see anything else, and that was pretty much limited to the occasional R42. Before that, I remember seeing R-1s, but that ended pretty quickly (up to mid-1969). I saw an R27 once (1970 I think) and after 1973, it was mixed stuff - R32, then R38 with R42 thrown in for good measure.

 

I remember the AA with the R38's, with the pink AA circle bullet on the front. It was always the train we took to get to the Museum of Natural History. The AA was usually a 480' train (240' on weekends). I only ever saw R38's and after 1985 (as the K) only R42's. For 1 week in the fall of 1987 it used a set of R10's

 

In the early 80s, the R40 Slants on the AA where the interior car lights DID NOT WORK and you'd go thru tunnels not being able to see whom was seated (?) next to you or across from you..... or what they were doing. I even remember one person lighting up a cigarette lighter just to read the MAP on that train between stations. Heat in the Summer and A/C in the Winter. Loved it and missed it when it disappeared seemingly overnight.

 

I remember one ride on a dark R42 D train in 1986, zooming up the CPW express, back when it actually was FAST. If I had epilepsy, I'd have never made it past 86th St.

 

I remember riding on a few occasions during the PM rush hours of R-10's (both the graffitied and GOH'd Green-painted units) as put-ins from Concourse Yard in "A" express service starting 125th Street to Euclid Avenue, circa 1988. That was during the time when the Williamsburgh Bridge was shut down, and had no BMT "J" or "M" service operating over that span.

 

 

My last R-10 ride was on a C in October of 1988. I boarded at Bedford Park and the lead motor had an original route curtain that for some reason was set to HH. When the motorman checked the signs, I said quizzically, "HH?" whereupon he took hold of the crank handle and started twirling away until C appeared. Of couse, I wished he'd kept going until it got to A.

[4P3607]

Yea I call the R-62 'cats' b\c they are pretty fast for their age and they are lightweight.If you think the is fast with these cats you must had missed out when they were on the .

 

I thought you meant to say "car", not "cat", lol.

But yes the between 42 St & 72 St is Very Fast and smooth thanks to those R62's.