I can see (name of train) from my window/porch/etc.

[BoulderCO]

I can barely see it!

I live in downtown Boulder with an excellent view of the foothills to the SouthEast. If you know where and when to look, you can catch a brief glimpse of the Zephyr as it winds its way up/down the mountains on its way from/to Denver. It is perhaps 7 miles away and binocs needed! But it provided twice daily entertainment when I first moved here ;>)

 

[John Bredin]

On a different note but still about rerouting Metra trains to a different downtown train terminal, the idea has been floated in the past about rerouting Southwest Service trains(to Orland Park and Manhattan) to use LaSalle Street station(which services Rock Island trains to Joliet), instead of Chicago Union Station. Currently as of now SWS uses the south tracks at Chicago Union Station, a la BNSF and the majority of long distance and regional Amtrak trains. This still has yet to occur, and I have no idea if there's a timetable for this proposal to happen. I'm under the impression that it has yet to be approved, though. Not sure if say MikeFromCrete knows more about the status of this proposal, as of now in 2020. I hadn't heard any new news about this proposal in several years, so not sure if it's a still alive idea as of 2020, or if it's now a dead proposal?

Not dead, but asleep for some time now. The move depends on completion of the 75th St. Corridor Improvement Project, where the Rock Island and Southwest Service tracks are close to each other. That project is one of the "high hanging fruits" of CREATE, the low-hanging-fruit completed projects being freight-railroad-funded projects and some of the highway-funded grade-crossing separation projects.

As I recall, public funding for the 75th St. CIP became available only relatively recently, when Illinois finally adopted a capital budget after years without one.

 

[ET2020]

From my office window in Silver Spring MD, I'm treated to a daily display of the Capitol Limited, MARC commuter trains, and the Washington Metro. Unfortunately, in the next year or two, a campus-wide reorganization will mean I'll lose my window and my view.

Don't Re-Orgs suck!
Sounds like a Gov. Operation
I'm assuming you're with Defense Contracts Admin, Ken??

 

[tim49424]

I can hear the Pere Marquette from our back deck in St. Joe Michigan...and can SEE it in winter when the leaves are off the trees...

I hear it every day, living about a mile and a half from one of it’s crossings. I’m currently about 3 miles from the station in Holland but when I eventually move into the retirement home I’m headed for (the one my late parents resided at) I’ll be a couple of blocks away. I’m aiming for a room high enough there, facing the tracks to be able to see it twice a day, similar to my mom’s final apartment there. From her apartment, I could see the station but only partially see the train. Of course, during the winter, both the morning and evening runnings, it would be dark out. I used to call her sunporch my rail fanning room as I’d watch the PM and freight go by. There even is a siding that borders the property that I watched a local train (complete with caboose) haul metal to a nearby scrap yard.

 

[IndyLions]

I hear it every day, living about a mile and a half from one of it’s crossings. I’m currently about 3 miles from the station in Holland but when I eventually move into the retirement home I’m headed for (the one my late parents resided at) I’ll be a couple of blocks away. I’m aiming for a room high enough there, facing the tracks to be able to see it twice a day, similar to my mom’s final apartment there. From her apartment, I could see the station but only partially see the train. Of course, during the winter, both the morning and evening runnings, it would be dark out. I used to call her sunporch my rail fanning room as I’d watch the PM and freight go by. There even is a siding that borders the property that I watched a local train (complete with caboose) haul metal to a nearby scrap yard.

When I was a boy, I would often visit my grandparents for weeks at a time in the summer. They lived in Bridgman MI on Lemon Creek Road - less than a mile from the (back then) C&O tracks.

I used to lay in bed with the window open for a breeze and hear the trains (including the Pere Marquette) pass at all hours. I used to imagine all the places they could take me.

Don Henley wrote a song called “Train in the Distance” that captured those memories perfectly.

Those visits were a big part of my childhood. Great memories!

 

[tim49424]

When I was a boy, I would often visit my grandparents for weeks at a time in the summer. They lived in Bridgman MI on Lemon Creek Road - less than a mile from the (back then) C&O tracks.

I used to lay in bed with the window open for a breeze and hear the trains (including the Pere Marquette) pass at all hours. I used to imagine all the places they could take me.

Don Henley wrote a song called “Train in the Distance” that captured those memories perfectly.

Those visits were a big part of my childhood. Great memories!

I failed to mention that the house I grew up in (from ages 9-23) a few miles to the east of Holland was on 2 acres of land which where our property ended was the ROW of C&O/Chessie System. The PM did it’s initial Amtrak run, on that track in August, 1984, a month before I left home for good. Ironically, I’ve never ridden that section of the route from Holland to Grand Rapids....but from Holland to Chicago? 90+ times, including a few pre-Amtrak trips back in the 1960s, when my family lived in the Chicago area and my mom, sister and I would ride to Holland to see my grandparents.

While I’m typing this, I can hear train 371 leaving the station headed for Chicago!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Up until about a year ago I could hear the K5LA chimes from the Heartland Flyer as it passed through Norman, but then Norman became a "no blow" zone, and pedestrian crossing deaths skyrocketed. Hopefully that decision will be reversed and now the only way to hear the Flyer is if the wind is from the South and I hear it warning the last grade crossing before Norman.

There is nothing about silent crossing rules that prevents the engineer from blowing the horn for safety reasons. In fact they are still expected to do so if they see people who are on or near the tracks when approaching.

 

[DCAKen]

Don't Re-Orgs suck!
Sounds like a Gov. Operation
I'm assuming you're with Defense Contracts Admin, Ken??

I work at NOAA and it's not so much of a reorganization than a reconfiguring of the cubicles as they try to fit more employees into the existing space.

 

[ET2020]

I work at NOAA and it's not so much of a reorganization than a reconfiguring of the cubicles as they try to fit more employees into the existing space.

Oh - guess I was way off on the DCA acronym?
Sorry the shuffle is causing you to lose your window.
I work for CMS; I know a couple folks who left here for NOAA.
We are also consolidating folks across our agency, trying to get everyone on to our main campus.
Fortunately I'll be retired before I have to give up my office

I have not lived near a train since I got married in 1979.
Before that I was in a neighborhood bounded by freight trains to the North and Lite-Rail to the East of us.
ET

 

[Deni]

When I moved from Seattle to Chicago in 2000 I moved in with my girlfriend (now my wife) in her apartment at River City (800 S Wells St). She had a studio with a balcony overlooking the river and on the other side were the tracks coming out of the south side of Union Station. So for two years I had a daily view of all the Amtrak trains departing and arriving at CUS except for the Empire Builder and Hiawathas, which go north. And also movements to the yard. And tons of Metra.

Morning coffee on the balcony. Afternoon and evening cocktails and smoke breaks (when I still smoked and drank) were always just sitting there watching so many trains coming and going.

 

[Willbridge]

I should mention my winter at Fort Benjamin Harrison, alongside the Big Four Cleveland<>Indianapolis line. Penn Central's last remnant of the Southwest Limited passed the windows of our temporary WWII barracks. The engine pulled one lightweight coach and a Flexi-van flat. As a special feature, our lockers were stenciled with the name of a WWII hospital train outfit. The fort's post office was a former interurban station.

In May 1969 it turned out to be a useful train for me, connecting at Marion Union Station to the E-L Lake Cities for Hoboken on the way to Berlin.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I'm sure it's going to come as a shock, a great big shocking surprise, what train I can both hear (and sometimes see - in winter) from my windows, back door and porch. Yes, Metra Electric and South Shore Line trains. I mostly hear the bells and when the wind is right, off the lake especially, and late at night and early in the morning, the announcements (when windows are open even more so, except summer evenings when motorcycles about 3/4 of a mile away drown out everything) And obviously the CONO, Illini and Saluki plus any freights. I grew up a block closer to the tracks and a fond memory was summer days with windows open and hearing long freights go by and then being rocked to sleep by the rumbling vibrations. I can't feel those now since I don't live in a building with wood framed floors (concrete is way stiffer than wood). I can also hear Metra Rock Island/Amtrak/freight (mostly horns, but sometimes engine noise as well, mainly at night and early morning when it's quiet), from over two miles aways!

 

[cfomahm]

A little late to this thread, but I can hear the Wolverine 6 times a day. I can see it 6 times a day if I go upstairs and look out the window.

I know what time it is by hearing the train go by. When i hear the first westbound in the morning, I know it is time to unlock the door for my grandson arriving. When I hear the last eastbound at night (elevenish) I know I should be headed for bed. Other times they tell me to "let the dog out", "go take a nap", "it's time for dinner".

 

[NW cannonball]

I can't see the BNSF secondary main at "Saint Anthony" from my house. But can and do walk to the road bridge over the tracks there day and night, and sometimes just to watch #7 20 minutes west from SPUD at 22:40 if on time westbound.
I also hear the "two toots" about 22:45 when #7 sometimes has to stop for the hand-throw onto the BNSF track 2 and the switch is thrown.

 

[tim49424]

I hear it every day

Not anymore, since the Pere Marquette has been suspended indefinitely due to Covid-19. I miss hearing it.

 

[tricia]

Not anymore, since the Pere Marquette has been suspended indefinitely due to Covid-19. I miss hearing it.

Not Amtrak, but the little freight train that goes through Hot Springs 10 miles from here is still running--I heard it early this morning. Perhaps bringing containers full of toilet paper to depleted stores in Asheville.

 

[MccfamschoolMom]

Not Amtrak, but the little freight train that goes through Hot Springs 10 miles from here is still running--I heard it early this morning. Perhaps bringing containers full of toilet paper to depleted stores in Asheville.

We have several freight trains going through our town each day. Some I can watch from my window at work; the others I can hear easily from anywhere in town (esp. from home at night, when there isn't any car traffic to mute the train noise).

 

[tim49424]

We have several freight trains going through our town each day. Some I can watch from my window at work; the others I can hear easily from anywhere in town (esp. from home at night, when there isn't any car traffic to mute the train noise).

I can hear freight all the time on a normal day. I live a couple of miles from a good sized train yard. Also, there’s an additional track that runs off that yard, aside from the one Amtrak runs off of, that I hear all the time, normally. Covid-19 has changed all of that. Amtrak is gone, as is most freight. I do hear a horn or two every few hour now.

 

[PerRock]

Well now that my office is also my house, I no longer see the Wolverine. However I can occasionally hear the Ann Arbor Railroad passing by, if the weather & noise conditions are right. Interestingly I've not heard it recently, but according to NextDoor a bunch of people who normally don't hear it are hearing it more regularly... go figure.

peter

 

[VKurtB]

From the third floor rear window, I can see the Pennsylvanian, and until my latest move, I could see and hear every Keystone arrive and depart from Harrisburg. I was living one half block from the station until last October.

 

[IndyLions]

Thankfully, I still hear the westbound Cardinal (usually) on-time on Mondays, Thursdays & Saturdays at 6:27am. It’s actually kind of comforting. These days it makes me think about those forced to work & ride it - and hoping they are staying safe.