Keeping Track Of What You've Ridden Behind? Do You Do It?

[Acela150]

As the railfan I am everytime I ride the train I record the Locomotive Number(s), Cab Car Number, and the car number I am in and if it has a name. It's actually somewhat fun to do if you don't do it. It's interesting keeping track of what you've been behind and when. For instance, I've been behind AEM-7 946 about 5 times this year. All of which was on Keystone's. I rode behind P42 172 twice. Once on train 95 between WAS and ALX and the other on the Pennsylvanian between PAO and PHL. This is my version of the interesting things to do on the rails. With the New Year coming up try it!

Steve

 

[Twin Star Rocket]

In the first two or three years of riding Amtrak in the early 1970s, I recorded the passenger car consist of the trains I rode. No locomotive numbers though.

I also noted which cars were laying over in New Orleans--both Amtrak and Southern Rwy.

 

[Blackwolf]

I've kept idle track of the sleeper's I've ridden in, both Amtrak and VIA, as well as any special cars in the consist (such as the Park and Skyline cars in VIA's consists.) Never the locomotives to any serious degree, though.

 

[zephyr17]

Not specific engines, but I have a good idea of the types I've ridden behind, F7s, F9s, SDP40Fs, FP4s (MLW), F40s, P30CHs, P42s, FP59s. Plus 4449 and other steam on the Nevada Northern and the GCRy.

 

[pennyk]

I am clueless. :giggle: :giggle:

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I don't really care much about the registrations. I do get excited to try entirely new aircraft from time to time and I've flown over a dozen different aircraft designs at this point. It was also interesting to see and experience the different passenger rail equipment operating in Germany and Japan. On Amtrak every train in a given region is virtually indistinguishable from any other train in the same region, with a couple exceptions, so I don't really pay much attention to which specific loco is pulling which specific baggage car or whatever. They're pretty much all the same to me.

 

[Alexandria Nick]

I try to keep track of locomotive numbers. I was behind #189 and...I didn't make note of the other (#155 I think) on the Capitol Limited this morning. #189 was the power on my first Amtrak trip ever too. I'm not as thorough as I'd like to be. I try to take pictures of the locomotives, but its not always easy to just grab a quick blurry shot.

#123 is my favorite. She led on my trip to DC when I was debating on whether or not I'd live here. #2010 was the leader on my first Acela trip, fittingly in 2010.

Strangely enough, the only coach number I ever pay attention to is #34028. I sat it in last Wednesday and today. I know I've been in it at least three other times too.

 

[jphjaxfl]

I have kept records of trains I have traveled and train cars I have ridden since I was a teenager in 1960-61. Most of them are in spiral notebooks. Sometimes I would write them on ticket envelopes and then transfer them to the note book later. I will have to say that it was a lot more interesting before Amtrak standardized all their equipment. It has been fun keeping track of the heritage of Amtrak equipment. In the next few years when the dining cars and baggage cars are gone, it will be less interesting.

 

[Henry Kisor]

This sounds like a case of acute trainspotting. This terminal disease takes many forms. Railfanning is one. Another is birding. I suffer from both.

 

[Shanghai]

I keep a spreadsheet of my Amtrak travels by date, departure location & arrival location

and the number of miles traveled. To date, I have 104,142 Amtrak miles.

 

[jis]

I just let OTOL keep track of my Amtrak miles.

I do keep track of random subset of my trips both by train and plane. I must admit though that the plane trip records turn up some strange coincidences later more so than the train records, just coincidentally in my case.

The only recent incident involving an engine that was pulling a train I was on was in India a few years back. Nothing interesting seems to have happened with anything that I recorded as having ridden or pulled by on Amtrak in the recent past, except the usual grade crossing accident or two, and scrapping.

 

[amtkstn]

I keep notes in a older outdated national system timetable.

 

[AKA]

I record car numbers. Sleepers and coach. In case of a complaint or a problem . On the SWC last month the sleeper had a bad odor at times. [ holding tank ? ] Having the exact car number may help to get the problem fixed. Having the car number also helps to nail down other problems. Such as less than good SCA s . Car and rez numbers lets the person reading the letter know you know whats up. No ambiguity with that kind of information.

Note- its been a long time since I have had a less than great SCA.

Its also fun to see how many times I have been on the same sleeper.

 

[printman2000]

I have a spreadsheet where I list entire consists. I always make it a point to walk each train I ride and I use my iPhone to takes pics of the car numbers in order. Easier than writing them down.

Course, I don't get to ride that often so it is pretty easy.

 

[MrFSS]

When I was a young boy, in the 1950's, we lived near the L&N mainline between Louisville and Cincinnati. L&N had about 4 trains each way a day and you could almost set you watch by when they would pass where we lived. At times when I wasn't in school, I was always there watching them go by. For a number of years I kept a record of what cars where on what trains. Wish I still had those lists, but I don't.

 

[cirdan]

I don't directly keep track but I have photographs of virtually every trip I ever made. Maybe I can't exactly read the numbers off the photographs but it's an interesting documentation of how things have changed.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I have kept records of trains I have traveled and train cars I have ridden since I was a teenager in 1960-61. Most of them are in spiral notebooks. Sometimes I would write them on ticket envelopes and then transfer them to the note book later. I will have to say that it was a lot more interesting before Amtrak standardized all their equipment. It has been fun keeping track of the heritage of Amtrak equipment. In the next few years when the dining cars and baggage cars are gone, it will be less interesting.

This strikes a chord with me, how interesting the equipment was when you could tell one actual train from another, not just all the same car types. I regret not making more equipment notes, though I have recorded my trips.

To this day I wish I knew which car stood in for the coffee shop lounge on the Dixie Flagler between Chicago and Jacksonville.Very elusive.

Timetables usually gave exact floor plans, ie types of rooms and number of rooms for the sleepers and often gave the number of seats and number of cars for coaches which had reserved seats.. But what it would not give is the number of coaches if seats were not reserved, the numbers of head end cars,i e baggage and mail. Nothing about which cars were supplied by which railroads for those many trains which had multiple operators.

No locomotive info, no notes about what color equipment was painted.

Yes, there was a lot to be found out about each train. Making consists info much more detailed than today

It was really educational to see the actual trains, nothing repetitive about it.

My head was in the sand about this mostly being gone one day. I had no railroad friends so no one suggested I should take more notes.. I mistakenly thought I would remember everything.

Special note to Pennsylvania RR buffs on here.......one of my most pleasant surprises was the time I saw the Penn Texas arrive in St Louis. Of course I knew to expect all the sleepers, from the timetable. But it had a lot more coaches than I expected and it seemed to me that it really was a streamliner even though the timetable did not call it such. This was about 1961 and I still remember it.

Oh, and there was also this. Extra cars when the train was really crowded. They may or may not look like the regular equipment. And substtitue cars. Yes, I know of course I know Amtrak can still come up with extra cars, just a few days ago in fact. But not to the degree I mean.

 

[jphjaxfl]

Prior to Amtrak, every train had potential to have surprising equipment on it. I loved to be at Louisville Union Station when the South Wind came through in winter months usually 18 cars. One day in 1969, it had Nickel Plate Sleeping Car and a 5 bedroom lounge car due to heavy volume. Nickel Plate had been swallowed up by N&W and been out of the passenger train business for about 3 years, but the cars looked crisp in their NKP blue and silver.

 

[NE933]

Oh my God, there are so many of us.

Up to 1996 i kept a journal of journey endpoints, date, who rode with me (names of my family/friends), locomotive numbers and model types, and the types of railcars in the consist. I gave up because of the work involved, for example a few times in summer I ran myself out of breath to get up front to write the engine numbers, and once ended up almost getting left behind at the station.

But ahh, this gleeful happy madness is still alive and well: I have the tickets for every trip taken, archived and in the ticket envelopes used at the time. Of course every National System timetable since 1981. As for before that year, I would buy timetables at something called the Hoboken (NJ) Festival each year; don't have every year yet. At the 1993 Fifth anniversary of Washington DC Union station resurrection, just days after the tragic Sunset Ltd. Bayout Bridge derailment, I saw and grabbed the very first Amtrak timetable for $30.00.

A few times I thought of carefully packing and taking all of my ticket stub/receipts and carrying them aboard the next Amtrak train ride to conduct a private prayer ceremony to request God, in the name of each ticket stub's symbolism of our presence on the railroad and Earth, to watch over our passenger train system. All of the tickets never rode another train other than the ones they were printed for, so maybe some kind of higher power can be summoned to intervene. Right?