Eastern Railroad Discussion > Railfanning in Raleigh, NC

Any good locations and how much traffic?

Posted from Android

Most traffic moves through Boylan Tower. Overhead photos from the Boylan Avenue bridge are easy. The paired NS/CSX double-track from Boylan westward toward Cary (railroad name Fetner) sees four Amtrak's a day each way, plus two or four NS freights, plus two CSX freights. The NS toward Selma has two or four freights plus two Amtrak's each way. The ex-NS leased to CLNA eastward toward Wilson is dormant. NS runs occasional freights southward toward Fayetteville.

Any hot spot in the state of North Carolina? Seems very light traffic in Raleigh.

Posted from Android

CSX ex-ACL mainline (e.g. Rocky Mount) sees 25+ movements daily. NS ex-Southern mainline (e.g. Greensboro) is similar. For more than that in the South, you'll have to go to Atlanta or Folkston.

Traffic in Raleigh fell sharply in the aftermath of ACL's takeover of SAL in 1967.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/14 08:37 by ctillnc.

nkpsteam779 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Any hot spot in the state of North Carolina?
> Seems very light traffic in Raleigh.
>
> Posted from Android

Go to Salisbury for the heaviest NS traffic. It's located just south of NS' hump yard at Linwood. Linwood Yard itself in inaccessible. You'll see about 30 or so NS and 8 Amtrak trains in a 24 hour period. The transportation museum is located there (Spencer).

For the heaviest CSX traffic, go to Hamlet. You can hang out at the depot located at the diamonds. CSX has their hump yard just to the NE of town. Again, the yard is inaccessible. Expect 35-40 CSX freights and 2 Amtrak in a 24 hour period.

Andrew

Posted from iPhone

I work in Raleigh and if I want to catch a train I'll go to Boylan Ave
as mentioned before. Right about 4:45 to 5:00 you'll catch Amtrak followed
by a Norfolk Southern train. I always shoot below the Boylan Ave bridge
next to the signals but that's just my preference.

Sometimes I'll catch the Hamlet to Raleigh train there as well after that?
However more often than not I'll catch it in the Merry Oaks/New Hill area
on the S Line after he's done switching and headed northbound.

Hamlet has always been good to me and I consider that my "home tracks" since I
live in Sanford and it's less than an hour south of me. If I go to Hamlet it's
usually a couple of hours before sunset and I'll get five to seven trains as a
general rule.

Pembroke is a nice area to fan in as well as you can catch trains on the main
line and coming from Hamlet. The town I didn't see mentioned is Fayetteville.
The main line goes through there, double tracked right down the middle of the
street. While I rarely bench there during the day I go there often at night.
I was just there this past Friday night. From 10:00PM Friday night to 4:00AM Saturday
morning I got 11 trains, 12 if I count the intermodals going by as I drove up.
The down side to that is you'll catch the autotrain twice and a couple other Amtraks
in that time frame. There is enough light where you can do night shots/video as well...


Jay

ctillnc Wrote:
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> CSX ex-ACL mainline (e.g. Rocky Mount) sees 25+
> movements daily. NS ex-Southern mainline (e.g.
> Greensboro) is similar. For more than that in the
> South, you'll have to go to Atlanta or Folkston.


Or Salisbury, NC, Hamlet, NC, Roanoke, VA, Petersburg, VA, Spartanburg, SC