Eastern Railroad Discussion > My 2002 in review

2002 was another busy railfanning year for me, but my coverage was closer to home than in the past. For the first time since 1993, the year I moved to Toledo, I did not venture into the Mountain or Pacific time zones, and my only time in the Central zone was a couple of days in Alabama. I added Georgia and Alabama to my list of states -- the only ones still missing are the Carolinas, Alaska, and Hawaii -- and I photographed at least one train in Canada for the 12th year in a row.

I photographed 1,244 trains during 2002. I took pictures on 200 days, with a maximum count of 30 on Aug. 311, a day I spent mostly in or near Fostoria, Ohio. Breakdowns by month, state, and carrier follow:

By month: January 72, February 103, March 99, April 59, May 128, June 149, July 116, August 147, September 129, October 115, November 74, December 53.

By state: Ohio 753, Michigan 149, Pennsylvania 131, Virginia 33, Kentucky 31, New York 29, Florida 18, Indiana 18, Alabama 16, Maryland 15, Georgia 14, Tennessee 13, District of Columbia 3, Ontario 1.

By railroad: CSX 575, Norfolk Southern 454, Canadian National 68, Amtrak 46, Wheeling & Lake Erie 17, Canadian Pacific 12, Virginia Railway Express 12, Florida East Coast 11, Ann Arbor 9, Indiana & Ohio 8, Metro-North 4, Buffalo & Pittsburgh 4, Reading & Northern 3, Bessemer & Lake Erie 3, Alabama & Gulf Coast 3, MARC 3, Tuscola & Saginaw Bay 2, Finger Lakes 2, Adrian & Blissfield 1, Maryland Midland 1, Buffalo Southern 1, Northern Ohio & Western 1, Bath & Hammondsport 1, Delaware-Lackawanna 1, Ashland Railway 1, Conrail 1.

Census Bureau or accountant???

Tom H>

For those of us not used to your bragging rights, do you work for the RR, or what? Just signed up here within the past year, and you certainly seem to know it all ! No offence! Enjoy your knowledge of everything! More power to ya, just wondering, is all! I\'m sure there are many others who are wondering the same thing.

I report on transportation for a daily newspaper.

toledopatch is quite well cut-in on r.r. happenings, employment notwithstanding.

I don\'t know if Gladhand\'s remark is intended as a playful swipe at the "media" or not, but I will say that I am particularly sensitive to the railroad-related screw-ups that appear in print and on broadcasts. And in that regard, fans need to realize that the railroads are partly to blame, at least some of the time. While it is indeed a reporter\'s responsibility to "get it right," it is also unreasonable to expect a general assignment reporter (either print or, especially, broadcast, where there are very few specialists) to know all the right questions to ask. The railroads need to do a better job of getting basic information out to the media so that the media have a better understanding of how the railroads work.

BTW, the potential for media screw-ups isn\'t limited to trains, either. Anybody see CBS\'s spelling of Nacogdoches, TX, on its map accompanying coverage of the shuttle Columbia disaster? ("Nagadocious")

no swipe intended. I recall asking a question on the Amtrak board & you answered within minutes. Thanks again.

\'Patch, so you are saying that you get paid to railfan?! What a cool job! I\'m sorry if I didn\'t understand. You have helped me out with questions in the past too. Thanks. I think I just figured out your TO name too. Might that daily newspaper be the Toledo Dis-patch? Just a lucky guess. Seems you prefer railroads over other modes of transportation. Lucky for us on TO. Again, sorry for misunderstanding. Kevin

He seems to miss a lot of Chicken. I grilled over 1/2 ton in 2002 at Deshler. He\'s always on the go. Too bad he wasn\'t in Deshler for the derailment. D, I think you\'d have enjoyed that experience. I just wonder... does that Toledo paper have to hose the foam off when you get back from a hard days work? ;-)

DRF

I really don\'t get to do much foaming on the job, actually. Mostly I cover road projects, since that\'s by far the predominant form of transportation here in northwest Ohio. But I did get to take Amtrak out to Seattle, and ride the Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto, on the company dime in 1998 for a feature series -- though the timing of that irritated the missus, because it was less than a month before my wedding!

Besides reporting recently on the Pennsylvanian\'s truncation, I have written several stories during the past 18 months about remote control. I do have a scanner at my desk, which sometimes enables me to go foaming during my lunch break.

Even though it was tragic that in my area one year, a man got drunk, left a bar and sat on the tracks and got killed. I did chuckle though when the paper printed that he got hit by a "55,000 ton Trailer Train"

...and that\'s probably what the police told the reporter, unless the reporter actually called the railroad and screwed it up him/herself. The cops don\'t know what trains really weigh, the reporters don\'t, and neither do the editors. The real weight was probably 5,500 tons, but somewhere along the line (like a game of Post Office) a zero got added and away it goes....

One of the local TV stations out here in Los Angeles kept broadcasting news about a "cargo train" that derailed in our area. Of course, the local Coast Guard small boats on anti-terrorist patrol in the LA Harbor are carrying M60 "rifles" according to the LA Times. It\'s nice to have knowledgeable sources working for some media establishments. Reports not much more accurate than "choo choo fall down go boom" grow a bit tiring!

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