Eastern Railroad Discussion > I have noticed.

That certain parts of the country have little or
no posts (ie.information) Maybe there are no
railfans around or none are on TO.
As an example some of the Atlantic Coast area
in Virginia,North Carolina,South Carolina and
Georgia.
I was watching a ship building show at Newport
News,Va.They had at least one locomotive.Just
wondering about this.Nothing special,just
curious.

Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.

There is a lot of eastern VA and NC posting but its on Facebook now.

The NN shipyard had a handful of industrial units, now they have a genset type unit.

Michael

Facebook pages ? list ?

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Joe,
I'm in South Carolina and there are railfans here (and in NC) and they occasionally post here. However, I discovered late last year that many of them post on a Facebook group (and most are much younger). I wrestled with the thought of joining FB, and finally bit the bullet and did so. It's been very helpful with daily train movements/pool power/high & wide or military movements/heritage units.  I agree that you don't see many timely "heads up" posts on special movements for this geographic area here. (Some of you may recently recall one younger member who posted on EVERY movement in his area, which caused many (including myself) to tune out this site).

Because I'm a dinosaur and still shoot on film, it's rare that I'm able to capture something of interest with the primary film camera AND be able to get a cell phone shot to also post here.

My unscientific sampling shows that there are a LOT more fans in the Northeast so there will be more posts dedicated to that area.

 

A couple years ago, outr great creator actually posted a data report showing the traffic flow by region. California and south east pa were the hotest regions followed by chicago and northwest. Used to see a lot from georgia and florida and other areas. A lot has died off in recent years though

The Carolina Rails group is quite active with upwards of 2000 members. The RJCS Carolina Line group covers the RJ Corman Carolina Line (former CALA) near Myrtle Beach. They have close to 800 members.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/18 09:23 by BC2.

There's a fair amount of seasonal coverage on the sugar cane rail lines in south Florida on Train Orders.

But, FEC is much more thoroughly covered on the FaceBook and Yahoo groups. Tri-Rail and Brightline get some electrons here.

Posted from Android

Indiana has its own website too, catering mostly to Central Indiana.

I can't help but wonder if some of the ridiculous sniping that used to happen here turned some folks away.

NYC6001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
[-snip-]
> I can't help but wonder if some of the ridiculous
> sniping that used to happen here turned some folks
> away.

"Used to"?
You should check out TO's Passenger Trains forum. :(

NYC6001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Indiana has its own website too, catering mostly
> to Central Indiana.
>
> I can't help but wonder if some of the ridiculous
> sniping that used to happen here turned some folks
> away.

Yeah, and that website seems to get an eclectic variety of folks.

Even the Railfans of Indianapolis club reflects today's world: the youngsters connect via social
media and the fossils like myself go to the meeting, sit on hard metal chairs, and watch slides, with
an occasional digital show....

anthracite Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NYC6001 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> [-snip-]
> > I can't help but wonder if some of the
> ridiculous
> > sniping that used to happen here turned some
> folks
> > away.
>
> "Used to"?
> You should check out TO's Passenger Trains forum.
> :(

Some of the snipings are so petty. You type "rode" when you meant to type "road" and two or three people will jump on that error sometimes. That and some of the political comments become very distracting arguments and are the only things I dislike about TO. These are prohibited according to the "Terms and Conditions of Membership.

Talking about Facebook, there are a lot of specialized groups that may have information and photos about activities in a city, state, or region. Others might be focused on "refrigerator cars" or "fallen flags." There are others that focus on a particular subdivision. Basically, the Facebook groups seem to be more specialized than the Discussion groups we have on TO. I have found that the threads on TO are generally of better quality and the pictures are better than some of the Facebook submissions. I live in Louisville, Ky. I'm a member of a group that follows "Louisville Railfanning," "LCL Subdivision (Lousiville, Carrolton, and Latonia,)" "CSX Fans," "CNO&TP (NS's Rathole sub)," and "Industrial, Yard, and Maintenance," and others. There's a "Railroad Color Photography," "Railroads in Black and White," and one where you're not supposed to post pictures of trains called "Waiting for a train." BTW, the Color and Black and White groups often have some excellent photos.

Personally, I find TO and FB to both be a great source of information and there is less sniping on the FB groups. They both have their place.

One thing that I enjoy on TO that I don't find on FB are some of the detailed entries, especially the ones in "Railroaders' Nostalgia" and the "Nostalgia & History" discussions. There are some really great stories in those discussions.

If you are looking for information in a particular region, I would suggest searching FB for "Railfanning (your state) or (some railroad or subdivision.)" You have to be creative in your searches. It's not quite as flexible as a Google search.

John

NYC6001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I can't help but wonder if some of the ridiculous
> sniping that used to happen here turned some folks
> away.

While I sure that's happened, the original poster is wondering about the dearth of posts from the Southeastern United States. Are you implying that Southeastern railfans are more likely to leave Trainoders due to sniping than rail enthusiasts living in other parts of the country?

Well, they are supposed to be more of a genteel lot in that part of the country.

Seriously, I think they probably just use other sites.

I have not yet found the one perfect forum for discussing trains. I have joined several. One rule that I have set for myself on the forums is to discuss what I want to discuss (within the topics allowed on each forum). For example, if one is looking for information on the NS Chicago Line in the Ligonier Indiana area one should post what one knows and ask questions about what one does not know.

Sharing something before asking something seems to work well ... especially with members who are worn out reading questions from people who make little effort before filling a forum with questions. "Tell me everything you know about Ligonier Indiana" is going to get less useful answers than sharing what one knows and asking specific questions.

If one is looking at the site and not seeing conversation on a specific line or area it would be easy to walk away and say no one discusses that line or area. But it is also possible that there are dozens of people interested in that area who would be willing to participate if someone raised the topic. So if there is a line or area that you are not seeing discussed go ahead and start the discussion. If no one is interested there is no loss in trying to spark the conversation.

Another poster said "... especially with members who are worn out reading questions from people who make little effort before filling a forum with questions"

YES.