Eastern Railroad Discussion > New York to Nashville Railfanning Locations?

Hi everyone. I am going to be taking a railfan road trip this June from New York, NY to Nashville, TN. I have a week of free time to complete the trip and was wondering if there are any locations along the route I should stop at, as I am not too familiar with the area west of Pittsburgh. Right now, my idea is to stop in Cresson, PA at the Station Inn, continue on to Cincinnati, OH, then Louisville, KY before arriving in Nashville.

Is this the best route to take or are there more interesting spots that I should try and go to instead? If not, does anyone have any info on train action (I.e. symbols, frequency, etc) or good shooting locations in the latter three cities?

Any info is much appreciated. Thanks all! 

I  make a pit stop at the Dosie-Dough bakery in West Reading PA for a nice helping of Norfolk Southern trains.  And, some pie.

 

Forget Cresson.

There are two neat industrial operations in TN.  West of Knoxville at ALCOA TN the ALCOA aluminum plant has an interplant railroad from the North to South Plant.  The NS local comes out a couple times a week.
At Crab Orchard L'Hoist runs a 15 mile former NS branch using nicely painted hihood GEs of NS vintage.  Friday is a good bet for a run. 

At Nashville, you have commuter rail in the form of the Music City Star.  F40s for power.  Website has schedules.

Appalachia provides numerous scenic opportunities to rail fan. What is of interest to you? Museums, unique power, high train counts ?????

Posted from Android

P Wrote:
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> Appalachia provides numerous scenic opportunities
> to rail fan. What is of interest to you?
> Museums, unique power, high train counts ?????
>
> Posted from Android

Mainly high frequency and interesting places to shoot

Posted from iPhone

If your looking for quantity of movements then follow the NS across PA then either CSX or NS across the northern sections of Ohio to Fostoria, Bellevue, Marion, or Deshler. If I had to pick one likely Marion as good mix of both NS and CSX and the station allows very close access to the diamonds. If you started your day in Marion you could then go up to Fostoria and over to Deshler then south along the Toledo Sub for some sunset shots of B&O CPLs would make for a full day. Next day follow CSX’s Toledo Sub to Cincinnati.

There is a new elevated viewing platform in Ludlow, KY on the NS line south out Cincinnati. View isn’t best due to trees but if the city can get some trees cleared it would have potential.

Street running in La Grange, KY is worth a stop if you know a train is close.

Louisville to Nashville CSX is fairly close to the Interstate moderately busy.

Posted from iPhone

If you railfanned all the potentially interesting places between New York and Nashville, you'd never get to Nashville in a week. Probably not even a month. So before I dive into this question, I want to know what interests you more: train count, scenery, or distinctive railroads?

One of the things I could easily recommend, but I haven't done it myself yet, is the RJ Corman aluminum ingot train in Kentucky, which could certainly be done on your way out of Cincinnati. The Louisville & Indiana operation out of Jeffersonville, IN would be another. But neither of these is a quick-hit subject; if you want to be sure to see 20 trains a day on your trip, then stick to the Class 1 hot spots.

I agree with a prevoius post, though, that if you're driving out from New York, skip Cresson; that's something you could easily do during a weekend trip from home. Don't waste part of a valuable travel week doing something you could do so close to home (unless the weather forces your hand).
 

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you railfanned all the potentially interesting
> places between New York and Nashville, you'd never
> get to Nashville in a week. Probably not even a
> month. So before I dive into this question, I want
> to know what interests you more: train count,
> scenery, or distinctive railroads?
>
> One of the things I could easily recommend, but I
> haven't done it myself yet, is the RJ Corman
> aluminum ingot train in Kentucky, which could
> certainly be done on your way out of Cincinnati.
> The Louisville & Indiana operation out of
> Jeffersonville, IN would be another. But neither
> of these is a quick-hit subject; if you want to be
> sure to see 20 trains a day on your trip, then
> stick to the Class 1 hot spots.
>
> I agree with a prevoius post, though, that if
> you're driving out from New York, skip Cresson;
> that's something you could easily do during a
> weekend trip from home. Don't waste part of a
> valuable travel week doing something you could do
> so close to home (unless the weather forces your
> hand).
>  

Great, thanks for the info about the various regional operations. If time permits I'll sure be able to check those out! Yeah, I'm mainly looking for cool spots to shoot and train frequency, along with any regional operations that operate on a "relative" schedule.

I've lived in the Cincinnati area for a little over twenty years now and am still finding new places to shoot. I almost take it for granted how many trains go through Cincinnati in a day and have really been going out this year, mainly on Sunday afternoons. Not sure of weekends as I work them, but on the weekday mornings, the Indiana & Ohio has been running east on the Midland Sub to Washington Court House with a real sized train with four standard cab SDs. On the Class 1s going north of Queensgate the NS and CSX run within a couple miles of each other for about ten miles which allows you to easily flip back and forth, both are busy and favor but do not adhere to directional running. Going south into Kentucky the NS is supre busy and very scenic. Everyone always wants to go to the tunnel part of the CNO&TP when the area from CIncinnati to Lexington has a lot to offer.

On your way to Nashville though I too agree with following the Toledo Sub as there are still a lot of active B & O CPLs north of Dayton plus lots of trains. Marion is a neat place and Columbus Ohio is so underestimated, even with half the diamonds it had forty years ago it still has a lot of diamonds for one metropolitan area. Trains in Columbus though can be feast or famine at times though. Louisville is the similar in having a lot of diamonds and it too can be dead one time and then hard to chose what to go out and look at the next. Louisville itself is a beautiful city as is Cincinnati. I have only been to Deshler twice now but really liked it. You can always try using the search feature on TO and the key words for any of the Subdivisions cities or places you are considering visiting, some will come up with way more posts then you will have time to look at.

Have Fun!

Jim

If you make it to Nashville, Amqui on the north side of Nashville near I-65 is the best location in the Nashville area for train frequency. Every CSX train passing thru Nashville passes Amqui except the very few trains to and from Memphis.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nashville,+TN/@36.2737807,-86.7121971,15.25z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8864ec3213eb903d:0x7d3fb9d0a1e9daa0!8m2!3d36.1626638!4d-86.7816016

gmojim