Some of y'all may know me from other forums - I don't post here a lot. But I have just gotten interested in railfanning since I moved to a new town with lots of opportunities. I live in Decherd, TN (about 75 miles SE of Nashville) on the CSX main line between Nashville and Atlanta (ex-L&N). I am about a ten minute drive from Cowan, TN which is the home of a pusher district to get over the mountains between Cowan and Chattanooga. What I want to know is: Is there any way to find out what trains come thru the area, when they are scheduled and what type of freight they normally carry? I have noticed four distinct types of trains as I sit at the crossing downtown - autoracks, coal, covered hopper unit trains and mixed freights. I do not have a scanner and the possibility of getting one in the near future is very bleak (unless I find work soon). I apologize for the long post and my relative ignorance regarding railfanning. TIA.
You can check out the Bullsheet for information on the whole CSX system. It includes a system locomotive roster, a list of trains they operate, and sample schedules. There isn't a way to "schedule" trains to better than a three or four hour window, especially down there in the mountains. You won't be able to definitively identify or find trains with the Bullsheet alone; you'll need a scanner to do that at some point in the future. However this will help you find out a little bit more about the locomotives you'll see and will tell you what trains you might see out trackside.
Bullsheet shows the scheduled trains... Some trains you might see are unscheduled or extras.. Scanner is the first weapon / tool to use! Harold
Trains are only "scheduled" in the sense that they are operated on a regular basis. Some priority trains have internal sechedules but they are not down to the minue for intermediate stops and are not publicly published. This is so intermodal trailers and interchange cars have a cut-off time to make a certain day's trains. It's also to make sure guaranteed services (a.k.a. UPS) are met on a regular basis. For railfanning, the times listed on the Bullsheet are what the site's name sounds like. 'Nuff said. [ February 13, 2006, 08:48 PM: Message edited by: BrianS ]
