I'm probably putting this in the wrong place but...

[Railfanjunction]

Oh yes, an introduction post in what seems like a railroad discussion section of the forum. Please don't eviscerate me for doing so as I didn't see a specific introduction section of the board.

So anyways, hi there! I'm Zach, otherwise known as Railfanjunction on YouTube and z-trains on That Other site. I'm currently a sophomore environmental science major at a small Christian liberal arts school in Grand Rapids, but for most of my life I've lived in the Riverside, California area. Saturnalia recommended this forum to be about a year ago (and for whatever the reason Facebook randomly went through my friends list around a year ago and deleted a bunch of my friends unexpectedly, no idea what happened there and I'm super sorry about that) and for one reason and another I never actually checked it out until now, be it the lack of a car or just a complete lack of time because of well, school and stuff. But that's enough apologizing for one post, let's get to the fun stuff!

I've been railfanning for about 15 years now, though when I was really young my dad (who grew up in GR) took me out to the tracks a bunch when we lived in Maryland and when we first moved to California. I picked up a camera when I was 7 and started my YouTube channel two years later, and as it enters into its 10th year of existence come November, it'll have amassed well over 5,000 subscribers and 2,000,000 views total across 400 or so videos. For film I use a pair of XHA-1 HDV camcorders (I plan on upgrading to 4K relatively soon) and for photography I use a Canon 7D Mark ii DSLR with a pair of lenses, a Canon 55-250mm and a Canon 17-85mm.

In terms of railroads out here I'm not a huge fan of CSX in its current iteration, but catching a YN2 painted locomotive is always a treat as it's one of my favorite modern paint schemes, especially on wide cab GE's. NS is cool for its hordes of rebuilds but I find their paint scheme relatively unattractive, albeit uniform and professional like the railroads that preceded it. I haven't been railfanning yet this year since driving cross-country to MI for my fall semester, but I hope to catch the circus train on the Grand Elk in the next week and/or go down to Elkhart/Goshen/Warsaw sometime before the onslaught of winter hits.

I'm having issues uploading images but here's a link to my roadtrip across the country to here, it gives a good view as to what my channel is for those unfamiliar with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0df3dM8no4

Cheers,

Zachary
http://www.z-trains.com
Railfanjunction on YouTube

[wyrickj]

Welcome aboard

[AARR]

Thanks for posting here, Zac"h". As opposed to the Administrator, Zac"k".

[TSB]

We promise to not disembowel you.