Michigan Photos | Ohio Photos | Indiana Photos | Night Time Photos
Railfanning Information | Train Videos | Links | Home
Upload Your Train Photos | User Submitted Photo Gallery | Message Board
Photo Pages
Railfan Information:
A great place to watch the trains is at the Schoolcraft Depot. Located at the south end of Duncan St. on the north side of the east-west mainline, this makes for an easy spot to see the trains. CN owns the parking lot as well as the depot, but doesn't seem to mind people waiting in their cars to see the trains.
One major advantage of seeing the trains in Schoolcraft is because of the slower track speeds. An end of a double track is just east of the NS/CN diamond located at the depot. While sections of track nearby can warrant track speeds approaching 60 m.p.h., this makes Schoolcraft a great spot to see the trains at a slower pace. As we all know, the slower the train is going, the better the picture will usually be.
Canadian National has the most amount of traffic at the diamond, with appromiately 30-35 trains per day. Trains run at a higher frequency at night, but plenty of trains can be seen during the day.
A little bit more information on train watching there. There is a defect detector located 4 miles to the west of Schoolcraft, broadcasting on 160.590. This will let railfans know when an eastbound is approaching. Approximately 3 minutes after the end of transmission, the eastbound will roll through. Sometimes another eastbound will be following it. Westbounds will be waiting on track 1. After a westbound goes by, another eastbound will not be by for at least 40 minutes, since the next passing track is at Marcellus. One other good spot to sit and wait for trains is on the dirt road at 10th street, near the 144.4 signal.
Norfolk Southern will only make a presence there 4 times a day, with an occasional extra train. This would be 36E, 37E, 38J, and 39J. Most of these trains run between midnight and 9am. The Elkhart local, B-17, runs north from Elkhart, and occasionally switches just south of Schoolcraft, but never goes across the diamond. He will sometimes get Form D's for permission between CP Park(Three Rivers) and Craft. More information on these trains can be found on the Kalamazoo page.
All text and images are copyright of Zack Segur, unless otherwise noted. 2000-2007