Most Interesting Type of Train to You?

[davefoxx]

I enjoy trains in general, but the following are among my favorites:
Trains with cabooses
Unit coal trains with helpers, i.e., mountain railroading
Post WWII passenger trains (especially the Florida trains)

But, what really floats my U- and B-Boats are high-speed piggyback trains (TOFC) behind four-axle hotrods in the 1980s:



DFF

[thomasjmdavis]

Instead of going on for several pages about trains that had some sort of influence on making me a model railroader/ historian/ fan, it would save a lot of time if I listed the trains I've seen and railroads I've read about that I did not find interesting in some way .....................





....Okay. Done.

[CRL]

[High Hood]

Pretty much the only cars I see around here are coal cars and covered hoppers, so it’s a real treat when I get to see a mixed freight. I’ve found that I really enjoy seeing tank trains as well. Piggybacks are cool too.

[Bendtracker1]

On one hand, a local trundling down a weed infected track with a handful of cars in tow, on the other a solid train of Piggybacks.

[pdx1955]

For freight trains, its the regular mixed merchandise trains with lots of road names and car types. These can be either mainline drag freights, transfer runs, or locals. I'm not much for unit trains although hot shot freights like SP's Pacific Coast Expediter with F's and TOFC is quite nice [some of this dates back to railfanning the SP in the late 80's - seeing 3 SD-9's scream through town at 2 AM with a hot TOFC train in tow left an impression].

For passenger, I lean toward the secondary trains - heavyweights, mail trains, mixed trains (e.g SP's head-end heavy Klamath or mixed Rogue River).

[daniel_leavitt2000]

1. 90's mixed freight - i like the variety.
2. 30's branch-line steam.

[Albert in N]

N scale local trains with cabooses and short local pre-Amtrak passenger trains get my attention!

[Philip H]

Trains with cabooses
High speed piggy back trains (TOFC in the 70's or Containers later)
Industrial switch moves
Yard switching
Interurban
MOW moves
Modern manifests (extending modern back into the 1980's)
Passenger equipment under wires (mostly European)

[davefoxx]

/>

I love one of the quotes underneath that video on YouTube:

One of the slowest, most anti-climactic thing I have ever witnessed.  If your son likes trains, take him to a train crossing.  Continental Drift was probably more exciting. Made me wonder if that's one reason the Astros don't seem to be interested in hitting many home runs.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Maletrain]

One of the parameters that does not seem to be getting much discussion is graffiti. 

I'll start by saying I hate it. Besides the fact that it adds to the difficulty of making a realistic modern train, it also, if done properly, makes for unique cars that are too easy to recognize, so their frequent reappearance from staging detracts from the illusion of running a large railroad where you are probably not going to keep seeing the same car over and over again.

So, for me, graffiti is pretty much a killer for modeling modern railroads.  I really don't want to put that much time into making a realistic representation of something that I don't like in real life, anyway.

I also wonder if there is a similar effect on the appeal of the "decline" period, when grafitti wasn't so bad, yet, but rust and decay were so prevalent that nearly every can needs to look like a rust bucket with peeling paint.  Again, a lot of work to produce something that I really hate to see in real life.

[Englewood]

8,000 foot long container trains running down the rails at almost 70 miles an hour with 3 modern locos on the head end make me happy.

[learmoia]

You mean FEMA Death Trains.   

Right..

[txronharris]

For me it's the unit grain trains simply because that's what I've always liked. Specifically when I catch one with the older Pullman standard 4750's or the Trinity 3 bays. Second for me is the mixed freight because you never know what you're gonna get. My wife's always saying she doesn't understand why I'm always out there taking pics, and I tell her every train is different-even the unit grain or coal trains can have something cool stuck in there. Third would be the stack trains because of the container variety. Industrial or yard switching is good when I have the time, but agree with others it can get mind numbingly tedious, especially when trying to get pics and they're on a track between you and what you're trying to shoot. Funny I think that about the switching when it's my favorite to do on my layout or when running trains.

Here's an example:

[brokemoto]

Any passenger train heavy on the head end cars with a coach or combine for the few revenue passengers.
Short local passenger (inlcudes doodlebugs and RDCs)
Short, local freights.

The only longer freights that interest me are the "through" trains that do stop here and there to take on or drop off cuts of cars.

My pike has a junction between the short line and the prototypes where cars are switched in an out of passenger and freight trains.  In fact, the most demanding job on the pike is the station switcher at the junction.