Stephen Ezekiel Foy

In my small college town of Wilson, NC (pronounced WILTson), I sometimes found myself (somehow) with some free time where my inner obsessions with trains would get the best of me. In downtown Wilson, there were two train tracks that sliced through the city and even a quaint little Amtrak station. I’d circle through the downtown area, waiting for a train to come by, just to watch it.

I shot videos, bought a radio scanner, and even intrigued my friends enough to come along with me sometimes. It became an activity we saw as an escape where some nights we’d be out past midnight. Other times, we probably had some people raising their brows when we parked on the street in the middle of downtown for no apparent reason. Little did I know, I was doing something that SO many people do everyday and has gained massively popularity among a wide audience. Railfanning.

Railfanning is a term that I hadn’t really heard until I was just about done with college. But, I was a rail fan. Just the task of seemingly hunting for a train to watch was enough to put me in the category. I further solidified my status with acquiring a radio scanner and capturing a few “good catches” with my iPhone camera. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet secured the antenna needed for clear railroad communications. But, that didn’t matter. I figured out how to read the rail signals you could see when passing over the tracks, anyway.

I learned so much about trains and the railroad industry I feel like I minored in it. I learned the pattern of how a train blows its horn to create one of the most comforting sounds I’ve ever heard. I learned what “knocking down” a signal meant, called the phone number on the seemingly microscopic blue sign on a malfunctioning signal, learned about the different types of loads, and found out there’s even such a thing as the “Juice Train!”

Deep conversations, contemplations of life, and simple, appreciative fascination took place by those tracks. CSX’s A line was like a drive-in theater for us. The more I look back, the more I understand how so many people love this activity.

Nowadays there’s live streams, podcasts, and a plethora of sites for the hobby. My algorithms occasionally bless me with low profile rail fan social media pages that intrigue me or I find myself down a rabbit hole researching something new about trains.

I don’t live as close to the tracks to hear the sweet call of a distant train anymore and haven’t gone out much to rail fan in my new home in central Florida. But, as I write this, and when I’m encouraged by my train heavy algorithm, I get inspired to get back to it.

As I try to dip my feet into freelance writing, finding a niche is one of the most repetitive directives. So, I figured I’d try it out with writing about a hobby that got me through college and gifted with me some of the warmest memories I have. So, here’s to writing more and here’s to railfanning!