r/trains 7d ago

r/Trains Monthly Discussion & Questions Thread - September 2026

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Welcome to the r/Trains Monthly Discussion Thread.

The goal of this thread is to serve as the place to ask short questions or just chat about anything trains related that might not warrant its own post.


r/trains Mar 22 '26

๐Ÿš‚r/trains staff announcement Introduction & updates to moderating, rules and sidebar.

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Hello there,

I am auto, your new friendly neighbourhood Reddit mod. o/

While I have some experience moderating smaller communities, I've never moderated a subreddit before and never a community of this size and honestly, taking the right moderating actions when reviewing reports or looking through comments isn't quite coming naturally yet. If I make any silly mistakes or you believe I didn't deal with situation correctly, do not hesitate to tell me either via mod mail or in the discord. I am human, I am not going to deal with every situation perfectly and feedback is more than welcome. (Just kidding, I am obviously a robot ๐Ÿค– - Beep Boop Beep)

I am happy to be at your service.

Regardless, now that the introduction is over with, there is some practical stuff to discuss:

Bans, Ban appeals and old Mod Mail:

When I came in, there was a very large backlog in Mod Mail, including ban appeals. I have cleared this backlog the best I could, responding to most appeals and messages that came in, but unfortunately, once these appeals and Mod Mails reach about half a year old, they can no longer be replied to from our side.

If you sent in a ban appeal or question that is still relevant before July 2025 and it never got answered, please do not hesitate to send us a message through Mod Mail and me or the other mods will get to it.

In addition, I found out that some people who at any point received disciplinary action ended up in some sort of ghost-ban, where on our end in the mod tools panel the person doesn't appear to be banned, but when the user tries to post, it tells them they're banned. If you were active in r/Trains more than 5 years ago, Reddit tells you that you're banned when you try to post or comment and you have no clue why or when you got banned, please contact the mods via Mod Mail and we should be able to resolve your issue.

Mod Queue clearing:

I have cleared the Mod Queue, which was filled with over 3 years of reports, removals and filtered content. For the queue items from the last 1-2 weeks I've done this manually, and then I've mass-cleared most of the remaining queue. This process caused all filtered posts that were more than roughly 10 days old to be discarded. If you made any post more than 10 days ago which got automatically filtered and you believe the content is still relevant, feel free to reattempt posting your comment.

Moderating strategy and rules:

Due to the relatively sparse activity of moderators on this subreddit in recent times, moderating turned into a very hands-off process where y'all mostly self-moderate with some assistance from automatic filters. Beyond the filters sometimes getting overzealous, especially with politically contentious posts, (which should be resolved now,) this has generally worked fairly well. For now, though I can't speak for the other moderators when they act, I will carry this approach forward.

However, that may change. From working through the queue, Mod Mail and immediately finding myself in the deep end with several contentious posts appearing right after I got promoted, it's become obvious that the current rules don't always quite match the way action has been taken on reports both before I came in and at current. In addition, it turns out that some situations really aren't covered well by our current rules and that the wording of some rules may be contributing to a sizable amount of reports coming in for contact that very much is allowed here. We've also received feedback from several people, both via Mod Mail and in comments under recent topics about how we should be dealing with politics and controversial content on the subreddit.

Keeping all those things in mind, I will be rewriting the rules over the coming days. As part of this process, me or other moderators may place community polls both on reddit and on discord to gather feedback for how the community would like the r/trains discord and subreddit to be moderated.

Monthly discussion thread:

Until now, the monthly discussion thread was automatically generated on the 29th of every month. Beyond causing the month in the topic title to nearly always mismatch the current month, this caused the thread not to be generated in February. Starting on April 1st, the monthly discussion thread will be automatically generated on the 1st of every month instead. Until then, please feel free to continue using the January 2026 thread.

Sidebar:

We are aware the gallery in the sidebar has broken. Sadly, most images gone poof and we have no record of what exactly was in there. As we look to fill our sidebar once again, we may request permission for some people to use their photos in the side-bar via Mod Mail, but if you'd like to help, if you are posting original content, you can now use the "๐Ÿ“ธ May be used in side-bar gallery" post flair to indicate to us that we may place your photo or art in the sidebar.

With all that said, thank you for reading.

~auto


r/trains 18h ago

โ€Žโ€‰๐Ÿ—โ€Žโ€‰โ€‰Repost Vande Bharat gliding across the vast white expanse of Indiaโ€™s largest inland salt lake.

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VC: IG/_tryambkam


r/trains 1h ago

โš™๏ธโ€Ž Technical / Engineering Train car maintenance

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Use to do tankard maintenance, they come in about every 10 years I believe for repairs

If yall have any curiosity/questions cause I know I did when I started working here, on what breaks on these things or what being inside one of those tanks are like๐Ÿ’”

Sorry if this is not the right place to post this


r/trains 9h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Union Pacificโ€™s Golden Spike Tower

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Some photos visiting the Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, NE.


r/trains 11h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Donโ€™t know much about trains, how rare is this find in Olean, NY?

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r/trains 3h ago

โ“ Question I was watching this steam tractor at a tractor pull, and got to thinking - why wasn't the American West set ablaze, like it easily is now, by the embers of coal/wood -fired steam locomotives?

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r/trains 6h ago

โ“ Question What do you think about Triplex locomotive

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r/trains 12h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Hitachi 8FA-36C in Bangkok while it dark and raining (Thailand)

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r/trains 40m ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) New to this sub, want to share pics

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I live in a town where the mainline of the Reading Railroad once ran through. The tracks that exist are now NS. The ones that donโ€™t exist are now paved trails for bikers, runners, walkers. The Chester Valley line ran directly behind our house, which is now a grown in train bed.

One of the big notable landmarks near me is Abrams Yard. I took an interest in it after moving in and hearing the NS engines blaring their horns before departing. Since then, we have visited the Reading Heritage Museum and the Steamtown Museum. Both absolutely incredible experiences. I wanted to share pics and gain some insight if anyone wants to add any info on what Iโ€™m sharing!


r/trains 15h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) I sure am gonna miss the P32S and 42s when theyโ€™re gone

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donโ€™t get me wrong I like the new Chargers that Metro North and Amtrak are using, but they just donโ€™t have the same diesel rumble and cool look to them.


r/trains 22h ago

๐Ÿคฃโ€Ž Meme / Humour After I turned 12 it would happen randomly at the absolute worst times

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r/trains 7h ago

โ“ Question Colour of working Light for the UP844

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Hey guys I am trying to model the UP844 "Living Legend" and I looked through some videos and pictures, but couldn't find an answer to what colour these working Lights are supost to look like (side ones, under cab and over valve gear and wheels), a more orange coule, o cold white maybe (the same as the front lights?).

As well as the back lights for the Tender. Obviously the top red light is always on, when it moves foward, the middle one should be when it's in return, but what about the other lights?

I appreciate your input!

PS.: the photos are not mine!


r/trains 15h ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video Midwest Central Railroad Mount Pleasant Iowa.

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#9 Shay from West Side Lumber Co. with Pickering Lumber Co. marking instead for some odd reason. Maria (their oldest engine #6) wasn't running sadly when I recorded this.


r/trains 18h ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video Steam locomotive 99 3312-8 under steam after repairs following a collision with a car in April 2025

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r/trains 19h ago

โ€Žโ€‰๐Ÿ—โ€Žโ€‰โ€‰Repost Mumbai Metro covered in advertisement for the upcoming Wolverine game!

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r/trains 11h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Trains of Northtown train yard 9/7/26

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Also caught my first H1 standard cab leader and heritage unit leader


r/trains 10h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Delaware Lackawanna 1776 heading East on NS 316 | Ashtabula, OH

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DL 1776 trailing 2nd in on NS 316, built as a MLW C630 for the British Colombia Railway as 707 in 1970, is spend slowly making it's return home after the 250 locomotive event over in Spencer, NC.


r/trains 20h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Photos I took at the horseshoe curve

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Some of them have been scaled down which sucks but oh well. Enjoy!!


r/trains 23h ago

โ“ Question If you had the magic hand to fix any of the low effort America 250 units, how would you redo them?

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r/trains 18h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Nebraska Trains

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Visited Nebraska over the weekend and saw some neat trains. Thought Iโ€™d share


r/trains 12h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Snoot sd40n

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r/trains 33m ago

โ“ Question Can someone tell me why the Milwaukee road 265 and 261s Mars lights are special?

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r/trains 2h ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video The Former High Orchard Branch Line to Gloucester Docks | Part One of Three

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In this part, I delved into the history of the High Orchard Branch Line, which ran from Gloucester Railway Station to Gloucester Docks during the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. The purpose of this was primarily to serve the warehouses, which manufactured goods at the time. Although this branch line no longer exists, you can still see remnants of it littered around the city today.

Instagram: @glitterycrimson


r/trains 17h ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video Had the opportunity to catch a ride on the legendary EMD G16

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Or as we here in Bosnia call her "Kennedy* ๐Ÿ˜Š