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 6h 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 4h 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 21h 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 3h 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 12h 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 2h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) - May be used in side-bar gallery Baldwin Locomotive Works 0-6-0 #26 leads an excursion past the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western tower at Mattes Street as it heads out of Scranton, Pennsylvania during Steamtown's Railfest '26 on September 5th, 2026.

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r/trains 44m ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) - May be used in side-bar gallery An A-B-A set of Delaware, Lackawanna & Western F3s sit out behind the DL&W's Scranton shops, looking like it's 1956. Except, the F3As are ex-Bangor & Aroostook, the "F3B' is an ex-Boston & Maine F7B, the shops are now part of Steamtown, and it's September 5th, 2026.

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r/trains 30m ago

๐Ÿ“ฐ News Sad sight in Hawaii this morning

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Two 1941 porters have been scrapped itโ€™s the end of the Lahaina kaanapali and pacific railroad


r/trains 13h 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 30m ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) A highpoint of my Japan visit

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r/trains 3h ago

๐ŸŽจ OC - Art British Rail class 800 but in Amtrak livery.

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MERICA!


r/trains 28m ago

๐Ÿ›๏ธโ€Ž Historical Happy 82nd Birthday to Nickel Plate Road 765! Left from the Lima Locomotive Works on September 8th 1944.

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r/trains 9h ago

โ“ Question What do you think about Triplex locomotive

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r/trains 15h ago

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

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r/trains 18h 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 45m ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Through the Sand Pile

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Union Pacific 1342 passes Bonny Doon Beach in Davenport, California on its way back to Watsonville Junction, California. January 2008.

Canon Powershot A520.


r/trains 1d ago

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

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r/trains 10h 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 33m ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) ใ€OCใ€‘Waiting at a Japanese railroad crossing (Fumikiri) during the day.

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A quiet, sunny day at a Japanese train crossing. Always loved the classic look of these local spots.


r/trains 17h 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 17m ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Metra F40PH departing from the north side of Union Station

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Metra F40PH-3 no. 120, the City of Woodstock unit, leads an outbound train on one of two of the Milwaukee District lines, bound for the suburbs. This photo was significant because at the time that this photo was taken, F40's were still working on the Milwaukee and North Central Districts. A few years after I took this photo, the SD70MACH's arrived, and took over on the North Concourse routes, becoming the new predominant power on the MD-North, MD-West, and North Central routes.

Photo taken on July 1st, 2019

Pro


r/trains 52m ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) CSR Qishuyan

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5113 at Udon Thani, Thailand ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ


r/trains 21h 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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