Railfan Economy - Group Trips Afar

For ages since I got more into this (I've been train"watching" since 2000) my parents haven't really recommended for me to be on these large scale, long haul trips with railfans in the area. It took some time but it was at RAILWATCH that I had the green light for future trips, and the last week that I had a small scale pilot trip with my friend Rudy. Of course it takes time to establish that kind of trust code, but it happened.

RAILWATCH 2012 was, in my end, half time with the SFRM group, and half the folks of Central FL, north FL, and pretty much the SE United States. I was with fellow South Floridian Ryan N. the whole day in town but the group, Tim, Mike, Rudy, and Paul, left. Though on Sunday, the return day, I was with them for the majority! My catches were limited due to an AS Spanish Language exam but I still had a great time and great pickings. I had takeout lunch with them and learned a nice lesson about carryout lunches from Subway the hard way... Get your coca-cola by the bottle when carrying out. I got to "know" the GMC Safari van and its facilities.

In May 2012 I did a short range all South Florida trip with Rudy and later on an O721 chase. We 'agreed' to miss K951 on the terms that its resultant train would be chased Ted-style the next day. Saturday as expected pickings were slim, and as sort of unanticipated, the weather took a crap, but we still had a great time. A key part of it was me at his house being super lazy while figuring out the problem with his Trainz downloads. It was ridden with two cops approaching me, one at CP Manatee, and one at Boca Raton. Now the BR cop was pulling in to 7-Eleven and had to run and errand and of course I was the first person he saw, set up with Tri-corder. But the BSO hassle was a bit more annoying and they watched us filming the trains to the moment we left. The BR Cop was NOT a hassle as opposed to the latter but either way nothing bad came out of it. Yet that is the experience of railfanning. Sunday it was a nice chase with me playing as tour guide, and we insisted on and did treat him to dinner.

Saturday - FEC 202 has a dragging scrap load

Sundays video:

This is the economic doctrine of train chasing with other people as opposed to your folk:

• Two or more gas bills are combined into one as one car is utilized instead of two. With the discretion of the group, the beholder of the bill is decided or split evenly. Needless to say, this is carpooling. 
• Time management... I still have to have a ride up to Rudy-land. So my folks can go to the mall instead of wasting the day chasing a number of trains, as uninterested they are. At times an AM Tri-rail may even help the trip out.
• Combined interest - everyone on board is interested with trains. Lunches are take out or sit down as decided.
• Unfamiliar territory--- I am in charge of the Trainz Tampa terminal and of course the Homestead Sub is my own turf. Don't want to brag here but my timing on the latter is pretty good. As for the Lakeland-Tampa Area I can guide people that do not know the ropes since I know the roads and pacing stretches more or less. The tours with Paul would on the other hand probably have him knowing the area very well too, namely being out of South Florida. 

This summer, expect the number of Central Florida trips to skyrocket as well as even the north Florida trips. In one Central Florida trip, two gas bills are incurred per vehicle, maybe a third at the end if the chasing is very plenty. So, as can be seen, the cost of a central Florida day trip can be half of what it would normally be! It becomes a quarter of it when we take two trips, four people are in charge, and the bill is split to the four. So all I can say is keep checking our YouTube accounts; you never know what video will pop out!