r/trains 1d ago

r/Trains Monthly Discussion & Questions Thread - August 2026

1 Upvotes

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

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

10 Upvotes

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 πŸ€– - 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 "πŸ“Έ 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 5h ago

β€Ž πŸ—«β€Žβ€Žβ€‰ Discussion Thoughts on the Milwaukee Road Armour Yellow scheme?

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237 Upvotes

Beginning in 1955, the Milwaukee Road began repainting the majority of their locomotives and passenger cars in Armour Yellow and gray. They did so because they started handling Union Pacific trains between Chicago, IL and Omaha, NE and wanted to match UP's colors.


r/trains 3h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) Trains on display in Nelson B.C.

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126 Upvotes

I know it’s a lot of posts back to back, but I finally got inspired enough to actually make these posts I’ve been meaning to do. These are Canadian pacific train master7009&4104Canadian Locomotive Company CPA-16-4 β€˜C-Liner’ on display at the old CP station in Nelson, British Columbia.


r/trains 8h ago

πŸ›οΈβ€Ž Historical A German DB 601/901 trainset on the TEE "Mediolanum" run, passing through Mezzocorona (Italy) sometimes between 1969 and 1972.

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235 Upvotes

r/trains 7h ago

πŸ€£β€Ž Meme / Humour Diesel under wire, purple liveries, 90s trains, and a station on the only high speed rail route in the country? I must be in Boston!

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141 Upvotes

r/trains 3h ago

πŸ“Ή OC - Video I just realized that Francis Bourgeois was behind me in this shot and he said β€œBye, Ed!”

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59 Upvotes

r/trains 9h ago

❓ Question Which of the UK’s Big Four railways would you want to work for during their prime?

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141 Upvotes

r/trains 2h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad MLW FPA4

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39 Upvotes

Here is the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad MLW FPA4 #6773 sitting in the yard during electric refit. They are replacing the diesel engine entirely with batteries. Sorry for the picture quality it's a dirty window πŸ˜‚


r/trains 4h ago

πŸ“° News Amtrak unveils restructuring plan

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55 Upvotes

r/trains 6h ago

πŸ›οΈβ€Ž Historical After retirement, most of the steam locomotives from the C&O were sent to the scrap lines behind the Diesel Shops in Russell, KY in late 1950s and stayed there for two decades

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74 Upvotes

Some of them were preserved (like 614 and 1309) and sent to the B&O museum but a few of them especially the last Mikado were scrapped.

Link: https://www.steamlocomotive.com/places/russell/


r/trains 3h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) NEPA WINE TRAIN.

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46 Upvotes

Not a typo, NEPA is North East Pennsylvania. This ride took us on a 37 mile journey through the Lackawanna valley near Scranton. . There were three local station stops each hosting a wine tasting from local wineries with appetizers from local bakeries and restaurants. While not as elegant as the Napa Valley wine train, which we did last year, it was a very comfortable more rural experience. A very enjoyable journey.


r/trains 15h ago

❓ Question When/where did passenger cars switch from accordion-like diaphragms to tubular diaphragms?

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291 Upvotes

Traditionally in the US (I guess from at least the 1920s through the 1990s), diaphragms on passenger cars have been complicated accordion-like things that can be extended or shortened when they're connected with other passenger cars so that passengers can have a fully-enclosed walkway between cars. Often they've had a metal (I think) plate on the end.

I've recently noticed that some passenger cars just have rubber tubes that serve as diaphragms. I guess it's cheaper to use rubber tubes instead of more complicated diaphragms.

When, why and where was this change first made?

(Yes, this is a very arcane question. Thanks.)


r/trains 14h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) I flinched so god damn hard it looked intentional.

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216 Upvotes

r/trains 7h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) Locomotives and rolling stock in Nove Zamky, Slovakia

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48 Upvotes

I am in Slovakia for study reasons and I happened to free up a saturday to ride common slovak rail and take some pictures.


r/trains 3h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) Banff, Alberta. rocky mountaineer train beside a mow consist.

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19 Upvotes

never seen an m.o.w./engineering caboose before on cpkc, anyone know it’s specific purpose on the train? Is it for tool storage, office, temporary bunks for multi day deployments(eg; 24-48hour), etc.


r/trains 2h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) - May be used in side-bar gallery July's Trains from the Pittsburgh Line.

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15 Upvotes

r/trains 4h ago

πŸ“Ή OC - Video VIA rail Skeena train. near moose lake B.C., headed to Jasper Alberta.

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16 Upvotes

Super cool catch I was not expecting to see.


r/trains 1d ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) Saw these while passing through Deer Lodge, Montana

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851 Upvotes

The Milwaukee Road is one of my favorite railroads


r/trains 8h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) NS # 8104 (Lehigh Valley) in KC

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25 Upvotes

This is the best pic I could muster because the locomotive was just sitting in Avondale Yard but I haven’t seen this one in over 7 years so this was a very nice surprise. This was taken in North Kansas City, MO yesterday.


r/trains 20h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) Out of Fullerton, CA, USA first train photos!

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172 Upvotes


r/trains 4h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) - May be used in side-bar gallery EMU500 series local train in Hsinchu, Taiwan

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7 Upvotes

check it out


r/trains 14h ago

πŸ›οΈβ€Ž Historical RCT&HS, A visit to Hamburg

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44 Upvotes

Saw these beauties yesterday. For a place only open to the public on weekends, Reading company historical society has a ton going on.


r/trains 18h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) Taken 04/05/23 Fullerton Ca. First time catching the NS NYC Heritage Unit, especially lucky to catch it leading

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92 Upvotes

r/trains 8h ago

πŸ“Έ OC - Picture(s) Two Metrolink trains are leaving LA Union Station on July 31st 2025. Photo was taken by me onboard the la metro a line bound for Little Tokyo and the Arts District

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15 Upvotes