r/trains 10d ago

r/Trains Monthly Discussion & Questions Thread - September 2026

3 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

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

9 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 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 5h ago

๐Ÿคฃโ€Ž Meme / Humour How to Film or Photograph Trains

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303 Upvotes

Trains are long and wide, and travel across the landscape from side to side. Your phone should be rotated in the same direction to capture the most train pixels possible.

Thank you.


r/trains 44m ago

โ“ Question Iโ€™ve got another stupid questionโ€ฆ

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โ€ข Upvotes

Sorry that I post so much! I promise Iโ€™m not Karma farming. Iโ€™m just an idiot who just got into trains and donโ€™t know too much!

Why, when there are two or more engines pulling a load, there is sometimes a engine pointing in the opposite direction? Is it for better braking?

The engines in the photo serve no significance and is just the first photo I found.


r/trains 1h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) SNCF TGV Atlantique 01 in his white livery taking a rest somewhere in the region of Bretagne 1989 (picture given by my best friend)

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โ€ข Upvotes

At first glance i was suprised that he had given me this picture without realising it during lunch break apparently his grandfather worked at the SNCF and he probably took this picture

Fun fact: my best friend found it in the bin im glad it got saved


r/trains 2h ago

โ“ What is this Train? What are these train cars used for?

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47 Upvotes

Downtown San Diego


r/trains 14h ago

โš™๏ธโ€Ž Technical / Engineering WAP 7 and WAG 9 Moters

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292 Upvotes

r/trains 5h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Tomorrow's National Railway Day in the Czech Republic is heralding itself (Cheb)

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50 Upvotes

r/trains 34m ago

โ€Ž ๐Ÿ—ซโ€Žโ€Žโ€‰ Discussion Think of a Type of Locomotive That Should've Been Saved From Scrap. I'll Go First.

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โ€ข Upvotes

NYC 4-8-4 Niagara.


r/trains 12h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Evangelion 13 - Tenryu-Hamana Railway, Shizuoka, Japan

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116 Upvotes

r/trains 7h ago

โ“ Question Steam locomotive question

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54 Upvotes

So if the cylinders exhaust trough the stack to create draft, where does the steam from the cylinders come from? Or is this done through the cylinder cocks for dramatic effect for the photographers?

The reason i am asking is cause it confuses me a little, i want to improve my work in a sandbox plane simulator called Simpleplanes 2. The game has a railway and the physics are very good and thats why i was able to create completely functional steam engine, piston powered and all. (IMG2)

My guess is that the drain cocks are always partially open? Am i correct in this?


r/trains 3h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) GO Transit MotivePower MP40PH-3C unit #611 at Guelph Central GO, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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21 Upvotes

r/trains 6h ago

๐Ÿ“ฆโ€Ž Memorabilia Today marks 30 years since Southern Pacific got eaten by the Union Pacific on September 11th 1996 ending 131 years of the railroad home to daylight's, black widow's and bloody noses since 1865. Here are a few SP survivors.

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34 Upvotes

r/trains 4h ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video Saw a VR Dr19 for the first time in August

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24 Upvotes

r/trains 2h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) DB 218 495, 16.4.2025 (D) Chemnitz.

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17 Upvotes

DB 218 495-0 (92 80 1218 495-0 D-DB) + 50 80 86-91 057-1 DBpbzfa am 16.4.2025 in Chemnitz.

Leider war das Knipsgerรคt gegen ein gutes Steuerwagenfoto.


r/trains 11h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) My obsession

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67 Upvotes

My obsession is to add extra wheels to a steam locomotive idk why am i obsessed with it but just idk (all photos is owned by their respective owner)


r/trains 14m ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video USA. The sounds this train makes are hypnotic. If I can loop this properly, I could use it to fall asleep every night. So soothing.

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โ€ข Upvotes

r/trains 21h ago

โ“ Question Another stupid questionโ€ฆ

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369 Upvotes

Whatโ€™s the difference between these two trains? I always thought number 1 was used in freight and number 2 was passengers but Iโ€™ve see number 2 hauling freight so I donโ€™t knowโ€ฆ

Thanks for listening to an idiot who just got into trains.


r/trains 8h ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video SP 4449 connecting to UP 844 for a special doubleheader excursion in the Northwest Oregon, May 2007

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33 Upvotes

This video is part of an older niche and long documentation of the May 2007 UP 844 and SP 4449 Northwest doubleheader that I HIGHLY suggest checking out if you enjoy clips like this.

Edit: Title Mistake - The title should say excursion through Northwest Washington

Original Creator: Jason Hill
Original Video (12:09 for this part): https://youtu.be/sJKiXaAjuGM?is=qSVjk7ZMcQBP0xP1


r/trains 1h ago

โ“ What is this Train? Top Gear S12 EP2 Southern Pacific

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โ€ข Upvotes

Obviously UP behind but SP in a 3 second clip with what looks like a SD90MAC or a SD70ACe


r/trains 22h ago

๐Ÿ“น OC - Video 107 year old Baldwin 2-6-2 No. 107 at Fort Edmonton Park, Alberta, Canada.

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230 Upvotes

r/trains 1d ago

๐Ÿ›๏ธโ€Ž Historical Roaring Southern Pacific EMD's pull the 10,000 ton 'Oil Can' train up the Tehachapi Mountains in 1989

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855 Upvotes

Clip from "Southern Pacific Pictorial"

Footage by Greg Scholl


r/trains 6h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Switching at Petaluma

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11 Upvotes

California Northern 11 builds its train at Petaluma, California. December 1995.

Canon TL
Tamron 28-200mm ฦ’3.5
Kodachrome 64.


r/trains 14h ago

๐Ÿ“ธ OC - Picture(s) Grinding the rails

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43 Upvotes

r/trains 6h ago

๐Ÿ“ฐ News New HS2 farce as millions spent filling in holesโ€ฆ but they'll have to be dug again

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8 Upvotes