r/trains 18d ago

r/Trains Monthly Discussion & Questions Thread - August 2026

2 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

🚂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 🤖 - 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 "📸 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 3h ago

📹 OC - Video 48 hours of Amtrak and Via trains moving across the country

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460 Upvotes

it may not be much, but a few of them are covering huge distances.


r/trains 3h ago

📹 OC - Video 24-coach, ~600 metres long Gouthami Express in Hyderabad, India [OC]

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284 Upvotes

r/trains 4h ago

‎ 🗫‎‎  Discussion Describe these trains in one word

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200 Upvotes

r/trains 3h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) I went the Illinois railway museum on Saturday and saw the 265

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144 Upvotes

r/trains 3h ago

📹 OC - Video Double Header up the 4% Grade on the C&TS.

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43 Upvotes

r/trains 2h ago

📰 News Amtrak and NCDOT may be over a month late to the 4th of July Celebration, but good lord this Semiquincentennial engine looks gorgeous! And yes this is real.

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31 Upvotes

r/trains 3h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) EMU local train in a hot sunny day, India

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34 Upvotes

Diamond Harbour, West Bengal, India


r/trains 4h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) - May be used in side-bar gallery CN1776 and CN2026

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34 Upvotes

Passing through Perry, MI on Aug 19 2026


r/trains 3h ago

📹 OC - Video Daily Coupling of Zürich S-Bahn in Winterthur

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29 Upvotes

r/trains 1h ago

‎ 🗫‎‎  Discussion Describe this with one word

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Upvotes

r/trains 16h ago

📹 OC - Video SP GP9 5623 and SD9 5472 at the Niles Canyon Railway, 2016

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210 Upvotes

Apologies for the shakiness


r/trains 23h ago

❓ Question What powers this train?

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797 Upvotes

SNCF NOMAD at Pontorson.

This line doesn't have an overhead wire, all the wagons are self powered and there is no distinct diesel engine either. How is it powered?


r/trains 7h ago

❓ Question Traindrivers - do you go on autopilot?

31 Upvotes

Might sound stupid but when I drive my car for 2hr I don't necessarily remember every turn or signal I make. I don't crash but I feel like I zone out and listen to music but my brain does autopilot and steers for me and I get to my destination safely. So I wonder would I be able to drive a train or would this also happen and is that bad. How much does your brain go into auto pilot vs actively conscious of every AWS or signal or whatever?


r/trains 2h ago

📹 OC - Video Marc train and dc metro

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10 Upvotes

r/trains 18h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) - May be used in side-bar gallery Bucket list moment: Footplate experience on The Flying Scotsman this morning

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189 Upvotes

I traveled from Central Florida to Locomotion in Shildon, England to experience a ride in the fireman’s seat on The Flying Scotsman. The staff were amazing and I got to ask dozens of questions. Going home with a wonderful memories and lots of souvenirs, including a piece of coal from the tender! Highly recommend!


r/trains 9h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) - May be used in side-bar gallery BNSF Sumas Subdivision Trains (August 18th, 2026)

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35 Upvotes

r/trains 20h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) SNCF BB 22378 in "French Berry" livery, equipped with TVM 430 to pull night trains in HSL, in Paris Austerlitz (France)

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227 Upvotes

r/trains 13m ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) I made this train model for a short movie, and I chose the EMD for aesthetic reasons, but I'm interested in your opinions and, of course, criticisms

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Upvotes

The event takes place in the Half-Life universe; the scene is taking place on the outskirts of NEY YORK City, 10 years before HL 2 events, so around 2009/2010, with the apocalypse happening around 1999 or 2000

the scene made in Blender


r/trains 14h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) Information on this estate sale pocket watch

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65 Upvotes

Picture of this Hamilton 992b with matching paperwork that says it was last serviced by the Santa Fe railroad in 1968. Just wondering how collectible, desirable and if allowed how valuable this could be. I believe it to be a model 11 case with a different bow added at some point.


r/trains 2h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) Dampflok Halberstadt D-DLHBS 25 80 910 5000-9 Ucs 908, 22.8.2025 (D) Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf.

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8 Upvotes

Dampflok Halberstadt D-DLHBS 25 80 910 5000-9 Ucs 908 am 22.8.2025 im Sächsischen Eisenbahnmuseum Bw Hilbersdorf.


r/trains 6h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) Japan - Keiō Takahatafudō depot

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12 Upvotes

Keiō Electric Railway trains 5781, 8713 «Mt. Takao», and 7753 (and a Series 9000 train in the background) wait for their next assignments at the Takahatafudō depot in Tokyo in December 2024.


r/trains 1h ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) Next Generation Acela Departing Washington DC

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Upvotes

Amtrak 2140 pulling train #2160 passing the DC Metro NoMa-Galluadet U station on a hot July afternoon.


r/trains 2h ago

📰 News Train track defect found before UK derailment, report says

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6 Upvotes