Board Announcements/Comments

This is where you will find general announcements to all members of the board. Please also feel free to give any feedback about this board.

Learn Invision Board

1. Testing Forum

If you are not familiar with the features of Invision Power Board software, please post your questions here and we will try to answer them.

Amtrak and Intercity Passenger Rail Initiatives

1. Amtrak Mileage Tally

Discuss Amtrak, as well as other topics dealing with intercity rail travel in the U.S.A. including High-Speed Rail. The Alaska Railroad is the USA's other intercity carrier, not affiliated with Amtrak.

Commuter Trains

Discuss commuter train travel in the United States

Non-U.S. Passenger Trains

1. Passenger Trains in Canada,
2. Passenger Trains in Latin America,
3. Passenger Trains in Europe,
4. Passenger Trains in Asia,
5. Passenger Trains in Africa,
6. Passenger Trains in Australia & New Zealand

Discuss all modes of rail travel in countries other than the U.S.A. This forum is split into subforums for Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia & New Zealand. Continue to post any international items of general interest in this parent forum.

Passenger Associations

Information from and about rail passenger associations, such as NARP and its regional affiliates.

Rail Transit

Discuss Rail Transit in the United States, including light rail, heavy rail (subways), monorails, people movers, inclines

Train Stations and Transit Oriented Developments

This forum is for discussion of train stations, whether they are served by intercity trains, commuter trains, or rail transit. In addition, we can also talk here about Transit Oriented Developments (TOD)'s.

Trip Reports

Discuss your plans for a future rail trip, or report on your travels when you return.

OTOL Rail Fests

1. Pacific Coast RailFest 2016,
2. Missouri-Texas RailFest 2017

This forum is for discussion of any very recent rail fests or those to be held in the near future. The subforums for each fest will remain here until the trip report is completed, at which time they will be moved to the Archives.

Miscellaneous Travel Items

Discuss train travel items that do not pertain to the other forums in this section. This is also open to any non-rail forms of transporation that may have pertinance to rail.

Freight Railroads

1. Crude and Ethanol by Rail

Discuss any news pertaining to freight railroads throughout the world.

Security On The Rails

Security issues dealing with train stations and all modes of trains (passenger, freight, tourist, etc.) in the United States and throughout the world should be posted here.

Societies/Museums/Tourist Railroads/Private Cars

This forum can be used to post meeting or event notices for railroad societies, such as NRHS Chapters. News or information about railroad or trolley museums would fit here, as would anything dealing with tourist railroad or trolley operations. Also use this forum to discuss private rail cars, many of which are owned by societies or museums.

Miscellaneous Railroad News and Info

News items or other train-related items of interest not covered by the forums in the various categories can be posted here.

Railroading Hobbies

Use this forum to discuss all railroading hobbies, including all aspects of Model Railroading (all scales), model railroad and Railroadiana shows, rail software and computer simulations, and rail photography (with the exception of topics dealing with homeland security, which should be posted elsewhere).

Railfan Videos

A unique forum to post LINKS to your own railfan videos.

Big news stories

1. Transportation in the NYC area immediately after 9/11,
2. Blackout of 2003,
3. Hurricane Isabel,
4. Storms of 2004,
5. Storms of 2005,
6. NYC Transit Strike 2005,
7. Storms of 2006,
8. Storms of 2008,
9. Inauguration 2009,
10. National Train Day 2009,
11. Blizzard of 2009,
12. 2010 Winter Storms,
13. National Train Day 2010,
14. Storms of 2010,
15. 2011 Winter Storms,
16. East Coast earthquake 2011,
17. Storms of 2011,
18. Storms of 2012,
19. 2013 Winter Storms,
20. 2014 Winter Storms,
21. Super Bowl 48,
22. Newark Airport Monorail & Station Closure,
23. 2015 Winter Storms,
24. Papal Visit to United States 9/22-27 2015,
25. Storms of 2015,
26. Super Bowl 50,
27. 2016 Winter Storms,
28. Storms of 2016,
29. 2017 Winter Storms

Archive of posts to our forums related to big news stories.

Rail Fests

1. Windy City RailFest 2003,
2. Metro New York RailFest 2003,
3. Boston MiniFest 2003,
4. New York MiniFest 2003,
5. Philadelphia Area RaillFest 2004,
6. Philadelphia MiniFests 2004,
7. Toronto RailFest 2004,
8. Big Apple RailFest 2005,
9. Philadelphia Area RailFest 2005,
10. Eagle RailFest 2005,
11. Washington Railfest 2005,
12. Big Apple RailFest 2006,
13. New Jersey Railfest 2006,
14. Montreal RailFest 2006,
15. Mid Atlantic RailFest 2006,
16. Big Apple RailFest 2007,
17. Northern California RailFest 2007,
18. Boston "T" Party 2007,
19. Big Apple RailFest 2008,
20. Florida RailFest 2008,
21. Garden State RailFest 2008,
22. Boston "T" Party 2008,
23. Metro New York RailFest 2009,
24. Southern California RailFest 2009,
25. Metro New York RailFest 2010,
26. Pacific Northwest RailFest 2010,
27. Long Island RailFest 2010,
28. New York Area All Request RailFest 2011,
29. Southeast RailFest 2011,
30. Philly Area All Request RailFest 2012,
31. Chief RailFest 2012,
32. New England RailFest 2013,
33. Atlantic Coast RailFest 2013,
34. East Coast RailFest 2014,
35. Rockies RailFest 2014,
36. Washington Area RailFest 2015,
37. Midwest RailFest 2015,
38. New York Area RailFest 2016,
39. Virginia RailFest 2017

Archive of items posted relating to past OTOL Rail Fests and other events.