Best Decade to be a Railfan: 1970s VS 1980s VS 1990s

[BamaSubdivision94]

Based on your personal preferences, which decade do you think had the busier, more colorful rail scene? Between the 70s, 80s, and 90s, if you could (re)visit either decade fully just to railfan, which would you choose? Feel free to give detailed answers! The more detailed the better!

[Saturnalia]

I obviously wasn't around to enjoy it, but I'd love to go back to the 1990s. Far more interesting (and busy!) Michigan Rail scene. Would love to watch train after train of CP Alcos and SDs thunder down the CSX. I'd also like the Alcos of the Lake State. To top is off, Santa Fe's Superfleet!

[cbehr91]

I think it's cool now, don't get me wrong, but given the prompt I would go back to the 80s. Pre-mega mergers, more open towers and block stations, less emphasis on security, optimistic outlook of the industry in the wake of deregulation, etc.

[Y@]

How about the 70's?

[bdconrail29]

The most colorful era was clearly the 80's, as compared to the 90's. Some lines weren't as busy as they grew to be in the 90's, but far more unit types and color schemes. Y@, obviously 70's was amazing, but I wasn't born until 1979, lol.

[railohio]

1920s

[AARR]

1950's, steam to diesel transitional years with lots of switching action in most every town.

[bdconrail29]

Why does everyone keep saying 1950'? The question is 80's vs. 90's.

[BamaSubdivision94]

Why does everyone keep saying 1950'? The question is 80's vs. 90's.

Just edited the title to include the 70s. That's as far back as I'll go. Thanks though haha

[Racer]

1990s just for the Plymouth Subdivision and Plymouth's surrounding areas. I remembered those great days!

[trnwatcher]

The 80's was after the Staggers Act so you saw many more abandonments, etc. The 70's would be the decade I'd pick. Even though I remember seeing U-25's, GP30''s and the arrival of the SD40-2 it never dawned on me to carry a camera. Now....get in my Tardis with my D3100 and go back to Plaster Creek in 1977.....

[BamaSubdivision94]

1990s just for the Plymouth Subdivision and Plymouth's surrounding areas. I remembered those great days!

Same for me except in Saginaw. Man, how I miss CSX up here.

[Fred]

The 70's without question !! Here in MIchigan there was a lot more railfanning available. The AA went all the way to Frankfort/Elberta, The PRR & NYC went to Mackinaw, the D&M up to Cherboygan and the C&O had tracks all over the lower penisular. Greenville had both GTW & C&O. There were more rr's then & more routes as well. I really enjoyed railfanning then a lot more than I do now.

[BnOEngr]

'70s.

[DT&I]

70's without question.

[MSchwiebert]

They all had their pros and cons, the '70's had so much uncertainty with Penn Central flaming out, the coming of Conrail (and all that it killed) etc. On the other hand, the DT&I was doing well (and it was a highlight to see their bicentenial unit), one could see the "Dixie 99" with Southern power on the B&O Toledo sub (along with high hood geeps & F units and the occasional Southern Pacific unit). The 80's started off with economic uncertainty that didn't shake out until the decade was half over. GTW swallowed up the DT&I (and then couldn't figure out what to do with it) and the Shoreline, NS was formed as was CSX - with CSX taking much longer to figure things out (and losing the Ohio division, and parts of the Monon along the way). To me the '90's were a "tidying up" of the '80's. The rails began to take advantage of the freedom that deregulation gave them, and the question of what to do with Conrail was finally decided.

All that being said, from a business standpoint - the current time are certainly part of the golden era of railroading, yes years gone by had their charms (for me the 70's meant trips to Delta yard to see the DT&I and N&W hand off the hot autoparts cars, along with whatever stumbled down the PC/CR, along with too many evenings in Hamler tower to count. The 80's gave me the freedom of a drivers license, a "better" camera, times in Deshler tower watching the DS work his magic, the '90's after college, and before kids gave me disposable income and time to hang out @ Garrett Indiana & get the occasional cab ride etc.) but most of those charms were based on the uncertainty of the industry allowing the past to linger longer than it should have.
Look at the things that exist now - there are two mainlines across Northern Ohio/Indiana that see 70 odd trains a day - and one of them is the former B&O, that when I was a teenager had recently been single tracked and on a busy day west of Deshler would have 15 trains or so (I got to see it go from double track, to single & back to double in my hometown in just 15 years). I would have never imagined that: A. Intermodal would be important on the former B&O and B: that it would be so important that CSX would drop a boatload of money between Hoytville and North Baltimore for a state of the art facility to protect and grow that business. Along these lines, I would have never imagined that the rails would be vying for and winning crude oil business!
For you younger folks (being 44 I can say that , enjoy the now - family and other responsibilities will become a priority soon enough.

[Old Hogger]

No question the 70's - before we lost Rock Island and Milwaukee and before all the mega mergers started screwing things up and before Ricky Gates screwed up railroading.

[cmhfan]

None of the above. 1946-1954.

If I had to choose, then the 1970s. Still a dreadful decade of decay and disarray for the eastern railroads at least.

[MP73point4]

I'd love to have experienced the 50's or 60's, but I'm not old enough.
Given the choices -I'll go with the 70's. As has been mentioned, there was lots of decay. However, there were still tracks everywhere, lots of F-units and 1st generation diesels still out there. There were E-units and Alco cabs still running in pretty good numbers. You could still see examples of just about every diesel model ever made still in service somewhere. Now a museum may the only choice. There were lots of different railroads with potentially several variants of their paint scheme. I can remember being excited to see NYC paint peeking through the Conrail patch jobs and trying to imagine what it must have looked like in its glory. Alcos, a few FMs, and even a few Baldwins were still to be seen. Lashups were often 4-5-even 6 units rather than two. It seems like there was greater train frequency with shorter trains than today too.
I realize the business is more healthy today. And that's a good thing for us who like to watch it evolve. I still miss the olden days.