General Discussion

No cyber-meal menus, either. Strictly BYO, and clean up afterwards!

June already...Conrail has been gone for ten years already (sorry, CSAO fans, it just isn't the same).

If you feel like telling about your railfan trips, relating what you did on vacation, praising, cursing, or forecasting the weather, asking questions about railroads or railroading, posting your photographs (this probably should have been higher on the list), or anything else you don't feel like opening a new thread for, let this be the place!

Highlight of the past week for me: three-year-old (almost) granddaughter, upon seeing a UP freight go past during lunch: "Oh, a train! My favorite!"

Dark and stormy this morning in Chicagoland. Nonetheless, will be out and about in Elmhurst, while PShaveRR discusses things with our dentist.

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/149784.aspx
A link to the last version, in case anyone needs a reference.

CN was sure busy last weekend.  Loaded coal bound for GB powered by an SD70MAC and ES44AC plus plenty of manifest traffic.  Next time, someone remind me to make sure the camera has charged batteries! It was still fun to watch though. 

Query: I have noticed on the CWR around Oshkosh that there are several spots on the side of the rail painted a 'dull orange/red' that are about a foot long or so.  It's usualy only on one rail, generally not near a switch.  I have looked at them through the camera fully zoomed in but couldn't discern any writing.  What could they be?

CNW 6000:

Query: I have noticed on the CWR around Oshkosh that there are several spots on the side of the rail painted a 'dull orange/red' that are about a foot long or so.  It's usualy only on one rail, generally not near a switch.  I have looked at them through the camera fully zoomed in but couldn't discern any writing.  What could they be?

Possibly something to do with grade-crossing or other signal circuits?

Dan, did you see this in the Green Bay newspaper?

http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news.cfm?ArticleID=47421

Carl,

I never thought of track circuits.  I'll go back and check again.  Good thought!  As to that proposed train service, I'm all for it.  Think of not only 'business' folks that could use it but sporting events (NFL, MLB, etc), college kids coming to and from, EAA, etc.  My personal belief is that CN probably won't want anything to do with it if they aren't forced into it.  The local newspaper (Oshkosh Northwestern) ran an article similar to the one you linked to.  Discussion was about evenly split into: a)stupid trains; b)neat idea; c)who cares.  I gues some people just are unhappy for the sake of being unhappy.

 

Looks good in here! 

I'll second Carl's thoughts about the track circuits.  If it were close to a switch it would be the fouling point..

Granddaughter got her first real train ride on Sunday - She's a natural.   Was intensly curious about the world going by and kept her feet like a pro in the swaying cars - we were all impressed.  She even "helped" Grandpa with some of the announcing.

Before we started boarding the train for that trip, I was talking to my son and DIL.  Granddaughter decided she wanted to see Grandpa, so I took her.  Another passenger standing nearby was surprised to see that she so willingly went to a "stranger" until our relationship was pointed out.

Busy day tomorrow.  Time for bed.

Gee, Larry, I remember my oldest grandchild, less than one at the time, making a beeline for a total stranger in a beard once. Maybe the red suit had something to do with it...

But having a granddaughter of that age willing to leave a parent to go see Grandpa is great.

You're also lucky to see both grandchildren at once. I get to see all three of mine together, but that's only because they're siblings.

Had an interesting experience with the youngest one (almost a year old) yesterday, while we were at a restaurant. As I wrote to my "sister":

Ellen took Emily to the bathroom, then Katelyn decided she had to go too, so Pat had to show her where it was--leaving me alone with Nico. I told him that I guessed it was time for us to have our private man-to-man talk, and darned if he didn't pull his pacifier out of his mouth, set it on the table, and smile at me! He just stared at me when I said some things to him, but just before Pat came back we high-fived each other.

I'm finally able to post what I've been trying to!  Replacing windows is lots of fun, lol...

Went out chasing errands the Sunday and, gosh, I happened to have my scanner and a camera on me.  How does that happen?  LOL!   Anyway...I swung through Neenah and while on US41 just south of the Neenah Yard I saw a train through the trees.  So I pulled in and stopped at Kampo Rd and saw headlights in the opposite direction.  Lucky timing I guess.  CN 5770 (SD75I) was leading a manifest train north and met CN 5607 (SD70I) heading south with another train, 588 (I think 588 replaced SB Junk/Intermodal 118).  I got a nice wave from the hogger on the 5607 as they hit Kampo Road, too.

CN 5607 South


Meet at Kampo

Carl-
A while back you commented on a green boxcar that seemed to have it's top added on as though it was rebuilt at some point.  I've been looking to find some of the same variety and finally got one in decent light and got a shot of it for ya.  I don't know what kind of service it's in.

MDW 4104

Wednesday I was going in to work early (thrilled...ugh) but fate came into play again.  I saw an empty BNSF coal drag coming south.  The SD70MAC and ES44AC made a nice break from the usual SD70/SD75s that I seem to always find on the CN.

C704 Leaving a "Planned Work" zone:

What's that?

I saw something on this coal train that I haven't seen previously: a cut of manifest cars at the head end.  Made for interesting viewing anyway...lol.

CNW 6000:

I saw something on this coal train that I haven't seen previously: a cut of manifest cars at the head end.  Made for interesting viewing anyway...lol.

Very nice photos, Dan.

Staying on the topic of interesting coal trains, yesterday I went train watching and saw a westbound empty coal train with two loaded coal cars at the front of the train. I can't say that I've ever seen that before. My guess is that they were headed to a small customer along the route that needs only a few loads. That doesn't explain why they were coming from the east though. Anyone have some thoughts on what might have been up?

Thanks Willy, and congrats on Graduation.  Best wishes for your future!

I have heard of instances where there's a load or two at the head of the train that couldn't be held at the plant for various reasons.  Sounds odd but that's what I was told.  The routing might simply be because of convenience.  I'm assuming it was on the UP?

Were these loaded cars bottom-dump, or rotary dump?

If bottom, perhaps the mechanism does not work.

CNW 6000:

Thanks Willy, and congrats on Graduation.  Best wishes for your future!

I have heard of instances where there's a load or two at the head of the train that couldn't be held at the plant for various reasons.  Sounds odd but that's what I was told.  The routing might simply be because of convenience.  I'm assuming it was on the UP?

Thank you! I'm looking forward to going to Creighton University in the fall.

I also thought that perhaps the cars couldn't be handled at the plant. Is there such a thing as maximum capacity at a power plant?

Zardoz - they were bottom-dump, so your suggestion seems plausible as well.

Dan,

Spectacular photo's as alway's. NS has been busy too. But the darndest thing is that I don't have time to shoot, because mom had her sergery yesterday. Want to make sure she is ok first. Oh, and with mom's surgery, everything went spectacular! She did fine. Still in a lot of post-surgery pain though.

Well, scince I dont have pics. I will just tell you wat I saw. Well, yesterday cumming home from ma's surgery with g-mah and g-pah, I saw a NS -9 pulling an almost complete set of auto parts boxcars, but there were strangely 3 tanker's in there just before the last boxcer. Strange how train make up's are some times. Carl, can you explain this? Well, after that, we were comming home the back way,and we caught the tail end of a NS double stack trailing the boxcar train. Didn't catch the loco's though.  Then on our way home from taking mom up from the hospital, we saw a boring road railer train being sped across the farmland by a SD70M-2. Cool something EMD for once! Then I got home, and saw a UP SD45 pulling a manafest through Happy Holow.  

Carl, I think your grandaughter is taking up her grandfather's intrest!

Hi!

Quiet day at work today, with a bicycle ride home afterwards. Had one freight train that I couldn't see on the departure tracks when leaving the yard, but mapped out a strategy so I could document the equipment at 50 per, when it caught up to me in Lombard.

Willy, Creighton looked like a nice place when we drove through the campus a month or two ago.

As for the loaded hoppers, I doubt that a power plant's coal reserves would ever preclude dumping the last two cars. A power plant that depends on a trainload of coal per day would probably burn through a carload in about twelve minutes (somebody can probably provide figures to help with this computation--I'm just figuring a 120-car train every 24 hours equals a carload every 12 minutes).

The unloading-mechanism failure might be possible, but the odds of this happening on two cars together at one end of the train would be unlikely, unless it was an air line failure, and that should have been able to be corrected more or less on the spot. I can't speak with authority on this, because we rarely see trains of these hoppers in use in these parts--most of the plants around here use rotary-dump gons.

Justin, I would hope that one of my three grandchildren might get bitten by the bug as they get a little bigger. They don't get much exposure to them unless I'm around, living as they do in a suburb quite removed from any of the main lines. This particular granddaughter, in spite of all those points she gained with me on that day, is still very tough for two old grandparents to handle on their own. The mix of three factors: smart for her age, energetic, and a mind of her own, makes her a challenge, to put it mildly. By the way, Emily will be three on Sunday--we're going to a party for her and her baby brother on that day (which is why we can't be in Rochelle or at Willy's graduation party).

Dan, thanks (especially) for posting that shot of MDW 4104. As an MDW car, that one is carrying its fourth reporting mark and number since being built for the East Camden & Highland Railroad. It was also operated by the Green Bay & Western and the H&S Railroad (that had been the Hartford & Slocomb). It was as an HS car that it was given the added height and the green paint; it also had carried markings for the Stone Container Corporation. The plug door (or one like it) is original to the car. I'm not sure when the lower portion of the ribs got the reinforcement. I would assume that these cars are used in various sorts of paper service.

Willy2:

We went shopping today for all sorts of stuff for the party. Dishes, napkins, tablecloths, food, food, and more food. Did I mention food? We're also having the Garden Cafe cater some sandwiches, fruit dishes, and vegetable dishes. Such fun!

Off and on severe weather is expected through Sunday Night, but hopefully the party will be in a dry slot. Our rainfall for this year is already 5.88" below average, so we need rain, just not when I'm partying. Those of you who know me are well aware of what an extreme party animal I am.

Yup!

Just like I am!

Wish we could be there.