General Discussion

AgentKid:

As for the tornado situation, it turned out to be four separate "cold core" funnel clouds, two near Calgary and two further out.

From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funnel_cloud)
"Cold-air funnel clouds

Cold-air funnel clouds (vortices) are usually short-lived and generally much weaker than the vortices produced by supercells. Although cold-air funnels rarely make ground contact, they may touch down briefly and become weak tornadoes or waterspouts.

A shear funnel extending from a generic cumulus cloud. Observed in northern Texas by a member of the VORTEX project.

Unlike the related phenomenon associated with severe thunderstorms, cold-air funnels are generally associated with partly cloudy skies in the wake of cold fronts, where atmospheric instability and moisture is sufficient to support towering cumulus clouds but not precipitation. The mixing of cooler air in the lower troposphere with air flowing in a different direction in the middle troposphere causes the rotation on a horizontal axis, which, when deflected vertically by atmospheric conditions, can become a funnel cloud.^[1]

They are a common sight along the Pacific Coast of the USA, particularly in the spring or autumn.^[1]

"

Thank you very much Dan.

That weather excitement last night left us with a chilly morning, so our Stampede Breakfast only ended up serving just over 200 people. That is down about a hundred from the last couple of years.

We had folks from Kitchener, ON to Vancouver, BC to New Zealand. Good eats, good band, a good time had by all.

AgentKid

A little excitement on the Adirondack Scenic this past week - the FRA's $7 Million track geometry car paid a visit to the Adirondack Park.  We passed with only a few minor issues to resolve.

Now, you'd think that in the process of building a $7 Million rail vehicle that they might have made it bi-directional, at least to facilitate moves in a reverse direction.

No such luck, as the picture below shows.  Having finished its mission northbound, the car waits at Thendara for two 60-ish F units to tow it back toward Utica...

Leading will be former Alaska RR F7A 1508, followed by  F10A 1502 (former a GM&O F3, upgraded by IC to an F10, then to MBTA before coming to us).

That's quite the interesting visitor to the Adirondack Larry! I never realized they weren't bidirection either.

Carl, when do the new Hours of Service rules go into effect? When we were coming back from Adams on Sunday we picked up the CP dispatcher on the scanner talking to an inbound train at Portage. He told them to tie the train down as the new crew was on duty but was "still in a training class." We guessed it was about the new Hours of Service regulations, and it got me to wondering about when the changeover occurs.

Noah

CShaveRR:

On the subject of the "last post" arrow not working, there used to be a link to which such problems could be reported. I don't see it now--did Bergie take it with him? Is anyone else out there paying attention?

I asked selector.

selector:

Dan, I don't know if they have found anyone, or even if they intend to.  I am not privvy to such decisions, as you would understand, and they don't seem to have wanted to keep the user mods apprised of any dealings.  It may stay as it is.

AgentKid:

. If anyone out there has recently made the switch from IE8 to Firefox 3.5 and know about this problem, I would appreciate the help.

I'm still on IE7 but mine doesn't work.

AgentKid:

since I switched to Firefox browser last Friday I have been receiving two of every e-mail from each thread I have posted to since then.

It just hit me from the blue what was causing this problem.

Before I installed Firefox I signed out of each site I was signed in to using IE8. As I was installing Firefox I remembered that I had not signed out of Trains.com. I was surprised after I got everything installed that when I went to Trains.com again I didn't receive a message to sign in or that I couldn't sign in because I was already signed in. I just now signed out of Trains.com using Firefox, then I shut it down and started IE8 and went to Train.com and found I was still signed in. So I signed out again. I then shut IE8 down and restarted Firefox and signed into Trains.com in the normal manner. I think now that I am signed into Trains.com only once that my double e-mail problem should be solved. I'd like to thank everyone for the suggestions they offered.

AgentKid

This site works fine on my Blackberry Pearl...I dunno.

I heard a long, continuous horn blast last night from something on the CN.  It was followed by the sound of squealing/bangs/grinding.  A check of the scanner and ONW website revealed nothing.  Hopefully nobody was hurt in whatever happened.

I tried local news outlets...even a source I have with the OPD: bupkis.  Oh, well.

Anyone going to IRM for Diesel Days this coming weekend?  I'll be going on Sunday with a few friends.  Looking forward to seeing some of the equipment down there.  I'll probably have my uber phone on me so I can email or text you back.