We had an old pot signal that was getting real bad (dirty/old/unfocused). We'd come down to the signal in the morning and the sun would hit it at such an angle that you couldn't see what it said. No biggie, it was the first interlocking signal coming off dark territory, so you had to be prepared to stop regardless, so we'd stop the train, I'd hop down, walk over to it, shade it with my shadow so I could see the slow clear it was trying to show, jump back in the cab and off we go.
Got some funny looks from the people sitting at the adjacent road, but you do what you have to do.
Signal has been replaced, BTW.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Carl - Saw about a dozen COER boxcars headed east on the CSX Chicago Line through Utica Sunday. All very similar, but I don't recall now if that means "new" or just all patched the same. I'm leaning toward at least recently painted...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Merry Christmas, everyone!Right now we're in the Land of No Trains, waiting for the weather to improve. We may decide to remain until tomorrow. Either that, or put runners on the car and find a good horse who knows the way...COER is becoming one of those companies that gets a lot of cars when per diem pays more than mileage. In their case, the cars are owned by The CIT Group. And I suspect that they're patched.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Sometimes these things start innocently enough...We got out of church, and wondered aloud whether there was anyplace we should go before going home. I decided to take a route along the tracks, and noticed that an eastbound train was lined up, with no scoot due for well over an hour. At that point it occurred to us that we really should put gas in our car (first time since our trip home on Christmas), so we went to our usual gas station, still the best price among all we saw. Then, since I had screwed up on a color choice for a quilt, I offered to take Pat to the quilt-fabric store to get the proper shade of purple (darker than what we'd already gotten...twice!). We headed off that way, then decided that we had enough colors to get by, so I just went toward the tracks in Elmhurst.The eastbound on Track 1 was still lined up, and it had high greens on both signals in Elmhurst, typical of what a scoot would get. So I was ready to go home. And as I drew in my hopes and was turning around, down the track appeared a headlight! I was able to find a spot first-out at the crossing for the manifest, which gave me a few good sightings to check on; nothing particularly new. After the train passed, I looked up as we were crossing the tracks...another headlight, eastbound on 2! I drove around a few blocks, and by the time I got back to the tracks I could see that it was a stack train. I drove west along it as it was headed east. Nothing exciting (I don't usually look too hard at the cars on a stack train, but there were some series of secondhand cars I was hoping to see...no luck this time). We headed back toward Lombard along North Avenue. Amazingly, the gates on the CN were going down ahead of us! A very long eastbound freight came through. I had to get into the left-turn lane to get as close as possible. There were, again, a few potentially-useful notes made.So we turned left on Addison Road, crossing the track where the train had just been (single track...not a chance we'd see anything else there). But about a half-mile south, we crossed the UP again. And, coming around the curve was another eastbound on Track 2! It turned out to be another stacker, and it also turned out to be stopping short of the crossing, for whatever reason. So we left it there, and headed for home. Never did catch the westbound that had appeared to be ready to head out while we were in Elmhurst.This entire episode took about 45 minutes, including filling up with gasoline. I often wish I'd have this much success on the trips I take to go train-hunting!
Happy birthday today to our favorite (and brightest, wittiest, and best-looking) creature from the swamp: Ed Blysard.As you used to say, Ed, Stay frosty! (Just don't stand out in it!)
With the upcoming end of another three-month life at the Lounge, I'm wondering whether now would be the time to consolidate things over at the Chatterbox.There was a time when we needed an alternative to the "Depot Diner and Coffee Shop", and, more recently, the "Flat Wheel Diner", which seemed to highlight fictional food above life in general. The past quarter has brought new life to that venue, and taken the attention away from fictional serving of food.
We like trains, people over there like trains. The conversation about railroads is generally deeper over here, but we could do that over there as well. We're still available to answer questions for the newbies, give advice to the people who want to hunt trains, and whatever. But sometimes a smile or two helps things along as well.Comments welcome, of course!
Only 125, well now 126, posts in this topic over the last quarter. May be a good time to draft a letter of intent to the STB.
CShaveRRComments welcome, of course!
In addition to being an alternative to the "Diner," as I recall, the Lounge was supposed to be sort of a "no specific topic" railfan thread, to include the posting of pictures. While there haven't been a lot of pictures, it has served the railfan aspect pretty well.
The diner was intended to be the home of off-topic socializing, and was copied from similar threads on other Trains/MR forums.
tree68 CShaveRRComments welcome, of course! In addition to being an alternative to the "Diner," as I recall, the Lounge was supposed to be sort of a "no specific topic" railfan thread, to include the posting of pictures. While there haven't been a lot of pictures, it has served the railfan aspect pretty well. The diner was intended to be the home of off-topic socializing, and was copied from similar threads on other Trains/MR forums.
Let's try one more quarter...http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/226239.aspx
Dan
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