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News Wire: It is not: Do you suppose they were racing the Amtrak train?

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 11:37 AM

mudchicken
freshly treated ties inserted in-track...(ie - Uncle John SF & Chico took care of the plant, even in hard times).....or there were more FM's & Alco's out there than I thought.

Never heard of freshly creosoted ties as being called 'oil sprinkled tracks'.  Advertisement seems to predate dieselization though Alco oil fired steam boilers could have been on the property.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by samfp1943 on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 11:44 AM

BaltACD

My totally incompetent understanding of the differences between Amish and Mennonite.  Amish don't own automobiles, horse & buggy exclusively.  Mennonite's do own cars, generally black (may be 'hot rodded' with 427 cu.in. engine with dual 4 barrell carbs) or it may not be.

 

 

         I've delivered around the Napanee,In.{ That area  was a center for RV manufacture, and many Amish were employed in that business} you could find not only buggies in the parking lots, but also some vehicles. Yep! the Amish do own vehicles; my understanding was that the various Amish communities owned them, for use by the community(?). A major requirement was all chrome must be 'blacked' out.   As for the 'hot rodding', They have been known to race buggys, and I was told that sometimes, automobiles will get 'tried' out. Whistling

 

 


 

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 12:23 PM

samfp1943
As for the 'hot rodding', They have been known to race buggys, and I was told that sometimes, automobiles will get 'tried' out.

Through this winter, I've seen videos of a local Amish (teen?) snow skiing behind a buggy, and a buggy doing donuts in a parking lot....

There is a wide continuum of behaviors (for lack of a better word) among the Amish (and the Mennonites).  They range from the really basic of the "old order" to those who live in a pretty modern (comparatively speaking) world - as in having cars, power in barns, etc.  There may be differences in practice between various communities ("districts" - 20-40 families) in a general area - they are pretty much self governing in that respect.  Depends a lot on how the elders interpret things.  

Aside from the "road apples," they're good neighbors.  I have a neighbor who welds for them - I joke that he fixes flats for them...

 

LarryWhistling
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RME
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Posted by RME on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 12:24 PM

BaltACD
Never heard of freshly creosoted ties as being called 'oil sprinkled tracks'.

Probably because that's not what it means.

"Oil-sprinkled tracks" refers to spraying to keep the roadbed dust down.  You can't really enjoy that open-platform observation if you're enveloped in a plume of alkali 'desert essence', can you?

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Posted by Norm48327 on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 1:02 PM

tree68

Through this winter, I've seen videos of a local Amish (teen?) snow skiing behind a buggy, and a buggy doing donuts in a parking lot....

There is a wide continuum of behaviors (for lack of a better word) among the Amish (and the Mennonites).  They range from the really basic of the "old order" to those who live in a pretty modern (comparatively speaking) world - as in having cars, power in barns, etc.  There may be differences in practice between various communities ("districts" - 20-40 families) in a general area - they are pretty much self governing in that respect.  Depends a lot on how the elders interpret things.  

Aside from the "road apples," they're good neighbors.  I have a neighbor who welds for them - I joke that he fixes flats for them...

What Larry said is all I know of the Amish in Michigan. The few I've met are seriously good people; not living in step with current times but that is their choice in life. One bursted with pride when I complemented the beautiful and well cared for horses we had just seen. He was a young man and I could see the desire in his eyes to become part of today's society if the elders would let him.

We've also been to Shipshewana, IN, and the Mennonites there are much more liberal and "with the times" than the old order folks.

Norm


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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 1:54 PM

RME
You can't really enjoy that open-platform observation if you're enveloped in a plume of alkali 'desert essence', can you?

Considering how waste disposal was done "back in the day," I'm not so sure the alkali "desert essence" would be the primary ingredient...

LarryWhistling
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Come ride the rails with me!
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Posted by mudchicken on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 2:12 PM

This was before the days of the high pitched whine followed by the dreaded blue amcrap.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Norm48327 on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 2:27 PM

tree68
Considering how waste disposal was done "back in the day," I'm not so sure the alkali "desert essence" would be the primary ingredient...

IIRC those "road apples" were just left for mother nature to take care of. Yes, we had some horses in our neighboorhood back then

Norm


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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 2:45 PM

tree68
Considering how waste disposal was done "back in the day," I'm not so sure the alkali "desert essence" would be the primary ingredient...

I was referring to waste disposal on trains.  Couldn't have been fun being MOW, and that mist behind the train, well.....

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 3:13 PM

Ah, the wonders of the internet. Where a thread  about most anything can eventually meander  into a discussion about....roadside poop.Laugh

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by samfp1943 on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 3:27 PM

tree68
 
tree68
Considering how waste disposal was done "back in the day," I'm not so sure the alkali "desert essence" would be the primary ingredient...

 

I was referring to waste disposal on trains.  Couldn't have been fun being MOW, and that mist behind the train, well.....

 
 
 
 
 
 

an 'old order' for railroad passengers:"PLEASE DO NOT FLUSH TOILET WHILE TRAIN IS IN STATION" - Great Northern Railroad

Whistling Being able to count the ties as one stood 'there' in the little room at the end of the car...MischiefSmile, Wink & Grin

 

 


 

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Posted by wanswheel on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 4:30 PM
RME
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Posted by RME on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 5:06 PM

Never mind ... posted before actually clicking the link.

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Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, March 16, 2017 7:21 PM

Leaving town today, we heard the dispatcher warn a train ahead of us about two horses running free near the tracks.  A preceding train had spotted them.

Jeff 

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Thursday, March 16, 2017 9:52 PM

Back in the day, collisions between locomotives and livestock were pretty common and led to all kinds of claims and bad feelings between railroads and local farmers, and buggy and wagon owners/ drivers (see A Treasury of Railroad Folklore, Harlow & Bodkin).  

Looks like some of that history keeps being repeated . . . Whistling 

- PDN.

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by jeffhergert on Friday, March 17, 2017 2:56 AM

Well, of course there were hard feelings.  It was always the farmer's prized livestock that got killed.  Was going to win the blue ribbon at the state fair don't you know.  Until the darn train hit it.

Jeff

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Posted by samfp1943 on Friday, March 17, 2017 3:54 AM

Paul_D_North_Jr

Back in the day, collisions between locomotives and livestock were pretty common and led to all kinds of claims and bad feelings between railroads and local farmers, and buggy and wagon owners/ drivers (see A Treasury of Railroad Folklore, Harlow & Bodkin).  

Looks like some of that history keeps being repeated . . . Whistling 

- PDN.

 

  Possibly, a contributing factor why steam locomotives were equipped with 'cow catchers'? Whistling  

      'Snow plows' on diesel locomotives were a bettter alternative than calling them 'livestock hamburgerers?Sigh

 

 


 

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, March 17, 2017 6:40 AM

A friend who works a shortline told of the time a dog came out to chase them.  Got caught by the snowplow, rolled over several times.  Couldn't have hurt it too bad - the same thing happened on the return trip.

Al Krug's website used to have a picture of the aftermath of a loco/horse collision that occurred at speed.  Pretty much nothing left but oats...

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, March 17, 2017 8:16 AM

About forty-five years ago, I noticed a yearling steer just outside its fence as I was driving up a highway. The poor thing had no idea what was coming up the road as it started across the road, and I could not stop in time. A few days later, I saw the man who had owned the yearling and told him that I was responsible for the death. He shrugged it off, acknowledging that his property had been where it should not have been. My insurance company paid for the repair to the car's fender.

Johnny

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Posted by mudchicken on Friday, March 17, 2017 9:22 AM

jeffhergert

Well, of course there were hard feelings.  It was always the farmer's prized livestock that got killed.  Was going to win the blue ribbon at the state fair don't you know.  Until the darn train hit it.

Jeff

 

never mind it was tethered to the track.....

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, March 17, 2017 10:00 AM

Nothing improved the quality of livestock in the United States and elsewhere quite like the steam locomotive. Laugh

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul

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