WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE DIAMONDS TODAY, LOTS OF TRUCKS, NEW PILE OF SOMETHING, SAW SOME THERMITE WELDS BEING DONE, SMALL CRANE ON SITE.??????????
11/11/10 12:15 pm I watched work train dumping ballast on the diamonds just now.
I was wondering the same thing...I stopped by Rochelle for a McDonalds on my way to Dubuque today and watched for a quarter hour with a couple dozen other railfans...didn't look like a complete diamond repair but I was not able to stay until it was finished. It looked like they had both UP mains blocked and the two BNSF tracks as well.
Jim, if you want to stay until it's finished, bring a tent...or give us a report on that B&B by the tracks over there! From what I've heard, they're assembling a new set of diamonds there (parts still coming in), to be replaced on the 20th instant.
(That means the 20th of this month, for those of subsequent generations.)
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)
Get any screenshots? I still see the pile on the right.
Stumbled across a picture of the new diamond over on Flickr...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35746972@N04/5176179085/in/pool-nar/#/photos/35746972@N04/5176179085/in/pool-18271007@N00/
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Let me try that again, since it won't let me edit my post-
Well someone got a real nice shot there (the same photographer's photostream has some winners).
I seem to recall that diamond was replaced about five years ago or so. Given the pounding it takes all day and night that schedule sounds about right. At least they have a good "staging" area near the Milwaukee Road caboose for it. I wonder what they do at Joliet when that diamond needs replacing. That would be a fascinating project to see.
Dave Nelson
The current diamond was installed back in September of 2000, so it has been in place for more than 10 years. Suprised that the Union Pacific got all the pieces together for the new diamond so quickly, last time they had the pieces for it east of the depot for months before they got it together and installed. The parts for this round have only been on site for less than a month.
Lance
dknelson Well someone got a real nice shot there (the same photographer's photostream has some winners). I seem to recall that diamond was replaced about five years ago or so. Given the pounding it takes all day and night that schedule sounds about right. At least they have a good "staging" area near the Milwaukee Road caboose for it. I wonder what they do at Joliet when that diamond needs replacing. That would be a fascinating project to see. Dave Nelson
The diamonds at Joliet were replaced in 2005. Before that they were so rough that you could see sparks coming from cars going across it at night. They replaced the diamonds one at a time rather than all at once at Joliet
I'm surprised they are using wood ties. Would concrete ties shatter from the pounding? What about steel ties?
You'd be more likely to see concrete ties if this were a major track upgrading on both railroads. But I suspect (perhaps MC or RWM can confirm) that a small stretch of concrete ties (like for just a diamond) isn't done, because of what it can do to adjacent track. If UP were doing its second track with concrete, that might be different, too. Or they might be able to persuade BNSF to put some more in.
....Beautiful photo and an artform of awesome assembly.
Don't see how the flanges miss intreference with those support pieces bolted inside each rail near each actual crossing.]
And i suppose it will take {and get}, the same level of quality of installation.
Quentin
CShaveRR Jim, if you want to stay until it's finished, bring a tent...or give us a report on that B&B by the tracks over there! From what I've heard, they're assembling a new set of diamonds there (parts still coming in), to be replaced on the 20th instant. (That means the 20th of this month, for those of subsequent generations.)
Rochelle has a B&B?
Al, I can't find it in Google, and I hope it stayed in business, but there was one in that house kitty-corner from the park (the one with the MILW caboose in the yard).
zardoz I'm surprised they are using wood ties. Would concrete ties shatter from the pounding? What about steel ties?
Too many 'specials' or unique ties would be required with all the different rail locations and special tie plates, and the varying shapes/ 'humps' of the ties - almost "No 2 alike !". Plus the loadings at the midpoints are not something that concrete ties deal with real well.
Further, lLook at the photo linked above real closely and ask yourself if there are any long ties that strech all the way across, from left to right - probably not, which means that there are likely some that end in between the running rails of one of the tracks.
Maybe more on this later.
- Paul North.
From the Rochelle trainwatching park, you can see that the UP side has concrete cross ties. (I do not know if they extend all the way up to the double-diamonds frog, though.)
BNSF is still using wooden cross-ties, although from the releatively less pounding and swaying those TOFC's do going over the diamond heading east, both the frog and the crossties are more secure now than they were just a couple of years ago.
The crossings just east of the park now use synthetic "microchip" warning bells, but BNSF's sounds more realistic.
Does anyone know the time that this will take place?
THANKS FOR THE PHOTO, blhanel. I'M IN JERSEY BUT HAVE BEEN TO THE DIAMONDS THREE TIMES ON TRIPS TO VISIT FRIEND IN CHICAGO. LAST TRIP WAS 14 MONTHS AGO. UP CREW WAS THERE WORKING ON IT THE DAY I ARRIVED BUT THE NEXT DAY I GOT UP CLOSE AND IT WAS STILL IN POOR SHAPE. ITS AMAZING THE PUNISHMENT THEY TAKE. I WILL BE OUT THERE
NEXT MAY ON A ROUTE 66 TRIP TO CALIFORNIA, WILL BE GREAT TO SEE WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE NEW DIAMONDS MAKE. THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE FILLED IN THE GAPS THAT I CAN'T SEE ON THE WEB CAM.
STEVEL
Rochelle diamond replacement is going on today, Saturday November 20, 2010. The crews shut down the line right about 0700 this morning (the Trains webcam shows a UP movement of a stack train at 06:54).
The project is expected to last the whole day--up until 1800 or so. The Union Pacific will hold most of their traffic. The BNSF is planning on sending four eastbound intermodal trains south out of Savanna to Galesburg and then east into Chicago and deramping them at Willow Springs/Corwith. The rest of their traffic will be held until after the work is complete.
When the last time they replaced the diamonds, the UP sent two eastbound intermodals over the IMRL (now it's the ICE/DME) through Savanna and Davis Junction, IL. Don't know if that will be the case today.
Webcam this morning shows plenty of work going on. I don't think it's worth going out to see, because these things usually go at a disappointingly slow rate. (Besides, I'm out to see trains!)
Ralph, if you're going to Rochelle on your way to California, you'll be missing the easternmost hundred or more miles of Route 66.
I disagree with the above statement completely. While work is slow, it's well worth watching if you're in the area. And I believe that given the stoppage rate of the camera "timing out", plenty of others disagree with your statement as well. As for after the work is finished, well, I'm sure that will be one hell of a parade to watch go by! Too bad you can't see the trains well at night...is there expected to be decent traffic tomorrow morning? Perhaps morning viewers could catch action if there are leftover trains.
I had the good fortune of photographing the installation of the OWLS diamond in Durand, MI. They closed the tracks early in the morning and began work. In just a few short hours they had the old one removed, but due to water problem they had to remove the sub-grade to a depth of about four feet and dump in many tons of ballast before installing the new one. That did slow things down, but did solve the water problem.
There was never a lack of action for a guy who would rather focus on MOW operations than catching pictures of trains at crossings. OTOH, the additional work delayed the end of the project till 10 PM. Scheduled completion time was three or four hours earlier. Knowing things weren't going to get done on time led them to bring in floodlights in mid afternoon.
Bear in mind Durand has one low speed line crossing two east/west mains. The Rochelle intersection has four diamonds. It's a big project getting everything up to specs, and I doubt it will allow the MOW guys to get home at their usual supper time.
Norm
I'm getting a red "X" now when trying to access the Rochelle webcam, so I don't know what is going on there. But, here in California towards the end of 2009, a similar diamonds replacement took place between the UP Sunset Route and the BNSF Transcon. That whole thing is believed to have started at dawn and by 9:00 A.M. everything was being cleaned up. The following photos were shot around 9:30 A.M.
So, the Rochelle trade-out could be done in just a few hours, but it is unknown if the same approach will be taken.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
I just looked now, and there are still four large boom trucks at the diamond site (any one of which is heftier than those in K.P.'s shots). The fact that they're still there suggests that the new diamond set hasn't been put down yet (once it is, small moves could be made with front-end loaders, and they'd want those big machines out of the way).
Only Track 1 on the UP (the north track) has concrete ties, ending fairly close to the diamonds (within the boundaries of the signal bridges). I'm not sure of the concrete-tie situation west of the diamonds presently; at one time they were saying that both tracks would be tied in concrete clear across Illinois.
Pat and I observed a westbound manifest through town here in late morning; since it wasn't the West Chicago Local, I suspect that it's sitting out there somewhere waiting for the tracks to be restored.
(We expected that they'd take advantage of the track closure here to install some of the new crossovers in town, but they haven't done that yet--in fact, when we were out, we saw three trains, one on each of the tracks, so they don't have anything out of service here.)
.....The activity is full blown now....working lights set up to take care of working into the darkness. Front end loaders continuously back and forth what looks like moving road bed material.....A large work force active.
CShaveRR (11-20):
You mentioned a "heftier" crane at Rochelle, IL than was at Colton, CA in the photos above.
There was a huge crane at the Colton site for the actual 2009 diamonds trade-out. Everything happened so fast that the huge crane was gone by the time I could return less than two hours later.
The UP did the trade-out in Colton. I wonder if BNSF is in charge at Rochelle.
Whoever is doing the work, the nighttime floodlight show on the webcam is great!
Best,
K.P.
looks like it took 13 hrs and 14 min for the job. amazing.
three trains across the diamonds in 15 mins they must be backed up to both sides of the state, at least it should be quieter for the neighbors.
You folk must have access to a better web cam than I do. All I can see in that 1"x2" image is a few Lego men wandering around in a stop action video. I saw no dericks or booms that I could make out, although near to the camera was definitely a pickup truck. When they put up the lights they created a bright spot in the center right that washed out most every thing else, except the little stop action Lego men.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
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