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Chatterbox spring

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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 6:40 PM

Had to go out today - 55 and windy/cloudy.  More like November than May 20.  Did see some brave souls out fishing - but even the ducks and geese disappeared.  Probably went south for the spring.

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 7:50 PM

Frost warning here tonight....

Busy Monday and Tuesday - Monday it was a meeting about the Thomas event, then ferry some equipment to Thendara (loco, two cars).  Tuesday it was a trip to the top of the ski area in Old Forge to look at radio equipment.  Nice view from up there, too...

Was working on a print job, and discovered that one letter wasn't printing.  Unfortunately it was in the date and changed it from the 11th to the 1st.  They're going in the trash...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 10:14 PM

It's been surprisingly cool out here in California, but the lows have consistently been in the upper 40s and low 50s (55 right now at 8:12 p.m.).  Lombard, at 10:12, has 44.  We're looking at a forecast of much more seasonable temperatures by the end of the weekend, when we return.

The end is near...

Carl

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CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 10:22 PM

It's been surprisingly cool out here in California, but the lows have consistently been in the upper 40s and low 50s (55 right now at 8:12 p.m.).  Lombard, at 10:12, has 44.  We're looking at a forecast of much more seasonable temperatures by the end of the weekend, when we return.

The end is near...

Guess I'd better not end it there--Linda did have a rough day today, now that the nausea meds from the last chemo treatment have worn off, but there's no way she's giving up the struggle!  It's just the end of our stay that's coming up--we have mailed three packages of stuff home so we don't have to tote it on the train.  Perhaps another package is in the works.

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)

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Posted by JoeKoh on Thursday, May 21, 2015 4:54 PM

afternoon

ns had a westbound go by when I left work.Went to town and CSX had 3 westbounds and 1 eastbound.Time for chores.Tomorrow is Friday.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by mudchicken on Thursday, May 21, 2015 11:36 PM

Lesson for the day: Roombas and mousetraps don't mix. (Scotties didn't think much of Roombas or Dustbusters either. Both have teefmarks to prove it.)

Looking forward to a mental health day from work on Monday.

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 edblysard on Friday, May 22, 2015 7:23 AM

Looking forward to a wallet health day (and barbque behind the locker room) monday!

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, May 22, 2015 8:02 AM

mudchicken
Lesson for the day: Roombas and mousetraps don't mix.

Cats on the other hand, don't always seem to mind...

We had a cat that wanted nothing to do with the vacuum, however...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, May 22, 2015 10:07 AM

According to my brother's wife, pugs and Perrier don't mix too well, either.  I've received tentative clearance (depends on the weather) to exercise the camera on Monday.  I have about 2/3 of a roll of film waiting to be exposed.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, May 22, 2015 2:58 PM

mudchicken

Lesson for the day: Roombas and mousetraps don't mix. (Scotties didn't think much of Roombas or Dustbusters either. Both have teefmarks to prove it.)

 

Looking forward to a mental health day from work on Monday.

 

 

Some dogs are immune to vacuum cleaners; others are not. Daughter Ginny had a dog, Jarvis, of indeterminate breed (small, very short legs, somewhat curly hair), who had an absolute horror of a running vacuum cleaner. I clearly heard him say that vacuum cleaners are infernal machines and are to be avoided. The two dogs that Ricki and I had could not have cared less about the machines.

He did love tennis balls, and would hold two of them in his mouth at one time. Once when he was out at our house, he looked at a vase that was on top of a piece of furniture with longing eyes. I told him, "Jarvis, there is no tennis ball in that vase," and he responded, "Yes, there IS one there." To show him that he was mistaken, I picked the vase up, turned it upside down--and a tennis ball fell out.

He also had a predilection for getting out and running down the street if he had the opportunity. One Sunday morning, just as Ricki and I were leaving for church, he got out, ran around the corner into the neighbor's side yard-where I caught him. I picked him up by his choke collar, and led him back to the house. Thereafter, he shrank back away from the door when we opened it if he were in our house--but Ginny still had to watch him.

Johnny

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Posted by AgentKid on Friday, May 22, 2015 5:39 PM

My latest dog story - even though I don't have one.

First a bit of background. At Irricana we had a black lab that howled along with the train horns.

Flash forward to about two months ago. I had the Rochelle web cam on. Unbeknownst to me, one of my neighbours was walking his very small dog down the hallway to take him outside. A train on the web cam sounded its' horn and the little dog in the hallway proceeded to start howling in its' very small voice. The other neighbours must have wondered what the h*** was going on! The little dog was clearly letting his inner coyote out!

A LMAO moment to be sure.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

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"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by JoeKoh on Friday, May 22, 2015 7:30 PM

evening

caught up with the 2 trains that went westbound when I got off work at Butler Indiana.One went west the other turned left to go to Ft.Wayne.Ns has a mow train in the siding with a crane too.Looks like they were picking up ties.Found some intersting items too.Tomorrow it's chore day.Sunday it's G+G's house.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, May 22, 2015 8:03 PM

Scattered showers - and with a freeze warning on, well....  I'm wondering if we're skipping summer this year.

We're also very dry.  Both Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River are well below where they should be right now.

Out for an auto accident late this afternoon.  Got rained on, but that was followed by a double rainbow...  Nice!

Headed for the railroad for Saturday and Sunday.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 24, 2015 11:37 AM

Good Morning from Alamo City everyone! Cowboy

We had really bad storms down here with torential rains from about 8:30 PM last night to about 3:00 AM this morning. 

Here in the city here we easily received up to 5 inches of additional rain.  Outlying areas, especially to the north and north west of us have reported rainfal in excess of 12 inches!

A lot of roads and highways are closed.  I-35 is under water in San Marcos.  Traffic is being detoured to the SH-130 Toll Road.

On the plus side, you should see how green my lawn is!  Cool

Enjoy your Sunday...and please be safe in this weather!!!!

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Posted by Mookie on Sunday, May 24, 2015 5:27 PM

Murray -  Heard they had a tornado somewhere around Houston.  I seem to remember not that many years ago and the whole state of Texas was bone dry and couldn't get enough moisture together to spit.  

We have had spit and 60 degrees.  Kind of a limbo - no rain and no sun, ergo no warmth.  Must go check on Houston Ed & family.

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by edblysard on Sunday, May 24, 2015 5:49 PM
EF-1 Tornado took out apartment complex with 100 mph winds, rained here on the east side for about an hour hard, then dropped off to that rain for 10 minutes, stop for half an hour, then rain for ten minutes, stop for…you get the picture.
Weather geeks says to expect a repeat tomorrow….

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, May 24, 2015 6:14 PM

Meanwhile, up here in the north woods, Saturday and Sunday were clear - hardly a cloud in the sky.  It was cool on Saturday (60's), but that didn't stop people from riding the train (or buying ice cream later than night - the ice cream stand was packed when I went by after a trip to the store).

Sunday was fantastic - sunny, temps in the 70's.  And plenty more riders for the train.  Nothing to complain about, other than we really do need the rain.  The lakes and rivers are all lower than normal - as low as we've seen this time of year in a while.

We don't need the heavy-duty stuff...

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day.  We'll get an early start here.  The local Legion has a lot of cemetaries to visit (including one on an island), plus a parade.  This year, they're starting with us, hence the early start.  They'll pay a brief visit to the FD for some coffee, etc. before moving on to their next destination.

LarryWhistling
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...

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Posted by edblysard on Sunday, May 24, 2015 7:13 PM
Serious redneck day…EF-1 tornado this morning, tailgating in your own driveway that night…gotta love Texas weather.

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Posted by Mookie on Sunday, May 24, 2015 8:09 PM

Barefoot - and I haven't even been able to get out of sweatshirts yet!  

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by CShaveRR on Monday, May 25, 2015 9:05 AM

Murray...you didn't happen to see the seven-hour-late Sunset/Eagle yesterday at Alamo City, did you?  We were aboard (and still are...we should be in Illinois by now, and we just arrived Little Rock).

Our delays have been weather-related, according to the crews, and I guess that's true if you stretch it a bit.  Our first 3.5-hour hit was because blowing sand had blocked the platform track at Palm Springs, and we had to accommodate those passengers via taxis and a clear patch of ground at Indio, about 20 miles away.  Shouldn't have taken that much time, but it did, and we never got any back.

I didn't personally see any rough weather, because we fell asleep soon after El Paso.  (Had we been on time, I would have missed that lovely descent into the Rio Grande valley from New Mexico.)  I woke up again after Del Rio, and things looked pretty well soaked, and so...so green!  (They don't call California the Golden State for nothing!)  

I think it also rained trains during the night...every siding between Del Rio and San Antonio had one, and we had to make three operational stops along that line for them to get out of our way, and in one case, for us to get out of their way (we were in one CTC siding face-to-face with a manifest).  A fourth stop was made to relieve our crew, which had understandably died on the law...shoud have seen that coming when I saw a vulture in a treetop near one of our other stops!

After San Antonio, we were warned to expect flood problems around San Marcos, but we only saw some trucks (of the automotive variety) in the area.  The river was high, but the railroad was much higher.  I managed to stay awake to see the Tower 55 area of Fort Worth when we arrived there...and again as we backed out, aand once more as we headed off to Dallas on a different route.  (Love the alternating canopies on the station platforms in Dallas...trees actually stand next to short steel platform covers.)

I woke up this morning in time to see a neat Texas & Pacific station at Marshall, Texas, then slept again until Malvern, Arkansas.  The timtable says we were supposed to pass entirely through Arkansas under cover of darkness, but (again thankfully) I got to see UP's North Little Rock facility as we passed right by.  The DDA40X is sitting forlornly in one corner of the shop grounds...will we ever see it run again?  

Arkansas looks about like I expected it to--worn out and overgrown.  One word:  kudzu.  Water's still running high, and there were evidently branch-snapping winds of some sort north of North Little Rock.

Scariest moment of the trip to date:  our train went into emergency while we were passing a freight laden with crude-oil tanks.  That train kept moving, though, and we started up again after a few minutes.  I was told that an air hose had separated; Pat was told that we'd hit a deer.  I tend to think the former:  would a deer be just one track away from another moving train?  And would the engineer have big-holed it after the strike?

SEMO coming in a few hours.

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)

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 25, 2015 9:36 AM

Hi Carl.  Glad to made it through Texas OK. 

This is the most rain that I have seen here in the 16 years I've lived in Texas.  We have more storms predicted for today. 

Have a safe trip! Cowboy

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, May 25, 2015 9:40 AM

CShaveRR


Scariest moment of the trip to date:  our train went into emergency while we were passing a freight laden with crude-oil tanks.  That train kept moving, though, and we started up again after a few minutes.  I was told that an air hose had separated; Pat was told that we'd hit a deer.  I tend to think the former:  would a deer be just one track away from another moving train?  And would the engineer have big-holed it after the strike?

SEMO coming in a few hours.

 

Passenger trains striking large animals frequently cause air hose separations, as the animal gets dragged under the train and knocks one or more air hose couplings apart; this also happens to freight trains.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by JoeKoh on Monday, May 25, 2015 12:12 PM

afternoon

Mess in Fostoria today.Q 241 popped off then popped back on.They told q 200 to go to Toledo via the NW connection at Deshler.They have an R 324 and R 508 to use the connection too.R 324 took it's cars to the yard in Defiance and came back west of FC.The y101 also made moves at 3 stops west of FC as well.Going to see how Matt survied his camp out.Back to work tomorrow.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by jeffhergert on Monday, May 25, 2015 1:31 PM

Although I don't doubt a deer or larger animal carcass could cause air hoses to part, I've never had it happen.  And I've hit many a deer.  (One young deer once crossed the tracks in front of us.  I blew the horn for it and instead of running off the ROW it turned and charged right at us.  We hit it.)

I usually do blow the horn for deer.  Many other crewmembers, especially those who ride motorcycles, would rather run them over.  While I don't like hitting them with my personal vehicle either (two run-ins with deer the last few years) I still think they deserve a chance.

I wouldn't big-hole the train for deer. 

If there was a train on the adjacent track, the deer might have been running and not thinking.  It seems most run in with deer I've had where they get hit, by train or auto, the deer are on the run, oblivious to their surroundings.  In my two auto accidents, both times the deer actually ran into us.  Totaled one car, caused repairable damage to the other.  When they are slowly walking they seem more aware of approaching danger.

Jeff

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Posted by mudchicken on Monday, May 25, 2015 9:57 PM
Icebergs in the Ol' birdbath - Dead ahead! Stupid amounts of pea sized hail and heavy rain has track inspectors chasing raindrops and watching swollen creeks and rivers in all of Colorado. No more drought here.
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 Mookie on Monday, May 25, 2015 10:14 PM

Driver always tells me that you must be very specific in what you wish for.....Right now I wish not to be in Texas!  Spit is just fine here!

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by edblysard on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 5:59 AM
Rain gauge at White Oak Bayou, down the street from my house, showed 10” per hour, southwest Houston had 10 to 11 inches per hour, most of the bayous are way out of their banks….water came half way up my yard and stayed there all night.
Most of Downtown Houston is flooded, White Oak and Buffalo Bayous  meet at the north edge of downtown, and that is only a foot or two above sea level…all major freeways are closed, all school districts have closed.
Gonna be a fun commute, wish I had fixed the clutch in the Jeep last week, ah well, got my floaties and a thermos of coffee, guess I will head to work early.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 7:11 AM

Sounds like you might do better with a DUKW than a Jeep, although Wisconsin Dells is a bit far off for you.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by rvos1979 on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 9:32 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH

Sounds like you might do better with a DUKW than a Jeep, although Wisconsin Dells is a bit far off for you.

 

If not a DUKW, a good 6x6 should do the trick, there are plenty of them up for sale near Oshkosh.........

Randy Vos

"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 9:50 AM

rvos1979
CSSHEGEWISCH

Sounds like you might do better with a DUKW than a Jeep, although Wisconsin Dells is a bit far off for you.

If not a DUKW, a good 6x6 should do the trick, there are plenty of them up for sale near Oshkosh.........

Neighbor up the street has a restored Duce & a Half!

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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