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California tumbles into the sea...

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Posted by MP173 on Monday, July 17, 2023 1:46 PM

"I cant seem to get to you thru the U.S. Mail"

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Posted by diningcar on Monday, July 17, 2023 10:16 AM

Latest news says no Hazardous loads involved. 

Sorry, wrong site. 

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Posted by guetem1 on Thursday, August 20, 2020 5:50 PM

BEAUSABRE

 nd Bard College is where Walter Becker and Donald Fagen first met.  I also got a chuckle that the first couple replied to this post were about work crews on college campuses, the sing title is "My Old School"

 

 
Gramp
That'll be the day I go back to Annandale.

 

And he's riding the NYC's Wolverine (Annandale, NY is the location of the artsy-fartsy Bard College) 

"When you put me on the Wolverine

Up to Annandale" - Steely Dan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(NYC_train)

 

 

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Posted by guetem1 on Thursday, August 20, 2020 5:24 PM
a Steely Dan fan on Train.com, whoda thunk it
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, August 20, 2020 12:49 AM

Every time I see the title of this thread rise to the top of the unread threads, the first thought that pops into my head is:  "Thank goodness!"... then I realize you are not talking about the whole state.  I'll just have to hang onto that beachfront property in Arizona a bit longer.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by Shadow the Cats owner on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 6:39 PM

Back a few years ago around work here whenever the DOT or EPA would start the process for more regulations we would scream out AC/DC's Highway to Hell around here.  Why some of the ideas they where coming up with well to call them less than popular with those in the industry was putting it mildly.  Things are a little better but still not perfect.  

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 4:22 PM

BEAUSABRE
"When you put me on the Wolverine Up to Annandale" - Steely Dan

It's a bit of a double entendre, reminiscent to me of Brooklyn owes the charmer under me.

Story about 'My Old School' has been described pretty well in various places, as have the principal stops that actually served Bard College (and still do via shuttle service).

Funny that I was looking last evening at a pre-WWI timetable including #17 Wolverine in Droege's book on passenger terminals (fig. 203) which is cropped before we get as far as the Hudson Highlands... and yes, I thought about that song.

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Posted by MikeFF on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 3:43 PM

I grew up five minutes from Annandale, NY where Steely Dan was formed at Bard College. The nearest NYC stations would have been Barrytown or Tivoli and the Wolverine wasn't going to stop at either of those. So, some artistic license was at work. Probably along with a fair amount of illegal substance.

Mike

 

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Posted by Bruce Kelly on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 2:27 PM

A certain Trains magazine editor from long ago was known to be a Steely Dan fan. During his narration in a certain rail video, also from long ago, he mispronounced "Oregon" in precisely the same manner SD did in their song "Don't Take Me Alive."

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Posted by rdamon on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 2:10 PM

Prior thread on the song ..

Donald Fagan aka Steely Dan has a line about taking the train "The Wolverine" up to Annadale but...its not in Michigan

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/743/t/271035.aspx

tinyurl of the above
https://tinyurl.com/y3eny5v3

 

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Posted by MP173 on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 1:26 PM

" I remember the 35 sweet goodbyes..."

Ed

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Posted by garyla on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 9:05 AM

Gramp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/state-coastal-commission-says-del-mar-train-tracks-need-to-move-inland/ar-BB181SSw?ocid=msedgntp Picture is worth a snicker.  How many people does it take to pour concrete downhill?

 

Given the location, I'd have to wonder if maybe a couple of them are representatives of the Coastal Commission (present on the contractor's dime), making sure that the concrete is being poured in an environmentally-sensitive manner!

If I ever met a train I didn't like, I can't remember when it happened!
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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 9:43 PM

Gramp
That'll be the day I go back to Annandale.

And he's riding the NYC's Wolverine (Annandale, NY is the location of the artsy-fartsy Bard College) 

"When you put me on the Wolverine

Up to Annandale" - Steely Dan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(NYC_train)

 

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 9:37 PM

samfp1943
"It takes 10 to 20 years to fund a giant project like a tunnel," said Bruce Smith, a principal engineer at SANDAG. "It's a long-term effort, and it will take many years."

A friend of mine is a civil engineer who specializes in tunnels. He claims that if the pioneers in this country had the same restrictions on construction faced by today's builders, "Even now, we would be approaching the Susquehanna River". I mean how long did it take the PRR to build the North and East River tunnels, the GN to drive Cascade Tunnel....

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 9:10 PM

54light15
What a bunch of chowderheads. 

Yeah, no sense of humor.

I, on the other hand, laughed my butt off at that story!  Laugh

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Posted by CShaveRR on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 8:09 PM

Many decades ago the Pere Marquette or C&O had a similar probem along their main line south of St. Joseph, and built a large retaining wall to keep the railroad from plunging the last few feet into Lake Michigan.

Last year, construction crews were busy at this site rebuilding or reinforcing the wall (Lakes Michigan and Huron were at record heights, peaking earlier this year.  Places all up and down the West Michigan Coast (and for miles inland, as my sisters will attest) have had challenges due to the high water and the algae deposits it has left in its receding.

(The "family tree", where 16 years ago we had some studio photographs taken, has no land around it at all--it would require extensive use of waders to reach...not very photogenic.)

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 54light15 on Monday, August 17, 2020 9:57 PM

I was driving by in a college pickup and what I saw was exactly what the student described. Vassar was like that.

Here's a story you might like. I was assigned to find gas valves buried under the grass on campus using a metal detector and locate them on a map. Professors would ask me what I was doing. I said, "I really can't say." They would persist. I would then say tersely, "Manhattan project, research was done here in 1942, some stuff got lost and that's all I'm allowed to say."  Every one of them stormed off, either angry that a blue-collar bozo like me would dare to yank their chains or they would say, "I'm going to look into this!" What a bunch of chowderheads. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, August 17, 2020 8:26 PM

54light15
The head of the grounds department was not amused.  

I imagine not, but you know the old saying:

"For a joke to be funny it has to have a grain of truth to it!"  

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, August 17, 2020 7:54 PM

54light15
The head of the grounds department was not amused.  

Did they miss someone?  Devil

LarryWhistling
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There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, August 17, 2020 6:55 PM

I used to work in the boiler room at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York. A grounds department crew was fixing one of the steps in front of the dining hall. A student wrote an article in the student paper that went like this: "How many workers are needed to fix a broken step?" The answer is, "Five, one to do the work, two to watch him, one to sit in the truck drinking coffee and one to find a good radio station on the boombox." The head of the grounds department was not amused.  

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, August 17, 2020 4:34 PM

54light15
We've all seen highway crews, this can't be any different. 

My brother told me they have a joke in Colorado:

"What's orange and sleeps five?  A DOT truck!"

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Monday, August 17, 2020 3:12 PM

Some Del Martians had been advocating for a bypass tunnel in the 1990's, so the discussion is nothing new. What is sort of new is the push is coming from the Coastal Commission, which does not have any significant funding authority. They are notorious for holding up all sorts of projects, so it will be fun to see what happens when the people impacted by the new R.O.W. raise a stink.

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, August 17, 2020 2:34 PM

They must need a fair amount of guys to stand around and look at their smartphones and another two guys to find a good radio station and a couple of guys to sit in the cabs of the trucks. And two guys to get coffee and donuts. We've all seen highway crews, this can't be any different. 

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, August 17, 2020 9:33 AM

samfp1943
Makes one wonder if the State of California has managed to hybridize a Money Tree?

Read a little further between the lines, and see where this specific project comes on the priority list of major California public works to 2050... let alone the 'national' competition for infrastructure remediation and improvement.  That, I think, is the chief problem Del Mar faces in getting its diversion tunnel financed, permitted, and built.

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Posted by samfp1943 on Monday, August 17, 2020 9:29 AM

C&P from link providerd by OP  (Gramp):  FTL:"...Construction costs for the tunnel route have been estimated at $3 billion or more, and presently no money is available.

"It takes 10 to 20 years to fund a giant project like a tunnel," said Bruce Smith, a principal engineer at SANDAG. "It's a long-term effort, and it will take many years."

The fifth and sixth phases of bluff stabilization projects are expected to be completed in the next four or five years, and are designed to keep the tracks safe where they are until 2050. Much of the planning has been done, but so far there is no money for construction.

"The key to meeting these deadlines is funding," said commission Executive Director Jack Ainsworth. "There is going to be competition for that money across the United States. This is just the tip of the iceberg up and down this state with regards to rail lines. It is a huge, huge problem."..."

A remarkable piece full of understatement!   Cool Makes one wonder if the State of California has managed to hybridize a Money Tree ?  As long as they have taxpayers to'bleed'Crying The State will continue to spend their money- Whistling

 

 


 

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Posted by diningcar on Monday, August 17, 2020 9:24 AM

[quote user="adkrr64"]

So THAT's how they get a concrete mixer out onto the right of way. I never really thought about it before, but that solution certainly beats the cost of a high rail version mixer. Although it does look like the mixer barely fits on the trailer...

 Very likely that the mixer was loaded nearby and hauled to the site a very short diatance - at 5 to 10 MPH
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Posted by Overmod on Monday, August 17, 2020 9:09 AM

adkrr64
Although it does look like the mixer barely fits on the trailer...

Technically it doesn't... it would probably be unsafe to transport that by road, even 'chained' thoroughly.

But the mere existence of rail-capable lowboy trailers is interesting for me to learn!

Now if we could do something about trackhoe drivers running steel grousers over the railhead... Surprise

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Posted by adkrr64 on Monday, August 17, 2020 9:03 AM

So THAT's how they get a concrete mixer out onto the right of way. I never really thought about it before, but that solution certainly beats the cost of a high rail version mixer. Although it does look like the mixer barely fits on the trailer...

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Posted by rdamon on Monday, August 17, 2020 6:57 AM

And only one to hold the sign up!!

 

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