This locomotive, WC #3000, which I made to be a GP-40, went south through Antioch, IL running light and all alone, long hood leading, at 3:40 PM CST today.
Still in WC colors but the logo beneath the cab window was totally faded out.
I wonder what that was all about. Why would they send a single unit SB? Where did it originate? Where was it going? Why did it have the north facing headlights on when it was running southward?
I'm guessing there was too much power at one yard and not enough elsewhere...
And the rear headlight was on as a marker. Actually, it was on dim. Markers are required on mainline trains facing backwards on the last car. These can be a flag (in the daytime), a FRED, and EOT (there is a difference, a FRED just flashes while an EOT transmits brake pressure, speed, etc to the lead locomotive), or in this case, a trailing locomotive's headlights set on dim.
Yumm! my popcorn is good! Anyway I agree with Train Fan. Probably going to a nother yard because of a power shortage, and yes the lights were because there has to be somekind of marker on the end of a train. Also I saw a NS grain train tonight as well, the FRED was buzzzing.? So is it an EOTD or a FRED?
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Might have been the local running around to the next place of work, or running back to terminal before dieing on hours. I'll bet he wasn't doing better than 30 mph.
On light power, rear headlight on dim works as a marker.
The buzzing EOT is most likely an air-generator marker. It taps a little of the trainline air to turn a generator, to keep the battery charged up. Hard to roll cars by with these, though. The cars start setting up before you want them to.
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My guess would be that, as asserted above, he was doing some local work, maybe north out of Schiller Park.
Back in the early 1990's, I had the opportunity to tour the WC N. Fond du Lac shops. WC had just acquired the GP-40's from a regional in Illinois (as I recall) and they were just starting a heavy overhaul program. They had started their lives on the Western Pacific. The skilled shop team at N. Fondy cranked out a group of about 20 like-new locomotives that put in a good number of years of solid service for WC before the whole CN thing. You'd see the 3000 series units on just about any kind of service. My favorite was to see them on trains 218-219 / The Green Bay - Chicago intermodal trains.
I see a few in Green Bay at the yard from time to time. Nice to see some remnants of the good old days (WC era) that followed other good old days (C&NW era). I doubt however that I'll ever look back on the CN era w/ any particular fondness.
If he was doing local work I'd sure like to know where.
I know there is a local that works the line down toward Schiller Park, I've seen it with an IC unit down in Buffalo Grove. And there's an aggregate facility at Prairie Crossing. That's usually serviced by a mini-unit train.
But between Mundeline, IL and Burlington, WI I don't know of any rail served customers other than at Prairie Crossing.. This place is a bedroom cummunity of folks trying to live around big cities (Chicago/Milwaukee) while actually living in a small town. (With a whole lot of lakes.)
One day I'm going to rent a boat and get a picture of the CN rolling along a lakeshore in extreme nothern Illinois. I'd also like a pic of some local working in this area. I whish now I'd taken the time to follow WC #3000 and see where it went. I probably would have been tied up in traffic and lost it. Or had an accident. "But officer, I was watching the train engine and I didn't see or hear the fire truck."
greyhounds One day I'm going to rent a boat and get a picture of the CN rolling along a lakeshore in extreme nothern Illinois.
Ken, et.al.
If you are willing to settle for a CN train rolling along an extreme southern Wisconsin lakeshore, and do not want to bother with a boat, may I suggest you visit the Silver Lake/Camp Lake area.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Camp+Lake&state=WI
Take 98th street (county highway AH) east to the end of the road; from there the road heads northeast and goes along the lake for about 1 block. At the end of the road is a very small (1-2 cars) public parking area, from which you can see the trains along the northeastern shore of Camp Lake. Spring would be the best time, as the foliage gets a bit dense come summer.
The location is about MP 59.5, and if you have a scanner, the hotbox detectors at 54.5 and 64.5 will give you plenty of advance warning.
Thank you. That's right up the road and I'll "go see."
WC 3000 along with another WC 30??,have been working up near Byron Hill for a few days now.It also was seen in Eden,Wi and around the FDL yard as well,as doing a few local jobs recently.
I can tell you exactly what was going on with WC 3000 that day, I was the conductor on board that unit!!
On 2/14/09 I was working train L504-81-14, known better as the "Burlington Local" based out of Waukesha Wisconsin. Usually that job never ventures south of Burlington Wisconsin but on that particular day the chief dispatcher found some "extra-curricular activities" for us. After finishing our regular work serving the Nestle chocolate factory and a glass bottle manufacturer in town, my engineer and I were ordered to run South "light power" from Burlington to the Elgin Joliet and Eastern interchange located at Leithton (an interlocking located just south of the Mundelien Metra Depot) to pick up 21 cars off of the interchange track. Apparently the dispatcher was having trouble finding a road train that could spare the time to pick these cars up and for whatever reason the Schiller Park local could not pull them either. At any rate the EJ&E had more cars coming that evening for the CN so interchange track needed to be cleared ASAP.
Interestingly you may have witnessed a historical move that day, the last time the Burlington Job would ever have to pull the "J's" at Leithton. As I am sure you know CN just bought the EJ&E, I suspect one of the first things CN will do once we take complete control of that property will be to streamline the interchange process between the EJ&E and the other CN properties. That will certainly mean the end of interchanging cars at Leithton.
As for the headlights being lit on both ends, railroad rules dictate that we have a "high visibility marker" on the rear of all "trains" traveling on main track. By definition a "train" consists of "a locomotive, with or without cars, displaying [rear end] markers". To satisfy the requirement of a "marker" in this rule while running light power we simply light the trailing end headlight rather than hang a FRED on the locomotive's trailing coupler.
Scott Renchin
Well now, there you go,ruining all of our good speculation w/ the facts!!!
Sounds like you have a job that some of us would envy, some of the time.... (ie when it's not too cold, when it's not 3 AM, etc.) Thx for sharing "the rest of the story."
Thank you Scott. One of my life's mysteries has been cleared up thanks to you. I really do wish I'd had a camera to get a picture of that WC painted engine in the snow. I really regret it since I now know it was a special move to retrieve cars from the "J", which is now impossible to photograph since the "J" is gone.
I think some of us would be interested in hearing about your first trip through Barrington, IL on the former "J". (If such a report would not break any rules and/or get you in trouble. This is a sensative matter with your employer.) Numerous residents of Barrington are basically convinced that the CN is about to lay waste to their town in a manner similar to what General Sherman did to Atlanta in 1864. A year or so from now, I don't think they'll much notice the CN trains. But I'd sure be insterested in what a conductor observed going through Barrington. (But remember, it's a sensative issue for the CN.)
If you ever go "through" the Antioch High School campus while a football game is in progress (School buildings on the west side of the CN, athletic fields on the east side of the CN.) you could glance at the "Sequoits", a team that made the state "Final Four" last year after going undefeated in the regular season.
I have been personally assured that they will do well this year too. You might want to ask the engineer to give 'em a blast of the horn if it doesn't deter from safe operation or break a rule.
Is Checkles still the bid engineer? Worked with him for a bit on his last WSOR stint. The blind joint master.
Could you give a bit on what the Burlington job does? I know something about sand that gets interchanged at Ackerville (loads come out of Muskego), but the rest of the job I don't know much about. Maybe some of what 308 does as well, Amron spur, Sussex, etc., if you know. I used to live in Waukesha, and always wondered what the local work was about.
Wow I wasn't expecting all of these questions! I will try to answer them all as best as I can...
First I must admit that my recolections of the EJE route are a bit fuzy since I have not run over that route for at least four years (my days on road frieghts ended when I bid down to Waukesha to work the locals). At any rate I did run as far south as Joliet on the "J" once and I did make several trips as far as Spaulding. Back then it seemed pretty clear that a lot of work would be necesary to turn the "J" into a major artery. At that time the Main Track was opperated by Track Warent Control and all of the switches had to be thrown by hand (since the last time I worked the "J", CTC has been installed on part of the route). I also remember a lot of highway grade crossings and several interlockings that still had towers! What was most striking about the "J" were the neighborhoods the route went through, the houses in the Barrington area are absolutly HUGE! (I recomend that you check out the areal images on Google Earth to check out the monster houses allong the tracks).
As for the locals out of Waukesha, there are two:
Cars bound for the Wisconsin and Southern interchange at Ackerville are picked up at Duplainville by a north bound road train and set out at Ackerville en-route or they may go all the way up to Shops yard to be switched out and sent back to Ackerville on a South bound road train.
As for Brian "Chuckles", due to job cutbacks he was forced out of the Waukesha terminal, the last I heard he was working up in Neenah.
Scott
I can fully attest to the size of some of the houses in and around Barrington, IL. A community that expects to be fully and completely devestated when the CN starts running trains through there next Wednesday. Fires will rage out of control. People will be denied access to the hospital and die at young ages. It will be just awful.
I see those large homes and can only think that the adults living in them must train their dogs to go find the kids. You could loose a two year old in one of those homes for hours. "Rex, go find Jimmy and bring him to dinner."
MOTHER: "Jimmy, where were you when Rex found you?"
CHILD: "I was waving at the CN engineer mom. Isn't it great we've got all these neat big trains running by the bedrooms now?"
MOTHER: "Jimmy, go to your room. NOW!"
bubbajustin Also I saw a NS grain train tonight as well, the FRED was buzzzing.? So is it an EOTD or a FRED?
Also I saw a NS grain train tonight as well, the FRED was buzzzing.? So is it an EOTD or a FRED?
Omaha, Nebr. - Thursday, 26 February 2009.
The buzzing End Of Train Device you heard was probably one of the newer designs that are equipped with an air turbine. A small amount of compressed air obtained from the trailing brake hose passes through the turbine which is hooked up to a miniature generator. The resulting electric current both powers the EOTD circuits and keeps the backup battery charged.
At first thought a battery may seem redundant, but it's there to power the EOTD whenever the locomotive is cut away - such as when a train does station switching. A typical EOTD can function for hours on its battery alone.
End Of Train Device (EOTD) is the correct, technical term. F-word [as in Famous (?), Friendly (?), or Flashing (?)] Rear End Device (FRED) is the slang term. I suppose one could say that they're both synonyms for each other as they both refer to the marker device we see mounted on the rear drawbar of most trains today.
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