BOB WITHORNHow can you not love an Alco? They had character!! Never been a big fan of UP, but, talk about a long running and classy paint scheme. Am I supposed to mention somethime about string linning here to be proper?
BOB WITHORNHow can you not love an Alco? They had character!!
Still do! I run them on a regular basis! Kinda cool running a "stick shift" NYC RS3 (manual transition). And our two RS18u's have different governors, so they run differently, even if on the outside they look the same...
Larry 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...
Thank You.
NDGS2s resembeled Steam Locomotives in ways, coming from a Steam Builder.
It's said that ALCO Diesels are steam locomotive wannabes...
NDGLovely!!!
We like to think so. Ran 1845 last weekend, and rode in 1835. 9411 needs some relatively minor work and a set of batteries and she'll be running, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTv8VmMB9Cg&feature=youtu.be
Always interesting to find a picture of Pennsylvania RR locomotive's in Canada ..Why?
In this case a couple of things...first off it's keeping our interesting Alco Locomotives string alive. Also, in this case, we are looking at the early days of the Penn Central merger, before they painted everything that moved and the merger was still quite new and unaware that it was heading off a historic cliff. A very short time of innocence. I'm sure fingers were crossed though.
One year into the merger!
St.Thomas
Long time headquarters of CASO operations under Michigan Central/New York Central.
Penn Central era began February 1, 1968.
PRR 6301 leads NYC units (below) early Penn Central era.
And how about this rare bird beauty.....not Pennsy but behind our lead Alco.
NYC 2059 one of 10 (2050-2059) Alco C-430 3000 HP
Looks like a harrowing transport.
I have a question-- what happened to all the skinny people? Folks of all ages just do not look like that any longer. Fat fat and fat.
Aliens getting us fattened up for the big round up and feast?
They will get us Canadians first...tasty Canadians ! Mmmm.
No news to us, but last week the NY Times advised its readers Churchill has a problem.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/world/canada/canada-climate-change-arctic.html
More an article on climate change than anything.
If you can give 10.5 million to a single convicted terrorist surely you can find the same for thousands of dependable and dependant on the railroad native folk plus save a strategic port.
I suspect the powers that be have stamped the whole last century as being "unsustainable". Wooden ships and Iron Men are an anachronism in their eyes, but it is not so.
Hauling that SD9 down those twisty mountain roads sure looks like a major challenge. I don’t think the load would tolerate much rocking motion without toppling over. Apparently that trailer has manually operated hydraulic controls to raise and lower the wheels in order to keep the load level side to side.
Providence Grain of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. intends to hire one or two ships this season to remove its remaining grain from the Port of Churchill. (Sean Kavanagh/CBC News)
Bartley KivesReporter, CBC Manitoba
Before joining CBC Manitoba, Bartley Kives spent most of his career in journalism at the Winnipeg Free Press, covering politics, music, food, the environment and outdoor recreation. He's the author of the Canadian bestseller A Daytripper's Guide to Manitoba: Exploring Canada's Undiscovered Province and co-author of Stuck in the Middle: Dissenting Views of Winnipeg. His work has also appeared in publications such as the Guardian and Explore magazine.
Grain is about to be shipped out of the Port of Churchill for the first time in two years, but not because of any movement in the impasse over the resuscitation of the northern Manitoba facility.
Alberta's Providence Grain Group plans to hire one or two ships this season to transport more than 27,000 tonnes of grain that has been stored at the elevator at the Port of Churchill since 2015.
The wheat and durum semolina was transported by rail to the northern Manitoba seaport in anticipation of the 2016 shipping season. It was stranded at Churchill in July 2016, when Denver-based port owner Omnitrax laid off its workers and suspended grain shipments.
"Our grain has been blocked for sale for more than a year now," said Milton Miller, president and CEO of Providence Grain Group, speaking in a telephone interview from his office in the Edmonton suburb of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.
Saskatchewan farmers hope to see Churchill port, rail line revived
"We're at the end of the [grain's life] cycle now. It's fine, but mostly because Churchill is a deep freeze for eight months of the year."
Omnitrax confirmed through its Toronto-based publicist that it will open the terminal for Providence.
"Hudson Bay Port Corporation (HBPC) has been working with Providence for a number of weeks to clean their grain and to ready the terminal for this export shipment," the company said in a statement.
The impending grain shipment is a rare piece of welcome news for the town of Churchill, which has been reeling since the layoffs at the port and the subsequent closure of the Hudson Bay Railway this spring. More than 90 full-time jobs have been lost in the town of 899 over the past 15 months.
Omnitrax laid off staff at the Port of Churchill (Lyza Sale/CBC News)
Churchill Mayor Mike Spence said the shipments illustrate the northern Manitoba port remains a viable shipping option.
"The port is open and ships are arriving. More freight would be going to the Kivalliq region if the rail line was open," Spence said in a statement.
"Our priority is to see the line repaired and reopened as soon as possible to not miss further economic opportunities for Canada's north from [Arctic] Canada's only deep water sea port."
Since the closure of the port, there has been little movement in talks between Omnitrax and the federal government over the future of the facility. Talks over the reopening of the railway have been even more strained, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggesting Omnitrax must conduct repairs the private owner says it is no longer obliged to make.
While Churchill sees the railway as a lifeline, grain farmers in northern Saskatchewan are eager to see the reopening of a shipping route that shortens the overland distance for their product by more than 1,000 kilometres.
Providence Grain's president said it would use the Hudson Bay shipping route if it could be counted upon. The Hudson Bay Railway remains closed due to flood damage. (Mike Spence/Submitted)
Providence Grain's Miller said his firm would have some use for the Hudson Bay shipping route if it becomes reliable once more, as well as cost-effective.
"If it's going to be used, it has to be set up in such a way that it can be counted on," said Miller, explaining that grain shipments are planned months in advance.
"It is the only public terminal, so to speak, in Canada. All of the rest of the terminal capacity is owned or leased by by grain companies, so if you're not one of those companies, your access to those terminals is limited or nonexistent," he said.
"We don't own a bulk terminal. We have other capacity [at] other bulk terminals. But from a farmer perspective, if the Port of Churchill was a viable alternative — and I'm not judging whether it is or not — it would create opportunities for those who have capital and logistics ability, for at least three or four months of the year, to ship grain."
We have come a very very long way since those images and the mindset that went with it. A total reclamation plan muct be in place and the money set aside and budgeted throughout the years. The original topsoil must be saved and the habitat put back together as it was if not even better. Towns are no longer abandoned and the folks left behind and forgotten about. This all came about with the Whitehorse Initiative after the government's and the Mining Industry almost succeeded in destroying the entire industry. Today Canada is THE world leader in balancing all of this with fairness for all parties within the Mining Sector.
Really? The CPR was actually thinking of buying the Mononghelia Sharks? Why? I suppose they had those early first purchased Baldwins in BC and maybe the expertise and parts to keep 'em moving.
They would have been famous ... and likely preserved.
Pow-wow dancers here tomorrow .. the real deal .. our CEO brought them up .. going to be a big deal. Free lunch too!
My health has been going South since I got home .. mostly lower back and still with the knee but energy very low is my real worry.
Lots of good students to start the year, big vote of confidence from the big powers yesterday, really made my day. Don't let on about anything but suspect the smart ones can see the "front". Hope it just goes away. Hard to change habits that are comfortable living with. Diet, sleep that sort of thing. My counterpart is out until mid January and the extra load taken up by the remaining. Heavy face time hours for an old stope rat like myself.
Was searching through "The String Lining" and reread pages and pages and months and months... wholly Macinaw! What a ton of stuff and such excellent contributions from all. It's really something !
Hope we can do another year.
Lived in Sudbury until 1977 when my employer, INCO, transferred me out to their Shebandowan Mine, an hour outside of Thunder Bay.
My apartment in Sudbury overlooked this scene. It was between the photographer and the bridge in the background off to the right. That was great! It was at times a bit noisy but music to my ears. There was still a number of units in the grey and maroon, especially the switchers and some freight road units, MLW/Alco FA's and B's, some Century and older RS series.
Most EMD, actually London Diesel Division, was in the newer Action Red with Multimark "Pacman" logo.
Back then I pined for the steam days and sadly lamented its loss. Now these scenes have passed and I miss them too.
There was very little passenger service left...the Canadian came right to this scene and it was where the Montreal and Toronto sections combined for a time. There was only one RDC run left, that to Blind River, perhaps Manitoulin Island, Little Current, but I'm not sure about that part. It was discontinued shortly after.
Sudbury was CPR territory big time. CNR was further North on the other side of the huge mineral rich Sudbury Basin, in Capreol.
Lots power in this winter scene. 4200_8736 (and below) plus Extra 8158 leading unit plus an A unit. Sudbury 1977. Wolf Kirchmeir
Well thank you NDG.
One thing common to all Mineral Processing Milling operations were the Ball Mills and Rod Mills. Usually both.
Muck, which is the broken ore blasted out from underground and skipped to surface, first had to go through either a Jaw Crusher or a Cone Crusher before it was sent to the Ball and Rod mills. After the crushers it was uniformly down to about 1/2" size. That's the crushing phase.
Then the grinding phase which ground it up into much smaller and finer particles, much like beach sand. The individual mineral make up of the rock was liberated this way. Ball and Rod mills grind wet and the end result was a slurry, which is then passed on down the mills circuit for the next step in the process. This whole part is very common to all mines regardless of what you are mining and extracting. After the Ball/Rod grinding the process's can differ quite a bit.
If there is a shutdown at a minesite for whatever reason, usually planned 2 weeks, then the balls are removed from the ball mills nd placed outside in special bins. This is because if the balls are left inside the ball mill the weight of the "not circulating and in movement" balls will sag the mill floor.
Rod mills can get badly twisted inside and you end up with a birdsnet, very bad and difficult to fix or remove.
Many modern day mines have moved their crushing and grinding circuits underground near the lowest levels. Ground ore is then pumped to surface to the mill. Smart move.
MiningmanLived in Sudbury until 1977 when my employer, INCO, transferred me out to their Shebandowan Mine, an hour outside of Thunder Bay. My apartment in Sudbury overlooked this scene. It was between the photographer and the bridge in the background off to the right. That was great! It was at times a bit noisy but music to my ears. There was still a number of units in the grey and maroon, especially the switchers and some freight road units, MLW/Alco FA's and B's, some Century and older RS series. Most EMD, actually London Diesel Division, was in the newer Action Red with Multimark "Pacman" logo. Back then I pined for the steam days and sadly lamented its loss. Now these scenes have passed and I miss them too. There was very little passenger service left...the Canadian came right to this scene and it was where the Montreal and Toronto sections combined for a time. There was only one RDC run left, that to Blind River, perhaps Manitoulin Island, Little Current, but I'm not sure about that part. It was discontinued shortly after. Sudbury was CPR territory big time. CNR was further North on the other side of the huge mineral rich Sudbury Basin, in Capreol. Lots power in this winter scene. 4200_8736 (and below) plus Extra 8158 leading unit plus an A unit. Sudbury 1977. Wolf Kirchmeir
During a family vacation as a kid, we drove through Sudbury in either 1959 or 1960 - the one thing I remembered was there didn't appear to be a living tree for about 25/30 mile around the place. Thought we were driving across the face to the Moon - nothing green in view.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD-- The Sudbury Basin was all outcrop. Naturally occurring. Flin Flon is much the same. What few areas had bush and scrawny trees on thin patches of soil allowing growth was blasted off with giant high pressure Water Monitors by the original prospectors.
Industrial Mining and Smelting added to the bleakness, but the bleakness was pretty much there first. The Apollo astronauts trained there for their moon landings.
Today much of the bleakness is gone, due to human activity. Give a man a rock and he will build a garden. Everyones basements and foundations had to be blasted out of rock. The town of Azilda, in the Basin centre and in a fertile valley, is famous for its potatoes. Sudbury itself and the whole of the basin is a Northern climate but not quite a Boreal Forest so both the hardwood Eastern forests and the Boreal forests struggle and are stunted mightily in their growth. Again human activity has overcome nature and many large trees now exist. However, the Basin is the poster boy for the Canadian Shield and so very rugged and tough, and it is also a large meteor impact crater billions of years old.
The mineralized zones, a massive sulphide, are exceptionally rich and they extract almost every metallic and sub metallic element and a lot of rare earths as well. Just about the whole periodic table. INCO, now Vale, is Canadas largest Gold miner and they don't even mine gold, it is just there and comes along for the ride as a bonus. Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting in Flin Flon, Manitoba and the former Texas Gulf Sulpher/ Kidd Creek Mine, then Xstrata, now Glencore in Timmins, Ontario are very similiar but not as widespread and massive.
NDG-- Doc and the Heart Function Clinic won't allow me canned soups due to the sodium content. Nothing over 5% ever. Strang Verbotten. Stickly forbidden. We have a health unit here in town that serves lunch every day, well balanced and all low sodium, put together by a top notch nutritionist and very inexpensive. Entrees, on a rotational basis, are $3.50 and they make an absolutely killer mushroom soup about twice a month. I always take 2 orders of their soups to go and take home. Except the spinach one...too slimy and green for me. $1.50 a bowlful, can't go wrong. I tell them and the pharmacy they are the ones keeping me alive! ...and they are. Sometimes life is kind and it's always people that make that happen.
Salt restriction created a sorely missed and resentful circumstance at the start but I soon discovered one can substitute incredible spices from all over the world and other cultures Outside of the health unit in town only open at lunchtime M-F I cook all my own meals at home. Italian, India dishes, Thai, all are fabulous and require no salt at all. I never eat in restaurants at all. Make a big batch and it lasts days..it's worth the effort. Leftovers are even better. Of course few do this any longer.
2 things I cheat on...must have bacon and anchovies for my pizza.
Thats why invaders from space will eat the tasty Canadians first..it's the bacon.
In heaven there are roundhouses, peameal bacon and really good pipe tobacco. Of course.
101556-Pelican Narrows Complex.pdf
NDG and all- Now we are dealing with Forest fires. Pelican Narrows is about 40km straight across from Lac La Ronge, much further by road. The road to Creighton/Flin Flon is barricaded. We have lots of smoke coming into town now. Not good!
NDG,
My brother in law was good at filing chains. Problem was when he was done doing that the chains cut directionally. It mad it hard to keep control of the saw.
Norm
NDGHe said when saw hit stone, nail, etc in log traveling on carriage, it could shed teeth, which flew off the disc at speed of rotation.
Several years ago the Air Force wanted a new air gunnery range at the local military base. I got a tour downrange before it opened - there were piles of cut trees everywhere. Someone commented about how much firewood was there (a lot of folks burn wood around here). The reply was that you didn't want that wood - since it was on the gunnery range, it was full of shrapnel and would raise Cain with ones chainsaw...
The sharpener at a mill was, and still is, an important position. I would suggest that the skill is part art.
tree68 The sharpener at a mill was, and still is, an important position. I would suggest that the skill is part art.
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