Congratulations, Miningman. We know from your posts what a good, sound man you are, and a lot of us can identify personally with the love for lost railroads that's in your heart.
Sometimes the good guys win. Merry Christmas!
Take Care!
Congratulations, Miningman, and after four years may good luck continue all your life, with many Merry Christmases and good news always.
Thanks so much guys. Sure am glad I "met" you fella's. What a great bunch.
Take Care.
So what happened to the guy? Did he find the hole or perish as his tank ran out?
-26C here..lots of snow...been very cold for a month now with no end in sight..March?
Very hard on the heating bill...lastest sitting on my desk, unopened...don't want to ruin my Christmas ...I just kind of poke at it with a finger as I go by.
Thank You.
Ahh, memories. Glad we survived them. Glad we have them.
Switch lamps, yes, beautiful silent sentinels. Solid, enduring, very unique. They conveyed railroading in strong terms even when nothing was around. In a similiar way I miss fog horns, just don't hear them anymore, although there must be some still operating.
I miss "the station" and knowing you can take the train to anywhere around you and connections to everywhere else. The senses, sights and smells, and feeling of calmness yet anticipation. A calm but active ecstasy if you will. Compare your hometown station, be it a smaller town or a mid size city, to todays airport inconvenience's. Anyone calling that progress, socially, environmentally, conveniently or easily accessible and more affordable and pleasant needs to give their head a shake.
It depends on how much a person values his time. For most travelers, four hours by air from Chicago to Los Angeles easily beats 40-45 hours by train.
CSSHEGEWISCH It depends on how much a person values his time. For most travelers, four hours by air from Chicago to Los Angeles easily beats 40-45 hours by train.
And there lies the rub. Several years ago I was going to take a trip from NYS to the Seattle area. Coach price was comparable between flying and going by rail. Two things turned me to air - the cost of the upgrade to a sleeper Chicago-Tacoma, and the fact that my one week vacation would have turned into a two week vacation.
Today, I'd probably opt for rail. At the time, air became an necessity.
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...
Well yes, I realize that "Mayberry" is gone, replaced by coordinated social media fight outbreaks and rumbles at malls. Great.
I'm not necessarily talking about transcontinental trips, which should be viewed as a leisurely component of the holiday itself. I'm referring also to those 200-500 mile trips that were so common and available and all interconnected, even from your local station in Mayberry! Getting to the airport, having to be there hours ahead of time, inevitable flight delays and then the reverse going back seem to wipe out any advantage time wise the airlines have. A lot less exasperating and, these days, less frightening to take the train. For a short while there in the sixties and into the seventies the airlines were classy and made you feel special, but thats long gone.
GM&O's "Midnight Special" could very well be a very successful venture today. Downtown to downtown, board early if you want, have dinner, sleep the night away and bingo you're there. Heck you can even take your honey along. Nice. Why not? Seems smart and civilized to me these days.
MiningmanSeems smart and civilized to me these days.
There is very little that is civilized in civilizations of the 21st Century.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD- "sigh"...Suppose so...guess I need a reality check. Seems like a good idea though IF civilization was not so ..aw never mind. Maybe one day some entrepenur will resurrect the Midnight Special as a real thing.
NDG- You must not be too isolated any longer if you can get Starbucks. Hopefully you have seen a doctor about your condition after that fall.
Being a bit on the old side myself and living in semi-isolation can be a bit inconvenient. The cardiologist is 6 hours away. So is Starbucks. Things like a dentist, a necktie, a housecoat are 3 hours away. We do have a pharmacy, thankfully, for the myriad of meds I must take. The local trading post here brings in these 1.13 Kg bags of Starbucks French Roast unground beans, which I order, and pick up 6 at a time. Thats about 15 pounds of coffee unground. I have an old Hobart coffee grinder from the thirties ( yes, the light still works, knock on wood) and it will grind those beans real fine lickety split. Hobart and Baldwin must have been related because the thing is built like a tank. I have however, forsaken splitting and hauling wood into the house as I cannot do it any longer, at least not safely. I live alone, which can be a bit of a scare at times, however I would be missed if I dont show up for my teaching classes or certain places around town. Hopefully anyways.
No trains up here either, they are 3 hours away as well but when I get down there every so often I certainly make the most of it. Further South from that, the six hour drive, is prairie railroading and thats a lot of fun...not like the city or urban areas at all...you can see the whole train coming or going for a long way, like a sunrise or a sunset. That was a new experience for me when I got here.
My fondest memories are the Canadian National streamlined 4-8-4's, NYC and TH&B Hudson's, Canadian Pacific maroon heavyweight cars with serious iron railings and the hustle and bustle at the station with all those trains in my hometown of Burlington.
Sometimes life is kind.
Merci.
NDGAnyway. I have lived out in the bush, heated with coal, briquettes, wood, stove oil and propane at various times. Washed up in buckets, and done laundry, drying by the stove.
When (in the 1940's) I was younger, we had a coal fired boiler for steam heat, no thermostat. Had to get the coal into the boiler and take the ashes out. Remember going to my grandmothers out on the farm. Heat was from a coal stove in the parlor and the coal/corn cob stove in the kitchen. No heat in the bedrooms. Water from the pump outside. Water heated on the stove. Outhouse out behind the house or thunder mug under the bed. Later we converted our boiler to oil. Today, I have running hot and cold water, indoor plumbing, an electronic thermostat that turns the heat down at night and warms the house up before I get up. I feel so spoiled. I'll take today.
This short video is from my trip to Northern Ontario a few years back. It's only a minute and a bit long ...but the thing is it was July 23rd at 10:40 in the morning and it started snowing. It was bitter cold with a good wind and the flakes started to fly...at the very end I point the iPad upward and then down to the ground to capture some flakes but it didnt work. You can see the odd one flying by here and there...July 23rd for crying out loud! It was cold.
Small surprise as the 2nd train, just units, seemingly comes out of no where. The station is gorgeous. Normally it is the height of summer and actually hot.
https://youtu.be/_2_C3mPN0Gs
There we go ..light it up!
Fascinating...they wasted no time seeing they got in at 3am New Year's Day...wonder if there was a "race" going on to get this honour.
Very nice NDG, very nice. Who didn't scrape their knee on a cinder block as a kid?...we all did....folks today need to know these things. Can well remember the long lines of steam passing through my hometown as I watched from 40 feet away. The longer ones were interspersed with really beat up, visibly broken, wooden box cars, mostly outside braced and stock cars that were going to the same fate. The steel mills in Hamilton and Waxman's guillotine were 7 miles away.
I, we, were used to steam locomotives being full of life, vim and vigour, whistle pleasant to hear, but these were silent as can be. Not even allowed any clanking as they silently passed by either as the rods had been cut out. Zero dignity. Grew up with these as a younger boy and it was quite disturbing to witness many of these as a pre-teen. Very strong memories.
We kept a few anyway and still look after them.
NDG- You Ok? No String Lining for a while now and I know you took that nasty fall and complained about lungs. Hope all is well for you and your cat.
-32 here tonight right now...it does not matter if that's Celsius or Fahrenheit its just plain super cold ( but if you must know its Celsius). If it reaches -40 they close the school...usually happens once or twice a year. Colder a bit further North in the Athabasca Basin.
Sometimes I get a bit too passionate about lost trackage and trains and buildings and people laugh or mock but I know better. Maybe they were simplier but flawed times but I miss many things, things that were very good and very real, convenient and reliable, solid and with purpose and heck the food was better! Sometimes I just cannot get my head around how much is gone and what was lost. It built nations and identified who we are. Some of it would serve us well today.
MiningmanSometimes I get a bit too passionate about lost trackage and trains and buildings
Did you see the Newswire report a couple of days ago where it stated that RR employment in the USA was approximately 216,000 at the end of 2016? The article went on to say that they have been keeping those records since 1947, when employment was about 1.5 million. Canadian mileage may vary.
That really caught my eye, as that was the year my Dad hired on to the CPR. When you think of the population growth in the same time, and that railroads are still providing a useful service, even if all of the customers are not happy, I guess they must be doing something right.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
NDGSafety First.
The firefighter who was also stricken appears to be recovering. He is no longer in an induced coma and is responding appropriately.
I'm not going to second guess his decision to go into the manhole without breathing apparatus. I will say that it goes against any confined space training I have.
tree68I'm not going to second guess his decision to go into the manhole without breathing apparatus. I will say that it goes against any confined space training I have.
Story says "the firefighter decided to enter the hole without his air pack because the hole was not wide enough to fit the man and his equipment".
Leads me to wonder how difficult it could be to provide a longer tube for something like a Scott Air Pack to allow use in these situations.
RMELeads me to wonder how difficult it could be to provide a longer tube for something like a Scott Air Pack to allow use in these situations.
Such equipment exists (often used in such environments as paint booths), but is not routinely carried on fire apparatus. If the department has a confined space team, they would probably have it available, but the time it would take getting it to the scene might make its use moot.
Odds are the pack wouldn't fit into the space while on his back, but our new firefighters learn how to get through a rather small hole by taking the pack off and pushing it ahead of them. I have no way of knowing if that was an option here.
tree68 ... our new firefighters learn how to get through a rather small hole by taking the pack off and pushing it ahead of them. I have no way of knowing if that was an option here.
I get the impression he'd have to push the pack in front of him into a confined space, where it would be between him and whoever he was trying to rescue, perhaps in the dark. How easy is it to hang one of these things to lower it into a hole while connected up to it to breathe?
I'm still surprised there isn't 'standard' equipment on these trucks, mounted on an extendable wand or snorkel or equipped with a battery and RF remote transmitter, to detect gases and concentrations quickly in these situations. Place it down in the hole first and then reel in or pull it out when sure... or leave it as continuous early warning until everyone is up.
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