Just thought I'd stop by to give a Happy Birthday wish
to Carl; HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!
Mookie wrote:If you decide to find a new home for one of them, I will take that cute gray one!
1508 is an F7A, acquired by the Alaska RR in 1953. It ran on our railroad in Alaska colors for several years.
Unseen behind 1508 is 1502, originally an F3A built for the GM&O in 1947, rebuilt as an F10 by MBTA (their 412).
The 4243 started life as SP&S 303, then was GN 4243. Went to Arkansas (A&M, another all-ALCO road at the time), then Massachussets (Mass Central), and is now privately owned and leased to us. I gave her a good workout today (ie, the conductor telling the engineer where to go....).
If anyone does plan to make it up this way, be sure to let me know well in advance so I can schedule myself accordingly. Our regular trips are about done for the year, so it'll have to be next year...
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...
Mookie is sending us some rain tomorrow, so today (after mowing the lawn and before my sisters came to visit) I did a little train-watching. The horns were driving me crazy at the house (we're in a horn-free zone, but a tie gang is in town to renew ties on two of our three tracks). My objective was to see the new perishable train, ZDLSKP, which began running last week.
That's something that apparently hasn't been mentioned in the Forum or the Newswire yet--there is now a second weekly perishable train that UP originates out west and delivers to CSX for Railex at Rotterdam, New York. This one originates at Railex's new facility in Delano, California (not far from Bakersfield), and goes via Roseville, Donner Pass, and Ogden through North Platte and Lombard before being delivered to CSX. Its origin day is Thursday (same as ZWASKP), but it's later in the day and has a longer route, so it gets here about a day later than ZWASKP. For the CSX folks, it merely means that Q090 now runs two days a week instead of one. Whereas ZWASKP hauls primarily apples, potatoes, and onions (pears in season), ZDLSKP is good for carrots, lemons, grapes, and probably oranges, among other things. It hasn't run as long a train as ZWASKP (44 cars this week, as opposed to 56), but they're already talking about a second train by next year. This train carries four units (three plus a DP) as far as Sparks, then three units the rest of the way across country. As with the ZWASKP, this train is made up entirely of ARMN 110000-series mechanical reefers.
Anyway, a steady stream of trains was moving slowly by the tie gangs, with the Metras caught up (and running late) in the action. The tie gang would only work when there weren't trains around, so after a couple of hours they still hadn't gotten very far. I waited for ZDLSKP (pulled by three 7700-series GEVOs), and couldn't get away until a westbound stack train had also gone by.
I also got to see two large truckloads (dump truck plus trailer) of old ties being carted away from the tracks. Today they were working on the center track; sometime later Track 3 needs to have ties changed out (ties to be replaced are marked; it's probably about 40 percent of them). Track 2 also had fresh rail (couldn't read it; looked like about 136-pound) installed recently, before the new ties.
When my sisters arrived, we went to lunch at a spot with a view of the tracks, and caught another three trains. They aren't used to traffic like that. (Tee-hee!)
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)
Lord Atmo wrote: CShaveRR wrote: The dog was taken to the Little Rock Humane Society, where policy dictated that if not adopted over a period of time, he would be euthanized.Happy ending for that dog perhaps, but not for others. Sounds like a cruel shelter to me. The one I volunteer at will NEVER euthanize an animal if it remains there for a long period of time. We will only euthanize if the animal is sick with no hope of recovering. Only to put them out of their misery.That shelter really needs to rethink their policies ASAP. If ours has no trouble making room for strays, then there's no way that one can't. Ugh. On the upside though, I don't suppose switch gets to come work with Carman on the RR?
CShaveRR wrote: The dog was taken to the Little Rock Humane Society, where policy dictated that if not adopted over a period of time, he would be euthanized.
The dog was taken to the Little Rock Humane Society, where policy dictated that if not adopted over a period of time, he would be euthanized.
Happy ending for that dog perhaps, but not for others. Sounds like a cruel shelter to me. The one I volunteer at will NEVER euthanize an animal if it remains there for a long period of time. We will only euthanize if the animal is sick with no hope of recovering. Only to put them out of their misery.
That shelter really needs to rethink their policies ASAP. If ours has no trouble making room for strays, then there's no way that one can't. Ugh.
On the upside though, I don't suppose switch gets to come work with Carman on the RR?
Most "city-owned" so-called humane society shelters have similar policies.
Fortunately, there are also private shelters that keep them until adopted. They are one of my destinations for my charitable financial donations.
CShaveRR wrote: We're starting a big week for birthdays around here:October 9: Pat (referred to here as Boss Hen)October 10: Pat (referred to here as Pat--my wife)October 10: Willy 2 (a very important birthday--did you register to vote?)October 12: Aimee BlysardOctober 16: Larry ("Tree68")I don't maintain a calendar (yet), so if we've forgotten anyone, please let us know. And congratulations and best wishes to all of you!
We're starting a big week for birthdays around here:
October 9: Pat (referred to here as Boss Hen)
October 10: Pat (referred to here as Pat--my wife)
October 10: Willy 2 (a very important birthday--did you register to vote?)
October 12: Aimee Blysard
October 16: Larry ("Tree68")
I don't maintain a calendar (yet), so if we've forgotten anyone, please let us know. And congratulations and best wishes to all of you!
Zardoz: (Jim) Oct. 15
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
....I'd wager that snow plow might be useful in NY at times too....
Nice photo.
Quentin
This certainly isn't an award winner, but it's a picture of what I work with when I'm working on the railroad:
As may be guessed by the snowplow on 1508, she came from the Alaska RR. There is another F behind it.
4243 started out as SP&S 303.
That's our "local" consist behind the 4243.
October 15: Jim ("Zardoz")--thanks for mentioning it!
Yeah. More activity here during the day now. My roster has grown more this year than it was ever grown before.
I hope one day there will be a reason for UP to run more trains on this line.
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
Nice pictures, Max! Looks like you're getting more variety than we are.
I should check things out on your line--they're supposed to be done with that track work, so possibly speed limits are going up soon.
Alex
I try to look to the future too. I only gnashed and cursed about my past being better because all I saw around here were locos that used to BE CNW. And it hurt to see them in a scheme I hated. It stung and burned like no other. But now that UP has finally purged the ex-CNWs (especially those godforsaken patches. UGH!) from my area and gave me the SD70Ms I've been dying to roster, things have climbed uphill. A LOT of aspects in my life improved greatly this year. I love it!
This train was leaving Altoona and going pretty fast when I saw it. I had to head it off at Fall Creek to get this shot. Good thing too. Check out the BNSF GEVO in the consist!!
Ahh grain season is here. And with it comes detoured CSX grain trains! This was a particularily close chase. I had to get this shot from the window of my van. And as such, had no time to set up for it. That's why the SD70MAC's nose got cut out a bit.
Of course after the grain train cleared, the train beside it started moving. And so back to the west I ventured! This time I got far ahead of the train and waited at least a half hour for it to finally reach the bridge.
Today started out dull. Here we see what is easily the most boring train out of Altoona, the Menards local, passing LTS56's power.
However the east side of the yard was a true prize! Check out the third unit in!
ICE ICE baby!!!! (Ugh I hate that song...) Yes this is among power I would never have expected to find in Altoona, and was happily surprised to have seen it here!
....Seeing your run down on the "older stuff" Carl, I {being a bit older}, did see main line and branch steam in regular service.
I suppose my excitement at the time I experienced it...{being a youngster}, would have been the immensity and awesomeness of such machines. Machines that would shake the ground if standing a reasonable distance from one {or more}, fighting up grade as it passed with a loaded coal train...{In the homeland of Pennsylvania}. Then the cinders raining down on us as it passed and finally another one bringing up the rear {pushing}, did the same thing as it passed with the awesomeness of power, and it's caboose trailing on the back of it's tender and a fellow or two standing on the back "porch", depending on the weather.
Even from a mile or so away, at home....on the right kind of evening you could hear it blowing the whistle at crossings up the valley towards Somerset, {on the B&O}, perhaps for several miles. And of course the steam blasting up the stacks with the cadence of it's movement. Occasionally one would stumble {slip on the rail}, and speed up until the engineer would get it under control, and the cadence would continue.
Alex, young friend...
Yes, some of us older folks have seen a lot of good stuff in our day--and even at that, I was born too late to see steam in regular service (or really remember it, anyway). And if I had been, I would have missed the role the railroads played in World War II. And if I'd been alive then, I would have missed the era of the interurbans... and on it goes.
What you're seeing (and have the sense to photograph) now will amaze the people of future generations.
A while back, we had a thread on the Forum about where we'd go if we had a time machine. I think I was about the only one who wanted to go to the future. You're lucky in that you'll see advances made that I can only hope to see. They may not be photogenic (or "recording-ogenic"), but you'll still be among the lucky ones who at least has an idea of what's going on.
The past is in our minds, with occasional reminders such as Larry had, and with documentation to bring it back to some semblance of life. The future is something that we can't really explore, just wait for, and hope that it will be as good as it can be.
End of sermon--and the end of the first one thousand visits to the Lounge. Thanks to everyone who's helped keep it alive!
CShaveRR wrote: tree68 wrote:Cinders is why we'll never see a coal-fired steamer on our line (they were actually outlawed by the state on the line before the turn of the 20th century due to the number of forest fires they started). Even an oil burner will be viewed with a very critical eye.So what did they use before diesels came along? I didn't think oil-burners were too common up that way, and wood burning would seem to be just as risky.
tree68 wrote:Cinders is why we'll never see a coal-fired steamer on our line (they were actually outlawed by the state on the line before the turn of the 20th century due to the number of forest fires they started). Even an oil burner will be viewed with a very critical eye.
So what did they use before diesels came along? I didn't think oil-burners were too common up that way, and wood burning would seem to be just as risky.
Oil burners, much to the chagrin of the Central, IIRC.
While I do get more than enough Diesel smoke in the course of a day's operations, in this particular case, there was no wind and the smoke was lifting nicely above the train. We were running the locomotive long hood forward, too, which just added to the overall image.
Cinders is why we'll never see a coal-fired steamer on our line (they were actually outlawed by the state on the line before the turn of the 20th century due to the number of forest fires they started). Even an oil burner will be viewed with a very critical eye.
...not to mention the smell!
I guess you can be grateful that your trips aren't behind steam, Larry--most of the steam I've been around behaved very well, but one time N&W 611 came through here on a special run, moving right along (a good 50, having slowed for the curves west of Glen Ellyn). Plenty of smoke, which was neat--then the hail of cinders, which wasn't!
Interesting experience this weekend.
I was the conductor on the "wine train" Saturday night. Since the passengers are pretty much entertaining themselves (wine and a blues band will do that), I just hang out and make sure everything was going according to plan.
On the outbound leg we just mosey along - give the patrons a nice view of the scenery and not jostle the wine too much.
On the way back we kick it up a bit. Not so much that anyone has to hang on for dear life, but somewhat faster than the first part of the trip.
It's up-hill most of the way back (like, a 200' climb in 5.5 miles).
So I'm watching the world go by out the Dutch door of the vestibule when I notice that the smoke from the locomotive (it's an ALCO, 'nuff said) was rolling over the train, very much as it might have done in steam days. We were on a curve, so I could see the locomotive and the rest of the train, too.
It was a neat experience. Gave me a bit of a taste of a by-gone era.
Nothing wrong with a quiet place, Alex--things don't get too excited and out of hand here.
This shot looks like it was in a nice location. If that's a bike trail, it might be worth a visit sometime.
I like PZ's idea about trucking the containers along the EJ&E to placate the NIMBYs (yeah, right!), but would point out that CN has a nice intermodal facility in Markham that could serve that end of the line.
UP's gotten a few of its special locomotives back to our area, briefly. Yesterday, MNPPR came into Proviso, with UP 1982 (the MoPac heritage unit) as the DPU on the hind end. It left again last night on MPRNP (don't know which end it was on). Today the Olympic units were by the Berkeley station in full view, and later tonight the two remaining CNW units (Dash 9s 8646 and 8701) were due to come through with a train from Global 3 to CSX at 59th Street.
The eastern railroads connecting with UP still seem to be working out of their congestion issues from the floods earlier this month (probably mostly crew shortages in places they're needed). Our hot weekly perishable train got through Elmhurst about 12:30 this afternoon, and when I left work at 2:30 it was still sitting on the main line outside Proviso, taking up one of the two main tracks (at least one scoot would have had to serve Bellwood and Berkeley at the "wrong" platform), presumably waiting for CSX to take it.
So, after days like that at work (oh, and being blocked by three trains simultaneously while trying to get into the yard one day), I'll take a little quiet!
Oh--a sort of sad note for me: the operators of the local White Hen are retiring, and it will finally join all of the other White Hen Pantries in being converted to a Seven-Eleven. I always thought the Hen was a cut above 7-11, but we no longer have that choice. Nora, next time you come our way, bring a couple of extra Sheetz!
If I was Hunter Harrison, here's what I would do about the purchase of the EJE:
1. Forget about it.
2. Build intermodel yards in Joliet and near Diamond Lake.
3. Run all SB trains into the Diamond Lake yard and all NB trains into the Joliet yard.
4. Remove all containers, put on trucks and have the trucks drive a route that takes them straight through all of the complainer towns en route to the other yard.
5. For each train that can't go through Barrington, let those NIMBYs have 300 trucks on their roads instead -- maybe an additional 4,000 trucks each day.
PZ
Max - I agree with your sentiments, but the hard fact is that some shelters just don't have the space or resources to keep an animal forever. It sounds as if yours does, and that's a good thing.
Some areas have less "homeless" animals than others. Places that have mobile populations are probably the worst - the people get a pet, then have to leave and have no way to keep the animal. So it goes to the shelter.
It would do everyone well to truly consider if they really want the animal, or are simply trying to gain status or some other goal. They (and the animal) would do far better if they didn't acquire it in the first place.
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