Uh-huh! Monday and Tuesdays off.
My sister said those were 14-foot waves on Lake Michigan, and I'd have no reason to doubt that. In the old days, the GT carferries would have been rocking in their slip, in what is usually considered to be a well-sheltered harbor.
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)
CShaveRR wrote: You name it, we had it for weather. The wind was whipping up some very heavy seas on Lake Michigan, washing over the tops of the piers at Grand Haven.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on downOf the big lake they call Gitche GumeeSuperior, they say, never gives up her deadWhen the gales of November come early.
I'm sure that holds true for Michigan, too.
Chris, I hope I'll be seeing you sometime between your arrival and T-Day! We haven't been west of Rochelle lately, so I can't help you with info on that bridge.
Yup! Looking forward to it, Carl. Your schedule still looking the same?
-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
I'm back, after a "weekend" in Michigan (I could look in over the dial-up system at my in-laws' place, but replies were problematic). You name it, we had it for weather. The wind was whipping up some very heavy seas on Lake Michigan, washing over the tops of the piers at Grand Haven. My stop for the gas station today was particularly nasty, with ice pellets being driven by 30-mph winds.
Speaking of fill-ups, we stopped at Pumps On 12 for lunch, on U.S. 12 west of Michigan City. It's in an old gas station/roadhouse. Food was OK, but we were treated to a pair of trains on the South Shore, which runs behind the place (views are somewhat obscured by undergrowth). A couple of old South Shore travel posters (reproductions, no doubt) added to the "period" decor of the dining room. The menu is catchy, in the "gas-station" motif. We got a kick out of the history lesson contained in the menu, talking about the fur-trading and exploration history of "Pierre" Marquette! (Pere [Father] Marquette's first name was Jaques, I believe.)
When we visited my mother yesterday, there were five wild turkeys in her yard. I suggested to them that they take cover--only 17 days to Thanksgiving!
Chris, while I haven't been there personally to confirm, I have seen a couple of photos from the bridge area that make it look like it's finished. That's a shot I'd like to check out myself the next time I get down that way. Hopefully fairly soon, though who knows.
Hopefully somebody who lives down that way can confirm or deny.
Noah
Another quick NW Illinois question:
On one of my previous trips, there was a bridge being built west of Rochelle near the Global III yard. Is that complete yet? And if so, is it decently accessible (e.g. are there sidewalks on the bridge)?
Thanks in advance!
Tim,
I like the look of the tall grass, and the effect the lighting has on it, but I'm not sure if it works as well as your other "high grass on the EJ&E" picture. I think I liked it better for the impact of the grass on the shot.
The "Gruber" overpass I was talking about is in Polo, IL. IIRC, IC's "Gruber" Line (a nickname that I'm not sure on the origins of) ran from Freeport, IL south somewhere (Clinton, perhaps?). The line was kind of known for it's rural charm. I think Jim Boyd railfanned it quite a bit as I seem to recall some of his shots on the line appearing in Don Ball, Jr. books.
The overpass (well, what's left of it anyways) can be seen in this photo over at Railpictures. net. I think it was taken from the Rt. 26 overpass that lies a little west of the overpass. If I have to, I can shoot there, but I'd rather not. I seem to recall there not being a pedestrian sidewalk on the eastern half of the bridge. There is, however a good sized shoulder on the bridge, so I think I could shoot without worry of getting run over.
The biggest problem is that I don't think the shot emphasizes the overpass enough, which is kind of what I want to do. I could pull it in more with a stronger telephoto (I suppose I could even bring my 500mm f4.5 with me...but that is a big pain to travel with), but I'd rather be closer with a wider lens if possible.
I'll be there in late November, which means that shots from the north side of the tracks will never see the sun when it's out. So that leaves me with artsy-fartsy sunrise/sunset shots or cloudy day shots if I plan to shoot from the North Side. I'd say that there's a 90% chance that the latter will rule over the former (I don't really pay attention like I used to, but I kind of remember Illinoisan Novembers being almost completely cloudy).
The south side would be better for both lighting, and the fact that there seems to be an open view there, so I'm going to see if I can work that.
Of course, neither shot may be easily obtainable, as I don't think there is any public property on either side that gets anywhere close to the tracks.
Oh well...I've got a week to look around the internet and see if I can find anything useful. If not, I guess I'll be scouting out the possibilities in the field in about a week and a half!
CopCarSS wrote: So as of next Wednesday I'll be on Amtrak's #6 headed back home again. I'll be in Chicagoland for Thanksgiving as well as a family tradition: our annual weekend trip to White Pines State Park near Polo, IL.While I'm there, I always like to spend a little time chasing/shooting along the BNSF Aurora Sub. I've got a number of usual haunts that I hit every year. This year I'd like to find some new photo ops along the line, though. One of my goals is definately to figure out how to get a shot of a train passing through the remnants of the IC "Gruber" overpass.Does anyone have any information on where to get a picture there on public property? Additionally, are there any suggestions on photo ops in the area?Thanks in advance for any information!
So as of next Wednesday I'll be on Amtrak's #6 headed back home again. I'll be in Chicagoland for Thanksgiving as well as a family tradition: our annual weekend trip to White Pines State Park near Polo, IL.
While I'm there, I always like to spend a little time chasing/shooting along the BNSF Aurora Sub. I've got a number of usual haunts that I hit every year. This year I'd like to find some new photo ops along the line, though. One of my goals is definately to figure out how to get a shot of a train passing through the remnants of the IC "Gruber" overpass.
Does anyone have any information on where to get a picture there on public property? Additionally, are there any suggestions on photo ops in the area?
Thanks in advance for any information!
Chris... What's the IC "Gruber" overpass? Is that the one over the west end of Clyde Yard? Great photos as usual. Your detail shots are very well done. I like that "GE" ornament you got a shot of, that's my favorite.
I shot this one the day before Halloween.... Not sure if I like it or not... What do you all think? The two locomotives were idling with a string of rock hoppers along the Bug Line, near Route 53 in Crest Hill/Joliet.
Quentin,
That's Rio Grande Southern Goose #2. The electric fan bugs me, especially on the exterior of the radiator, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. Not sure when it was decided to put that on front of the Goose, but I sure wish that someone would reconsider that decision...
....Boy, those are nice detailed shots. Not sure what kind of vehicle work that "old" truck like rail vehicle is set up for but note the contrast in equipment. Vehicle, very old. Electric fan on radiator, not old.
Quentin
Didn't have a lot of free time this weekend, but I did have enough time to get out to CRRM on Saturday morning to get a couple shots. These are a couple of the favorites from the outing:
(Still need to tweak the B&W conversion on that one a bit, but I really like the shot).
Definately a nice outing. Now I'm getting pumped up about D&RGW 346 returning! Can't wait!
.....When you get out your RR atlas Carl, take a good look where the track heads from the spot where we were there at the depot....and follow it {east}, for a short distance and then it goes into that big sweeping curve {where the Triple Crown}, trains have pulled off the curve....and turns back west and comes back into town and they have a choice of going west on the Frankfort Line {NS}, or head south on the New Castle line.
At that same crossing you witness all the east-west CSX trains on that double track line....Formally Conrail....NYC....Big Four.
I'd say all directions of travel can be witnessed at one spot except one. That would be a train coming south on the New Castle line from Ft. Wayne, past the depot, and on into the curve and then if it would head north east towards Albany...I believe that trackage is a secondary line now, so I doubt if what I just described is even run from the Ft. Wayne line at all, but believe it is possible.
Yes, Carl....The location you can see almost all of it would be while in downtown Muncie, head south on Walnut st. and just beyond a brand new roundabout...{to be opened this Friday}, is the spot the tracks cross. There you will witness almost all of it. That location is just a few blocks south of Muncie's main {Walnut st.}, business district, which has been brought back to life surprisingly in the past 10 years. Actually becoming really nice again. A brand new sizeable business building is going up where Ball Stores building was razed back in the 80's. That is not too far from the new roundabout I spoke of above....
The south Walnut st. rail crossing I speak of is where our Union Station used to stand....served the NYC and Nickle Plate years ago with passenger service. Did so on the NYC up to the beginning of the Amtrak period in '71. Before that it was the Big Four depot. Not sure if it was a Union Station back in those days or not. Possibly was. It was a sizeable building with the typical RR architectural flare....Even in the waiting room, etc....
Edit: Some traffic will pass just west of the old depot location..{Walnut st.}.....but should be visible from that location. That is where the New Castle line and the Frankfort line must cross the CSX via a diamond. This causes traffic {at times}, to stop next to the Bruner's restaurant location, I've mention on here before and traffic to stop and wait west of the McDonald's location I've also mentioned on here...That is in the western part of town. The reason of course is whoever has the priority to cross the diamond, the other must wait for clearance.
Can't take credit for this one - I'm in it (that old conductor there). Regardless - it's a really cute "human interest" shot. If it looks familiar, you've either been on that site or over to the Diner...
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=208679&nseq=7
I was working the local train (with the RS-3). The other train was (IIRC) an NRHS special. Made for an interesting day, with some train movements we don't normally deal with.
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...
I still have to look at my atlas, Quentin, but Pat and I were just talking about all those horns again this morning! Is there any one spot in Muncie where one can see most of the action through town?
(We had four trains pass us while we were out running errands and having lunch this noon.)
...Just a trivia note: Had lunch downtown Muncie a couple hrs. ago and in that time I heard {in the time for lunch}, 5 trains passing thru. Not too shaby for train watching....Trouble is one would have a difficult time knowing just which track {line}, the next one would be passing thru on....Guess a scanner helps if one knows where the defect detectors are located {mile markers, and what RR}, and so on...
Excellent photos Noah!!! My favorite is the last one, the CP freight crossing the bridge, what a shot. Keep sharing, Noah, you do good work.
Larry, thanks for posting your nice "fog shot". At least there was a little visibility there--when we get foggy conditions sometimes we might have been able to see as far as the edge of the depot! (There was a neat shot a while back in UPOnline at the west end of the Gaviota trestle, in which the tracks just disappeared about 50 feet ahead of the hi-rail the photographer was riding in--talk about "life on the edge"!)
Noah, that was one spectacular series of shots! I'm sure now that your ballast train was not the one I saw--mine had all new ballast cars near the units.
"Real railroads wear pink!"
Carl, As you'll see in the photos below, the train was mostly the new hoppers, with a few old hoppers thrown in. 44 cars sounds about right, as the train was a tad shorter than normal. I don't know if it would have made it to Proviso that fast or not though, as I'm sure it wasn't turned back over to the UP till probably 10 or 11 PM. Just depends on how fast the UP got it out of Janesville I guess.
The Pink Lady straight out of the quarry always looks whiter than it should. I'm told it's from the dust on the rocks from the mining and crushing process, and once the ballast is spread and rained on a few times it turns a little more pink-purplish. Always odd to see what looks like white ballast being hauled from the quarry, as it's hard to make the connection that it's pink lady.
Larry, I really like that shot. Very atmospheric, and it reminds me of the sort of day it was around here today (the exact opposite of yesterday).
First up was the Ballast train. I arrived at Rock Springs, where the quarry is, around 12:30, and the crew was just running around the train in preparation to leave. I snapped off a shot quick:
I didn't stick around to see them leave, as I was meeting a friend in Baraboo to chase the train. He must have left shortly there after though, as it wasn't long before he was blowing for the crossings in Baraboo. We headed to the south shore of Devils Lake State Park for the first set of shots:
The color peak was slightly passed already around here, but there are still lots of dull oranges and browns in the hills. It's the best shots I've done at Devils Lake thus far though.
The chase was on. Next up was Okee, Wisconsin for a location that I've wanted to do for quite some time, but that I'd never had to chance to do until now:
Going up Dane Hill, the ruling grade on the Reedsburg sub (the former CNW main from Madison to Reedsburg Wisconsin. It's still owned by the UP, but operated by regional railroad Wisconsin and Southern), the train was on it's knees and working hard. We managed to shoot him at two locations that were within a mile of each other because he was only going 10 or 15 MPH, and it was a really neat sight to see.
Crossing a Stone Arch Bridge south of Lodi:
A little further up the hill:
Our last stop with this train was Dane, where they made a crew change just short of the Wig Wag crossing. There's actually three sets of Wig wags still left on the Reedsburg sub, so there's no shortage of them around here anyway:
We thought about chasing further, but once you get south of Dane and closer to Madison there aren't as many shots that are of the same quality as those between Baraboo and Dane Hill. We decided to head for Portage, WI and see what was up on the Canadian Pacific main line.
As we were getting off the interstate, train 486 toned up the dispatcher to get a signal out of the yard, and the dispatcher informed him he'd be meeting a few trains at Wyocena (A siding to the east of Portage). We shot him at Portage East, and were pleasantly surprised to see a NREX unit trailing:
The CP has leased a bunch of NREX units recently, apparently to fill a power shortage. A lot of them are real odd ball units, and it's making things a little more interesting on the CP because there's finally something around again besides big GE locomotives. I figured the odds of seeing any of the NREX units was fairly small though, but if this day was any indication, they aren't that rare after all.
We headed to the east of Wyocena to see if we could find a spot to set up for the train he would be meeting. As we were scouting locations we suddenly saw a headlight rounding the curve, so it was a "ditch the car and run" sort of thing for this shot, of train 185:
What a consist! This is by far one of the best lash ups I've seen in a long time on the CP. We headed back towards Portage to try and nail him again at Portage Junction, but shadows prevented a good shot (though I did get roster shots of the power if anybody's interested). We didn't quite make it ahead of him out of Portage, and he was gone.
The last shot of the day came just before sunset. Train 199 was hot on the heels of 185, and we headed up to the Wisconsin Dells River Bridge for the last shot of the day:
You can see by the shadow on the pier that another 15 minutes and the light would have been gone.
With all of this NREX stuff running around, my interest is peaked again on the CP. Right now they're predicting sun for Sunday, so I might just have to head out again and see what I can find....
Enjoy the photos!
Well - Finally got this one off the camera and onto the computer:
Taken during a railfan event - the 'fans weren't very happy as it made it really hard to see during the runbys.....
The black and white version (daughter used camera and left it in B&W mode) is a touch moodier. I gave a print of that to that day's student engineer, who got his card at the end of the day.
Noah--did your ballast train have about 44 cars, exclusively (I think) new UP 921000-series hoppers? If so, it finally hit Proviso this morning (probably held at Harvard until after rush hour). Those hoppers contained some of the whitest Pink Lady I've ever seen.
The train, by the way, was en route to somewhere in Missouri for a track project; apparently it would get down there via the old C&EI.
CopCarSS wrote: Tim,The shots of the BNSF shot and the UP Ballast train prove that a well executed wedgie is still a gorgeous way to get a shot of a train. Very well done. Thanks for sharing!
The shots of the BNSF shot and the UP Ballast train prove that a well executed wedgie is still a gorgeous way to get a shot of a train. Very well done. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Chris! I appreciate the compliments.
Noah Hofrichter wrote: I've always heard Missabe pronounced like "Miss-ah-bee" (which is pretty much the same as Miss-sob-bee I guess). I believe that's how you pronouce the name of the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota too (though that is spelled differently, Mesabi).Got out to do some railfanning on this absolutely gorgeous fall day in Wisconsin thanks to a teachers convention today and tomorrow (which means no school for me!). Chased a UP ballast train from the quarry at Rock Springs (home of the CNW's famous Pink Lady Ballast), and also shot a few CP trains with some interesting consists. Hopefully photos will follow tomorrow sometime.Noah
I've always heard Missabe pronounced like "Miss-ah-bee" (which is pretty much the same as Miss-sob-bee I guess). I believe that's how you pronouce the name of the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota too (though that is spelled differently, Mesabi).
Got out to do some railfanning on this absolutely gorgeous fall day in Wisconsin thanks to a teachers convention today and tomorrow (which means no school for me!). Chased a UP ballast train from the quarry at Rock Springs (home of the CNW's famous Pink Lady Ballast), and also shot a few CP trains with some interesting consists. Hopefully photos will follow tomorrow sometime.
Oh - to be a student again. Even though the weather was beautiful in Utah - I got to analyze competing furnace systems. I could here the trains all day -but couldn't see them. Noah - enjoy today and report.
dd
Dan
Hello to everyone at the lounge,
I'm dropping in with a quick question. How do you correctly pronounce "Missabe" as in the DM&I? Is it MIS-SOB-BEE, MISSA-BEE or some other variation?
Gregory
TimChgo9 wrote:You know... sitting here along the BSNF "East End" I have noted that when trains go by the ex's house here, the westbound trains are quite noisy, but, when the eastbound trains go past, it almost sounds as if they are "coasting" in fact they make about 1/2 as much noise as the westbound trains. I know past the house here the tracks are on a very slight up-grade going westbound, and obviously down-grade going east. Is the grade enough to make the trains strain a little bit going westbound? I know no land is perfectly flat, but I was curious as to what some of the more knowledgeable among you might think.
It doesn't take much grade at all to start loading the engine (depending on train weight) - but a speed or track restriction just east of your ex's house might be the cause. Eastbounds are slowing for it and westbounds are acclerating away from it.
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