Trackside Lounge: Sep.-Dec. 2009 Edition

[CNW 6000]

In the interest of following guidelines, it's time to establish the next version of the Lounge.  I'll open this one and link back to the last one.  You know the rules...

[AgentKid]

Hi Dan,

Let me be the first to join your here. I like reading the posts in the Lounge, even though this past while has been busy for me. I like to take twenty minutes or so every day to catch up on what's going on even if I don't have time to post myself. Keep up the good work.

 AgentKid

 

[CNW 6000]

Seems the first day of school starts on an interesting note around here.  A SB train was heading through Oshkosh when it dumped air as the EOT cleared a crossing down the road from a middle school.  A neighbor reported to the PD that she witnessed several boys throwing rocks at cars and saw them throwing rocks at the EOT (heard over scanner on way to work this AM).  Say a kid gets lucky and makes that rock count...exactly how hard and roughly where would he have to hit that EOT to knock it out of service enough to make the train dump air?  What would the crew do then?  They were still sitting on the main when I had to get out of the truck and get "busy". 

[zardoz]

CNW 6000

A SB train was heading through Oshkosh when it dumped air as the EOT cleared a crossing down the road from a middle school.

I bet THAT had the town tied up for a while!

CNW 6000

A neighbor reported to the PD that she witnessed several boys throwing rocks at cars and saw them throwing rocks at the EOT

As long as they don't throw them at the engine cab....

[CShaveRR]

Thanks, everyone, for the fresh start here. Hope to see the place stay dust-free!

I don't think rock-throwing kids will do any damage to an EOT, any more than they could hope to break an air hose by throwing rocks at that. The EOTs themselves stand up to a lot of physical abuse--you should see the way they get tossed around at times.

[Deggesty]

CShaveRR

Thanks, everyone, for the fresh start here. Hope to see the place stay dust-free!

 

I don't think rock-throwing kids will do any damage to an EOT, any more than they could hope to break an air hose by throwing rocks at that. The EOTs themselves stand up to a lot of physical abuse--you should see the way they get tossed around at times.

 

I expect the boys made themselves scarce after the air was dumped.

Johnny

[CShaveRR]

People who can read the Trains Newswire may have noted that articles appearing thereon have a link to previous news articles dealing with the same railroad. Nice touch!

[blhanel]

Here are a few portraits for the lounge walls:

An eastbound coal train awaits its new crew at Glendive, Montana.

The Kettle Valley Steam Train, which runs on six miles of track near Summerland, British Columbia.

If you don't know what and where this is, you lead a very sheltered life.

Downtown Seattle from the observation deck of the previous structure.

The Tetons.  'Nuf said.

Old Faithful creates its own rainbow.

I've got different pictures hung in the Diner- go check them out!

[AgentKid]

blhanel

The Kettle Valley Steam Train, which runs on six miles of track near Summerland, British Columbia.

Do you see were they've installed the ditchlights in the spaces where the pushing pockets would have been. Those pockets always did look like lights with the glass broken out. Now they're actually being used for lights. Cool.

My Dad used to talk about how the whole time he worked up in the mountains engines still didn't have to run with their headlights on in the daytime. He thought the law changed sometime in the mid-fifties. When were US railroads required to run with headlights on in the daytime, or was it a RR by RR decision?

AgentKid

 

[chad thomas]

 Great shots Brian !!!!! I really like the last one.

[CShaveRR]

Thanks, Brian! That steam locomotive was a total surprise to me. Got any more?

Had dinner with Bob ("Spokyone") and Barbara at Two Brothers, in Elmhurst; we all had lasagna. The evening Fleet was putting on its regular show, and a couple of freights came along as well. It sounded like they were having a great time being tourists in downtown Chicago before they came out to Elmhurst. Safe travels home tomorrow, folks!

I'm probably the only person on the Forum who has received phone calls from Lorie West's cat (Lorie is "Lorax 210", an occasional Forum poster, and former Trains intern). One time Harold (the cat) wanted me to hear a British comedy routine (couldn't quite make it out). Not much noise on the call at 11:00 p.m. a couple of nights ago.

[blhanel]

Just for you, Carl, here are a few more shots of that engine:

Doing a runaround before backing us out onto the trestle, and then pulling us back to the station-

A couple more shots I got while we waited for them to fill the water tank-

And, thanks to CopCarSS and fuzzybroken for their advice, here are a few of the shots that I thought I had lost (I think I've recovered nearly every one of them!):

The eastbound Empire Builder at Essex, Montana, on time in the morning- 

One of the many beautiful shots I got in Glacier National Park-

A closer look at our lodging for two nights- our room is the window dead center on the second floor above the porch roof (under the "Walton" sign)-

An eastbound autorack grinds its way uphill past the Inn-

 

[CNW 6000]

That's a nice view (last shot above) from the Inn.  Was it from the room's window? 

[blhanel]

Nope, that shot was taken from the Inn's pedestrian walkway over the tracks.  The inn also has several cabins and four cabeese set up as cabins off to the left of the tracks- the inn itself is in the picture on the right.

[CNW 6000]

blhanel

...- the inn itself is in the picture on the right.

That's what I get for looking at nice pictures on a lack of sleep, lol!  2 month old sons will do that to a person I guess...

[AgentKid]

Here is some more information on the 3716.

http://kettlevalleyrail.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=151

Hope you find it interesting.

AgentKid.

P.S. My apologies to those that received e-mails with that extra coding in them. I do not know how that got there. I switched back to IE 8 from Firefox to send this message.

 

[spokyone]

Carl: Thanks for waiting for us at Elmhurst on Wednesday. After that great meal, we did runbys of the vintage cars across the street. A '55 Roadmaster caught my eye. We shared a cup of coffee & watched more action at Villa Park.

[Modelcar]

blhanel

Here are a few portraits for the lounge walls:

Very nice photos Brian.....Enjoyed seeing them.

[CShaveRR]

Facebook asks, "What's on your mind?"

I guess there's a lot on my mind, which might not interest most of my Facebook friends, but Something here might interest somebody:

In spite of the fact that carloadings are rising on the UP (probably a good 25,000 per week over what they were at the low point earlier in the year), and locomotives are leaving storage (Friday about a dozen units from the storage line were taken to the shops and later sent out on various trains), our yard is still in cutback mode. More yard men have been laid off, and you need special qualifications to remain in service if you were hired after 2005. There's a rumor that our entire second shift will be yanked--this will hopefully be compensated for by restoration of jobs on first and third. And we day brothers (and sisters) will probably get overtime as a result.

Saw something today that would have been a physical impossibility before UP took over: two outbound freights, one manifest and one stack, leaving the yard simultaneously, both traveling at speeds that couldn't have been sustained inside the yard in the old days. Felt pretty good.

Also said goodbye to the oldest pin-puller on the hump--got along with nearly everybody, and was the easiest (and many times the funniest) guy in the world to work with. Why, this guy had almost as much seniority as I have (and more on the calendar)! He is in great shape and healthy to the extreme--he ought to have a long, happy retirement.

The UTU locals and a couple of other organizations had a fantastic Labor-Day picnic at a local Forest Preserve this afternoon. In addition to barbecued goodies for dinner, they offered ice cream novelties, cotton candy for the kids, and (rubber-tired) train rides around the site. The free beer was flowing, as were soft drinks, but the atmosphere was such that I wouldn't have worried about bringing my daughters and their families there (the grandkids would have loved that little train!). Pat and I attended briefly after work--left in a huff after not winning the raffle (just kidding there, folks!). Some families had three and four generations there; I was touched to see one general yardmaster who had retired over 20 years ago--age 84, sharp as a tack, looked as good as the day he left, remembered a lot of us and relayed info from other retirees. Also touched to see the widow of a former CRO who'd passed away earlier this summer, attending with her son. Amazingly, nobody there asked me when I was going to retire, though my status as Number One was commented on several times.

Tomorrow, our yard will be all but completely shut down. There will still be intermodal, coal, and some other trains to watch on the main line, but departing manifests will be hard to come by. Happy Labor Day to everyone; safe travels to anyone on the road.

[tree68]

CShaveRR

Tomorrow, our yard will be all but completely shut down. There will still be intermodal, coal, and some other trains to watch on the main line, but departing manifests will be hard to come by. Happy Labor Day to everyone; safe travels to anyone on the road.

We'll be closed down for Labor Day as well - we've learned that all of our potential riders are on the highway that day (just as they are on Memorial Day itself), headed for home.  At times the traffic is bumper to bumper.

Have a safe and enjoyable day!

[AgentKid]

CShaveRR

He is in great shape and healthy to the extreme--he ought to have a long, happy retirement.

Great post, Carl.

My Mother and I will look at the In Memorium section of her CPR staff magazine and notice men listed as section men or section foremen who have died in little towns across Canada at ages ranging from 95 to the low 100's. We joke that when guys like that retired at 65 in the mid 1970's they were no doubt stronger, healthier, and could run circles around most 35 to 40 year olds at the time. They would have had very little mechanized equipment like they have now, would have traveled by speeder instead of in a hi-rail pickup, and had to work in temperatures from -40 to +110. That was one hard way to make a living. I was reading recently where the world's oldest man at 112 is a former GN employee, although it sounds like he worked inside as a clerk.

CShaveRR

though my status as Number One was commented on several times.

My Father sure was proud when he got to be Number One on the Alberta Dispatchers list for a little over a year when he retired. He said he had started at #465 on the Agents and Operators list. He had done some mental calculation once and thought that he never would make it to Number One, because the guy ahead of him was actually younger than he was. But unexpectedly that fellow decided to pull the pin and my Father was able to move to the top of the list.

Glad you had a good weekend.

AgentKid

 

[CopCarSS]

Good Morning All,

Brian, those are some amazing shots. That 3716 is sure a looker!

I hope you all have a safe, happy Labor Day. I've got a couple houses to stop at (most of the family went down to Trinidad for the weekend, so I'm on petcare/housecare duty), but then I'm going to see what I can scare up with the lovely light we've got this morning.

Have a great day, everyone!

[CShaveRR]

We took a little trip west this morning, just because in this fine weather we were going a bit stir-crazy (and had to do some store-specific shopping). Not much was running on UP, though we did manage to see a coal train, a manifest, and an auto train, as well as a couple of scoots. It was impossible to see the depot in Elburn behind the tall corn in the fields.

Chris, Pat took a look at your thread about your 2009 road trip, and I guess we both had you on our mind when we thought of doing lunch at Sam's in Cortland. Food was good, but no trains came through while we were in town. (We've also been there with Mookie and the Driver.)

Anyone have one of those big, noisy power mowers? Our neighbors are having one of their all-day parties with about 20 guests (and fireworks past our bedtime, no doubt), and our lawn needs mowing. My trusty, eco-friendly push mower doesn't make nearly enough annoying noise.

[Mookie]

My landlord has an old leaf blower that will blow out your eardrums up to 500 feet away.....

[AgentKid]

Mookie

My landlord has an old leaf blower that will blow out your eardrums up to 500 feet away

You beat me to it. I was just going to suggest the same thing but I couldn't think of the name of it. I live in an apartment so I have never had a need for one of those things.

 AgentKid

 

[CShaveRR]

Good morning, everyone! We slept well, with no fireworks, and, surprisingly, no need to use the air-conditioner as white noise. So we're ready for breakfast, as presented by this gem culled from the Internet and presented on the United Transportation Union website:

The passenger railway business began in the north of England with the opening of the Stockton to Darlington railway line on September 27, 1829.

For some years the steam locomotive had been used to pull coal-wagons, but on this day, a passenger carriage carrying a number of no doubt very excited and honoured dignitaries was attached. The man they called "The Father of Railways", George Stephenson (1781-1848) was in the driving seat on that inaugural ride.

Within a few decades railway lines criss-crossed many countries, and made it possible for many more people to become "travellers".

As we do nowadays, before setting off on a rail journey passengers could do their travel homework by reading the accounts and hints from those who had "been there, done that."

A little over two decades after Stephenson's train line carried the north country notables on that first ride, there were already several guides to would-be passengers.

Today's advice about how to ensure one does not go hungry en route come from Hints to Railway Travelers, and country visitors to London, by an Old Stager (1852).

"Carry your own provisions, by which means you can dine when you are hungry instead of when the railway directors think you ought to be. Chickens cut up, and tongue sliced, with bread, biscuits, cakes and so on are most convenient. Don't forget the salt. Buy sandwiches if you do buy.

"The quickest Express generally gives time for drinking, but if you don’t like getting out of the carriage, you can add sherry and water, or brandy and water, to the stock. Ask how long the train stops before you alight and on no account attempt to do so before it stops."

Sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches. Make or buy sandwiches became the standard advice to railway passengers. Railway refreshment room supervisors heard the call, and invented the infamous "British Railway Sandwich."

It was some time before cookery books devoted to the sandwich were published, but when they did, some even had special sections on sandwiches suitable for railway journeys.

One of those books was Something New in Sandwiches, by M. Redington White (1932). Recipes were given for sandwiches in various categories -- simple savoury, special savoury, vegetarian, afternoon tea, sweet biscuit etc., and various combinations were suggested for taking onto the train.

Menus for Railway Journeys

1. Cress, Ham, Tomato, Apple.

2. Cheddar Cheese, Beetroot, Beef, Apricot.

3. Cream Cheese, Celery, Kidney, Green Pea, Lemon.

4. Sausage, Broad Bean, Banana, Orange.

5. Egg, Roe, Lettuce, Strawberry.

6. Sole, Liver, Russian Salad, Melon.

7. Cabbage, Pork, Apple, Walnut.

8. Chicken, Asparagus, Greengage, Orange.

It is good to see that many of the books ensured that the dessert course was covered too. We have had many sandwich recipes before, but here are some sweet ideas from Salads and Sandwiches, by Mary M. Wright (Philadelphia, 1917)

Mint Sandwiches

Pear preserves, Fresh mint, Bread and butter.

To each pint of thick pear preserves add about a fourth cupful of fresh mint chopped fine.

Use as a filler between thin slices of buttered bread.

Ginger and Orange Sandwiches

Candied orange peel, Preserved ginger, Orange juice, Ginger syrup

Chop the candied orange peel and the preserved ginger until fine, using an equal quantity of each. Mix in enough of ginger syrup and orange juice to make it of the right consistency. Spread on thin slices of bread spread with unsalted butter.

College Sandwiches

Peanut butter, Sweet milk chocolate

Bread and butter

Grate the chocolate and stir into the peanut butter, and spread on thin slices of buttered bread. These make nourishing sandwiches that are excellent for the children's school lunches.

Pineapple Sandwiches

Preserved pineapple, dates, pineapple juice, Bread and Butter

Chop the preserved pineapple, and add half as much chopped dates. Mix into a paste with a little pineapple juice, or syrup from the preserved pineapple. Spread on thin slices of white or brown bread, and form into sandwiches.

Quotation for the Day

If they want to get rid of me, they'll get rid of me through British Rail sandwiches.

(The preceding article appeared on the Web site the oldfoodie.com.)

I'm sure that Whole Foods has all of the ingredients you'll need here.

[CNW 6000]

There's nothing like the screech of a table/circular saw while making practice cuts and an air compressor recharging after 'testing' the air operated implements.  However the 'piece de resistance' is the motion light.  If you can carefully nudge the sensor in the direction of the next-door party, each time someone gets up  to do anything you can have a bright flood light on when they're trying to relax (in the dark) near the fire. 

[CShaveRR]

Thanks, Dan! We don't have an excuse for motion lights in that area, and would have to purchase the other power tools. As for unwelcome illumination, their driveway occasionally lights up our bedroom, through the curtains

We had a great welcome back to trackside, post-holiday. As we were biking toward the grade crossing on our way to the farmers' market, a westbound stack train was going through--we saw two DP units on the hind end. By the time we got to the crossing, the gates were going down again for an eastbound coal train--two units on the point and a single DP unit. This train was on the center track, and before he could clear an eastbound stack train came by on the north track--the speed at which he was taking the curve made the superelevation look mighty effective! I'm pretty sure he was completely ahead of the coal train by the time they got to Elmhurst, He had about four units on the point (the coal train made it hard to be sure), and no DPs.

As we returned from the market, I noticed yet another eastbound stack train being staged at the Finley Road crossing. A scoot was due in about ten minutes; this may have had something to do with it.

Well, no use avoiding it any more--time to mow the yard.

[tree68]

We've had a "band" "practicing" upstairs from the local tavern for several years now.  I'd be more impressed it they played some recognizable music, but most of their time seems to be spent jamming.  It's within easy earshot of the house.  I'd call in a noise complaint, but then I'd probably incur the wrath of the patrons downstairs, especially when the liquor authority closed the place for too many noise complaints.  It's OK if I'm inside, but if I'm working outside, well...

And, in keeping with the current issue of Trackside with Trains, here's my severe weather picture.  I still get cold just looking at it...  an icy eastbound CSX manifest passes under Genesee Street adjacent to Utica (NY) Union Station at speed.   Brrrrr.

[spokyone]

Tonight's news shows a pic of a train derailment on the rr swing bridge between Rock Island & Davenport. Barge traffic is halted.
http://www.kwqc.com/global/story.asp?s=11102071