Trackside Lounge: Sep.-Dec. 2009 Edition

[CShaveRR]

As I said elsewhere, Dan, congratulations! Wish we could get up for the party, but I'll be working at the right time, then we have to go up on the other side of the lake (Michigan, not Winnebago).

You probably won't get this news elsewhere: Trains Senior editor Andy Cummings is getting married today.

I hope we can keep the place a little busy for a while: lots of important birthdays are coming up in the next couple of weeks!

But there's not too much of a railroad nature to share at the moment, and no time now! See you all later!

[CNW 6000]

Getting dusty in here again...where'd everyone go?

CN sure seems busy lately.  I've heard more trains rolling in the last couple weeks than was the 'norm' for about 6-8 months ago.  I have also heard that more crews are being called back into service...maybe they'll start to hire again soon.  Gotta keep my eyes peeled.

My odometer hit 3-0 today...so if you want a 'snack' hit the "other" chat thread.

[CShaveRR]

If it was, it accumulated absolutely no interest.

Now, one day after the event, Pat's feeling great!

We were treated to dinner last night by our house guest; we chose the local cafe that has a view of the tracks. Nothing came by except for the Fleet--Bob, you know how that works!

[Deggesty]

CShaveRR

My procedure is done, with just a little blood spilled. I can eat again! Since Pat can't (more than bullion and Jell-O, anyway),

Carl, I'm glad that you are now allowed to eat solid food. I trust that you had, and Pat has, much better stuff than was allowed me in early June. By the way, is that gold bullion that Pat is ingesting?

Johnny

[Deggesty]

spokyone

 I snapped a couple of pics

That Mallet tank engine certainly looks odd.

Johnny

[spokyone]

Barbara & I rented a cabin in the Black Hills last week. I talked to Wayne, who is the brakeman on the 1880 train. He retired after 34 years on coal trains for BNSF. He & wife bought a place outside of Hill City. He works just one day a week but says it is really not work at all.
  I asked him about sanding on the 6% out of Hill City. They use lots of it there and also on the smaller grades. The mallet leaks a lot of oil he said.
Upon further review, we saw what he meant.
 I snapped a couple of pics

[CNW 6000]

The aerodynamics on those engines is pretty unique Larry!  Hold on tight!

Glad to hear you can eat again Carl...and speaking of hamburgers yesterday I grilled out for a charity event for about 9 hours = 300+ brats & burgers!  If I don't see a hamburger or brat for about a month I'll be ok.

Made it trackside again the other day..."only" caught a loaded BNSF coal train, 2 manifests and a local.  Not bad for just over an hour.

[CShaveRR]

Does Willy know about the straight-line winds you have to endure up there, Larry? I have some bookshelves in my dungeon that look like that--maybe you could use the phone to straighten them up!

My procedure is done, with just a little blood spilled. I can eat again! Since Pat can't (more than bullion and Jell-O, anyway), I may go over to Elmhurst for my favorite hamburger. It'll have to be in the car, since the bike paths are soaked from the rain we (finally) got last night. Still drizzling some this morning.

[tree68]

Busy day on the railroad.  Our Utica trip did a quick turn-around version, which put them square in the middle of our usual local operations.  Made for an interesting day for the dispatcher (and the crews, having to grab track as it came available - we did a lot of Form D's).

When the Utica crew finished their runaround (two F's) the locos from the two trains were nicely lined up.  It was pretty much accidental.

I wanted to grab a picture, but didn't really have time to get my camera, so I used my cell phone (on my person due to my doing most of the Form D's).  Good thing I shot twice - I didn't notice until I looked at the pictures on the computer that I must have moved during one.  I've never seen two locomotives (not to mention the fence, the station, and the landscape) lean like that...

[CNW 6000]

Carl,

You should recognize that place.  It was the same location & name (across the street from where we met up) but burned down a few (whoa...10?) years ago.  They rebuilt on the same spot.  Thanks for the well wish Carl.  It's been one heckuva year!  Time to go and enjoy some lunch & relaxation with my lovely wife.

[CShaveRR]

Thanks for dusting and adding the pictures. The walls ought to be getting pretty heavy with the good shots we've had posted here.

Do I recognize that drive-in (or a later reincarnation) in the 1385 shot?

I haven't yet had the opportunity to take my grandchildren on a true train-watching trip. I know that Nico is fascinated by the toy trains (as are the girls), and the girls both like watching trains through windows when the occasion presents itself. And they've all ridden on Metra a time or two. But getting them out trackside to watch trains go by would make Grandpa very, very happy!

Happy anniversary to you and Misty, Dan!

So near to the action, and yet so far away! Today is a festival of sorts at Fostoria--Joe and family are there, joined by Nora and her family (I've spoken to both Joe and Nora). Mudchicken is in town for the AREMA Convention, to be joined later by Jim Wrinn (from what Kathi Kube tells me--she's at the Illinois Railway Museum this weekend for some special event they're having!). And we're stuck between here and work. Both Pat and I have medical procedures coming early next week (I get to starve tomorrow night; she has to go all day Monday without eating).

[CNW 6000]

A couple more shots for the "walls":
CN manifest led by a GEVO (DC Version) and IC SD70 head south from Neenah, WI

SDs at Kampo Road (I believe that's a wave from the hogger on 5607!)

This was a cold picture!

From the 'Wayback' Machine...CNW 1385 at Oshkosh

[CNW 6000]

Kinda dusty in here again...

Going to Neenah/Menasha this morning.  I have to pick up our 1st Wedding Anniversary cake for tomorrow (won't be on here!) and will try to sneak some 'fanning in along the way.  Of course, now that my wife works very near the CN Neenah Yard I don't mind making extra trips up that way.  I had Aedan out with me Wednesday afternoon and we watched 2 trains come through SB.  Prior to both he was a bit fussy and when the train rumbled and clattered by...he quieted down and watched the cars fly past the truck with rapt attention!  A good sign if I ever saw one, lol.

This afternoon should also see some work on my HO modules at the club.  I will be painting and installing backdrops and my "yard air" project.  I found a kit of an air compressor (think Ingersoll-Rand) mounted on a trailer and I have the perfect spot where trains might have to drop a cut of cars and keep 'em aired up.

Time go get busy and enjoy the day.  Seien Sie sicher und haben Sie Spaß dieses Wochenende.

[CShaveRR]

MC, what you're describing is not what I've been seeing--I've just been describing the crossing surfaces. Sorry about the confusion.

[mudchicken]

Carl:

With slab track, once it's in - IT's IN.......no way to tamp or adjust the surface.  Tamping can only be done with a conventional crossing. There is a tray, rail and a cover - no ballast or ties.

Conventional concrete curface with timber ties here is shot in Brighton Blvd. on 3 consecutive crossings into a refinery at Sand Creek. Concrete broke out after being jackhammered by trucks until only the steel collar around the concrete was left. Uncle Pete had to call out a welder to remove the steel collar. 

[CShaveRR]

They've put a few more people onto the furlough list here; I think they're tickling the bottom of the '05 hires now. There are three people here who are still working only because they're qualified CROs (and can hold the CRO extra board). Two more of our CROs are within a page or two of the bottom of the list (and there are only six people per page!).

Hard to tell if business is picking up or not. Last week we had a train repositioning a string of empty stack cars that had been stored in Bain (Wisconsin--west of Kenosha), taking them to Global 1. A couple of days ago, we ran an IG1BAR--guess what it was! Stack cars going from Global 1 to Bain for storage!

I guess CN can be open to deals with some cities along the old EJ&E:

http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news.cfm?ArticleID=48832

Actually, Park Forest is more along the old IC, a short distance south of the EJ&E. But I'd probably be more willing to visit a railfan park there than I would be to go to the one in Homewood.

[CShaveRR]

Probably coincidentally, we humped a gondola load of prefab crossing sections like these today--I think they're going to somewhere in western Illinois for installation on our main line.

The crossing that's had the worst degradation is on our main line around the yard--plenty of trains, ranging from coal and intermodal to commuter, speeds anywhere from a walk to 70. It looks like one or two panels out of the entire crossing are missing some concrete. Vehicles (which would be cars and semi trucks here) don't slow down too much for it, and seem to ride smoothly over it.

Our installations seem to be fine in most places--I expect that the slabs will be able to be removed and reused whenever the track underneath them needs surfacing.

[tree68]

mudchicken

...you need really stable subgrade and confined sand or these rascals don't work.

All "industrial" track - restricted speed.  Heaviest usage will probably be loaded coal hoppers being shuttled from the storage yard to the co-gen plant (and the empties going back).  This is the second one they've put in there (the other is on the other leg of the wye that this crossing part of), and I suspect a third, and possibly a fourth, is in the offing.

Now, the one that NYS DOT just finished installing on a CSX crossing locally will certainly see a more varied beating...

[mudchicken]

tree68

I was out ramming the roads today and swung by a grade crossing replacement project I knew was going on and that I could get halfway close to.

I figured they would be putting the new road crossing over the rails/ties. I didn't imagine that the crossing would actually be part of the roadbed.

I'm sure MC has seen dozens of these.  Still...  The concrete blocks get laid on the railroad roadbed and the track gets fastened down to the blocks, which are also the highway-level surface.  Fill in everything but the flangeways and, voila, instant crossing.

Pretty cool, and probably substantially more stable than trying to apply the road crossing over the top of the rails and ties per usual.

Larry _ PacTrac/ slab track ....probably Century Precast or Hanson/Premier...you need really stable subgrade and confined sand or these rascals don't work. Your allignment in and out of the x-ngs better be really good too bcause this type of system is not forgiving (train crews will curse it because of the change in track modulus/ give) 

http://www.hansonpipeandprecast.com/products_pgc.htm  

[spokyone]

That swing span was damaged on the Crescent Bridge. All the freight cars have been removed. Train & barge movements have scheduled hours to pass. The repairs may take 7 days.

[tree68]

CShaveRR

Larry, that looks like one of the concrete-slab crossings typically installed around here. They look solid, but I've seen a couple showing signs of deterioration.

I suspect that road salt won't be kind to them.  Then again, the snow plows weren't kind to the rubber crossings, either...

[CShaveRR]

Thanks, Bob! The article cleared things up for me quite a bit--I'd forgotten that DM&E has a line on the Illinois side.

I hope they don't find that the cause was something to do with the bridge itself--looks like it could have happened at one end of the swing span.

Larry, that looks like one of the concrete-slab crossings typically installed around here. They look solid, but I've seen a couple showing signs of deterioration.

[spokyone]

The IAIS bridge is the double-decker Government bridge that goes across Arsenal Island. It is upriver from this one. One derailed car still on the Crescent bridge. Here is an update from local news website. Good pics.
http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=457008&query=

[tree68]

I was out ramming the roads today and swung by a grade crossing replacement project I knew was going on and that I could get halfway close to.

I figured they would be putting the new road crossing over the rails/ties. I didn't imagine that the crossing would actually be part of the roadbed.

I'm sure MC has seen dozens of these.  Still...  The concrete blocks get laid on the railroad roadbed and the track gets fastened down to the blocks, which are also the highway-level surface.  Fill in everything but the flangeways and, voila, instant crossing.

Pretty cool, and probably substantially more stable than trying to apply the road crossing over the top of the rails and ties per usual.

[Modelcar]

I agree Larry.....That appears to qualify as a cold Wintery day.

[CShaveRR]

DM&E? Isn't that IAIS' bridge?

[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

 

[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.

[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.

[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.