Trackside Lounge: 1Q 2010 Edition

[CShaveRR]

Got skunked in the train department today when we went to Glen Ellyn for lunch. A nurse with excellent artistic talents drew some of my blood. Looked all right to me.

We have about one more day of passable weather here--then, from Wednesday night through Friday morning, we could get between seven and nine inches of dry snow that will be excellent for drifting. The watch has been issued.

Just found out that an old friend of my daughter's (and of ours) will be starring in "Too Hot to Handel" in downtown Chicago next weekend. I'll be on recuperation from work, so we're going to see her!

[tree68]

Well, bringing photography back into the realm of the lounge - a few pictures from my visit to North Conway, NH New Years Weekend.

Please note that it was a poor day for photography - dark, overcast, snowy - but most folks were recording memories, not entries for a photo contest.  I managed a couple of "keepers," but I was also trying to manage my video camera.  Ironically, the one video I got that's any good occured when I just set the camera and let it run.  If I can get it off the camera with sound intact, I'll put it up here later.

We'll start with the star of the day:

After pulling out of the roundhouse, 7470 went down the hill a little way then backed up to the train.  After coupling on, the occasional chuff of the air pump and whine of the turbogenerator was nearly drowned out by the roar of camera shutters:

After CSRR's GP7 pulled us up to Notchland and cut off, we got down to steam running.   The first runby was interrupted when the train had to be stopped to let a medical emergency across the crossing, but they finally came through, full steam ahead:

Several photo/runby stops later, we were at Bartlett.  With a couple hundred folks on the train, space on the photo line was at a premium, but I thought that "arty" might work here:

A bonus stop at an underpass yielded a great 'coming out of a tunnel" photo op, but I was shooting cell phone video to send to my kids.  Another rider got a good shot and has offered to share it with me.  Hopefully it'll be forthcoming soon.

The next scheduled stop was at a through truss bridge.  My this is where I got the good video, however my stills still had to include some "foliage..."

The final photo op for the day (aside from things like putting the locomotives back in the roundhouse) was a "second coming" at the North Conway station.  After they unloaded all of the passengers, they backed the train out and came back into the station:

It was a cold, but thoroughly enjoyable day. 

The trip (entitled "Steam in the Snow) was chartered by the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts, and is apparently an annual event.  While many of the riders were part of the club (and some rode a bus up from Boston, rather than drive), the trip was also open to the public. 

[The Butler]

Thanks for sharing.  The pictures remind me of a trip on the "Snow Train" years ago, in North Freedom, Wisconsin.

[CShaveRR]

Larry, I admired your pictures this morning on my way out the door, but had to wait until now to thank you for posting. "Steam in the snow", huh? Are they the ones that ordered this weather?

Our watch has been changed into a warning across northern Illinois; we're supposed to get six to nine inches' total accumulation between tonight and Friday morning, with the worst coming tomorrow afternoon (about the time my relief is trying to get to work). That's also when it's supposed to get windy, and this stuff will be dry enough to drift. I hope they have extra jobs on, and enough section men and signal maintainers to keep the switches functional.

Speaking of that, I guess they were having problems over my days off with switches throwing at inopportune times. There were plenty of Cat tracks around my tower when I got to work this morning, as well as plenty of rehump tracks to straighten out.

[tree68]

CShaveRR

Are they the ones that ordered this weather?

The northeast suffered from a coastal storm that stalled over Maine - I don't think that storm  would have reached you.  I wasn't really tracking it, though, so you might have sent it to us....

 

[CShaveRR]

You're right, Larry, the one we're getting is fairly fresh. Now they're saying ten inches max. If the wind shifts to straight northerly or anywhere east of due north, lake effect might dump a little more on us. The warning goes up the coast at least as far as Milwaukee. So far, nothing has fallen here, but I expect the fun to begin before I leave for work tomorrow.

Elder daughter and her husband are taking the kids to Disney World next week. I hope it warms up in Florida before then!

[blhanel]

Light snow is falling here now- we've gotten about 1 to 2 inches since 5 PM.  Supposed to get anywhere from 4 to 8 inches, possibly more.

[CShaveRR]

Pat shoveled the driveway while I was at work yesterday (nothing unusual happened at work--in this weather, that's unusual in itself!). She says there was about five inches' worth.

It looks like we got more snow overnight, and the wind has smoothed off the piles that were already there. From the looks of things, it's out of the east, which means the lake is affecting us. It's not snowing at the moment, though.

Now the fun begins--there was no third shift working last night, so we get to see what at least four hours of non-activity has done to our switches and retarders before we start humping.

[CNW 6000]

CShaveRR

Now the fun begins--there was no third shift working last night, so we get to see what at least four hours of non-activity has done to our switches and retarders before we start humping.

No 3rd shift due to:
-Lack of cars to hump?
-Budgetary concern (cost cutting)?
-New operation strategy?
-Some combination?

Twice in the last week I've had occasion to drive past Neenah and North Fond du Lac.  Both times both yards were completely empty, save for bad order cars and power waiting for work.  Last week there was a plethora of traffic...we'll see what this weekend brings I guess.

[CShaveRR]

It would have to be the budgetary thing--cutting back to save the money. There are enough cars to keep them busy, and they might not have to put an extra job on first shift. There hasn't been a third shift on Thursdays or Fridays for several months now.

Last night might have been a good time to put on a night shift, just to keep the place busy during rough weather. We didn't have retarder or switch problems to begin with (some developed later), but there were some tracks that were completely buried under snow. We knew the cars wouldn't roll very well; we just hoped they'd stay on the rail (our first train was practically all empties).

Pat shoveled our driveway again today; I did the sidewalk after I got home. I think we've had our storm for the week now; anything that falls tonight or tomorrow should be inconsequential.

We just had a report on the local TV news about the California Zephyr arriving in Chicago after its ordeal in Nebraska. Lots of angry, frustrated riders.

[The Butler]

CShaveRR

... We just had a report on the local TV news about the California Zephyr arriving in Chicago after its ordeal in Nebraska. ...

OK...I missed that one, but I did catch a portion of a report that the Texas Eagle had a derailment outside of St. Louis.

[CShaveRR]

James, the same report was on the NBC Nightly News. Of course, it wasn't pretty--but for most of the time the train was making progress, rather than passengers being stuck at an airport going nowhere. And what happens if a plane can't finish a trip it starts out on? Only one way to go...

As for the Texas Eagle, that was the second derailment in two days.

___________________

Condolences to Chris ("CopCarSS") May, who just lost his grandfather.

[The Butler]

CShaveRR

Condolences to Chris ("CopCarSS") May, who just lost his grandfather.

  Ditto .

[Modelcar]

Carl......Did you notice on NBC's Nightly News report of the "late" California Zephyr Amtrak train....they also showed a brief video of a rotary snow plow.....I believe it was indicating it was used to clear the way for the train to get thru some areas of terrible drifts....

[CShaveRR]

Yeah--they said the drifts were twice as tall as the train--with Superliners, that's saying something! I don't know where they had to get the rotary plow from, but it evidently took a while to bring it in and let it perform its magic.

I also thought I caught a brief glimpse of a UP locomotive in the consist. I know that's been done before, but hadn't heard any details about this time.

[Modelcar]

.....The video was so brief I didn't notice what kind of power was behind it.  And it does make one wonder, just how far that little used monster might have come from....I'm sure it was effective though....Lucky they still had one operational.

[CShaveRR]

I'm sorry, Quentin--I wasn't clear on this. The UP power I saw was in an Amtrak consist shown on the tape (it was BNSF's rotary).

[Modelcar]

No problem Carl.....I'm not surprised if they had to add extra engines on the Amtrak train under those conditions.  And as long as they were able to maintain power throughout the train, hence, heat, etc.....those passengers should feel a bit lucky to get thru such a terrible weather situation at all....

[CShaveRR]

Hoo-boy! Can I last another day this week?

You'd think, with mostly clear skies and no wind to speak of, that things would go better. But today was brutal again--three retarder shoes on one of my retarders needed replacing after falling off (fasteners broken?), and there was a derailment down below caused by a foreign object in a switch. They were still shaking their heads over this one when I left.

I was following the first of the perishable trains for this week (February Trains); it's having a rough time across Wyoming and Nebraska. I also took a couple of looks at the 18000-foot stack train's progress. This train is apparently extensively instrumented, so I'm sure there will be scientific arguments why these trains should become everyday occurrences (which, in my prediction, will totally offset any of the logical arguments against them).

[CShaveRR]

I did it! Made it to the weekend.

ZDLSK3 had a bear of a time getting across Nebraska, all the way into Omaha. Last I saw, it was eight hours off the mark, but picking up the pace in Iowa. Things must really have been brutal in eastern Nebraska, judging from the Zephyr ordeals and Willy reports (the only trustworthy meteorologist in the state?).

As for us in Chicagoland, I woke up to zero degrees this morning; it took most of the morning to bring us up into double digits (I'm showing 12 degrees outside as we get close to sunset). The following days are supposed to get progressively warmer.

Yesterday on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" they had a caller from Antarctica. It's summer down there, so, as the host put it, he was rubbing the noses of us Chicagoans in the cold temperatures we are having, while they had 40 degrees and open water at their base.

The Monster Train of the South is doing pretty well. It is ahead of schedule, but still not at destination. I saw lots of places where it was making its maximum speed of 60, and a number of delays blamed on trains--intermodal trains, no less--ahead of it.

[Modelcar]

.....Wow....60 mph for a 3.5 mi. long train is pretty awesome....!  How much slack would be in a consist as such.....possibly 300' or so.

[CShaveRR]

Probably a lot less than that, Quentin. This train shows as having 295 cars, but it's a stack train--a lot of these cars are articulated, which translates to no slack at all between units. There were a total of 86 distinct cars on the train, which means 209 slack-free connections, 86 minimal slack connections just the slack in the couplers--not much in the draft gear) and the nine locomotives. I'd say the slack total is closer to 30 feet than 300.

The train made it in, by the way, before 5:00 p.m.

[Modelcar]

10-4 Carl.....Didn't realize so many were of the stack type cars and I understand they are permanently connected in 3's and 5's.....

[CShaveRR]

There's a good video of the entire train over on the train's own thread, Quentin. It takes about 4.5 minutes. I never heard any slack action (not that I would have), so it would seem that the DP had things under control.

[Modelcar]

Went over and checked the YouTube video and it was certainly impressive.  Something like that as a daily {or weekly}, routine surely would remove a significant number of 16 wheelers from the interstates.....It sure was moving right along at that location....Faster than I envisoned it would be capabale of doing.

[Modelcar]

Sunshine here in central Indiana this morning......Slowly, warming.

Thought Carl would be in here and bring this site back to the first page, but perhaps they're busy.....So we'll chip in.

[CShaveRR]

Thanks, Q. I've been over on another site, talking about my upcoming heart operation (it's all good, honest!). Now the thread concerning the big train on this forum has a good video showing the train moving even faster. The video takes just over four minutes, but the passage of the train is closer to what they figured for 60 mph. Those GE's midtrain were really singing!

___________________

The big story today seems to be Joseph Boardman's comments about Amtrak, including upcoming equipment orders, what's going to be replaced, what they'd like to do quickly, and so on. It all sounds good. I read the entire article on the Railway Age website, but their presentation of it has a number of ornery technical flaws. I wish I were allowed to reprint the whole thing here, because I could clean it up.

[CopCarSS]

Hey Gang,

Sorry I haven't been around lately. I haven't really been shooting railroading lately, and photos are about the only really useful thing I bring to the forum, unfortunately. Because of that, I've kind of just been popping my head in every once in awhile. Today, I thought I'd actually stop and say "Hi" and give you an idea of what I have been up to.

I have been doing some shooting, just nothing too railroady unfortunately. Here's a little taste of recent work:

I've been working on my 12 gallon "Nano" Reef aquarium a lot. A couple of my friends are opening a saltwater store out here, too, so I'll probably be trying to get some more shots of their stuff. This is Hammy, one of my Blue Legged Hermit Crabs:

Back in December, I did a little wandering around downtown with another Pentaxian. This was a favorite shot from that outing:

I did acquire a new camera since my last post in here, a Pentax K-x. I mainly got it because of it's size factor. It's a nice little travel camera compared to the beastly K20D. It's become a tradition to try new gear out at Union Station. So that's just what I did:

Lo and behold, the little K-x has so impressed me with it's image quality, it's pretty much become my daily shooter! The high ISO capabilities in particular are nothing short of amazing! Check out this shot at ISO 3200:

Even ISO 12,800 is within the realm of useable. With a little massaging, I could get a decent 8x10 out of this:

If you want to pixel peep, you can view the full size images of the ISO 3200 here and ISO 12800 here. I haven't posted any full size examples yet, but ISO 6400 is really a useable speed, too. Only above it does it start to detiorate into the "Emergency Use Only" kind of look that the ISO 12,800 shot is.

I did make it back to Chicagoland briefly for Christmas. The weather wasn't really pretty on my way out, though. It was snowing in Denver and Chicago greeted me with freezing rain. Because of that, I was stuck at DIA for a bit. I did some shooting around the airport. This shot, titled Hurry Up and Waitwas a favorite:

My short trip, Christmas festivities, weather delays and time spent at the hospital with my grandpa didn't leave me much time to do anything while at home. I did make it over to the William Tanner House in my hometown of Aurora to see their holiday decorations. How about seeing this under your tree on Christmas morning?:

After the museum, I stopped a couple places in Aurora/Montgomery with my Mom to get some pictures. This is Riverside Cemetery where my Dad is buried:

Another sort of test outing for new camera gear is the Denver Zoo. I took the K-x out there on a coldish day in early January. It proved to do quite well with all sorts of situations. This was a favorite outing from that day:

The K-x does 720P HD video, too! I've never been much of a video shooter, but I may occasionally take a "moving picture" now and again. Here is one of my early attempts at "moving pictures" (as opposed to full cinematic video efforts).

Another Pentaxian friend here in the Denver area is a jazz pianist. He's currently recording a new CD with the Fred Hess Big Band and he invited me to one of the recording sessions. I have several shots that I really like from that outing, but here are a few favorites:

Additionally, I was just back in Chicagoland again. My grandpa passed away on the 7th, so I came back for the wake and funeral. Again, I had only a little free time. I did manage to take Metra into downtown Chicago and roam around there with my cousins on a "Grandsons Day Out." I haven't processed those yet, but I have some nice stuff from downtown Chicago and Chicago Union Station. I'll post those when I get them up.

I hope all is well with all of you. I'll try to be not *quite* so much of a stranger. I really should take a trip up the Moffat Line with the new camera and do a shakedown cruise up there. I had hoped to be shooting the new Ski Train, but alas, it looks like that is not to be this year.

 

[CShaveRR]

Welcome back, Chris! Great shots, every last one of 'em!

_____________________

A brutal day at work today, with a retarder failure that could have caused a wreck (alertness paid off big this time!), and a relatively inexperienced hump conductor who isn't used to the pace of the day shift. I had to take him under my wing...and flap the daylights out of him a couple of times. We were really under the gun today--all of the stuff that was held up by the wicked weather to our west now seems to have arrived, and the bowl was full. We CROs tried to help keep the engines busy making room, and out of the way of the tracks we needed to use. And, being where I was, I could see what was going on, make some suggestions (when I suggest, they're strong suggestions!), and keep some situations from becoming worse than they already were.

Boy, they're gonna miss me when I'm off recuperating!

[Modelcar]

Hello Chris....

Boy when you shoot a scene, you really go over the top.....I really enjoyed this group of photos....That inside view of Denver Union, was awesome....

And the wind up powered train.....is it "tinplate"....That must have some real value in the collectors world.....!