Trackside Lounge: 1Q 2010 Edition

[CNW 6000]

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.....

On Quentin's point...you see the stack/well type cars in either singles, triples, or quints.  Is there an advantage (more than 1?) of cars in those particular quantities?  I'd imagine fewer coupler/air connections has its advantages.  I suppose it helps that these cars basically go from one fairly similar loading/unloading to another.  Would those advantages translate into other car types in similar "captive" service?

[CopCarSS]

Carl and Quentin,

Thanks for the very kind words! Quentin, I think it is tinplate, but I don't know much about it, sadly. I would guess that the collector's value is quite high, though.

[CShaveRR]

The advantages of drawbar-connected cars are basically in reduction of slack and elimination of coupler weight, expense, and breakability. Brake pipes still have separable hoses and glad-hands at these points, presumably for ease in testing. (In fact, if you look at the pin-connected articulated cars, you can find glad-hand connections at some point along the sides). Another advantage could be loading configurations: an example of this would be the pairs of 89-foot piggyback flat cars joined together to accommodate three 53-foot containers.

The disadvantage, of course, is in availability. If there's a problem with one unit, you have the carrying capacity of all three or five units tied up.

As for other articulated equipment, I haven't seen it very often. There have been pairs of the smaller Airslide covered hoppers joined together, but that was more because the originals were just too small to be economically competitive. There are (or were) also some drawbar-connected coal cars out there. They're WEPX 2000-series coal gons, and each of the units retain(ed) its original number. Again, if one unit has a defect, you lose all two or three. I would assume that the rotary-coupler apparatus has been modified to accept the drawbar instead.

One has to wonder whether developments to speed up repairs, such as UP's in-train changeout of defective wheelsets, might eventually tip the balance toward more multi-unit unit train cars.

[mudchicken]

Disadvantages (#2) 

Oh the nightmares if one of those rascals picks a switchpoint or goes on the ground...nothing quite like watching loads picking a switch and gathering up the track next to it for 500-1000 feet (Track centers go from 15 feet to 9 feet with a heckuva dogleg attached)....or back up through a spring loaded derail...

[CShaveRR]

Morituri te salutamus.

And we hope to salute you all again when we return.

[Modelcar]

CShaveRR

As for other articulated equipment, I haven't seen it very often

\

Carl....If I remember correctly, we've seen some articulated and single truck between the cars.... auto carriers pass thru here....They kind of had a different look to them.....Seem to remember small "windows", along the mesh sides.

[CopCarSS]

Best of luck, Carl. You'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

Te occidere possunt, sed te edere non possunt. Nefas est.

[CShaveRR]

Well, salutations, as promised! I guess I wasn't as "about to die" as I thought, even figuratively: they didn't put me under for any part of the procedure. Everything went well, and I healed about an hour more quickly than they expected (they let me out after three hours of immobility instead of four). The original heart condition occurred rarely, but now I shouldn't encounter it at all. And since I never knew when it would come on, I shouldn't even worry about it! I'm losing some of the bandages as we speak! Thanks for the kind words and thoughts, everyone!

I feel like I could go to work tomorrow, but I'm not allowed to climb all those stairs, nor carry my backpack, for a few days. So I get a "human" weekend as well as my regular weekend. They're already booked. I'm hoping to ride Metra to check on the progress of the signal installations along our line (we found one signal bridge already up west of Wheaton today). Grandchildren, freshly home from Disney World, may or may not be on the waiting list. Sunday we're going into Chicago for "Too Hot to Handel", a jazz/gospel restyling of Handel's Messiah. We know one of the three soloists. Metra might work for this trip as well, especially if we keep our weekend passes.

Quentin, I completely forgot about those two-unit auto racks. Each of those holds about 50 percent more than a conventional rack. The length is there, but the weight is not, because automobiles are not a very heavy payload. A train of these would require fewer cars to haul the same number of automobiles, and might save shippers some money because of that.

Chris, I've been away from Latin too long for that one!

Keeping a close eye on ZWASKP this week. It won't be combined with the train from Delano, so it will be the first one through here, probably sometime Sunday afternoon. I'm hoping it will have a surprise on it, and that the surprise will go east with the rest of the train. Stay tuned!

[tree68]

Carl - Congrats on the good outcome.   Can't always say that, even if the procedure was successful.  Sometimes it does take weeks to get back to normal.

Getting things ready for a train show in Utica on Sunday.  It's the toy train people, so I probably won't buy much of anything, but I am taking my uniform along, since it'll be in our "home" station.  Weather is supposed to be decent.

 

[Modelcar]

CShaveRR

Well, salutations, as promised! I guess I wasn't as "about to die" as I thought, even figuratively: they didn't put me under for any part of the procedure.

 

Carl.......I really don't know what procedure you went through today, but it sounds like it was totally successful.  Please add my best wishes to your recovery time...Sounds like you are doing very well.  And that sounds like a blessing.

[CShaveRR]

Quentin, it was a Cardiac Ablation, intended to eliminate my Supra-Ventricular Tachycardia, a genetic nervous disorder that occasionally caused a spontaneous rapid heartbeat (as I said about one episode, I was doing 205 in a 60!). It should never happen again. The recovery is purely for the incisions they had to make in the Nether Regions for the catheters to go up via my veins into my heart, where nerve endings were cauterized. One benefit is that I now have one medication less to take every day.

My Enforcer says that there will be no Metra rides tomorrow. She wants me to be up for my busy day Sunday: Too Hot to Handel after church and dinner. I can finish editing the book I got halfway through this evening.

[Modelcar]

....Well, I'm glad you got all the good news and it sounds like you will be back to your routine rather soon.  Glad to hear all the good news.  We do know a bit about the heart situations....Jean had bypass surgery back in 1992, and has done well with it since.

[rvos1979]

Hi Carl, thought I'd drop in here and say hi to you, have not seen you since the outing with Mookie in Rochelle some years back.  I switched jobs since then, now driving semi for Millis Transfer, hauling assorted items.

Anyway, headed up the spine of Virginia today, might get lucky and catch some action along the Norfolk and Western today, but doubt I'll see much from I-81.  Should be interesting getting to Rhode Island tomorrow, running up the northeast corridor, with a forecast for sleet and snow.

See everyone later..

[CShaveRR]

Thanks for the update, Randy! We've been following your escapades as regularly as you post them, and wonder if you've ever gotten into Global 2 with a load. Be sure and PM me if that should happen and you should get a few spare minutes.

That was a great time in Rochelle. I've tried to get my son-in-law out there all the time, but every time they're around it's a truly nasty day. Longing for spring here!

_________________________

Feeling almost normal today. Will feel even more normal after I'm allowed to take a shower.

_________________________

The C&NW Heritage unit (UP 1995) is just short of Fremont, Nebraska, headed east on ZWASKP. That means that it could visit the northern reaches of CSXT between Chicago and Rotterdam, New York. Its current schedule says it will get to Boone at about 4:00, Cedar Rapids at about 8:00 tonight, Proviso at about 9:30 tomorrow morning, and Barr Yard tomorrow noon. The weather, anyway, is such that the train is likely to gain on this schedule. The bad news is that the 1995 is not leading the train.

[rvos1979]

Sadly, Carl, our company does not pull intermodal anymore, though when they come out with new hours of service rules, that could change again.  Some of our older trailers are still set up for it, though.

Last time I was in Rochelle, loaded up at Del Monte in town for the Atlanta area, was just before that big snowstorm in December, It rained on me from LaSalle all the way down to Effingham, where I stopped for the night.  Didn't see much activity, but the city is making a new road to access Del Monte so we don't have to run down residential streets to get there.

[krump]

  Hi All,

haven't been here in awhile - is the new diner ?  I seem to be double-tracking ... how is you all ?  greetings from BC, Canada 

"top honours" means that you guys buy my dinner, right?

[CShaveRR]

Mr. Krump, it would appear that you have found the Diner--and this isn't it! No cyber-food here, just discussion about railroads, railroading, and other things that might be of interest to Forum members. Not everyone has to be interested in my recent travails, but somebody might be, so I mention them, along with railroady things that I find from time to time. We try to remain friends here, not engaging in putdowns or political discussions, and try to keep the conversations on an intelligent level. People who aren't interested may stay away--we don't mind, no questions asked.

[The Butler]

It is also a place to ask a question you don't think needs a whole thread.  Such as: Carl, what was the most cars pushed over the hump in one shift, at the yard you work?

[CShaveRR]

Nowadays, if we get 800 cars, we're doing well. But in the day of shorter cars, no restrictions on car handling, and less emphasis on quality classification, they humped over 1300 cars in one night--with me in Tower A, handling every last one of 'em!

[The Butler]

CShaveRR

Nowadays, if we get 800 cars, we're doing well. But in the day of shorter cars, no restrictions on car handling, and less emphasis on quality classification, they humped over 1300 cars in one night--with me in Tower A, handling every last one of 'em!

Could you elaborate on the car handling restrictions?

And, as always, thanks.

[CShaveRR]

Not too much. But hazardous tank cars have to be stopped for and handled (and some shoved to rest). Auto racks are now shoved to rest, along with the next car after them, dimensional loads, same thing, stack cars, same thing. We didn't have to deal with a lot of that stuff years ago, and some (like the stack cars) didn't exist then. It's safer today, and I don't like seeing things messed up, so I don't mind a bit.

[CShaveRR]

Bandages all came off last night. We'll be testing things with a series of longer walks today.

_________________

ZWASKP was delivered to CSX by 7:00 this morning. UP 1995 was still on it. I hope CSX takes good care of her, and maybe, just maybe, returns her as the lead unit.

[CNW 6000]

CShaveRR

Bandages all came off last night. We'll be testing things with a series of longer walks today.

 

_________________

 

ZWASKP was delivered to CSX by 7:00 this morning. UP 1995 was still on it. I hope CSX takes good care of her, and maybe, just maybe, returns her as the lead unit.

I hope you're on the road to healed Carl!  In your opinion does UP treat the heritage units differently than other power?  Would one of them ever be used to pay back HP hours?  Or does the power desk see them only as 4350 HP SD70ACes?

[AgentKid]

Hello Everybody,

Seems like things are going well here. There have been various topics I would have liked to jump in on but my hand is still healing.

I fractured my fingers back on December 10 and they tell me it will take two months for them to finish healing. But I was also told to untape my fingers and start exercising with a tennis ball, Now that has created a new problem and I have to go back to the Doc again this week.

I am glad to see the general tension level on the forum has lowered back to a pleasant level.

I found another photo of that steam engine that had been buried up to the sand domes in snow in southern Saskatchewan on one of the snowplow threads recently, and I have some really interesting new info to add about it. I just hope to be able to get to it before all of the snow you folks in the Midwest have been having melts.

Hope everybody is well, and those that aren't well get well soon.

Bruce

 

[CShaveRR]

Dan, the power desk may treat them like any other engine, but there's a lot of pride in those units. Joe sent me a shot of the train, and the 1995 sure looked clean, compared to the other visible unit.

Pat and I walked a couple of miles this afternoon/evening when we went to a show downtown. My legs passed the distance test and the stair test several times over, and, now that I'm off one of the medications (permanently, I hope!), a lot of my energy has returned as well.

Bruce, get that hand healed! I know how it feels to have one thing lead to another, and sometimes it's hard to break that chain.

[tree68]

Got to the train show at Utica Union Station this morning only to discover not one, but two CSX trains stopped - one on each main.  One was apparently making a pickup and was having trouble getting one of the cars to test.

The other had a slightly larger problem.  AC4400 357 had apparently lost a traction motor - to the extent that it was completely locked up.  One report said there was dry chemical on and about the motor - indicating a possible fire there.

By the time I got into town, around 9:30, the disabled loco had been set out at the west end of the MA&N yard at Utica.

A couple of hours later (noonish) I went out to my truck, which was parked next to our (currently idle) train.  Lo, and behold, an R.J. Corman team was there with two "sidewinders" and a tracked bucket loader, as well as a locomotive axle sans traction motor. 

It was amazing - the grace and speed with which they assembled the sidewinders (which travel sans boom and counterweights).

In short order, they were working on the locomotive.  By the time I left the show at 3:30, everything was packed back up and the crew was headed home, which I'm guessing is the Albany area, as they headed east on the Thruway.

As of this moment (at least until it gets to the shop), CSXT 357 is a 1B-C locomotive.... 

[The Butler]

Tree, I didn't know they had locomotives in 1 B.C.

[CShaveRR]

You should see some of the really old ones!

Nice story, Larry! When Hulcher would pay us a visit, they'd have to assemble their Cats on site, too. We have a new company around here, I think their name's Maggio, that has two assembled Cats based right at Proviso in an improvised shed made up of stacked intermodal containers. When the smoke starts comin' through their plastic door/curtain, you know something's happened somewhere! Of course, we often know that something happened well before they get to that point.

[The Butler]

Back in July of 2008, I saw two covered hoppers on their sides between a state route near here and a line listed as "out of service."  The trucks of these cars were placed in a "Four Square" pattern a little East of the cars.

Is this the type of companies and equipment that would have been used there?  The car's trucks were taken away quickly (by truck, my guess) but the cars remained for months.  Any guesses as to how UP got the cars out of there?

[CShaveRR]

I think it would depend on the condition of the cars. The carbodies could have been trucked out of there if there were any chance that the cars would be fixed up. Large rubber-tired cranes would probably be used to put the cars on flatbed trailers. However, judging from the length of time between removal of trucks and removal of carbodies, they could have been cut up on site.