Willy2Sounds like you're having a good trip, Carl! Just out of curiosity, what is the Erie-Sistable? It must not be so irresistible if you resisted. Next stop is Omaha, right?
Sounds like you're having a good trip, Carl! Just out of curiosity, what is the Erie-Sistable? It must not be so irresistible if you resisted.
Next stop is Omaha, right?
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)
CShaveRRNow if only I could remember where it was I had to go again Wednesday morning...
To O'Hare, to welcome the Stanley Cup Champions home?
Hey, its close to work, isn't it?
You might have to wait until Thursday. Game 7s are good.
Meanwhile, is your line through O'Hare going to be affected if the airport expands to the southwest?http://wikimapia.org/#lat=41.9641811&lon=-87.9222536&z=15&l=0&m=b
This one's for Mookie, from today's Wall Street Journal (hope at least one of these links work - if not, you may have to 'search' for it to get the full-text version - there's also a short video - 2 mins. 34 secs.). It was also mentioned on NPR's Morning Edition today.
Big Cats Obsess Over Calvin Klein's 'Obsession for Men'
A Certain Animal Magnetism Makes the Fragrance a Hit With Zoos
By Ellen Byron - June 8, 2010 - Page One
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704513104575256452390636786.html?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704513104575256452390636786.html?mod=WSJ_World_RIGHTTopCarousel_1
Big Cats Prefer 'Obsession For Men' - " . . . proving that herding cats is possible if you find the purr-fect scent", at -
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127555004
- Paul North.
CShaveRRI guess Game 6 isn't until Wednesday night. Statistics suggest the Hawks may lose that one, but they also give the odds to the Hawks to win the Cup, because they won last night's game. I actually saw a few minutes of the beginning of the game--it was still scoreless when we left the party for home, but it seemed to the untrained eye (mine) that the Hawks had control of the puck most of the time.
Dan
CShaveRRWell, Dan, I guess we need the Green Bay Puckers so you have a good team to root for!
CNW 6000CShaveRRWell, Dan, I guess we need the Green Bay Puckers so you have a good HOCKEY team to root for!If you say so...I don't root for 'em. I've been a Philadelphia Eagles fan since I was a little kid. 4th down and 26, anyone?
CShaveRRWell, Dan, I guess we need the Green Bay Puckers so you have a good HOCKEY team to root for!
CNW 6000 I've been a Philadelphia Eagles fan since I was a little kid. 4th down and 26, anyone?
"Gee - that's too bad." Back in the mid and late 1960's days when Joe Kuharich was the coach of the Eagles and Jerry Wolman was the owner, some of those home games at the Univ. of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field stadium would get pretty hopeless early in the 2nd half. So while my dad and his friends suffered through the carnage and froze in the stands, I'd go out to the upper deck walkway esp. on the east side - and watch the PRR action, esp. on the freight 'High Line' which was only a few yards away. If I was lucky I'd catch a glimpse of a mainline passenger train entering or leaving 30th Street Station. But usually the charter bus ride on the nearby portion of the Schuylkill Expressway provided a better view of that action, plus the B&O across the river, and the Reading further out.
Paul_D_North_JrCNW 6000 I've been a Philadelphia Eagles fan since I was a little kid. 4th down and 26, anyone? "Gee - that's too bad." Back in the mid and late 1960's days when Joe Kuharich was the coach of the Eagles and Jerry Wolman was the owner, some of those home games at the Univ. of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field stadium would get pretty hopeless early in the 2nd half. [snip]- Paul North.
"Gee - that's too bad." Back in the mid and late 1960's days when Joe Kuharich was the coach of the Eagles and Jerry Wolman was the owner, some of those home games at the Univ. of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field stadium would get pretty hopeless early in the 2nd half. [snip]- Paul North.
Paul,
I was referring to the NFC Championship Game in 2005 when the Packers were ahead by a slim margin and had Philly backed up to 4th and 26...but we converted for the go-ahead touchdown and PAT. Around here (WI) I mention those numbers and still get dirty looks! HEHE!
Getting ready to vent:
http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=140744&catid=222
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15264548
http://www.greeleytribune.com/ARTICLE/20100610/NEWS/100619978/1001/RSS
The Greeley Tribune article said the car was a 1995 Ford Probe, and that the train was pulled by a "2009 General Electric locomotive". What's next - identifying the locomotive model, such as a "Dash 9-44CW" ?
Maybe the lead locomotive was a run-through, leased, power pay-back, or otherwise from a railroad other than the operating railroad. I could see that confusing or giving pause to a trooper or PR person who's unfamiliar with the railroad business.
Carl, on your 'correct-ordering the sheet' trick above - could you elaborate a little bit on that ? I gather this was the 'hump list' of the cut of cars inbound to you to be humped, and somehow at least extra cars were 'added-to' it - and maybe some 'subtracted from' it as well ?
Either way, as the hump guy/ pin-puller is trying to match his list up with the cars, I can see his consternation when there's either a car that's not on the list, or one missing that should be. But I suppose the worst he can do is just cut-off any extra cars separately from the others anyway, and let them roll down the hump to be sorted by someone else - i.e., you.
So I sense where and when the real trouble would be is at with you and your fellow Car Retarder Operators, when all of a sudden a surprise car is there rolling down the hump - less so when one that's supposed to be there, isn't.
I doubt the boys in the inbound yard shuffle the cars just for the fun of it. Do you normally hump all of the cars from train or track A, then all of them from Train or track B, etc. ? Or, is there some picking and choosing or certain cars, cuts, or blocks that might have priority for getting through and out of the yard, or otherwise have something in common, such as either destination or commodity, such as haz-mats - though too much of that could amount to pre-sorting by flat-switching, it seems to me. In any event, as a result could a couple of cuts, blocks, or tracks have gotten mixed in with another track's or train's cut of cars to cause that potential confusion ?
And then how do you sort it out ? "Keep your eyes open, remember what you've seen before, and make good use of the resources available to you" sounds just a little too glib to me, with all respect - there has to be more to it than that - especially since you're doing it in your head or just by looking over a couple of sheets of paper. Are you on such a 'first name' basis with all your car 'friends' that you just know that certain reporting marks and car types, etc. just don't belong in with what's currently being humped ? Or is this a case of, "If I told how, then anybody would be able to do it" ? [after a Tom Clancy novel character]
Besides, Carl, if you can do that 'on the fly' without a computer, then maybe you have a lucrative future - in the casinos ! You know, as a card counter - they seem to use pretty much the same skill set as you mentioned above . . .
I had hoped, before I vented, to get either a video clip from one of two news outfits that put "breaking news" on the air with some horribly misleading data that seems to now not show up anywhere.
(1) One television news floozie on site was stating in a leading fashion that there were no gates or crossbucks at the crossing where the accident happened and that the railroad killed the motorist.
There in the background, was the standard 13-B private crossing sign with a stop sign over the top. (It's been around since the 1960's, use started in CA...now BNSF 3067-01-06 No. 67 sign)
Sorry the guy died, but he killed himself. I wonder what bunch of ambulance chasers is paying off that reporter under the table to generate that crap?
(2) This is out on the Colorado high plains where trees are rare and wonderful things. You may not see any for miles at a time. Crossing sounds to be DOT# 094672P (MP 497.98 on the Brush Sub) which had an injury incident in 1999. There was a double fatal near here two years ago IIRC.
I would hope BNSF can go after the private crossing user/owner (commercial Sod Company) and force removal or locked gating of the crossing. There are two other ways into the sod farm off county roads. Close the crossing - If it's inconvenient, so what?
Can't figure out or identify the railroad? Reporter needs to find a new line of work!
(PS - Burlington Northern died and thankfully went away 14 years ago...."what's green and white and goes ka-boom in the night?".....started right here in nearby Wiggins.)
I think I'm done venting. You can return to your normal forum activities....
"Driver killed after being hit by train." Was someone mad at him because he was hit by the train and killed him?
This header is not surprising, considering the current tate of education. Ricki agrees that it is quite misleading.
Johnny
CShaveRRkeep your eyes open, remember what you've seen before, and make good use of the resources available to you
In the years after my Dad passed I would run into railroaders who worked with my Dad and knew who I was. When they would reminisce about his abilities, I used to think to myself that he could do that because I don't think he ever forgot anything he ever did at work.
He seemed to remember everything, from back in steam days at Lake Louise and Stephen on the big hill, to very laid back branchline operations at Irricana, to almost twenty years dispatching in Calgary. He could look at a train sheet or a list of cars and seemed to be able to spot the problem right away. Sometimes even before he was close enough to read it, it just didn't look right. It seemed like he seemed to know "everything old is new again".
I seemed to have that ability in my jobs, but strangely, as the jobs got more computerized, the less I was able to remember. There is something about doing a job with pen and paper that seals it into your brain forever.
Paul's comment about cars being added in or missing brought up something else I always found amazing. How RR's were able to keep track of tens of thousand of cars by hand. I've always wanted to go into more detail about this, but I will just mention one example.
Everything Thursday at Irricana my Dad would have to walk the length of the back track and siding and record the numbers and types of cars present. He would then read this list over the dispatchers phone to someone in the Alyth Yard Office, who would copy this down by hand. "Irricana, xx High Forties, xx Low Forties, and xx Fifties", and then the cars' numbers. When you consider the number of Station Agents reading the numbers of that many cars, it is incredible that anybody was able to get anything done. I understood the logic of spreadsheets and e-mail from the get go.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Paul_D_North_JrCarl, on your 'correct-ordering the sheet' trick above - could you elaborate a little bit on that ? I gather this was the 'hump list' of the cut of cars inbound to you to be humped, and somehow at least extra cars were 'added-to' it - and maybe some 'subtracted from' it as well ? Either way, as the hump guy/ pin-puller is trying to match his list up with the cars, I can see his consternation when there's either a car that's not on the list, or one missing that should be. But I suppose the worst he can do is just cut-off any extra cars separately from the others anyway, and let them roll down the hump to be sorted by someone else - i.e., you. So I sense where and when the real trouble would be is at with you and your fellow Car Retarder Operators, when all of a sudden a surprise car is there rolling down the hump - less so when one that's supposed to be there, isn't. I doubt the boys in the inbound yard shuffle the cars just for the fun of it. Do you normally hump all of the cars from train or track A, then all of them from Train or track B, etc. ? Or, is there some picking and choosing or certain cars, cuts, or blocks that might have priority for getting through and out of the yard, or otherwise have something in common, such as either destination or commodity, such as haz-mats - though too much of that could amount to pre-sorting by flat-switching, it seems to me. In any event, as a result could a couple of cuts, blocks, or tracks have gotten mixed in with another track's or train's cut of cars to cause that potential confusion ? And then how do you sort it out ? "Keep your eyes open, remember what you've seen before, and make good use of the resources available to you" sounds just a little too glib to me, with all respect - there has to be more to it than that - especially since you're doing it in your head or just by looking over a couple of sheets of paper. Are you on such a 'first name' basis with all your car 'friends' that you just know that certain reporting marks and car types, etc. just don't belong in with what's currently being humped ? Or is this a case of, "If I told how, then anybody would be able to do it" ? [after a Tom Clancy novel character] Besides, Carl, if you can do that 'on the fly' without a computer, then maybe you have a lucrative future - in the casinos ! You know, as a card counter - they seem to use pretty much the same skill set as you mentioned above . . . - Paul North.
That said, I'm nevertheless glad that I did, because anyone reading this thread now has a Jim-dandy glimpse into "A day in the life of a CRO", and we're all indebted to you for that. And maybe someday your grandkids will read it too and see how sharp you are. It really is having a 'sixth sense' and the ability to think quickly on your feet - and lots of experience. As the saying goes, 'You do something for 10,000 hours, you should get pretty good at it" - and I know you've got a lot more time than that in the CRO position. Plus, you're interested in and really care about the work - I knew your intimate knowledge of the cars figured in the puzzle someplace - and that shows, too, and well as making it more fun. Now you've got the makings of a pretty good "Railroad Reading" story for the print edition of Trains, I think. Let's see if we can get Kathi Kube interested in publishing it, eh ?
Thanks again. I hope the rest of your 'days' this week will be as satisfying.
CShaveRROh, and now that both of my arms are broken (I didn't mean to pat myself on the back so hard, but you asked...), I'll mention that the railroad that sent us that goofed-up train is a major eastern railroad which must have used thoroughbreds to enter the data.
Gosh Carl; That is really a chess game. A question. Has any thought or maybe a trial of installing AEI sensors on the hump lead for checking the hump sheets been tried? I can see problems with that but an alert to the operator sooner might aleivate to some degree any problems.
I suppose a giant ''STOP'' or ''HOLD'' button might be useful in some of those situations, at least until things get sorted out . . .
As 'Kenny' the operator in the Muscatine, Iowa tower said in a 1980's article in Trains in response to a dispatcher's inquiries and complaints about how long certain switching and routing moves would take - "These ain't tiddlywinks we're playing with here, you know.'' See -
R.I.P., DY Trains, April 1986 page 26 Culver Tower, Muscatine, Iowa ( "BRUNNER, EDWARD J.", REMINISCENCE, RI, TOWER, TRN )
And, even though I below to and sometimes epitomize a technocrat culture that likes to think and believe that almost everything can be systematized, organized, regimented, folded, spindled, and mutilated until it runs seamlessly like a well-oiled machine and that it can then be run automatically by a computer - yes, even John G. Kneiling, whom I usually admire - this demonstrates that random events, mishaps, and screw-ups can make it futile to get too carried away with that, and that's there almost always going to be a need to have smart people on the scene to recognize and recover the operation when things go wrong . . . go wrong . . . go wrong . . . . . . such as at Three Mile Island, Apollo 13, etc. I don't suppose they teach that kind of thing in the various training schools for railroaders, whether run by the Class I's or the private or community college ones . . . All that being said, nevertheless blue streak 1's suggestion above seems sensible to me - and / or having a yard clerk doing a 'walk-through' track check from time
Much later last night It occurred to me that what you're doing is very ad hoc - like a lawyer doing a preliminary or zoning hearing without the benefit of any of the 'discovery' procedures (I wonder what the answer to this question will be - and then what do I do, which position do I take, what question do I ask next ?), or maybe more aptly, like a musician 'sight-reading' aand playing a piece of music as she's seeing it for the first time. In fact, what I concluded is that you, Carl, are improvising as you go along, in response to what the other players are sending your way - in other words, what you're doing is like playing jazz with railroad cars ! Feel free to share that one with your music-major daughter !
I hope you take a look at the time-lapse video of the European hump yard - SBB's Limmattal humpyard in Spreitenbach, Switzerland, serving the Zurich area - which beaulieu just posted over on this thread here - Timelapse video of a Humpyard in operation - at - http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/175295.aspx
See any familiarities, and differences ?
Thanks again, Carl.
AgentKid [snip] Everything Thursday at Irricana my Dad would have to walk the length of the back track and siding and record the numbers and types of cars present. He would then read this list over the dispatchers phone to someone in the Alyth Yard Office, who would copy this down by hand. "Irricana, xx High Forties, xx Low Forties, and xx Fifties", and then the cars' numbers. . . .
Good recollections, story, and example, Bruce - thanks !
One small question - what is the significance of / what do the ''Forties'' and ''Fifties'' mean in the list that you quote above ? Are those the car lengths in feet, or some other attribute, such as capacity in hundreds of cubic feet, etc. ? Thanls in advance.
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