Trackside Lounge: 2Q 2010

[nanaimo73]

CShaveRR

Time to return to work, after a three-day weekend. I don't expect the yard to be a pretty place this morning.

Do you get another 3 day weekend for Memorial Day? Or will your yard be close to normal on Monday?

You should be getting your new Trains magazine on Saturday. Perhaps after reading the article on Bailey Yard you could give us a comparison between your place and that one.

[CShaveRR]

Dale, I think the holiday schedule might still be up in the air. But I know that I am unaffected, for several reasons:

1. I regularly have Mondays off.

2. So does everyone else on first shift.

3. I start my vacation on Monday.

Having said all that, I think the latest plan was to pull off the second shift for that day, but work the first shift on Tuesday, which is also normally a shutdown day. I've been told that Monday will not be a day off for track and signal forces, as some of the switches high up on the hump lead are due for replacement. I'll give them a whole week to work out the kinks before I have to return.

I can tell you right now that the differences between us and North Platte are like night and day. They are so much larger, more automated, more centrally located, and perform many functions that we don't, just by virtue of their location. It's virtually impossible to run a train through Proviso with a 1000-mile inspection, for example. They usually try things there first, and then move them out to outlying yards (their technology for wheelset changeout on empty coal trains is now being used on stack cars in Global 2, for example).

However, I'm excitedly waiting for this issue to arrive--I'll probably take it with me on vacation.

____________________

SJ, if my sensitive side is ever mentioned by any of my little sisters, you know it's gotta be there somewhere!

Or were you referring to my sensitive stomach?

____________________

Just heard on the radio that Art Linkletter has passed away, at age 97. I remember listening to his "House Party" on weekday afternoons, before I was burdened with such things as all-day school. He was a firm believer in sharing and enjoying the wisdom of young kids. His show was on TV already back in the 1950s, but on radio well before then.

____________________

[CShaveRR]

Thanks for the flashbacks, Bruce! I'm of an age to remember a specific Western Union Telegraph office downtown, but not connected with any railroads. However, I can remember telegraph chatter at the local GTW station--something that wasn't all that necessary, because the operators also had the railroad phone lines.

FTD was (is?) Florists Transworld Delivery. I still remember their ad with the little old lady saying, "Now you be sure those flowers aren't damaged going through the wires, young man!"

[AgentKid]

Would you believe there is an entry for FTD in Wikipedia? Some things have really gotten easier. No more heavy encyclopedia books to lift.

Anyway, FTD was established in 1910 as Florists' Telegraph Delivery and changed its' name to Florists' Transworld Delivery in 1965. I sort of remember that, because by then telegraph was disappearing from the railways and as an idea in society as a whole. Both my parents always lamented that fact, but time marches forward.

The idea of telegraph, and its' expressions, have mostly disappeared from people's minds, but I still get a certain feeling when I hear the line from Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"; "The Captain wired in, he had water coming in..." They would have of course been using a radiotelegraph set.

Bruce

 

[CShaveRR]

Just saw that UP 6936 is working its way east on some intermodal freight (into the "chaos"). It's supposed to be at Franklin Park's Railroad Days, coming up next (not this) weekend. I saw this unit the last time it visited Chicago. It doesn't seem as big as it used to, probably because it's only 20 or so feet longer than an SD70ACE. It figures--I probably won't be home for this appearance.

I've been out on the computer for about 40 minutes now, and have heard three freight trains go through.

[CShaveRR]

My younger daughter is a teaching assistant for some music theory classes at a university out west (and a grad student, as well). Among the other things she does, she writes the program notes for the university's orchestra concerts. She also grades papers, and enjoys some of the answers she receives. Evidently that aspect of the "job" has affected her a bit. You don't need to know my daughter or the music to appreciate the fun she was having here:

Tonight's concert begins with Debussy's Prélude à “L’après-midi d’un faune,” which is often mistaken for The Rite of Spring on listening exams because the syllabus includes four different pieces that open with a flute solo, and even though The Rite of Spring features a bassoon instead of a flute, it's playing in such an obscenely high register that many students just can't tell the difference. You'd think that the Debussy would have made more of an impression, though, because we showed them a video of Nijinsky's choreography, and they sounded pretty flabbergasted when the lead dancer simulated ejaculating onto the nymph's scarf. Um, spoiler alert.

The next piece, Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Suite, is pretty neat; I played it with my high school orchestra and my youth orchestra. There's a viola solo in the second movement that I definitely played in high school, but I don't remember who played it in my youth orchestra. It was probably Lucy, but it may have been me [it was she.--Dad]. Anyway, the viola solo is completely overshadowed by the string bass solo because, let's face it, those guys just don't often get solos in movements named "Romance." Later on, there's even a tuba solo. The "Troika" music shows up all over the place, especially around Christmas, but I really can't muster up a lot of enthusiasm for it. The strings have to play a lot of fast pizzicato quadruple stops to simulate balalaikas, and I got blisters both times I played it. Oh, by the way, Kijé isn't real. It's a funny story; you really should look into it.

Next are a bunch of student compositions. The composers are in the audience, so please be polite.

The concert concludes with Liszt's Les Préludes, which my friend Mike (a Liszt scholar) admits wasn't his best work. The horn melody always reminds me of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," so I really have a hard time taking it as seriously as it seems to take itself.

P.S. I also saw the real notes for the concert--they're a good read, too!

[AgentKid]

CShaveRR

Evidently that aspect of the "job" has affected her a bit.

 

My school teaching sister seems to get "affected" the same way too, at times.

I enjoyed your daughter's notes

Bruce

 

[CShaveRR]

I wish she'd do more of these, and hope she got her papers graded!

I posted yesterday morning about the trains going by while I was at the computer. Today seems busier--there have been at least a half-dozen freights going past, and I'm writing this after only 40 minutes or so of being up. There's a scoot stopping at the station now. In the quiet hours of the morning one can usually distinguish between EMD and GE units, and hear the flat wheels on the train (no, that doesn't make me hungry!).

Pat and I were knocked for a couple of loops yesterday: one of our dear friends from church (and a Facebook friend as well), a champion of mothers' causes, and a mother of six herself, passed away in her sleep the night before last, at age 61. The cause has not been determined. Then last evening I found out that a young railfan and photographer friend of mine from British Columbia has cancer--ovarian and uterine cancer, at age 16. Pat and I are both feeling very thankful to be awake and healthy this morning, but also still reeling from the twin shocks.

I'll be monitoring UP 6936's progress today, as it heads toward arrival at Rochelle Saturday morning. I think it may have picked up on its schedule a bit; it's currently in Wyoming.

[CShaveRR]

It now appears that UP 1983 and 2001 will be joining the 6936 at Franklin Park the first weekend in June.

And for another Railroad Days being held the same weekend, UP 2010 (the recently-introduced Boy Scout Centennial unit) is supposed to be at Rochelle.

Decisions, decisions...Or just go see 'em all!

Another special unit, UP Olympic SD70M 2002, was seen being relayed to the departure tracks to take MPRCB out of town today.

As for UP 6936, the big brute's in Nebraska now, still headed east. Ought to be good for daylight from roughly Marshalltown, Iowa, east to Rochelle, if the current schedule holds. It'll reportedly head out of Rochelle that night on a train bound for Global 2. If that holds up, it will be around Proviso for a couple of days--but I wouldn't count on it being anywhere the public can find it (and it's definitely uncool for a railroader to show up at work during his vacation!)

R.I.P. Gary Coleman--his modeling work was featured in MR once.

[CShaveRR]

CShaveRR

It now appears that UP 1983 and 2001 will be joining the 6936 at Franklin Park the first weekend in June.

Nope--they have now gone out on various runs, and the WP unit's on its way back home. I guess, if Omaha's the equivalent of Mount Olympus, the 2001 is headed home as well--on MPRCB.

___________________

At midnight, I'm officially on vacation. To wind up, I had the privilege of working with Proviso's best hump conductor --and I don't care who knows about that opinion. This is a person who gets things done safely, efficiently, and quietly. And who's a little crazy, in the best sense of the word.

My little sister won't let me refer to where we're headed as the Midwest, but the Wabash used to have a heart in its logo to describe the area.

[CShaveRR]

Low-maintenance Lounge here--I have to come in every once in a while to keep the cobwebs away.

We just got back from a lovely lunch with Johnny and Ricki Degges (we all know Johnny as "Deggesty"). They are on an amazing cross-country (and then some!) trip via Amtrak and rental cars, and we persuaded them to put Lombard on their route. Three trains went past during the hour that we were in the restaurant.

We had borrowed a wheelchair, and after lunch gave Johnny and Ricki the narrated, guided tour of Lilacia Park, where another stack train went past us. The tour was shortened by the threatening, and occasionally rainy, skies (we skipped the weeping mulberry trees and Rastus), but the park was pretty, even without the lilacs and tulips--we learned that people from Utah really appreciate lots of green planty things!

[Willy2]

CShaveRR

Low-maintenance Lounge here--I have to come in every once in a while to keep the cobwebs away.

 

We just got back from a lovely lunch with Johnny and Ricki Degges (we all know Johnny as "Deggesty"). They are on an amazing cross-country (and then some!) trip via Amtrak and rental cars, and we persuaded them to put Lombard on their route. Three trains went past during the hour that we were in the restaurant.

 

We had borrowed a wheelchair, and after lunch gave Johnny and Ricki the narrated, guided tour of Lilacia Park, where another stack train went past us. The tour was shortened by the threatening, and occasionally rainy, skies (we skipped the weeping mulberry trees and Rastus), but the park was pretty, even without the lilacs and tulips--we learned that people from Utah really appreciate lots of green planty things!

If Utah is anything like Arizona, and I'm sure it is in some places, then I can see why they like green things!

Do you know if they are coming through Omaha on their way back to Utah?

[CShaveRR]

Current plans put them through Omaha on June 11 on the train. It's a fascinating itinerary--today was the third time they've been in Chicagoland on this trip; one more to go!

[chad thomas]

 Hey Carl, I t looks like you have been spending too much time in here by yourself . Perhaps I should help knock down the cobwebs, mabee even set up the popcorn machine .

 

Well,'railfanning is like a box of chocolates, you never know quite what you're gunna git' .

Just about the last thing I expected to see, especially on the west coast, was this:

A F unit in regular freight service in 2010???. Nevertheless I caught this train approaching the US Gypsum plant in Plaster City, Calif last week.  I suspect this is a unit from Campo ( the Pacific Southwest Rail Museum) leased to to operator of the old Corizzo George line and this was the daily (?bi-daily or whatever) eastbound run to UP because the F was behind the train (as if it ran around at the previous sideing to work US Gypsum's yard). There were covered hoppers (sand from Campo) and tank cars (? water or some other non wallboard product) in the mix.

 

I also happend to pass by the US Gypsum plant at Empire, Nv.a couple days later where I found a massive stageing area for the Ruby pipeline project has sprung up. 

 

Also the UP is putting quite a bit of resources into fixing up the former Modoc Northern, nee Lake co. Ry., Great Western, SP, NCO... Lakeview branch for stageing a large quantity of pipe  (not sure if it's the same Ruby pipeline or not and haven't taken the time to look into it, but probably is).

 

 

[chad thomas]

 Has anybody heard from Chris (Copcar) lately??? His photographic talents are missed .

[blhanel]

chad thomas

 Has anybody heard from Chris (Copcar) lately??? His photographic talents are missed .

He's been around, but not as much- we keep in touch more on Facebook and fuzzybroken's 3-um (http://www.fuzzyworld3.com/3um/index.php) than on here.

[Deggesty]

Willy2

If Utah is anything like Arizona, and I'm sure it is in some places, then I can see why they like green things!

Do you know if they are coming through Omaha on their way back to Utah?

Willy, there are some green spots in Utah, but nothing at all like what we saw when driing up and down the Shenadoah Valley

As to Omaha, we will be passing through on #5 Friday week. I expect we will be asleep (and, Mookie, I expect we will be asleep when we pass through Lincoln).

[mudchicken]

Chad:

The F9A is a refugee from Yakima Washington (Temple Industries Washington Central's Spirit Dinner Train)....Wondered where that rascal (#82 or #84) got to. It has a cousin, F7A #101 somewhere, probably Yakima (at one point, there were 4 A's and a B unit, most of the others are near you in the Carrizoso Gorge).

[Mookie]

Deggesty

Willy2

If Utah is anything like Arizona, and I'm sure it is in some places, then I can see why they like green things!

Do you know if they are coming through Omaha on their way back to Utah?

Willy, there are some green spots in Utah, but nothing at all like what we saw when driing up and down the Shenadoah Valley

As to Omaha, we will be passing through on #5 Friday week. I expect we will be asleep (and, Mookie, I expect we will be asleep when we pass through Lincoln).

Everyone sleeps thru Lincoln! 

[CNW 6000]

Finally back from the trip to Kansas...would've hit the "hog law" on the road about 40 minutes to home yesterday but we had to get there.  Trip report and pics to follow once I get a chance to get things processed and posted.

[CShaveRR]

Thanks, all, for livening up the place. I guess popcorn would be OK, Chad...but please, no cuspidors!

Getting ready to hit the road today from Columbus. Didn't see much rail traffic at all yesterday, except for a CSX move right in downtown Columbus. We went to a few quilt shops (I'll be getting a new shirt!), and to the Columbus Museum of Art for an exhibit of works by Dale Chihuly, who has to be Pat's favorite artist.

Today, we'll be going to Marion, Ohio, where we should see a few more trains. If Joe can make it, he and Matt will join us there. If not, we'll see them in Defiance for supper.

Dan, is Aedan a good traveler over the long distances? I hope so!

Cuspidors...blecch!

[Modelcar]

CShaveRR

Getting ready to hit the road today from Columbus. Didn't see much rail traffic at all yesterday, except for a CSX move right in downtown Columbus.

 

Carl.....From your note written in Columbus....it appears we passed each other rather close yesterday.  Passed thru Columbus on {straight thru}, I-70 yesterday {Tuesday}, about 1 pm headed for Indiana, returning from Pennsylvania.

[CShaveRR]

Yes, Quentin--we were on 70 from the outskirts of Indianapolis to Broad Street in Columbus. This was early afternoon.

Today was a train day--we went from Columbus to Marion, where we saw several CSX and NS trains going past the station/tower/railfan-site/eating spot. Joe and Matt joined us fairly early on, along with Greg Zoll, a friend of theirs (who doesn't post here). We had lunch at The Shovel (about three stars). I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of CSX trains move smartly from the former EL line to the former NYC line via a high-speed crossover just west of the diamonds, but was also dismayed to see the mud-fouled ballast on the same ex-NYC line right in front of the station. Pat commented on the fountains of water coming up every time a truck passed over one spot in particular.

We went from Marion through Kenton, which used to be the site of the International Car Company's production plant for many, if not most, of the cabooses built during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It's only remaining claim to fame is that it was the home of Jacob (?) Parrott, the recipient of the first-ever Congressional Medal of Honor in 1863. So what? He got it because he was one of the Union participants in the 1862 Andrews Raid--a.k.a. The Great Locomotive Chase.

We stopped at Lima to visit the Allen County Museum, which has a tremendous archive of railroad artifacts. Those aren't visible to most visitors, but the rest of the museum is pretty neat, too. Before we left, we found out that Matt not only will consume your fries, he will also gladly operate your model railroad layout. By the time Pat and I got into that room, he was controlling two or three HO-scale trains on this good-sized layout!

Supper was at Defiance, a relatively short distance away from Lima. Matt and Joe again joined us at The Station, which has a decent view of action on both the Maumee & Western and the ex-B&O main line of CSX. MAW surprised us twice--they pulled their cars off the interchange track (there were a lot of them!), and they had both of their locomotives here in town--an ATSF CF7 (its current number, 5, was the third digit of its original number; it was lettered CNUR), and an ex-IC Geep, numbered 16. CSX also sent a stacker through. Again, three stars on the meal--neither Pat nor I liked the cole slaw, but they did substitute applesauce for our fries--Joe was the only one from whom Matt could mooch tonight! We dropped those two off at their home, but not before Joe gave us the "dollar tour" of Defiance and the things that distinguish the place. CSX cooperated with three more freights.

So tonight it's Toledo, tomorrow morning it's Fostoria! C'mon out and introduce yourselves!

[Modelcar]

CShaveRR

Yes, Quentin--we were on 70 from the outskirts of Indianapolis to Broad Street in Columbus. This was early afternoon.

 

In that case....we passed within 200' {or closer}, of each other someplace along 70....

[tree68]

mudchicken

The F9A is a refugee from Yakima Washington (Temple Industries Washington Central's Spirit Dinner Train)....

In which case I may have ridden behind it while that operation was still running. 

Running an F backwards is a real pain.

[CShaveRR]

Another day of interesting train-watching!

While we were still at breakfast in Toledo, Joe called us to tell us that CSX had derailed cars from a coal train in Fostoria (C&O side), and both of those diamonds were blocked. When we got down there, this diamonds were cleared, and CSX was running plenty of trains on the B&O side. After calling Joe back to update him, we checked north of the diamonds and found R. J. Corman and gang rerailing a car; nothing else appeared to be on the ground. Most of the time we hung out at the B&O/NS diamond by the old passenger station, since we knew that we wouldn't see much on that other route. I think we were close to the diamonds for about seven trains, all on the B&O side (two of them turned south on the old C&O). An NS train was waiting west of town for something we couldn't figure out (CSX's signals were red at this point).

But between trains, we explored the city like we'd never done before. It's really a sad place--a lot of once-magnificent houses fallen into various stages of disrepair, and plenty of abandoned factories near the tracks and vacant businesses downtown. We found an antique store that advertised "trains and glass"--not much of the former in the store itself, unfortunately.

And guess what...we found the current location of the Erie-Sistable! It's behind a fence on a factory site north and east of the diamonds. We resisted.

Spent a total of a good three hours in the city. We will definitely go back again!

Currently mooching internet privileges from my sister in eastern Michigan...not much railfanning activity planned for the rest of the trip, with quilt stores and the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids to visit.

[Willy2]

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?

[CNW 6000]

...or a short jaunt an hour north of Milwaukee?

[Deggesty]

CShaveRR

Low-maintenance Lounge here--I have to come in every once in a while to keep the cobwebs away.

 

We just got back from a lovely lunch with Johnny and Ricki Degges (we all know Johnny as "Deggesty"). They are on an amazing cross-country (and then some!) trip via Amtrak and rental cars, and we persuaded them to put Lombard on their route. Three trains went past during the hour that we were in the restaurant.

 

We had borrowed a wheelchair, and after lunch gave Johnny and Ricki the narrated, guided tour of Lilacia Park, where another stack train went past us. The tour was shortened by the threatening, and occasionally rainy, skies (we skipped the weeping mulberry trees and Rastus), but the park was pretty, even without the lilacs and tulips--we learned that people from Utah really appreciate lots of green planty things!

Persuaded? I had hoped that we would be able to get together, and had let Carl know what times we would be in Chicago this trip so he could work out the best time according to his (and Pat’s) schedule. As it was, we stopped in Lombard for lunch with them at the Main Street Café (we now know why they eat there so often that they are well-known by the staff), and then an all too short walk in the Park. We stopped there on our way from Evanston (where Ricki lived from her birth until shortly the family moved to Memphis) where we saw the current version of the hospital where she was born and the apartment and the two houses where she lived (we saw the house in Lake Forest where they lived just before moving) to Bolingbrook, where one of my nephews and his wife live.

Except for another visit to Memphis, we have finished Ricki’s memorabilia of this trip, and I have a third one of my four living sisters-in-law to visit.

We arrived in Portland this morning, rented a car, and drove to where we think we met (introduced by a freight train), and we leave for sunny California tomorrow.

[Deggesty]

Mookie

Everyone sleeps thru Lincoln! 

Even the enginemen?