Trackside Lounge: 2Q 2010

[CShaveRR]

Frustrating day, both at work and at home. At work, we could hump a few cars, but the trains all had cars for the same few destinations, so we eventually had to take a few long breaks until tracks got pulled (and they had extreme difficulty with that on the other end, for some reason).

Coming home, no trains in sight. But, due to the Lilac Festival activities in town, trains were sounding their horns at the crossings nearest the park. Guess what I've been hearing all the time since I got home. Figures...

[The Butler]

Thanks, Carl. 

[CShaveRR]

The Butler

Can someone tell me where in Chicago this photo was taken?

Exec train at Chicago

It is my laptop's wallpaper.  It looks as if there is a road or walkway really near the tracks.  I am guessing it is a public road/walkway.  Also, is that the Chicago River in the background?

That photo is taken a short distance north of the north throat of Union Station. I don't think that's a public road down there; it might lead to the interlocking tower (Lake Street, I think it's called--you can see the roof of the tower over the top of the third E unit). And yes, that's the Chicago River in the background--it's about at the point where the north and south branches come together.

[CShaveRR]

That's true--the 1995 is definitely the most accident-prone of the Heritage units: everything from this to getting the handrails crumpled in a yard sideswipe.

[Lord Atmo]

nanaimo73

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100514/NEWS01/100519643#u-p-train-strikes-truck-in-bellevue

Wait till Lord Atmo hears about this!

 

 

Ehhh 1995 has been in other accidents before this one. Poor thing can't seem to avoid them. I caught this special when it made its way through Altoona too. Hope they can fix it up. 1995 is the only heritage unit that will probably ever be seen in Altoona

[The Butler]

Can someone tell me where in Chicago this photo was taken?

Exec train at Chicago

It is my laptop's wallpaper.  It looks as if there is a road or walkway really near the tracks.  I am guessing it is a public road/walkway.  Also, is that the Chicago River in the background?

[The Butler]

nanaimo73

Carl, they damaged your locomotive!

Loconotes Yahoo Group

Union Pacific's "C&NW Heritage" SD70ACe 1995 suffered light damage (ditch lights and handrails) when it hit an Anderson Excavating (UP contractor) near Offutt AFB in Bellevue, NE, at 1600 (4:00 pm) Friday, May 14, 2010. The unit and its train (an inspection special) were able to limp into Council Bluffs. There has been local TV and newspaper footage of this incident.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100514/NEWS01/100519643#u-p-train-strikes-truck-in-bellevue

Wait till Lord Atmo hears about this!

Dem's fightin' words! 

[blhanel]

 

[nanaimo73]

Carl, they damaged your locomotive!

Loconotes Yahoo Group

Union Pacific's "C&NW Heritage" SD70ACe 1995 suffered light damage (ditch lights and handrails) when it hit an Anderson Excavating (UP contractor) near Offutt AFB in Bellevue, NE, at 1600 (4:00 pm) Friday, May 14, 2010. The unit and its train (an inspection special) were able to limp into Council Bluffs. There has been local TV and newspaper footage of this incident.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100514/NEWS01/100519643#u-p-train-strikes-truck-in-bellevue

Wait till Lord Atmo hears about this!

[AgentKid]

Today is the first day in a while that I have had time to make more than a quick post or two to the forum. I thought I would take this time to follow up on the post I made on this thread back on April 30 about the time my parents saw the first WB "Canadian" at Hatton, SK.

I have a rare opportunity thanks to the June issue of TRAINS to show you where Hatton is. On page 36 you will see where the mainline crosses the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. You will see Medicine Hat and to the right you will see Golden Prairie.

Golden Prairie is on a branch line off of the main called the Hatton Sub. The scale is a bit misleading as the sub. is only 17 miles long. The junction of the branchline and the mainline is Hatton. The switch is about 200 feet east of the old station site. There is nothing there now and Hatton appears on a Ghost Towns of Saskatchewan web site.

Have a good weekend.

Bruce

 

[CShaveRR]

MC, I didn't get close to the rock pile (they blocked one of our roads with it, and it would be difficult to turn around). But I'm somewhat used to chips, and I think this stuff was larger. Looked a lot like pre-fouled ballast to me. Or maybe that's just the nature of the stuff coming out of that hole in Missouri.

Had a good laugh a couple of days ago--we humped a gondola load of "ballast" (that's what my sheet said!) that looked to be about cobblestone-sized. I made some remark about putting that stuff in the yard, which amused people who know my sarcastic bent. I wouldn't have wanted to see that stuff anywhere, except well-buried!

[mudchicken]

Paul: Both western railroads frown on mixing ballast gradations, prefer to keep the ballast gap-graded so the stuff drains.

Instead of mainline ballast (3.5 inch screened), Carl may be looking at Yard Ballast (1.5"screened) or Chips (3/4" screened)....Waste (Screenings/fines less than 3/4") tends to clump together and clogs-up in a dump train or conventional ballast hopper. Waste tends to show up in air-dumps and is only placed on switching leads in the walkways (usually shot water to and rolled )-the stuff barely drains. Lessons learned from "California Walkways" (G.O. 118) make sure the stuff does not get mixed with regular ballast (attracts weeds & dirt like crazy if you mix it with ballast, weedkiller like RoundUp is ineffective at controlling it)

The open areas at Barstow are seas of "waste"....

Betcha Carl is looking at "chips".

Mud

[CShaveRR]

Last I'd heard, Rock Springs was under water from last year's monumental flooding ("monumental" in a broad, horizontal sense). I guess they're back in business up there, though.

Maybe some rock islands emerged as the water went down...

[CNW 6000]

Is Rock Springs near water?  Do they have an isolated piece of land within the water?  You know...a Rock Island?

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Maybe the rock has much more smaller pieces and some 'fines' in it to make it easier and better to compact and walk on ?

Fascinating stuff - I've always been interested in that equipment, and the innovative people who thought it up and persevered enough to develop and market it.  Please continue to keep us posted, Carl. Thanks.

- Paul North. 

[CShaveRR]

CShaveRR

... we had a double Dump Train arrive at Proviso from Iron Mountain, Missouri. The train is being held here for some project; perhaps the load of ballast is for the additional track to be built around the yard.

The rock (it's about the same size as ballast, but doesn't look quite right) is for modifications to hump ladders and bowl tracks--things are supposed to start getting re-profiled next month. The Dump Train was emptied yesterday after I left work, and is now headed up to (presumably) Rock Springs for a new load.

[zardoz]

tree68

If you watch carefully, you'll see several vehicles make repeat appearances. 

You may also note that the general public behaved as bad back then as they do now around heavy pieces of transportation equipment.

[CShaveRR]

I didn't check, but I think the normal practice is for UP to add a locomotive. Jeff should weigh in on this one--he handled the train last time it happened.

EDIT: There was an SD70ACE to lead the train. They got to Chicago pretty late, right around Midnight. Apparently a good 30 minutes was dropped toward our end of the pike.

[blue streak 1]

CShaveRR

Back to the present...UP is, as we speak, giving the California Zephyr a smooth ride across Illinois, due presumably to washouts on the BNSF line in Iowa caused by recent torrential rains.

Carl: Did UP have to add a cab signal loco or was the Amtrak loco so equipped?

 

[CShaveRR]

Back to the present...UP is, as we speak, giving the California Zephyr a smooth ride across Illinois, due presumably to washouts on the BNSF line in Iowa caused by recent torrential rains.

[Modelcar]

It is apparent that black shiny open car is dodging around the vehicle with the camera for some purpose.  Also, it appears not too many safety and traffic regulations are in effect.  But the flick is interesting.

[Modelcar]

.....I agree, that black shiny open car dodging back and forth is not normal....It's there for show or something else.....Just not normal driving.  It is apparent though, there were very few traffic regulations {or safety} in effect.

[tree68]

CShaveRR

How about a trip in the way-back machine?

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k

This reportedly was the first 35mm motion picture ever made, and is about seven minutes' worth of a cable car ride up Market Street in San Francisco, on April 14, 1906--four days before the great earthquake. Lots of cable cars on this route, and a few streetcars crossing the tracks, as well as moving conveyances of every sort imaginable.

I've seen this before.  If you watch carefully, you'll see several vehicles make repeat appearances.  It's also interesting that people were apparently very comfortable with the measured pace of the streetcars.

It's apparent that some people knew that this was a special run.

There is also a "second reel" somewhere on Youtube that shows the car's arrival at the terminal.

[mudchicken]

Dump trains are my kinda serious toys. The folks at Georgetown are a very interesting bunch. They can throw that rock a 'fer piece. (Carl: The other older Georgetown units are still out there. GRR has an unbelievable waiting list for those things. They are adding 1-2 trainsets a year.)

CSX 280 wandered into Denver today on BNSF's Lincoln-McCook-Denver general merchandise (junk) train...a long way from home rails and it snuck by Mooks.....Still almost a half dozen blue EMDX/HLMX GP-38 leasers on UP in Denver like CopCar saw earlier. The smaller MP-15's and SW-1500's are vanishing.(The ex-BN SD9R's are long gone - they used to all be too common)

Coors in Golden got a 50 Car coal train today from UP's North Fork branch on the western slope. They usually get 2-5 cars a train mixed in with the other mixed carloads on the three daily beer runs.

[CShaveRR]

How about a trip in the way-back machine?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k

This reportedly was the first 35mm motion picture ever made, and is about seven minutes' worth of a cable car ride up Market Street in San Francisco, on April 14, 1906--four days before the great earthquake. Lots of cable cars on this route, and a few streetcars crossing the tracks, as well as moving conveyances of every sort imaginable.

[CShaveRR]

Hope you weren't too humble to have a great day, Jim! We sure did!

Back to work today. As gloomy and miserable as the weather was, my day didn't go badly at all. UP Olympic SD70 2002 paraded by me in the morning; I think it was to go out on MPRCB this afternoon. Then we had a double Dump Train arrive at Proviso from Iron Mountain, Missouri. The train is being held here for some project; perhaps the load of ballast is for the additional track to be built around the yard.

These Dump Trains are fascinating creatures. Lately they've been running as pairs of the trains with the unloading cars in the middle. It also appears that the design has undergone a refinement. The original Dump Trains have large cars with two trucks apiece and four compartments for unloading. The newer train I saw today was (except for the unloading car) totally articulated, with one truck under each connection. Each car number was two units, two compartments apiece. I'm sure this makes for less-pronounced flexing of the conveyor belt. Can't wait to see where they put the rock pile!

[switch7frg]

   A heartfelt thanks to all the folks who sent me  " greetings of the day" on this thread and other ones.  This humbles me greatly.

                               Respectfully , Cannonball~~  another Jim

[CNW 6000]

Mookie

CNW 6000

CShaveRR

Thanks for fixing it, Larry! I can see clearly now...

...the rain is gone?

BOO!

Who?

[Mookie]

CNW 6000

CShaveRR

Thanks for fixing it, Larry! I can see clearly now...

...the rain is gone?

BOO!

[CNW 6000]

CShaveRR

Thanks for fixing it, Larry! I can see clearly now...

...the rain is gone?