Trackside Lounge: 2Q 2010

[CShaveRR]

All interesting shots, Larry (one of them wouldn't come up for me, though).

The one that spoke to me most was the one of the roundhouse wall. It took me back to when I was a pre-teen, poking around GTW's yard in Grand Haven. No abandoned roundhouses, and for a time the turntable was still there (later removed). But the coal dock (still standing) was interesting to try and figure out, and I found the foundation for the water tower, and the old ferry slip (apron long gone). Where the tracks weren't used, they were very much overgrown like this.

________________

Birthday greetings to Jim ("Cannonball"). Happiness and good health this coming year!

________________

And anniversary greetings to my wife Pat, who stuck with me through good times and bad for the past 37 years. We're celebrating today with dinner and a show at Drury Lane Theater. One of the stars in Ragtime is a girl who went to high school with our younger daughter (same one we saw in Too Hot to Handel last January).

[zardoz]

CShaveRR

And anniversary greetings to my wife Pat, who stuck with me through good times and bad for the past 37 years.

Congratulations!!  And I thought I was doing good reaching 25 years.

[Willy2]

Happy Anniversary Carl!

[CShaveRR]

Thanks for the anniversary wishes, folks. Dinner/Theater was a great experience, too expensive to do often. Maybe less expensive when you consider that we have no need whatsoever for supper! Our friend Karen had a brief but pivotal solo, and showed how to compete with an orchestra and win!

Speaking of celebrations, how could I have forgotten? It's also Joanie Hanel's birthday. Hope it's been a great one! And a year of joy, happiness, and good health to you as well (good health after the operation, anyway!).

[tree68]

CShaveRR

...one of them wouldn't come up for me, though...

Nor me.  Spelled it wrong (a space where there shouldn't have been).

[CShaveRR]

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

[CNW 6000]

CShaveRR

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

...the rain is gone?

[Mookie]

CNW 6000

CShaveRR

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

...the rain is gone?

BOO!

[CNW 6000]

Mookie

CNW 6000

CShaveRR

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

...the rain is gone?

BOO!

Who?

[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

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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.

[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. 

[CNW 6000]

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

[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...

[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]

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!

[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

 

[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!

[blhanel]

 

[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!