{Carl}....I got to Elmhurst in both directions, bumping the trip up to 23.5 miles. It didn't pay off in the sightings department, though.
[/quote]
That is a pretty good figure for one ride Carl....Back in my bike riding days {back a ways}, I would do about 10 mi. here in the neighborhood, and figured that was plenty. Never did any real long distance rides on our Trail either.
By the way, it has been extended some more now....I believe the total now is near 50 mi. Better get down this way some time and give that a try. Believe just a short distance to be worked yet to be continous to Richmond, In...That is southeast of us. The Cardinal Greenway Trail.
Quentin
Thanks, Paul, it sounds a heck of a lot better than "washed-up railroad guy", doncha think?
As someone else has pointed out to me, I seem to have gotten through the transition (so far) without having the feeling of worthlessness or boredom that some people may be afflicted with. Things are getting done here, and our backyard looks better than it has in decades (that wasn't a "honey-do" thing; it's just stuff that had been neglected for too long, all getting done quickly).
Trip to Proviso went smoothly, but never goes quite the way one expects. I didn't see nearly enough trains, but did see the new retiree, as well as about six old coots who came back from the past to help pull him out of there. The hump leads all have new rail and ties now, and the old North Rip is completely gone--it will be replaced, though, with fresh rail and far better drainage. I got to Elmhurst in both directions, bumping the trip up to 23.5 miles. It didn't pay off in the sightings department, though.
Now I've gotten back home, where my wife and five new magazines (including the Trains 70th anniversary issue) were waiting for me. If it weren't for the nature of the sightings I got and the letter I got with other good freight car stuff, I'd be curled up with that issue right now, falling asleep in the recliner...
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)
Carl, I'm glad you're enjoying retirement and catching up on the personal 'to-do someday' items.
I've been meaning to tell you - and I didn't see where anyone else has noted it, though I might well have missed it - that I really like your ''Railroader Emeritus'' title. It's most appropriate and truly based in fact, with just enough of a touch of whimsy and innovation. Congratulations ! If you can, perhaps you ought to TM or SM that one as well . . .
- Paul North.
Been quiet lately...I've been at home, working on file updates (passed Milepost Two, and now have over 2200 items in the new computer). Been out a few times, but no trains to note. Had lunch with the grandson yesterday, and noted that he now just shouts out when he sees something that excites him, instead of screaming--people who understand two-year-old can actually tell what it is that he's getting excited about (we were by an airport for lunch).
Big plans for today, though, and they include a trip back in to Proviso--somebody else is retiring! Pat isn't coming with me, so I'm going to take time to smell the... well, the freight cars! Might come home via Elmhurst--I'll be on my bike.
Going direct between Mo Valley and Fremont, assuming you don't get held at Kennard to meet/be passed by higher priority traffic, takes about 1 hour. Miliage is about 30 miles, but permanent slows, grade etc usually make most trains take an hour.
A good trip out of Fremont via Omaha means leaving the north end of Council Bluffs in about 2 or 2 1/2 hours. Getting thru Council Bluffs can sometimes be a problem. At certain times of the day you have trains working the old CNW yard or yard engines working a couple of industries or just going across town. Sometimes you're waiting on the few westward trains coming down the single track from Mo Valley. Leaving CB after being on duty 6 or 7 hours isn't unheard of.
When the second track is in all the way, all that can be bypassed. I would say after that the only eastbounds to go the "long way" will be ones that have work to do in the Bluffs. Even 135 car DPU coal trains can, and have gone the "short way" via Blair. (Some have developed engine problems and then stalled making a big mess, but that's another story.)
Jeff
To quote Carl: "Also around Omaha (and I do mean around Omaha!), photographic evidence suggests that UP is doing some grading to add a second track to portions of the Blair Subdivision. This will help alleviate a bottleneck at Fremont, and may permit more eastbound trains to use this line, bypassing Omaha and Council Bluffs (and saving about 40 miles in the process). Although the eventual goal may be to two-track the entire line from Fremont to Mo Valley, that's probably a long way off, as two major bridge projects (over the Elkhorn and Missouri Rivers) would be involved."
I understand that about a century or so ago, there was some thought given to running all traffic directly between Missouri Valley and Fremont, but the idea was abandoned since it would have taken quite a bit of the residents of Omaha north. Now, the balance of employment between rail and non-rail has changed quite a bit, so Omaha would lose only a small part of its populace if all traffic that did not have to go through Omaha were diverted--with the sving of about forty miles per trip (how much time would now be saved, Carl?).
Johnny
Paul_D_North_Jr Quentin/ modelcar, and maybe some others here - Did you happen to see on the Indiana University Press website - a recent sale was the subject of a thread here about a week ago - that there's a new book on the South Pennsylvania Railroad, out less than a month: THE RAILROAD THAT NEVER WAS - Vanderbilt, Morgan, and the South Pennsylvania Railroad, by Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., publication date 08-31-2010 - clotn, 184 pages, 50 photos, 20 maps, $29.95. See - http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1037_1272_3794&products_id=433361 Considering Harwood's knowledge and reputation, the $30 is likely a very modest price. I'd be interested to know what anyone who's read it - I haven't, yet - thinks of it. - Paul North.
Quentin/ modelcar, and maybe some others here -
Did you happen to see on the Indiana University Press website - a recent sale was the subject of a thread here about a week ago - that there's a new book on the South Pennsylvania Railroad, out less than a month:
THE RAILROAD THAT NEVER WAS - Vanderbilt, Morgan, and the South Pennsylvania Railroad, by Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., publication date 08-31-2010 - clotn, 184 pages, 50 photos, 20 maps, $29.95.
See - http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1037_1272_3794&products_id=433361
Considering Harwood's knowledge and reputation, the $30 is likely a very modest price. I'd be interested to know what anyone who's read it - I haven't, yet - thinks of it.
That's very interesting Paul....and surprising, to see {at this late date}, another author presenting a book on what was to be: The South Penn RR. There is, on occasion another poster on here that is really an expert on the subject. He has {personally}, visited many, many sites of the partly constructed ROW and dug into history of said project, etc.....I have a booklet on it from many years ago showing and telling of such details of the project.
The RR to be, passed within 10 mi or less of my home in Pennsylvania and I'm somewhat familiar with it's history too. Have been on some of the sites as well....If a person knows what he is looking for...the partly finished ROW is visible at some locations via satellite imaging.
Example: It can be followed from near Allegheny Tunnel on Pa. Turnpike to former Laural Hill Tunnel. There are some gaps of no construction, but a sharp eye can locate and follow it.
By the way, it was to have at least 2 more tunnels than was actually finished for the Pa. Turnpike.
Construction was stopped in 1885.
I'm with MC--haven't had much opportunity to read the magazines, much less books. Glad to hear that Mr. Harwood is still alive and kicking, and apparently as sharp as ever (I had some brief correspondence and conversation with him decades ago, pertaining to some C&O-related issue).
MC, check the thread about UP 7400--where I put the polite word I got three asterisks. Yet I could possibly write "jugs" and get away with it!
Paul: I bought it and it got here over the weekend. After I catch up with my sleep from two weeks of applied bedlam, I'll get into it. (My book consumption is nothing like the boss-(hen)'s....I'm doing good to get home and crash lately)
Carl: Armour Pink? Save the ta-ta's? (must be safe to say if it's on some billboards and bumper stickers hereabouts)
Yes, they've started work on the second track on the Blair subdivision. Supposed to be in phases, the last of which may be the bridge(s) over the Missouri. On another forum, a poster who talked to one of the UP guys said they may straighten out some curves and bypass the current bridge next to US 30.
The first section is between Blair and Kennard. Most of the work (haven't been west for about a week and a half) so far has been on Blair hill, clearing trees.
They've added to the extra boards (both T & E) in the last couple of weeks. Most of the cut-off trainmen have been recalled. One condr I recently worked with, who had been off for a while, said they may send more trainmen towards Illinois to relieve the shortage there. Also they are expecting a big rise in traffic over the next few months.
Quentin, you're right about the come-and-go. We've been out on our bikes again today, and have accomplished a lot of errands.
I only wish I could have gone to Colorado about now--tomorrow's the day that UP 4-6-6-4 3985 pulls the circus train into Denver from Speer, Wyoming. The train itself will have 61 cars (lots of passenger and baggage-type cars among them), so it ought to be an impressive sight--and quite a feat for a single locomotive. Today the circus train is traveling from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne, and it has UP 1983--the Western Pacific Heritage locomotive--on the point.
But if I were in Colorado or Wyoming on Tuesday, I couldn't be in Omaha, when UP 7400, the honorary "Susan G. Komen For the Cure" locomotive, is revealed. Cure for what? The Forum won't let me mention what kind of cancer is involved, but the pink ribbons decaled on the sides of the locomotive should say enough. Nothing elaborate here--just the loop of ribbon where the flag used to be, and some writing on top of the radiator area, much like the Boy Scout unit has.
Also around Omaha (and I do mean around Omaha!), photographic evidence suggests that UP is doing some grading to add a second track to portions of the Blair Subdivision. This will help alleviate a bottleneck at Fremont, and may permit more eastbound trains to use this line, bypassing Omaha and Council Bluffs (and saving about 40 miles in the process). Although the eventual goal may be to two-track the entire line from Fremont to Mo Valley, that's probably a long way off, as two major bridge projects (over the Elkhorn and Missouri Rivers) would be involved.
zugmann Ugh... time for work. This stopped being fun a while ago. Anyone want to take my place...?
Ugh... time for work.
This stopped being fun a while ago. Anyone want to take my place...?
Dan
.....Sounds like all that "my time is our time now" is going well Carl.
I'm sure we all do it differently, but we've survived almost 17 years of it now. So far, so good.
Sounds like you {and Pat}, are enjoying the come and go as you please very well.
Work? Work?
Sorry, Zug--my time is our time now. More work is getting done around home than has been for a long, long time! We're clearing the backyard jungle, updating the sightings files, keeping the grandchildren familiar with us, and doing small things, together or separately, that will make the village take notice.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Bruce,
Sounds like that was fun except for the camera. If you'll take this Yank's advice on batteries, try the Energizer Lithium batteries if you can get them where you live. They have a silver and blue wrapper generally. I use a "point and shoot" Canon Powershot A590IS and typically get about three months out of a set of batteries. Generally I shoot between 10 and 15 pictures per week. Your mileage may vary and they're more expensive (~$5-$8 per pair) but given how long they last it's a no-brainer to me. I have tried rechargables (NiCD and NiMH) but found they can't hold a candle to the Li batteries. I also use them in my scanner for the same reason.
Hope that helps. If you need help with posting pictures:1) Upload the image to your favorite (favourite? LOL) photo site (Flickr, Photobucket, etc).2) Find the link to the image on that site following their instructions to "share" the image. The link may or may not have the proper tags for posting on sites such as this. Look for the tags below.3) The tag you'll need to put before the link to the image is: {img} but use [ instead of {.4) The tag you'll need to put after the link to the image is: {/img} but use [ instead of {.
Now I'm off to go see C703: Coal loads to Weston.
If anyone's curious what I've been up to lately:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ZQJ2f4A48 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxH32Hnp4Bc
More to come.
CShaveRR a full-time job with Reader's Digest. (Had a whole big paragraph here, but condensed it in her honor.)
a full-time job with Reader's Digest. (Had a whole big paragraph here, but condensed it in her honor.)
I read that quote three times before I got the joke. Very good Carl!
I was down at Railway Day's at Heritage Park here in Calgary. It is sponsored by Canadian Pacific. It is the first railfan activity I have done all summer. We have had wet cold weather all summer, and when it was nice I had schedule conflicts or I was not feeling well.
I had a very good time. Saw all of the equipment, met some oldtimers (80+ years old now) who worked with my father, and took a guided tour of park's historic railway coaches. I have read about these coaches and other equipment for years, but I took the tourist oriented tour on the recommendation of a friend, and found out a lot of new information.
I had a miserable time with my camera though. It uses 2 AA batteries and I had to change batteries 3 times. It turned out the ones in the camera when I left home were the best of a bad lot. I started with 2 rechargeable's, switched to two alkaline's, and two more rechargeable's. I did get some good photo's, I think. I am going to use this as an excuse to learn how to post photo's on this thread. My schedule seems lighter this week, so we will see what happens.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
For the time bein', I'm content to just lay back and read what you post, Carl - and I too liked agentkid's little story. I suppose that you also got the writing thing right after 46 years . . .
Hate to have three posts in a row, but have to offer congratulations to former Trains staffer Lorie West, who just got a full-time job with Reader's Digest. (Had a whole big paragraph here, but condensed it in her honor.)
I'd been hoping to take some time for train-watching somewhere--anywhere!--on the way home today, but we didn't leave until after lunch, so not much was seen. Still, railfanning isn't always about seeing trains.
We did notice some new hooded color-light signals at the CSX drawbridge in St. Joseph (some spectacular wave action on the lake, too!). They weren't cut in yet, and the old searchlight signals are still up and functional. We aren't sure yet whether this is an indication that all of the searchlights on this line are being replaced--just a couple of months ago we witnessed maintainers at work on the searchlight signal in front of the passenger station in Holland, with no replacements in sight (however, there are now new, functional color-light signals at the wye in Waverly, just north of Holland, seen today).
The only train we caught on this trip was an eastbound intermodal on NS at Chesterton, Indiana--impressive mostly because of the speed at which he was moving.
We also stopped at Griffith, where a connecting track was recently built to allow trains to go between the former GTW line to the east and the former EJ&E line to the north, allowing the old EJ&E Kirk Yard in Gary to become a principal classification point for CN trains to and from the Chicago area.
I think she used the term in connection with the wide right turn I often make into our driveway,
Jim, while it's true that the Geneva Sub is all CTC now, there still is the issue of proper passenger operation in suburban territory, where the scoots still (usually) stay to the left. But I remember on my very first road trip on the Galena, that we were on the right-hand main out of West Chicago headed west, and the engineer was grumbling about being on the wrong main because that particular dispatcher liked to do that (and this guy wasn't old enough to have wroked in pre-CTC days). We didn't have any work to do before Nelson, which was at the end of CTC territory then. (Nowadays, it's hard to imagine doing any work at Nelson, or the yard and yard office that used to be there.)
CShaveRR My wife, whenever we're driving in the left lane for something, refers to it as the "wrong main." I know, she knows, but anyone else might be going "Huh?"
My wife, whenever we're driving in the left lane for something, refers to it as the "wrong main." I know, she knows, but anyone else might be going "Huh?"
No trains today (see preceding post), but we did some interesting railfanning anyway. We had lunch in Fennville, Michigan, at an old hotel by the tracks. We apparently caught CSX in the middle of a maintenance window, because the only thing we saw was a ballast spreader sprucing up the roadbed (we were told that ties were replaced yesterday, and there were lots of old ties still in evidence--wouldn't have happened that way on UP!). The track goes through Fennville in a long curve, and the superelevation was remarkable. The curve doesn't look like much on a map, but it was a sweeping curve, as far as one could see in either direction. A lightweight passenger car is behind a building that also has a couple of coal silos (not far from where the depot used to be, pre-Amtrak), but we didn't investigate that, because the place was closed.
North of Fennville, near New Richmond, the railroad crosses the Kalamazoo River. Next to the railroad bridge (a former swing bridge) is a historic highway bridge, built in 1897 and probably (according to the historic markers) the oldest surviving pony-truss swing bridge still in existence. It's been closed to vehicular traffic since 1997 (before then, we'd give the girls a thrill by driving over this long one-lane, very weak-looking bridge), but is now open to pedestrian traffic as a form of county park, with other walkways, interpretive signs with historic pictures, etc.
Most of the railroad pictures from the area show wrecks. There was one with Pare Marquette steam locomotive (a 2-6-0 or 4-6-0, most likely) completely upside-down at the bottom of a pile of freight cars at a bridge (possibly a different location), and there was one showing a C&O U25B and an early Geep off the rails (had to be 1960s, because the U-boat was still in the 2500 series). The most interesting one to me, though, showed a pair of lightweight C&O passenger cars on the ground and skewed from the roadbed. They said the date was unknown, but I suspect that somebody could find a date for it. The cars were part of the C&O's 1950 lightweight infusion, so that's the early end of the time period--I suspect that it was before the rebuilding of some of these cars without steel fluting that began in the mid-1960s. Would have been nice to see whether E7s or E8s were the power, because that would help narrow the date down further.
Love it, Bruce!
Taking a trip tomorrow...pray for trains!
CShaveRR scars, aches, and permanently detached ribs from previous bicycling incidents,
scars, aches, and permanently detached ribs from previous bicycling incidents,
Ahh, the things we do in the name of recreation.
My brother is the serious cyclist in the family. He has a small civil engineering company, and he and his partner take on jobs the bigger outfits consider to be a waste of time. A couple of years ago business was so good he was really burning the candle at both ends, and thought he would slip in a little cycling while he was working.
He was on his way out to a job in a rural area near the northwest Calgary City Limits on a nice sunny afternoon. He was on a paved road with a very slight downgrade and coasting along nicely, and the next thing he woke on the grass in the ditch beside the road. It turns out he had fallen asleep while bicycling! When he woke up he was so embarrassed that he jumped up and looked around 360 degrees to see if anyone saw him fall. As he was telling me this story, at this point I said "If Dave falls off of his bike on the prairie and nobody see's him do it, did he really fall?" A philosophy question for a Tuesday morning.
You can take the boy away from the railway, but you can't the the railway out of the boy. Dave now has three adult children. A couple of Christmases ago his youngest daughter was finishing off her last year of high school. My brother had a older minivan that he had put off to the side of the driveway until after she had graduated, and had started to earn money to afford to drive it. We had gotten together between Christmas and New Year, and our mother and me were leaving to go to our respective homes. We were all standing on his driveway when Mom noticed the van covered with snow and dirty, and she said it looked rather forlorn. My brother said, "that van is on a back track for a while." We all knew what he meant, and no one thought it was strange that he said it that way.
Bruce, we're as careful as can be--I still carry scars, aches, and permanently detached ribs from previous bicycling incidents, none of which were really my fault. And Pat doesn't let me do anything "adventurous" when she's with me (you should have heard her today when I stopped closer to the edge of a street than she did--you'd think I was either an old man or a kid!).
Today we took a cruise along the Prairie Path into Wheaton. At Hill Street and President Street there, the new "second-train" signals have been installed in all four quadrants of the crossings, by the pedestrian gates. They aren't activated yet, but when they are, there will be an illuminated sign roughly two feet square, and an audible warning of some sort (doesn't look nearly as powerful as regular grade-crossing horns). We could see that in Glen Ellyn, similar signals will be installed at Park Boulevard--not sure yet about Main Street.
Also at Glen Ellyn, we noticed that the pedestrian walkway across from the station entrance--about midway between the aforementioned grade crossings and a block away from either--has been eliminated. A wire fence continues the entire distance between the two grade crossings. We'd been hearing a lot about work being done at Elmhurst, Lombard, and Wheaton, and wondered what was to happen here. I suspect the pedestrian crossing at Villa Park will also go, if it hasn't already.
CShaveRR will bike back home in an hour or so.
will bike back home in an hour or so.
Be careful out there.
I was enjoying a cup of Tim Horton's coffee after a doctor's appointment this morning when I saw a near tragedy in the making. It has been raining heavily here the last couple of days and I think because of the weather a cyclist cut in front of a Ford Windstar without looking, as he was in a rush. He missed getting hit by such a small margin that I came remarkably close to spitting out a mouthful of hot coffee as it happened. Everyone else in the place turned toward me as I muttered out loud, and therefore they didn't see it happen. Everything else being equal, I would have preferred not to see it either.
Yes, he surprised nearly everyone with his announcement that he wouldn't be running, Chris. All he said was that "It's time." His wife is ailing, though, and I wouldn't doubt that that has played into it. Lots of speculation and a few hats tossed in so far.
Mostly cloudy and 65 degrees out here on the station platform at Elmhurst. So far, only two scoots seen. Pat and I are now capable of transporting both bicycles on the car with little difficulty, thanks to purchases made today (she drove home with her bike, after riding it to Elmhurst; I drove in (we needed the car, too) and will bike back home in an hour or so.
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