And today's birthday is Chris "CopCarSS" May. Hope it's a good one, and that you're feeling better as you fly east. Hope you find your voice there!
I had a day yesterday in which the trains wouldn't stop coming. I got to Elmhurst for my dental appointment about an hour early, and there wasn't a minute of that time in which trains weren't either passing or coming toward us in the distance! There was one neat maneuver that involved two scoots, one freight, and one mainline track east of town that couldn't be used for some reason. Everything kept moving, though!
And after my appointment, things were just as good: two freight trains while I was unlocking my bike, a third before I got out of Elmhurst, one more (plus an unseen scoot) in Villa Park, the other scoot-of-the-hour after I got back into Lombard, and yet another stack train staging at Finley Road.
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)
Happy Birthday, Chris!
Seems to be quite a week of forum members' birthdays.
CShaveRR We got some bad news concerning our upcoming Thanksgiving celebration--our son-in-law from California won't be able to join us as planned this year, due to being in the pool for jury duty. As it stands, Linda may come back home by herself, or we might persuade them to both come for Christmas instead.
Love it, Jim! One of them should have a near-death experience for Christmas. Anyway, they usually come back this way every year for one or the other, and this was the year for Thanksgiving. We're just trying to get them to switch, but it might be too late to change Linda's in-laws' plans.
We got a little squirt of much-needed rain this morning, which has drowned the heck out of our until-now-magnificent (and maybe again) fall colors. We'll have plenty of raking to do. We're also taking out several trees and shrubs in our back yard that never belonged there in the first place, and next month the arborists will be trimming the large trees to let a little more light back there (first time that's been done in the 31 years we've been here). By next year we hope to have made the yard a nice place for retiree(s) to sit outside, do computer work, and listen to trains go by.
cherokee woman Happy Birthday, Chris!
Cripes I step away and that happens. Happy Birthday GhoSStrider!
Now if we can hope that CW behaves around Florida...back to the trains.
Dan
We got some bad news concerning our upcoming Thanksgiving celebration--our son-in-law from California won't be able to join us as planned this year, due to being in the pool for jury duty. As it stands, Linda may come back home by herself, or we might persuade them to both come for Christmas instead.
This talk of flying on a railfan forum reminds me of a truly great line my father said once without planning on it.
He had always be afraid of flying until he took my Mom and my sister down to Disneyland when my sister was 13. A few years later my parents flew to England to visit Mom's relatives. After this second trip I asked my Dad what he thought of this flying thing.
He said there really isn't much to it. The only part he liked was when the plane was on the end of the runway starting to take off, and the pilot "poured on the coal". I said to him, you realize you are one of the few people who've ever actually seen it done. He had ridden pusher steam engines up and down the east side of the Kicking Horse Pass many times to get to Lake Louise or Stephen. My parents both thought that was kind of a neat comment.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Love it, Bruce!
There was a creation at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids that purported to be a steam-powered aircraft, in the shape of a pig. The "back story" on it was that it was designed as as amusement for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but the designer and plans had been lost in a Lake Michigan shipwreck (which allowed Mr. Ferris to have his wheel at the fair instead). SteamPig was mounted suspended, so the pig really was flying, in a way. I couldn't see much of the workings, but it would have been nice if the smoke and steam came out of the nostrils! It was one of the finalists in the show, but I don't believe it won.
Some of you may be interested to know that 2 companies from Pennsylvania and another one from elsewhere in the US had major roles in the rescue of the Chilean miners. As this news story linked below says, the drilling rig was manufactured by Schramm, Inc. of West Chester, Chester Co., PA - a western suburb town of Philadelphia. The bits were manufactured by Center Rock, Inc. of Berlin, Somerset County, PA, which is out towards Pittsburgh - Quentin/ modelcar here can provide more details, I'm sure:
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-allentown-chile-rescue-20101013,0,5840648.story
The drilling rig was owned and operated by Layne Christensen, based near Kansas City and with offices world-wide - see: http://investor.laynechristensen.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=516710 About 5 years ago we worked with their Virginia office on stakeout for the drilled foundations for a nearby parking deck - they definitely seemed to know what they were doing.
Kudos to all 3 companies and their personnel who showed by their accomplishment that they are more than equal to the challenges of the task.
- Paul North.
....Very true Paul....Check the "Diner", I've made a few comments.
Quentin
Hey everyone - thought I'd pop back in and say hi. Work's been keeping me busier the last few weeks than I can remember in a while. Things should be back to normal now so for those who enjoyed my silence: () sorry!
CN's been pretty busy lately. I've taken plenty of pictures when I've been able to sneak out but the only couple things worth mentioning are:-Sunday 10/10 we had a 'rarity' up this way occur. A pair of EJE SD38-2s working together! Another photographer and I just missed getting a pair of BNSF pumpkins passing these two side-by-side.
-The former Olson's Mill in SW Oshkosh got a "new" toy to play with. It was originally built in 1941, rebuilt in 1955, and then again in 1978. So ugly it's cool.
Hasta la taco...
Almost 70 years old, and 32 years since its last rebuild - wow ! Hope I do as well . . .
Thanks for sharing both photos.
Dan, I note where you have categorized these photo's under Wide Cab Photostream. Wide Cab aright, but extremely short body!
I haven't forgotten about the advice for posting photo's you gave me near the end of last Quarter's Lounge. It is just that I have become concerned about my rights to the photo's being posted by a Canadian, on an American photo sharing site like Flickr. I plan to look into whether there is a Canadian based site that provides the same type of service.
The week where I said I had time to look into uploading my photo's didn't turn out that way. A guy should never say things like that ahead of time.
That photo of the pair of EJ&E units might be a very important one someday. Photographic evidence of a piece of history that will never return.
There used to be a couple of those 45-ton side-rod GE's working at the quarry in Elmhurst. They've been gone for a number of years now. I never saw them move much faster than a walk, but that might have gotten interesting, the way they rattled and clanked along the quarry's trackage.
Carl,In chatting with the folks at Ag Services, they had that unit trucked to the location instead of being transported via WSOR to the plant. It's a neat little thing to watch work and seems to speed up things for the WSOR's L595/HK job.
Bruce,Another Flickr user said that because of my affinity for wide-nosed locos (GEs in particular) I should call my account on Flickr something like that. If you peek at my "Loco Roster Shots" collection you can see a few units that aren't around any longer (at least as they were when I shot). A unit on there from FRVR, WC 2500, most of the WC GP40s, WC SD45s...
I think I've got Aedan excited for trains already. When he's at G&G's house (about a block from CN) and he hears a train going past the house he'll run to the kitchen window and look out to see it! My wife claims I've "infected" him ( )...but the other day she called me to report "...a pair of dash 9's and a BNSF something..." heading south towards me. So I guess she can't really talk...or I've "infected" her too...hehe. There's worse things a fella can do I guess. With the weather projected to be as nice as they say for the weekend I'm hoping to get out a couple times. Maybe even see if I can get south next weekend: I guess the SOO 1003 is supposed to be out playing somewhere.
I know he's probably not near a computer today, but a happy significant birthday to Larry "Tree"! But try as you might (or might not), you'll never catch me! You came close again this year.
I'm hoping to celebrate your birthday with a few trains on our way to and from a quilt show at the DuPage County Fairgrounds near Wheaton. There is, as I've noted this past week, a nice pedestrian bridge over the tracks adjacent to the fairgrounds.
CShaveRR .....but a happy significant birthday to Larry "Tree"!
.....but a happy significant birthday to Larry "Tree"!
Jim, I'm sorry if I missed yours this year! Hope it was happy. Does it come in the Lounge's annual Birthday marathon week? (Hey, don't feel too bad...nobody's tumbled here, yet, either!)
Strolling past the Diner, I see that another Jim ("Eolafan") lost his mother yesterday, after an extended illness. Our condolences, and may the memories you live with be the good ones!
CShaveRRI'm hoping to celebrate your birthday with a few trains
As noted in the Diner - I spent my birthday standing in the Adirondack Forest, six miles north of Thendara, waiting for eager youngsters to come pick out 'their' pumpkin.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Time for work.
Have a good day.
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
Back to fall! A crisp 55 degrees and a gentle breeze give a gentle hint of the temps to come in the next weeks. I like fall though, so I welcome the change. This weekend was an interesting one around here. We had steam out and about (SOO 1003-which I missed!), a broken rail under a train just north of Shops which held traffic up for a while (then when things were rolling I missed that too!), and a couple of the ex-UP/exx-CNW C40-8s out and about (2103 and 2115). I managed to get a few shots and some video which I may be able to get processed sometime, but the "wall hanger" for me came on Sunday. It was a comment from my wife after accompanying me to Medina Jct to watch CN roll by at speed. After a loaded SB potash train with helpers on the end flew by at track speed (50 mph with all engines running hard and loud plus the ground shook from the loaded cars) and cleared the area we both stood watching the last DPU round the bend towards Neenah and points further south. She turned to me and said:"Now I see why you like coming here and doing this. That was cool! We should do this again"
Game. Set. Match!
Dan, your wife is the only one in your family I haven't met yet, but I can't wait to now!
No trains on my brief foray to the tracks today, but the first crossover (of four, presumably) is taking shape between the road and the tracks. No place to safely stop (especially on a bike!), so I couldn't see whether the frogs were going to be motorized.
(Gee, even Larry didn't tumble--Move over, Zardoz!)
Janesville...Fort Atkinson...Orangeville...Savanna...Fulton...Clinton...Muscatine?...Rochelle?
Hopefully all of the above by Thursday. Don't know if I'll be back before Friday morning, though, or whether I can get online while we're out. Tonight should include dinner with a lovely young lady who has, for the past ten years or so, called me "Daddy". (Mommy will be there, too.) This in spite of the fact that she has a fan page on Facebook--she still remembers, and so do we. (And tomorrow we get to watch her perform in a musical.)
It sounds like Miz Mookie had a cat-astrophe, landing not quite on her feet. Feel better quickly!
CNW 6000 Medina Jct to watch CN roll by at speed.
Medina Jct to watch CN roll by at speed.
Is that little concrete shanty on the SW corner of the crossing that used to house the interlocking's electronics still standing? Many years ago I first discovered it most of the original wiring and relays were still there (along with lots of debris on the floor). When I saw it again a few years ago, the entire interior had been stripped and cleaned out. All of the wiring (and even the trash) was gone.
CShaveRR (Gee, even Larry didn't tumble--Move over, Zardoz!)
CShaveRR Jim, I'm sorry if I missed yours this year! Hope it was happy. Does it come in the Lounge's annual Birthday marathon week?
Jim, I'm sorry if I missed yours this year! Hope it was happy. Does it come in the Lounge's annual Birthday marathon week?
BTW, it's on the 15th.
Oh for heaven's sake!
Carl's is/was the 16th - the day after Zardoz, same as Tree, a week after Boss Hen, and 6 days after Pat his wife and Willy!
Now go write it down so we don't go thru this next year!
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Mookie Oh for heaven's sake! Carl's is/was the 16th - the day after Zardoz, same as Tree, a week after Boss Hen, and 6 days after Pat his wife and Willy! Now go write it down so we don't go thru this next year!
Since we like to talk photo's here I just had to comment on one of the best ones I've seen in a while.
Yesterday, on the Classic Trains Photo of the Day there was a picture of CPR 2-10-4 Selkirk 5919 at Field, BC. I thought I had seen a lot of pictures up there, but I had never seen that one before. I am not familiar with the work of Albert M. Rich. I thought it was a spectacular picture.
When I was down to Heritage Park Railway Day's in 2008, I ran into a oldtimer who had shared a bunk house with my father at Lake Louise in the early fifties. He told me a very frightening story about hooping a Selkirk there once. If you notice in the photo, the cab slopes in starting just below the window line to facilitate more clearance in tunnels. It also meant that the crew sat slightly inboard from the normal position on other engines. To hoop one, you had to stand several inches closer to the engine than usual.
Now this wasn't a problem when you could stand on the platform, and you easily adapted to it. But the main track was occupied, and he had to go around that train and hoop a train passing through the siding. He remembered that he had to stand slightly closer to the track than normal, and raised the hoop above his head. As the engine passed, the cylinder jacket brushed against his coat, and he realized he was too close! He also correctly realized panic at this point would likely be fatal. He held his position until the engineer took the hoop out of his hand, and then he stepped back.
He continued to work for the CPR until the Station Agent purge of the mid 1960's, when he went to work in the petroleum business. Then when I started in the business in 1976 I used to talk to him several times a month, for the next four years. I recognized his name and mentioned my dad, and he used to tell railway stories once in a while. Now he is a member of the Morse Code club and demonstrates telegraphy at Heritage Park each summer.
AgentKid I used to talk to him several times a month, for the next four years. I recognized his name and mentioned my dad, and he used to tell railway stories once in a while. Now he is a member of the Morse Code club and demonstrates telegraphy at Heritage Park each summer.
I used to talk to him several times a month, for the next four years. I recognized his name and mentioned my dad, and he used to tell railway stories once in a while. Now he is a member of the Morse Code club and demonstrates telegraphy at Heritage Park each summer.
That's one heckuva guy! I'd be happy to put some time in at a Proviso observatory, relating experiences and explaining what's going on, but there is not now, or likely to be, any such animal. I'd volunteer my services at Rochelle, but half of the people visiting that park know more about what's happening than I do (heck, I can't even follow the "CTC board" in the gift shop there!).
Janesville now...managed to see some WSOR power and ballast cars. Also saw some UP way-freight action at Clinton.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.