Dan, if your evening news mentions a big fire at Fort Atkinson, that fire caused the evacuation of the theater five minutes before curtain, so we couldn't see "our gal" perform, after all (thank Goodness we got to have dinner with her last night!).
Milton Junction, Wisconsin, is a place I'm going to have to look at in the railroad atlas. I'm pretty sure everything that was there was CNW once, but I'd like to see how all of the lines fit into the bigger scheme of things. A lounge in town (trackside? Not quite any more, but it could have been a station) had a Fairbanks-Morse switcher mounted near the site, nicely painted as CNW 10. And there was also a bay-window waycar, painted in a nice coat of "Zito" yellow and green (it might even have been attached to the lounge building). No number on it, but it didn't matter. It did have the horizontal ribs that distinguished it as an ex-MILW waycar. Maybe a what-might-have-been if CNW had gotten MILW instead of the Soo Line.
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,Sounds like quite the fire down that way. I hope nobody was injured!
In other news, after chatting with a pretty reliable source today, there has been the start of much work on the 1899 swing bridge in Oshkosh. Test boring has been ongoing for the last 7-10 days and continues yet. Grading and survey stakes are on both banks of the river. The source I chatted with informed me that CN would like to have a replacement for the bridge up and running in the next 18-24 months. This timeline jives with another source I chatted with about three years ago indicating that the bridge would be replaced in roughly 5 years. If the bridge makes it to the end of 2012 that would be 113 years of service. I have started to document and get pictures of the process as things develop and happen. If I can confirm that the process is uderway I will post a separate thread on the process. I wonder how long it would take to "cut over" and get the new bridge operational. Any ideas?
If that's what happening, that is.
Dan
Yeah, definately get any photos you can. Seems the railroad around me is changing like crazy. The last of the old PRR position signals are now being replaced by some god-awful ugly multicolored "things".
Any hint of former railroads is being wiped out at the cost of standardization. I know that's progress, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
(begin rant - skip this if you want):
...and apparently I'm not a professional railroader according to some people on this site. And here I thought I was doing OK. I'm a railfan, foamer, FRN, buff and any other term you can come up with. But even I can see why some railroaders take such a dim view on the hobby. You want to argue my ideas and opinions? Fine. But don't insult my commitment to my job. I believe this site would lose a lot of interest if we lost the rails on here (both paid and volunteer)
(end rant)
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
Zug, don't go away; we who have never turned a time slip in will miss you.
Johnny
Deggesty Zug, don't go away; we who have never turned a time slip in will miss you.
I ain't going anywhere. I've been called worse by better.
Actually, I do have to go somewhere. work.
zugmann Yeah, definately get any photos you can. Seems the railroad around me is changing like crazy. The last of the old PRR position signals are now being replaced by some god-awful ugly multicolored "things". Any hint of former railroads is being wiped out at the cost of standardization. I know that's progress, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. (begin rant - skip this if you want): ...and apparently I'm not a professional railroader according to some people on this site. And here I thought I was doing OK. I'm a railfan, foamer, FRN, buff and any other term you can come up with. But even I can see why some railroaders take such a dim view on the hobby. You want to argue my ideas and opinions? Fine. But don't insult my commitment to my job. I believe this site would lose a lot of interest if we lost the rails on here (both paid and volunteer) (end rant)
Zug...You are the Man!!!!!
I'll echo Murray...stay!
Found a stray piece of orange today: Illinois & Midland 43 (SW1500) was 3rd behind a couple of CaNoodle EMDs this afternoon. Presumably heading home after a brief stint on the Tomahawk Ry. I missed my chance to go see SOO 1003 this morning departing Hartford. Maybe I'll catch the return trip on Sunday.
Zug, nobody's allowed to have opinions about the facts...whoever says you aren't a professional railroader is just plain wrong! So what if you don't fit the mold? Stay!
I don't think anyone was hurt in the fire, but we missed out on a show that we'd paid good money for. We'll probably be up there again to try and see their Christmas show. And we might bring our daughter and son-in-law with us, since Linda's the one who was Karen Marie's best friend through high school.
Dan, I'll be glad to see your progress reports on the bridge replacement, if it indeed happens.
Had an amazing day of railfanning today, in three states. Before we left Janesville, we happened to catch the solid pink WSOR RBL that commemorates b.r.e.a.s.t cancer research (I'm so sorry we have to do things like that to say what we want to here!).
We went through another town in Wisconsin that had both a Fairbanks-Morse switcher and a Milwaukee Road waycar on display; this time they were both painted in MILW colors. It might have been Monroe, or maybe Brodhead--whichever one of those two it wasn't, also had a MILW caboose.
Savanna, Illinois, lived up to the hype (I think there was an article about it in Railfan & Railroad a few months back--understand that "a few months" could mean well over a year at our advanced age!). After lunch at a fast-food place with a view, Pat and I walked up on the bridge that carries a bike path over the CP (nee-MILW, via three or four intermediate operators). We saw a BNSF westbound manifest, headed by NS power, while eating, and another westbound BNSF went through while we were viewing the diamonds from the bridge. There were two eastbound ICE (oops, CP) trains waiting for both the BNSF and for workers at the diamond--it would appear that a new 2x2 diamond is about ready to go in there. One of the trains, headed by two ICE units, went through after the BNSF train cleared; the other one, with one ICE and one CP unit, seemed to be unoccupied.
Would anyone know whether BNSF suffered a washout at Savanna fairly recently? There was an area of ballast-covered sand (flat, like a delta formation) in the marsh on the river side of the BNSF tracks, just south (timetable east) of the diamonds there, and a lot of fresh-looking ballast and riprap in that spot.
We then drove to Fulton, Illinois, and Clinton, Iowa, where I caught sight of a westbound ComEd train of empty gons that beat us out of town from a dead crew-change stop. Good ol' UP! We continued to Buffalo, Iowa, beyond the Quad Cities, where I cleaned up on a bunch of freight cars at the industries upstream from the town.
After this full day, it was time to head home. I looked for a "K.P. was here" marking at the Rochelle Railroad Park, but didn't find any. We did find two BNSF stack trains and a UP manifest in the relatively short time we were there. Also found a guy who was familiar with my work for the C&O Historical Society. He was totally surprised at where I lived, and that he ran into me at Rochelle. We talked a bit about everything from H-8s to diesel power and interesting locals in West Virginia and Virginia, past C&OHS conventions, and the need to get back to Clifton Forge and support their projects. We had supper at Rochelle (seeing another stack train on UP), and, because it was nearly dark, took I-88 home east of DeKalb instead of the more scenic route through UP's west-suburban setting.
Sounds like a good trip Carl, glad you enjoyed it. CN had a survey team out this morning on the South bank of the river, seems like that plan is going forward.
I just wanted to get back to Zug's rant for a moment. Having current and former railway employees is a big part of what makes this forum work. You have ideas and opinions from various eras of railroading and these things help us all better understand the railway business.
There are always members joining and leaving this forum, and I have found it is better to repeat some of the things I say because newer members might not be familiar with my background. It seems repetitive to me and some others, no doubt, but it sure reduces sometimes nasty feedback about some of the things I post.
It finally dawned on me that some of the things that still seem current to me happened before many members here were born. Having seen and now reporting on things I saw on a CPR branch line in the 1960's is just one of the many building blocks to understanding today's railway business. As long as everyone keeps a cool head I see a bright future for this forum.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
CNW 6000CN had a survey team out this morning on the South bank of the river, seems like that plan is going forward.
Work is going on here as well. Switches are still being assembled for the crossover, but grading has now been done on both sides of the track, and on both sides of Grace Street. From the looks of things, the street might go right through the middle of things (perhaps two crossovers on each side of the street). That must be fun for wiring the grade crossing!
Back to work on yesterday's and today's sightings, and last night's information request: we have 600 tiny ex-P&LE gondolas to account for.
I think we'll have to go see what's occurring at the crossover sites. I forgot to mention that yesterday the grade-crossings in town were being flagged by two people each (though the crossing protection also seemed to be working while we were there), and last night the trains were sounding the warning for employees near the tracks, so work must have continued overnight. Installation of the crossovers on a weekend would cause the least disruption for Metra riders, so I suspect that something could be seen today, and probably tomorrow. I haven't seen any advance publicity about a "service disruption", not even on Metra's website.
CN appears to be installing grade crossing protection at two crossings north of Oshkosh. After they are installed there will be no horns blown around town unless someone goes around the gates. Sad...
Nothing new to report on the bridge possibilities. Traffic has been crazy in Neenah the last few weeks, especially in the mornings. As an example on Saturday AM between 6 AM and noon we observed (counting locals) almost 20 trains! Next time I'll be prepared with more batteries in the camera and scanner.
Happy Kalmbach Day, everyone!
(This may take a few people back...I remember one time humping CALX tank car 1027 on this date, 10/27. And darned if it wasn't near 10:27 p.m.! Within an hour, anyway. CALX 1027 isn't active in its own identity any more, nor is 1027 North Seventh Street.)
Geez, Carl - How many people here ever knew the significance of that address anymore, let alone remember it ? And no, I didn't see that one coming either . . .
Too bad David P. Morgan isn't around anymore - he'd be a sucker for a "Submit digital photos of equipment numbered 1027" competition, now that there are so many private car fleets. Or has that been done already ?
- Paul North.
Carl, did you make out OK after that big storm in Chicago yesterday? Our 11:00PM Newscast weatherman got off a couple of good lol "Windy City" jokes, but now I can't remember them. Amazingly, we got a few flakes from that storm out here around noon.
Paul_D_North_Jr Geez, Carl - How many people here ever knew the significance of that address anymore, let alone remember it ? And no, I didn't see that one coming either . . . Too bad David P. Morgan isn't around anymore - he'd be a sucker for a "Submit digital photos of equipment numbered 1027" competition, now that there are so many private car fleets. Or has that been done already ? - Paul North.
It crept up on me, too. Carl is sly.
We got a lot of wind, but I think the worst of the system is passing to our north. On the NBC Nightly News last night, they had a report from Muskegon, Michigan (within my old stomping grounds) showing some huge waves on Lake Michigan, and promising that they'd be up to 15 feet by today! (Compare that to the ten-foot tsunami that hit Indonesia.) Our winds today are supposed to be stronger than yesterday's, but we went out to walk to the store this morning and managed to stay upright with little difficulty. Not much rain connected with the system here--we may have gotten a half-inch, all told (Sunday night, before the "big one" hit, we had lightning strike the tree directly across the street from our house--peeled a strip of bark down much of the trunk.)
There is a high-wind warning for our area until 7:00 tonight--it will be extended until 8:00 on Channel 11, where the senatorial candidates are "debating". (Boy will we be glad when next Tuesday has come and gone!)
I never got there or met any of them in person, Johnny - you were fortunate on all counts. DPM was certainly good - nay, great - but we got to read him every month. Shaffer wrote a good column for a few years, too. But by the time I was a subscriber, Rosemary Entringer had become Managing Editor and no longer writing feature articles, though I do have a few of hers from the early 1960's. Now that I write and edit a whole lot more, I would welcome a chance to meet her if she were still alive - maybe even take her out to lunch ! I believe it was at the time of her passing that George W. Hilton related that he had made some ill-thought-through remark about her edits to one of his manuscripts, to the effect of "You're paid to edit - but I'm the one who's paid to think". Her retort: "Some of us can both edit and think !".
CShaveRR it will be extended until 8:00 on Channel 11, where the senatorial candidates are "debating"
it will be extended until 8:00 on Channel 11, where the senatorial candidates are "debating"
Ooooooh! Our political season ended here on the 18th.
I had mentioned earlier in the Lounge that I was considering working for one of the candidates. As it turned out, the man who became Mayor wasn't even a contender when I made that post. And I am very optimistic about the future. The two candidates I had thought about helping finished third, and back in the dust.
Politics not as usual around here, for a very pleasant change.
I never met Rosemary Entringer, but I did meet (after a brief correspondence with) David P. Morgan at a couple of events where he was a speaker. I never met J. David Ingles, though he was at one of those same events. DPM seemed quite withdrawn when I met him; it may have been toward the end of his tenure as editor.
I'm sure that I've mentioned Frank Shaffer here before. By the time I moved to Chicago and hired out here, he had left Kalmbach and taken a job as Associate Editor of Modern Railroads magazine, which was published in Chicago at the time. Beginning in about 1974, when I was struggling in my job as yardmaster and working as editor of the C&O Historical Society's Newsletter, I got to become acquainted with him. He was a West Virginia native (hence his interest in C&O), and, though he didn't ever have a meaningful job for a railroad as far as I know, he seemed to know everybody who did (including a few of my bosses!). He became my mentor in both railroading and editing and I probably disappointed him when I didn't seem to have the knack of yardmastering or photography. He was quite the grandfatherly guy to my older daughter, and they'd tease each other unmercifully. I lost track of him after MR moved out to the suburbs, and learned later that he'd had a stroke, which I'm sure eventually cost him his life, though he seemed lucid enough the one time I talked to him after that.
I never got beyond the lobby at 1027, but Kat Kube took Pat and me on the grand tour of 21027 (they had to fight for that number!) Crossroads Circle a couple of years back, at which time we were able to meet most of the staff we hadn't met before.
Bruce, I only hope we can be as happy with the results of our election as you seem to be with yours.
Read today that the STB has approved the agreements that will take the last two through trains off the CSX Montreal Secondary between Syracuse and Massena. It's not yet known when the last Q620 and Q621 will run. The traffic will now move up the former D&H.
There's just enough local traffic, and a major military base, to prevent CSX from shutting down the line completely. They've been trying to sell it for a number of years now.
But you never know.
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...
Just got word today that funding has been released for construction of a grade separation to bring the Canadian Pacific line over Irving Park Road in Bensenville. So, naturally, we had to take a look at the site.
Boy, has Bensenville changed! North of the former MILW tracks, just about everything has been flattened in connection with the O'Hare expansion program. Unfortunately, this includes the McDonald's between the CP's freight line and York Road. This freight line is the route that gets the grade separation. Reports say that Irving Park Road will be lowered to permit the overpass.
Just east of the CP on Irving Park Road we saw pilings marking where, we suspect, an overpass will be built to carry Union Pacific's tracks over the highway. Their tracks are being rerouted to bring them closer to the CP line all the way around the expanded airport. The UP and CP will continue to join at Bryn Mawr, a train-length or so north of Irving Park (I can safely say that--a CP train was parked north of Irving Park Road waiting to enter their Bensenville Yard).
The problem I see (which I'm sure has somehow been resolved already) is that York Road is pretty close to the CP tracks at this point--how is Irving Park going to get under the CP tracks and then up to street level (roughly equal to track level) in the 60 feet or so between the tracks and York Road? The tracks can't be significantly elevated enough to help; it's only a block or two to the point where a sharp curve brings the line around to the east-west orientation of Bensenville Yard and the CP line to Iowa. Elevating a railroad on an airport's perimeter doesn't sound like a good idea, either.
__________________
The other exciting (to me) news, reported in tonight's Newswire, is that the state of Michigan will get the money to buy the major portion of the former Michigan Central line between Dearborn and Kalamazoo. This is Amtrak's route between Chicago and Detroit, and a likely future high-speed line. Norfolk Southern has been letting the line go downhill after it rerouted through freight service away from it. So, though no money seems to be going for improvement yet, it's hopeful that the line will be restored to 79 and beyond.
CShaveRRNorfolk Southern has been letting the line go downhill after it rerouted through freight service away from it.
That's the second such case I've heard of lately (the other being in Mookie's Midwest). On the one hand, it makes Amtrak pay for maintenance, since they're the only user. On the other hand, it does bode well for going high speed, since there's no freight with which to conflict...
Boys and girls, zug's word of the day is:
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
That is all.
A frosty 27 this morning up here in WI. Speaking of track maintenance, I feel like I see a full CWR train in the area about every other week or so. I don't know when or where these new ribbons are hitting the ballast but I see the empties heading south. Friends up in Superior and the UP don't report these trains in their directions so my guess is they're headed for and from the Necedah area. That's only a guess though.
The last couple of days I've been busy consolidating and editing photos for my Flickr page. I'm still not done tagging and adding locations in, but things are progressing. At almost 1200 pictures I'm still well short of my contact, Loadstone, who has nearly 700,000!
Zug, I hope you really "ain't the same" after getting that out of your system. Hope things will be OK.
I'm at work on my project as well, Dan, processing my freight-car sightings files and moving things all to one computer. Achieved a milestone in that respect, as the two obsolete PCs were "harvested" and removed from the house. There will be slightly more shelf space in the Dungeon as a consequence. As to the sightings and history files, all are now transferred into this PC (the old Macasaurus is there in case of an emergency, but eventually it will go bye-bye as well). There are over 2700 objects in those files. It can be frustrating at times, because one single sighting from my backlog, for example, gave me several hours of file updating last night, including tracing a Providence & Worcester auto rack back to a piggyback flat car built by Pullman Standard for the Western Pacific!
Our official temperature in Chicagoland fell below freezing for the first time this season last hour, but I think it's since come back up. I'll be out on my bike later today to do my Friday volunteer work for the local Historical Society.
I don't know. I think the final line has just been crossed. The only benefit of what I have has been stripped away.
I know the current environment is bad, but I'm not getting any younger and I'm watching my life slip away.
We'll see what happens.
zug, check your PM's . . .
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