Paul_D_North_Jr zug, check your PM's . . .
zug, check your PM's . . .
Thank you, sir.
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
Hey, you're welcome. We're all buds here . . .
You could quit and go to work with Ed down in sunny warm Houston-town, too I suppose - winter's coming soon here, don'tcha know ?
And/ or, as the saying goes - ''Don't get mad - just get even''. Which reminds me of a little story, from Trains a few years ago: In the early 1970's, noted railroad photographer and railfan Victor Hand was working for the Central RR of New Jersey in the commuter passenger dept., but had a falling-out with the then Baankruptcy Trustee who was running the company, Robert D. Timpany. Hand quit, and instead went to work for the United States Railroad Adminstration, which was planning and coordinating the NorthEast Railroad Reorganization that resulted in ConRail. On 'C-Day' - April 1, 1976, the CEO of USRA - Edward G. Lewis, as I recall - asked Hand if he's like to sign the documents for Penn Central. But Hand said no, he wanted to - and did - sign the documents across the table from Timpany that - in the name of and with the full power and authority, faith, and credit of the United States of America - took the CRRNJ away from Timpany and the bankruptcy estate that he was administering. I suppose it helps to be a lawyer to understand the better significance of all that, but the moral of the story remains: ''Revenge is a dish best served cold'' - a/k/a, ''Paybacks are heck''.
- Paul North.
Paul_D_North_Jr Hey, you're welcome. We're all buds here . . . You could quit and go to work with Ed down in sunny warm Houston-town, too I suppose - winter's coming soon here, don'tcha know ? And/ or, as the saying goes - ''Don't get mad - just get even''. Which reminds me of a little story, from Trains a few years ago: In the early 1970's, noted railroad photographer and railfan Victor Hand was working for the Central RR of New Jersey in the commuter passenger dept., but had a falling-out with the then Baankruptcy Trustee who was running the company, Robert D. Timpany. Hand quit, and instead went to work for the United States Railroad Adminstration, which was planning and coordinating the NorthEast Railroad Reorganization that resulted in ConRail. On 'C-Day' - April 1, 1976, the CEO of USRA - Edward G. Lewis, as I recall - asked Hand if he's like to sign the documents for Penn Central. But Hand said no, he wanted to - and did - sign the documents across the table from Timpany that - in the name of and with the full power and authority, faith, and credit of the United States of America - took the CRRNJ away from Timpany and the bankruptcy estate that he was administering. I suppose it helps to be a lawyer to understand the better significance of all that, but the moral of the story remains: ''Revenge is a dish best served cold'' - a/k/a, ''Paybacks are heck''. - Paul North.
As to his change in work, his former nemesis certainly saw the Hand writing on the wall paper on the table. Daniel 5:5,6; 22; 26.
Johnny
I don't know whether to groan, or to applaud . . . they're both good ones, Johnny.
I'm just glad the Hand didn't use a mallet to beat on the Timpany.
Good luck, Z-man, whatever transpires.
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)
CShaveRR I'm just glad the Hand didn't use a mallet to beat on the Timpany. Good luck, Z-man, whatever transpires.
I wonder if Mr. Hand became tired of the plays on his name, or if he accepted them as a part of life. (Just as I have become accustomed to the difficulties that people have with "Degges"--which is pronounced to rhyme with "eggs." Ricki says,"If you can spell it, you can't pronouce it; if you can pronounce, you can't spell it." I now say, "It's not the most common name," after correcting someone.)
Zug, I, too, wish you well.
I didn't do it! The system, which is programmed not to accept double posts, did it!
I always have to spell my last name. It isn't that difficult, but everyone wants to use Ds instead of Ts.
Thanks guys. I'm hoping that this will eventually lead to something good. I'm still on the railroad as for now, in case you're wondering.
It's official - seasons have changed. Had to fire up and use the kerosene heater in the cabin car last night. This heater was pretty good - no kerosene smell like some of the other cabins last year. Got real toasty when stopped, but once you moved, forget it. No insulation at all.
Yes, we have cabin cars (cabooses).
No insulation? I remember cabooses (waycars, too) that stayed toasty the whole trip, They usually had oil stoves, but I also expect that they (at least the GTW wooden-side cabooses) were pretty well insulated.
You're right about the change of seasons...we got 16 bags of leaves out in time for yard-waste pickup this morning, and that's mostly from one tree (plus a few from our neighbors' trees). We still have three large maples in the back yard that haven't let go of much.
The UP trains are calling me again--must be working on signals, track, or both through town. But I'll have to put up with G-scale trains today. My daughter wants us to take her and the kids to Choo Choo Johnny's to help get their minds off trick-or-treating (Nico wanted to go out again at 5:30 this morning!).
Greetings from Elmhurst, where I'm set up with my laptop in the station (connected to power), while a train of empty CWEX gons goes past outside. It's been pretty busy here today. I missed one manifest because a coal train was blocking the view (and I wasn't close enough to the tunnel). But I've seen another manifest, a couple of stackers, a couple of scoots, and now this. It hasn't been an hour in town yet.
Later on, I'll try my hand at diagramming the control point just east of here, putting it on the thread for crossovers for three tracks. It is truly a universal crossover!
Two things to be wary of hearing when you're at a train-themed restaurant with your grandchildren, and Momma goes away for a few minutes (especially coming from a four-year-old):
1: "Momma doesn't mind if..."
2: "Grandpa, can I have one of those paper things you put into the machine, that isn't a quarter?"
(at least she didn't ask for plastic!)
zugmann It's official - seasons have changed. Had to fire up and use the kerosene heater in the cabin car last night. This heater was pretty good - no kerosene smell like some of the other cabins last year. Got real toasty when stopped, but once you moved, forget it. No insulation at all. Yes, we have cabin cars (cabooses).
D&H / CP 'shoving platform' next to Port of Albany, NY - Sat., 24 July 2010.
A cabin car and a lightning stripe GP38. Don't get much better than that...
Hmm - yes, now that you mention it, that photo could go back anytime during the past almost 35 years, except for some of the details . . .
The other common switcher seen there is a CP-painted GP38, I think - it's a B-B, anyway. At one point there in that yard a couple weeks ago, there were also a trio of NS Dash 9's, a pair of CSX Dash 9's, and across the way the port's SW-something. There also looks to be some museum pieces under tarps way in the northeast corner of the Port's site, but that's where the sun was coming from that morning and a photo way hopeless. Maybe another time . . .
One bit of esoterica was the security passes. The people at the Port have the DHS TWIC = Transport Worker Identification Cards, whereas the track contractor types use Rail-Safe. I'm not sure what the Class I personnel are using . . . ?
Those museum pieces now appear to be a boxcar and 3 cabooses - a cupola-type, a transfer-type, and a bay-window type.
See if you can get an oblique = 'bird's eye' view view of them at these coordinates - N 42.62871 W 73.76311, or use the PennPilot website - http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/ For other applications, they're on the southern side of Albany, about 0.2 mile = 1,000 ft. east of Rt. 32 = S. Pearl St. there, and about 0.3 mile = 1,500 ft. south of I-787, on the northeastern side of the several rail yards there, on a curve in the second spur just souht of what appears to be a sewage treatment plant there. Something else to ask about next time, too . ..
Morning all,
Time for the post-election hangover now. Politics aside...here's what I've been up to lately:I call this one "Meet of the Spartans"
"One for Two"
"Safety Who?"
"Overpowered"
"CN 2628 North"
"Double at Kampo"
More can be seen on my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/danbraun/), should anyone be so motivated to seek it out. Enjoy.
Dan
I thought I'd drag the thread up from the basement.
It seems that CN has started work on some trackside structures that reliable sources tell me will be "PTC Towers". Presumably these will house radio equipment necessary to the implementation of PTC when it's mandated to be operational. The first two photos are from October 22, second two are from October 27. This site is at the (South) Sherman Road crossing. N 44.08940 W 88.51822 on Acme Mapper. Although there are two tracks shown, the East track is removed but RoW is intact. This site is centered between both RoWs and would allow the East track to be rebuilt, should that ever prove necessary. I have spotted a second location NW of Neenah as well.
I'll keep checking the site and updating further progress. Nothing new to report on the replacement of the swing bridge but I'm also keeping an eye on that, too.
Thanks for sharing your shots Dan. Love the one of the GT power - always loved that paint scheme.
Time for work (ugh). But hopefully it means I won't have to work tomorrow.
Dan, thanks for both sets of shots. I haven't seen any other construction, anywhere, linked exclusively to PTC, so that's interesting. About how far apart are the two sites?
After a little bit of solid precipitation (not snow--possibly sleet) last night, it was clear and crisp today. We had a high in the mid-40s. Pat and I spent a couple of hours, after lunch with my cousin, watching trains from the inside of the Joliet Union Station. The volume of trains on the BNSF Transcon was incredible! Most of them were stack trains, but there were a couple of coal moves. The poor B&B guys charged with installing a "warning track" on the Amtrak side of the station platform found their work being disrupted very frequently, during which times they'd come into the station to stay warm. I was doing some non-internet computer work, and Pat was knitting some wool socks for us to wear this winter. We departed for home while two stack trains, one in each direction, were banging across their respective diamonds.
The area where Joliet's proposed transportation center is planned is now pretty much parking lot. Apparently New Street, which runs right next to the embankment of the ex-RI trackage, will not be there after the new building is built. What disturbs me about the drawings I've seen, after watching things today, is how the rubber-tired vehicles will get up to track level for work on the diamonds or wherever else it's necessary. (There's evidence of pumping at the diamonds today.)
The most startling thing we saw today was on the connecting line between the former GM&O main line and the former EJ&E yard in Joliet. The sharp curve just west of where this line crosses Illinois 171 used to look good when EJ&E switchers went over it, but we saw a UP stack train, presumably from Global 4 headed to the EJ&E and West Chicago, take that curve (and I'm sure I remember a stringlining incident there--that's how sharp the curve is!). The sight of a couple of AC4400CWs pulling the stack cars around that curve, followed by an SD70ACE DP unit, was pretty amazing.
CShaveRR Dan, thanks for both sets of shots. I haven't seen any other construction, anywhere, linked exclusively to PTC, so that's interesting. About how far apart are the two sites?
You're welcome.
The two sites I've seen are around 20 (rail) miles apart. Other "sources" indicate that similar structures are being erected between this area and the Milw/Chi area. I haven't been able to personally confirm that yet.
Hmmm...we're exactly 20 rail miles from Chicago. Maybe UP will want to build something here.
I can remember when microwave communication was the big thing, and C&NW had microwave towers at most of its major yards. We still have a tall tower at Proviso (not the same one that was there when I hired out), but it has a lot of different antennas on it.
I just realized that the coal trains for the power plants downstream from Joliet have to negotiate the same tracks as the stack train I'd seen there last Friday. That's almost as scary!
Got an interesting news report today, stating that the stocks of five of the six major railroads are currently sitting at their 12-month highs. CN is the only railroad that didn't do this, and it fell just short. (BNSF, being privately held, no longer reports.) I have to chuckle when Vanguard suggests the ideal mix of stocks for my 401K, because so far my nearly-100%-UP fund is doing better than anything else they could cobble together! (I haven't been following my stock lately, but it's definitely the highest I've seen it since the last split.)
CShaveRR [snip] I have to chuckle when Vanguard suggests the ideal mix of stocks for my 401K, because so far my nearly-100%-UP fund is doing better than anything else they could cobble together! [snip]
Yeah, me too, Carl. My mix of CN and BNSF from about 1999, plus later on Pacer , CSX, and NS has consistently outperformed anything that Smith Barney back then and now Vanguard has recommended - even though I was cautioned by a supposed 'professional' in that business then about not getting too carried away with my ideas - they were too speculative, in his view, as he favored the 'dot-com' ''growth'' stocks at the time . . . .
One thing that's funny - whenever I run or receive a Vanguard analysis of our portfolio, it doesn't like my concentration in individual stocks as above, nor my concentration in 'foreign' stocks - those CN shares that have greatly appreciated in value. Our Canadian members here shoud note that I certainly don't consider CN or them to be ''furriners'', nor the 50th - 60th states just farther north, etc., but instead something of a 'hybrid' - just like us, except for the differences. That said, I am going to look into diversifying away from rail stocks somewhat, just to preclude a major loss if something unforseen happens. I like Warren Buffett's principle of investing only in businesses that you yourself understand, but that kind of limits the opportunities for me - and even some of the ones I undertsand, I then want no part of . . .
Cautionary note - none of the above is investment advice or recommendations, just personal history and observations. Before making anuy investment, do your own research and consult your own trusted investment advisor.
Happy Monday. I couldn't believe the weather forecast for the previous weekend. It was sunny (but windy) and not too frigid. Spent some time trackside and managed to catch some new CN GEVOs, EJE's lone GP38 (703) which was leading it's train. Not a bad weekend.
Paul_D_North_Jr nor the 50th - 60th states just farther north
nor the 50th - 60th states just farther north
Actually I've heard it said the US wouldn't have taken Saskatchewan anyway, because of its' history of electing democratic socialist governments, and the forty below winters. Stranger things have happened. Long ago Newfoundland decided it didn't want Labrador, and it turned out that neither Canada, Britain, the US or anyone else for that matter wanted it either. So it stayed part of Newfoundland.
I'm hoping that News Wire will have a story about the CPR celebrating the 125 Anniversary of laying the final spike, yesterday. There is a good story about it in the media section of the CPR website with good links to both video and photographs. The CPR photographic archive is huge and it takes me more than a day or two to browse the whole thing, which I have done several times.
I've just finished reading "Royalty Rides the Rails" written by Larry Shaak in 2009. It is the story of the 1939 Royal Tour of H.M. King George VI, and H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth. It lasted a month, with Their Majesties traveling by train across Canada from east to west and and back, with a four day side trip down to Washington DC. They hit every major centre in Canada, as well as receptions at every small town where the train had to stop for coal and/or water. My Mom has always talked about how as a nine year old, she went along with every other schoolchild for miles around, to Bassano, AB to see the King and Queen, while their train was being replenished with coal and water. It is funny how she came to know so much about railroading all these years later.
Oh, by the way, I enjoyed Dan's photo's.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
An odd incident today as I was outside, downtown.
Calgary is a horn free zone so I was very surprised when an EB train blew the full grade crossing signal at 11 St. S.W. this afternoon. I have lived within earshot of that last grade crossing in downtown Calgary for the last 33 years, and I think this is only the second or third time I have ever heard them do that.
There have been a number of incidents over the years where the engineer will blow one or two warning blasts, and then there has always been an unfortunate and distressing correlation with reports of serious injuries or fatalities on the following newscasts. The train didn't stop this time, so I hope that it was simply a case of the engineer momentarily forgetting the rule.
Or, hopefully, the "addressee" of the horn blasts saw the error of his ways and got out of the train's way in time. I would never fault an engineer for sounding his horn anywhere, anytime, without knowing the story behind it.
Here's a fresh one from this month's On the Bi-Level, Metra's commuter newsletter:
Heard on the Rock Island:She: “Let me sit by the window and take a nap. I need my beauty sleep.”He: “This train ain’t going THAT far!”True story!
Truth is, I'm tired of all of this negative news about passenger rail, and all of the political philosophizing that results from posting and/or reporting of same.
So I posted that small attempt at humor from the Metra paper, just above. Now for a different tack: from the UTU web site:
Union Pacific will increase its capital spending by 25 percent to $3.25 billion in 2011, reports the Journal of Commerce. UP capital exenditures in 2010 totaled $2.6 billion. UP said it will be purchasing as many as 200 new locomotives in 2011, upgrade numerous corridors to accommodate double-stack container cars, and replace a 100-year-old bridge across the Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa, the Journal of Commerce reported.
Carl, our service unit newsletter said grading would start on the new yard at Low Moor, IA next year. Actual work for the bridge itself is still a few years off.
Also a third track through Boone, to allow the long pool trains to keep moving while the short pools change out.
I told the wife that once the Clinton bridge is in and the double track on the Blair Sub done, don't be surprised if the UP looks again at what the CNW looked at. Running thru Clinton and Boone in favor of Beverly. Although we're both from the Cedar Rapids area, we kind of like it here now, but you go where you have to.
Brian H, you may have new neighbors in a few years.
Jeff
You'd get a warm welcome!
Beverly appears to be a much easier place to change crews now that Edgewood Road is out of the way.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
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