CShaveRR An "armored delivery vehicle", huh? I guess they defend themselves by zapping attackers with ultrasound!
Besides - think of all the 'get rich quick/ easy money' people who are now going to lie awake at nights trying to figure out a way to get through the floodwaters to see if there's any money left in it . . . meanwhile, it'll evade them by going' hi-rail' and getting out of town 'off-road' that way !
- Paul North.
We made it out on the bikes today--even went to a visitation at the local funeral home (the guy with the flags asked us if we would be biking to the cemetery; didn't keep that solemn face for too long). Great weather for Arbor Day; I hope we save a tree by not running the car.
There are a few--very few!--timid lilac blooms at Lilacia Park this afternoon; the Lilac Festival starts tomorrow. In about a week things should be looking and smelling pretty good! Craft show Sunday, art and sculpture show in the park next Saturday, concert in the park for Mother's Day. (Big Parade is two weeks from Sunday.) Rumor has it that UP and Metra will be running a few trains right across the street from the park throughout the festival.
Materials for the signal bridge at the west entrance to CP Y019 have been delivered...no signal heads or poles yet, though.
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.....Something reminded me, don't know just what, but took the atlas and took a peek just where Lombard really is located in the Chicago area.
Upon looking and seeing, I'm thinking back in time several {or more}, decades about being in a great steak house and trying to remember just where it was, seems it should be in the general area of where you live....Name of the place was "Tom's Steak House"....Seem to remember they prepared the steaks {filet's}, where it was visible....kind of like an open brick oven of sort....One thing I do remember correctly, they probably were the best steaks we had had up to that time.
Just wondering if that name might ring a bell at all...Not sure how long you have lived in that area, and maybe it's a thing of the past too....or if still there, under different name.
Just a bit of trivia, thought I'd ask....
Quentin
Hi,
There is an incredible video on YouTube of a washout caught on tape! It's called "CN Stackpool, ON washout April 14, 2011" captured by a CN employee (so obviously not my video!) Poor guy is so (understandably) scared, he gets a bit colorful in his language. (Link feature will not work right now or I'd post it--maybe it will cooperate for someone else?)
Have a good weekend.
Nance-CCABW/LEI
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” --Will Rogers
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right! --unknown
Quentin, I could be cheeky here and ask whether it was somewhere near the tracks, but to be perfectly honest, we've been in the area (Glen Ellyn or Lombard) for 38 years now, and I don't remember any steak houses. There's one out in the vicinity of Winfield, now known as Morgan's Char House...we went for the live jazz trio one Saturday night, but were disappointed in the steaks: they covered everything with some sort of spice that left a disagreeable taste/smell with us.
But restaurants come and go around here...some are in their third or more incarnation in the same spot, and there are some places that have their third or fourth building on the same place. Preparation where the customer could watch doesn't ring a bell with me, either. There might be a few people in the local Historical Society that we could ask, though.
We got all of our errands run (and the lawn mowed!) before the promised rain (still sunny for the moment), and I'm back to entering data for the unusual freight cars the we observed on our vacation (okay, I observed!). We saw some CSX coal hoppers that had been converted to aggregate cars (shortened body), NYC 86-foot hi-cube box cars that had been increased in height by a couple of feet (we saw those in Cincinnati, and wonder what they are assigned to), and some NS waste gons that were rebuilt from Airslide covered hoppers, of all things! At least in some cases, cars that were built to carry sugar for Coca Cola are now carrying the plastic bottles and aluminum cans, perhaps!
WMNB4THRTL Hi, There is an incredible video on YouTube of a washout caught on tape! It's called "CN Stackpool, ON washout April 14, 2011" captured by a CN employee (so obviously not my video!) Poor guy is so (understandably) scared, he gets a bit colorful in his language. (Link feature will not work right now or I'd post it--maybe it will cooperate for someone else?) Have a good weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQAiTBoJf3Y
Yikes!
Thanks, zardoz! It is unbelievable!!! Not sure what the scariest part of that is but I can't stop watching it!! Mostly grateful no one got hurt!!
I think the scariest part is how fast it happened...and I doubt that it would care whether there was a train there or not. Amazing footage, and I hope he won't get busted for taking this video on the job.
Yea, Carl, that was on my list, along with how close he was standing, that he kept going back up to the edge, that it keeps going multiple times, when he says he feels the ties moving under him, and when he says something like his crew is on the other side and he doesn't think (emphasis mine) he should cross there right now. WOW-ZERS!!!!!
Carl....suppose about all I can say for the location, that it was almost due west from downtown Chicago, and quite a bit west.....and right now I can't remember how far west....Beyond Midway some distance, if I remember correctly.
Right now, can't even remember why we were there....and the time element would be at least 40 years. Jean mentions, we were with another couple, and in our 1962 super sport Chevy, and we just {Jean indicates}, we {on this trip}, stayed east a bit of O'hare in a Howard Johnsons motel....Must have been there for the weekend.
Also remember on the way up to Chicago we stopped at Stromburgs Restaurant on rt. 30.....at Valpariaso, In. and we can still laugh at the size of the Turkey legs we had there. And I remember they certainly were excellent in taste...!
I remember you talking about those turkey legs before, Quentin, and I believe Valpo Ed said that Stromburgs is still there. Something to check out, for sure (Pat has a quilt shop in downtown Valpo that she likes).
Midway is south and west of Chicago--we have to go several miles southeast to get to it.
To let you know how due west of Chicago we are: Madison Street is the north/south base-line in Chicago, as you probably know. We have a Madison Street (actually Madison Boulevard) here in Lombard, that lines up with the one in Chicago. And our house is one block north of it! And when I say we're 20 miles due west of Chicago, that's pretty literal, too...Milepost 20 of the UP main line is due north of us!
zardoz WMNB4THRTL: Hi, There is an incredible video on YouTube of a washout caught on tape! It's called "CN Stackpool, ON washout April 14, 2011" captured by a CN employee (so obviously not my video!) Poor guy is so (understandably) scared, he gets a bit colorful in his language. (Link feature will not work right now or I'd post it--maybe it will cooperate for someone else?) Have a good weekend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQAiTBoJf3Y Yikes!
WMNB4THRTL: Hi, There is an incredible video on YouTube of a washout caught on tape! It's called "CN Stackpool, ON washout April 14, 2011" captured by a CN employee (so obviously not my video!) Poor guy is so (understandably) scared, he gets a bit colorful in his language. (Link feature will not work right now or I'd post it--maybe it will cooperate for someone else?) Have a good weekend.
Dan
WMNB4THRTL Thanks, zardoz! It is unbelievable!!! Not sure what the scariest part of that is but I can't stop watching it!! Mostly grateful no one got hurt!!
Perhaps if MC sees this, he might enlighten us.
Yes; I hope someone can! This is so scary.
It reminds me of a tragedy near my hometown many years ago during a flood that washed out an earthen area (kind of like a bridge, as it gave the road access to an area, but solid--sorry, don't know the technical term for that location) and about 7 people lost their lives.
Speaking of so very sad, the news this am reported that death toll is over 340 (not counting the 77 approx. who were lost in that earlier round) but that at least 600 are missing and many/most are feared lost. Too sad for words. They said we had 6 times the number of tornadoes than normal for April!
zardoz WMNB4THRTL: Thanks, zardoz! It is unbelievable!!! Not sure what the scariest part of that is but I can't stop watching it!! Mostly grateful no one got hurt!! I can't help but wondering that if the railroad knew enough about the location to have someone on-site, why had they not done some construction there to divert or at least mitigate the effects of the water flow. From what I can tell from the video, it sure looks like a location that has had water flow issues previously. Perhaps if MC sees this, he might enlighten us.
WMNB4THRTL: Thanks, zardoz! It is unbelievable!!! Not sure what the scariest part of that is but I can't stop watching it!! Mostly grateful no one got hurt!!
I was going to say that it was probably a culvert the blew out. There didn't seem to be any other place for the water to go under the tracks there, yet it was clearly flowing in that direction.
I'd venture to guess that the replacement culvert will be larger.
Carl,
I need your expertise here. Ever see one of these: http://flic.kr/p/9DDiSR ? There are a couple that seem to go between Green Bay, WI and Stevens Point, WI on CN's A415/A416. Looks like a tanker or a hopper or a tanker...fish or cut bait, ya know? Any thoughts?
Dan - I found a reference to it (and an apparently identical sister, 300007) that refers to it as a covered hopper, pressure differential.
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...
Carl........Pursuing our restaurant conversation just a bit further....We had Sunday lunch today, with the same couple that accompanied us years ago on our Chicago outing, and {Sherry}, advised me...{She has a steel trap for a memory}, the "Tom's Steak House" was in Elmhurst. Just a bit east of you....and the restaurant was in a large older home...that had been converted to this establishment.
Still nothing that rings a bell, Quentin. I can think of three places in Elmhurst (all of them along North Avenue, Illinois Route 64) that would fit the old-house-turned-restaurant category. Two of them are gone, and the remaining one has been pretty much the same for years. And none of them were steak houses, to the best of my memory.
However, Google might be our friend here:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/toms-steak-house-melrose-park.
Melrose Park isn't that far east of Elmhurst, and the suburbs do tend to blend in with each other. Coincidentally, this is on North Avenue as well. Look familiar?
________________
We spent much of our afternoon after church volunteering at the Lombard Historical Society's booth at the Lilac Festival's arts and crafts fair. Historical Societies aren't usually artsy and craftsy, but we had reproductions of the 1930s-era posters promoting the Lilac Festival, as well as a few handmade items from various LHS members (Pat made a lot of bonnets and "princess" doll dresses), among other things. We also had kid-sized "Future Lilac Queen" T-shirts (and we have a pair of granddaughters who now own them!). No hugs from this year's Lilac Queen...we didn't know her (it was last year's queen who was a lifelong friend of ours...her life, I mean!). I could see the tracks from our booth, and things were fairly busy, but nothing spectacular. There was a grain train, empty hoppers, a stack train, an auto train, and a manifest or two, as well as the regularly-scheduled scoots, in the three hours we were there.
.....I'll try Sherry on that one Carl....We'll see what she says.
Just caught your picture, Dan, and Larry's response. That is a "Pressure-Flow" covered hopper car, probably built in the 1960s or early 1970s by the Union Tank Car Company. Most of the examples I recall were used to transport various chemical salts, though starches, sand, and fly ash (or perhaps clay, in your neck of the woods) would also be possibilities. I'm not sure what Transmatrix is, or whose commodities they haul in their exotic feet of tank and covered hopper cars.
I'm still studying in JH Armstrong's, "The Railroad..." and I have some questions
1. What's a "trainsheet" record?
2. It states, "Interchange of information as to the aspect of signals between station employees and train crews is forbidden." I think I might have an idea on this one, but I'm not sure.
3. "Under extreme conditions it is possible for couplers to "slip by" in a moving train." WHOA!! That sounds nasty; does this happen much, or was it more just in the days gone by, or...?Is there a way to prevent this now?
4. Why is it so important to bail-off the independent? I know it is real imp. but I don't know/remember why.
5. ..."Management of this slack to avoid breaking the train in two is one of the biggest challenges to the engineer's skill." Well, I don't doubt that it is a big challenge, but really--break the train in two if mishandled?! Again, does this happen very often. Is it just seat time and being real careful to avoid this, or...?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks to Carl and Larry for your answers. That bugger has mystified me for a while.
Interesting national news tonight...let's hope nothing retalitory happens.
i the do not have the proper words for last night's accomplisment and will leave it to persons who can state it much better than I can Great job seals !!!!!!!!!!!!
#3 - Standard couplers have no vertical "stops" - given enough vertical travel, it would be possible for them to travel far enough that they'd uncouple. That would require upwards of a foot to eighteen inches of such movement - a pretty extreme condition for sure.
Somebody's image of a shelf coupler on Flikr.
It happens on model RR's, where maintaining prototypical track tolerances is rather difficult. That's one reason model couplers are usually actually oversized.
Tank cars now have couplers which will resist vertical movement - specifically to reduce the possibility of a coupler puncturing the end of a tank car in the event of a derailment.
#4 - As I recall, it has to do with not sliding the wheels of the locomotive.
#5 - Stress on the coupler knuckles is already pretty significant, even without slack action. Slamming the cars back and forth against each other (or their couplers, actually) intensifies that many times over. This is why it's important for engineers to know their territory - one has to anticipate the slack action in order to prevent it. When it's happening, it's too late.
And it doesn't take much of a grade to get one in trouble. A 1% grade is pretty significant on a railroad, but just looking at it you often can't tell there's even a grade. Throw in curves, both from the effects they have on the train and the fact that they can mask a grade change, and you can get behind the power curve in no time.
Pay attention to the line during the trip to Carter later this month. It's bad enough with a few passenger cars. Imagine a 100 car freight train... I'll be student conductor that day (still learning part of the territory - I'm good north of Otter Lake), but I'll try to point some key parts out to you.
1. One of the duties of the dispatcher was to maintain the trainsheet for his tour of duty. It would contain information about every train under his control (engines, crew [or at least C&E], number of cars), as well as the times at which they were reported past stations by the operators on duty. Nance, you might have heard the expression "O.S." for reporting a train's passage. "O.S." stands for "On Sheet", and this would be the sheet that they are on.
2. Consider a train coming across an approach aspect at a distant signal. The engineer gets on the radio and says "we have an approach here at ____. Will you be lined up for us?" The operator says, "Sure--come ahead!". The engineer moves at track speed on the operator's say so, but the operator, for whatever reason, can't line him up...say the opposing movement took a little longer to clear than the operator expected. So now you have an engineer moving at track speed coming up to a stop signal...not a good scenario, but one which would be prevented by this rule.
3. Used to happen regularly on our hump--the couplers would slip past each other near the crest because of the vertical curve. It was most common on auto racks, with their long drawbars (which would only me made heavier by shelves or Type F couplers).
Some partial answers to Nance's questions above:
1. Giant "spreadsheet" kept up to the moment by the DiSpatcher of when and where each train went by a station - "On Sheet", or "OS" - train and loco nos., Conductor and Engineer Names, etc. - sometimes also the Orders that have been issued to each train, etc. Let's see if BaltACD, Agent Kid, jeffhergert, etc. can supplement that.
2. To avoid confusion, mistakes, misunderstanding, etc., most typically of the sort "The station agent said it was green, but when I got there it was red". The crew -and only the crew - is responsible for observing the signal aspects and complying with them.
3. Long drawbars - such as on long cars - and bad track conditions - particularly bad "surface", such as dips at road crossings - are the usual culprits. A fully loaded car with its coupler at the low end of the acceptable range, next to an empty car with its coupler at the high end of the range, can also be a factor. Not common, and less so now, with more $ available for inspections and preventative maintenance, etc.
4. See Al Krug's essay on "Freight Train Air Brakes of North America" under "Locomotive Brakes" and "Independent Brakes" at:
http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/brakes.htm#locomotivebrakes
http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/brakes.htm#independents
5. See also Al Krug's essay on "How Much Force can a Coupler Withstand?" at:
http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/drawbar.htm
The agent/operator at each station also kept a trainsheet, recording the trains that went past during his time on duty. It, of course, did not have to be detailed as the dispatcher's sheet. I recall that about 1965 the storage area of the IC/MSC station in Brookhaven, Miss. (a three-trick, or continuous station), was cleaned out, and stacks of trainsheets were found.
The life of the d/s is not easy, and he is subject to abuse by people who do not fully understand all that he has to deal with. At times, when I was living in Wesson, Miss., I listened in on the dispatcher's wire during the day, and his voice seemd to be somewhat tired.
Johnny
Here's an interesting view of part of the WSOR's system. Not my picture and if you click the large version - be warned it's HUGE!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.