tree68 WMNB4THRTL: Oh, the 'fun' never stops!!! I just lost the brakes on my van!!!! Too many sets and releases?
WMNB4THRTL: Oh, the 'fun' never stops!!! I just lost the brakes on my van!!!!
Oh, the 'fun' never stops!!! I just lost the brakes on my van!!!!
Too many sets and releases?
WMNB4THRTL Oh, the 'fun' never stops!!! I just lost the brakes on my van!!!!
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...
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
Know the feeling, Nance! We're with you in those fixed-income blues. And, being kind of stupid in our earlier years, we managed to time our homeowners' insurance to come up at the same time as our first property tax payment! Only twelve days to payday!
Larry, great pictures! Maybe I'd have enough mountain-goat left in me to do this sometime.
This morning we were working in the yard and I was hearing trains the whole time. They sound their horns through town pretty heavily because of the construction forces out there. Now that my outdoor chores (lawn, a little shrub trimming) are out of the way for today, I should hop on the bike and see if the railroad will cooperate with me. I'm under instructions to leave the computer at home today, 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)
Thanks, Larry. I am real disappointed, but since I don't even have $$$ for gas, food, etc right now...
....Looks like the cell phone does a pretty good job allowing one to grab some photos.
Quentin
A few images from the SARM excursions:
Highlight of the trip, at least for those able to make it down to the required vantage point (mountain goat tendencies required) was a run-by and then posed shots on MA&N's Sugar River Bridge:
And a couple of happy campers after the sun came out to brighten up the posed shots on the bridge:
These were taken with my cell phone, which just doesn't measure up to my Digital Rebel, for some reason: A cloudy run-by on the old Adirondack Division:
These were taken with my cell phone, which just doesn't measure up to my Digital Rebel, for some reason:
A cloudy run-by on the old Adirondack Division:
And that hidden gem in Boonville, NY - the Black River Canal Museum, specifically the working canal lock demo:
Sorry for the blur...
Well, there. Home from two days on the railroad with the Southern Appalachia Railroad Museum charter.
What a magnificent group (both the organizers and the passengers). While there was plenty of foaming going on, there were also those keeping careful track of where they were and what they saw.
The group included two blokes from Britain, no less - great fellows, both ALCO enthusiasts (we provided them with some ALCO exposure - C425 805, nee BCR, nee EL 2455 - by borrowing a locomotive from MWHA for the first day).
The trip yesterday was on track I regularly work, so it wasn't "special" (although I did call the 6 mile push move to Carter from the front walkway of our GP-9). Today we travelled to end-of-track at Lyons Falls - or at least as I could get them, as there was a derail right in front of the gondola blocking our acces to the real end-of-track a hundred feet or so further north.
Today's trip also included a stop at a gem of a local museum commemorating the Black River Canal, which ran well into the railroad years. A unique feature of the museum is a working lock demonstration which the patrons can operate, pushing "canal boats" along the waterway and through the operating locks...
Nance - you missed a winner.
I've got one or two pictures. I'll share them later.
zugmann http://www.altoona.psu.edu/academics/docs/be/rte/rte_degree_flyer.pdf First time I've seen the curriculum up in print. Fun stuff (well, except the Calc II - integration bites!, and computer science..). Now all I have to do is convinve myself that I can somehow beat out all the whiz kids fresh out of high school, can give up my job that pays decent, my healthcare, retirement, 401k... A coworker once told me that the best thing that could ever happen to me is to be fired. He's a smart guy.
First time I've seen the curriculum up in print. Fun stuff (well, except the Calc II - integration bites!, and computer science..). Now all I have to do is convinve myself that I can somehow beat out all the whiz kids fresh out of high school, can give up my job that pays decent, my healthcare, retirement, 401k...
A coworker once told me that the best thing that could ever happen to me is to be fired. He's a smart guy.
zug, integration = "the area under the curve" is pretty fundamental to a lot of engineering, esp. structural and energy-related. Fortunately, it's usually polynomial equations, not logarithmic, trigonometric, exponential, etc. And I don't see Differential Equations there anyplace, so clearly this curriculum is not research-oriented, but more practical - be glad for that !
zug's dilemma illustrates why this situation ought to be a perfect application for learning 'on-line' and/ or via video recordings, etc. (with appropriate safeguards for confirming identity, etc.). A lot could be done by tutorials, with just a 1 or 2 times a month in-person class or meeting with the Prof., and the Prof. and/ or a good Teaching Asst. with scheduled office hours or availability, including nights and weekends, for coaching, tutoring, helping over the rough spots, etc. But I suspect that the accredited universities are justifiably wary of giving up their franchise and claims for high tuition income to cover all the admin. and ivy-covered halls that could be mostly rendered redundant by such a transition . . . I wouldn't mind putting those kinds of courses together if I could find a way to get paid for it . . .
Johnny, that's true of me, too - it took another 'go-round' and at a slower pace along with some practical applications to better comprehend some of the more abstract topics.
- Paul North.
....At the rate the new hires are washing out (wimping out...? in less than 6 months) of the programs at NS, CSX and BNSF, they're going to have to get some additional fresh blood from somewhere. Zugs probably will have no problem here - he knows the culture.
If you come from a BSCE program that does not have basic route surveying in the core curriculum, don't even bother to apply. (you won't survive).
Some of the college railroad civil-engineering are training operating managers, not the badly needed next generation of track & bridge engineers. (Purdue)
IMHO - Transportation Engineers are rubber tired highway bubbas, few have any real rail training.
Paul_D_North_Jr Thanks for sharing that curriculum, zug.- first i've seen it, too. At first glance, looks pretty comprehensive - more than I expected. Now it'll be interesting to see who they get to teach those courses - not only their technical qualifications, as in Ph.D. vs. grad student or someone w/ lots of experience - but how well they can communicate the material - which again, is in parts - how fluent are they in English, and even if they are - can they still get the concepts across ? - Paul North.
Thanks for sharing that curriculum, zug.- first i've seen it, too. At first glance, looks pretty comprehensive - more than I expected. Now it'll be interesting to see who they get to teach those courses - not only their technical qualifications, as in Ph.D. vs. grad student or someone w/ lots of experience - but how well they can communicate the material - which again, is in parts - how fluent are they in English, and even if they are - can they still get the concepts across ?
I don't know if that was my physics professor's problem, but some things I did not grasp in the classroom but comprehended later. He's still a great guy (up in his eighties, now) and I enjoyed seeing him and his wife when we were at my college last month.
Johnny
University of Wisconsin - Madison's "Railroad Engineering Courses" - mostly multi-day seminar format:
http://epdweb.engr.wisc.edu/railroad-engineering-courses.lasso
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's "Railroad Engineering Program":
http://ict.illinois.edu/railroad/
Michigan Tech's "Rail Transportation Program":
http://www.rail.mtu.edu/index.htm
Purdue University's "Transportation Engineering" program is general and - surprisingly, at least to me - apparently has nothing specifically for rail transportation:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/CE/Academics/Undergraduate/Groups/Transportation
Northwestern University's Transportation Center - http://transportation.northwestern.edu/ - has lessengineering and more of a business and policy orientation, with an undergraduate minor in Transportation & Logistics - http://transportation.northwestern.edu/academic/ugradMinor.html - as well as self-guided M.S. and Ph.D. programs, seminars, etc. - see the left-hand column for details. Notably, 5 of the 7 class I's - BNSF, CN, CSX, NS, and UP appear as sponsors or participants of some sort at the bottom of the NUTC's Business Advisory Committee webpage: http://transportation.northwestern.edu/bac/
This list is not exhaustive/ all-inclusive - they may well be others of which I'm not aware or forgot this morning . . .
Shame there's nothing like that near WI. I'd like to upgrade my BS to something more 'practical'.
Dan
It does look to be set up for the general stuff the first 2 years (teachable at a satellite campus), with the RR-specific studies the junior and senior year. Be interesting to see if they ever expand their RR-oriented offerings.
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
Thanks for those images Z. This situation has clearly taken on a life of its' own, and it is very sad to read of the situation affecting the people of Slave Lake. The evacuation is the largest such event in the history of Alberta.
Latest reports put the return of people to town at at least two weeks from now. An example of the problem is that today, during an escorted media tour, a box of ammunition in a still smouldering house exploded and members of the media had to duck for cover where they could find it.
Still no word from the Oil and "Transportation" companies affected, mentioned in your link, about expected damages.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
AgentKid The situation at Slave Lake has a tie in with Nance's last question. There was video released yesterday, taken from a helicopter, showing a train standing on the single track through town. Fortunately it was in a area not touched by the fire. I'm guessing the crew got to Slave Lake thinking it would be a safe place to tie up, before suddenly having to join the evacuation. But I wonder who decided, and what the process was, to stop the train there. Working east of Calgary, forest fires were not something Dad ever had to deal with as a Dispatcher! There is no word at all on any damage assessments. Bruce
The situation at Slave Lake has a tie in with Nance's last question. There was video released yesterday, taken from a helicopter, showing a train standing on the single track through town. Fortunately it was in a area not touched by the fire. I'm guessing the crew got to Slave Lake thinking it would be a safe place to tie up, before suddenly having to join the evacuation. But I wonder who decided, and what the process was, to stop the train there. Working east of Calgary, forest fires were not something Dad ever had to deal with as a Dispatcher!
There is no word at all on any damage assessments.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50635&src=eoa-iotd
Zug, am I ever glad my post secondary education days are past me! Looking at that course list made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! One thing though, if the demand for engineers is as urgent as they say, it is interesting that there is no talk of a two year program for those who already have a relevant degree. (Engineering or Science).
About 30 years ago a columnist for the NMRA Bulletin - guy by the name of Bill Kennerly, wrote a column for several years called "Notes from an Old Time Book", about his time working for the SP in the San Francisco area. By days he taught high school; then he fired a "midnight goat" pretty regularly. I don't or recall how he had enough seniority to hold down that job so steadily, but he did.
Cruising on a site and found this:
http://www.altoona.psu.edu/academics/docs/be/rte/rte_degree_flyer.pdf
I haven't been able to see the linked picture (my dinosaur of a computer doesn't like flikr. It's one of a couple sites that for me take forever to open, usually.) but the UP has one with a four light head out around Omaha. On this particular signal, the head is the bottom one. The fourth aspect is a lunar. I'd guess the ones everyone else is seeing also can display a lunar as the fourth aspect possible.
Remember, whether the head has 1, 2, 3 or 4 lights on it no more than one of them can be displayed at any time. (On some signal combinations, a head can also remain dark.) If a single head has two of it's lights displayed, the signal is imperfectly displayed and we all know what that means, right? (Unless there's a local special instruction that authorizes it.)
Carl, I've seen those type signals over by Muscatine, too. When I saw them it was still the SOO, about a year or so after they acquired the Milwaukee Road so I don't know for sure who installed them. The place I saw the signal was orginally RI and I'm fairly certain they weren't from the RI era.
Jeff
Dan,admittedly it was a long shot, but I checked the Canadian rules (CROR) and those four light signals are not something CP packed in their grip and brought down with them when they came to the US in a big way in the nineties. One other place I thought you might try is the rule book of whatever the predecessor road of ICE/CP was at that yard.
Dan, I've seen these four-light signals along the CP (ICE) between the Quad Cities and Muscatine, Iowa, as well (and was going to suggest that the high red light was in case the low red light became submerged when the river flooded), but really don't have a clue as to what aspects can be displayed by them.
I might suggest that they are probably specialized signals within a control point (maybe the derail, in the one case), as there are switches in the foreground that don't appear to have any signals governing them, and a support for what looks more like a mainline signal cantilever beyond the overpass. You would probably have to go to some sort of special instructions book to find more about these. The CP section of my CORA book doesn't mention them.
I have a signal question this morning. A friend shared a link to the following picture with me:http://flic.kr/p/9qMDh5
I've seen single, double, & triple butI haven't seen a quad-light signal before. In the picture above the far left and right signals have the red at the 'top' which is what I expect but the one that's just left of the far right signal has red as the 2nd from top light.
My questions:1) What are the likely aspects on the far left and right signals? Why 4 lights?
2) What is the top aspect for the signal with red as the 2nd from top? Why?
Larry, a lot of the C&O welded-rail cars were built from gons (and some were transferred to B&O, I believe). I'm not sure about the cars you saw, but the earliest C&O welded-rail cars were built out of high-side 40-foot gons, some of Pere Marquette ancestry. Keep in mind that C&O and B&O were welded-rail pioneers, and the first railroad to reach 5000 miles of welded rail, sometime in the early 1970s.
Thanks, MC! I was in no way trying to minimize the roadmasters' input into this situation. There are situations around there (rocks, mostly) that were never dealt with in my neck of the woods, and I'm sure they could have a direct effect on vibrations some distance away.
My foray into Elmhurst was fun, but not particularly exciting. Plenty of trains seen, and power included an unpatched SP unit (187) and a pair of TFM GEs. The most interesting operation I saw was an eastbound scoot crossing over from Track 1 to Track 2 at Park (perfectly normal), but the home signal for Track 2 almost immediately changed to Restricting (two reds over Lunar White) so that an eastbound manifest (the guy with the two TFMs) could follow the scoot--he didn't show up for a few minutes, though. I heard the ATWS go off a couple of times, and it is not working the way that I was told it should.
How does that work? WHO issues a slow order and does it state how fast or is that up to the train crew? I imagine they would comply but do they HAVE to if, say, it impacted their revenue? IF the tracks are in danger (I don't know) but if they are, would they still run trains through there anyway??!!
-Nance
The roadmaster/MTM and the Division Engineer/MTP are going to call the shots on this one, possibly with one of the Design & Const. Field Engineers from Atlanta's help if he/she happens to be close by (There aren't a hole lot of those folks around). The train crew/ operating bubbas won't call the shots here. I would expect that the roadmaster will inspect the site and talk to his counterpart at PennDOT prior to making any decisions regarding any slow order. Trains do put energy into the ground (It's the roadmaster's charge, not the operating supervisor's, dispatcher's or train crew's...) but the other question is the PennDOT concern legit? (from a trained geoTechnical/Civil Engineer or somebody else?)
On the stack train issue, if they are well cars (as opposed to bare tables or spines, the issue may also be clearances....Back east is full of clearance restricted routes with plenty of substandard bridges, tunnels and other overhead obstructions that foul 19'6" ATR twin 9.5ft seacans stacked in a well. Designed in the steam era, they never even thought of the concept of TOFC/COFC, stack trains, etc. and only knew 40 ft boxcars and lighter rail sections.
Carl - CSX is doing some track work up this way, including some CWR. The CWR train appears to be made up of modified gons - ends removed, racks added.
Curiously, while CSX is plainly stencilled on the cars, the reporting marks are C&O, including C&O 920247 (the only one I pulled a number off).
A brief update on the Slave Lake, AB fire situation.
The town is still evacuated with no estimate for reentry. They are getting power restored but have no potable water. The fire has moved east of town which will still affect CN as the line runs east/west along the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake. CN joins a long line of property owners in the area who do not have access to their field assets: oil companies, pipeline operators, and logging and pulp operations. And they can't check with helicopters as the airspace is restricted to water bombers. Therefore they have nothing further to report on the situation.
Somebody's got to say it...you're not mixing piggyback cars and spine cars in with double-stack wells, are you? Pigs can't be stacked, and neither can spine cars.
One thing about loading multi-unit cars (stack or spine) with articulated units: if they don't have a full load for a car, they'll try and balance it over the trucks (regardless of the fact that the intermediate trucks may be rated to hold heavier loads). For example, if you have six boxes and two five-unit cars, you'll see the boxes put on the two end units and the middle unit of both cars for this reason.
_________________
Nance, as for your question about the rockslide, I'd fully expect the railroad to ignore this request, unless they saw the need to protect their own right-of-way. My experience has been that the amount of vibration set up by passing freight cars has no proportional relationship to the speed--sometimes reducing the speed could set up some harmonic vibrations that wouldn't occur when the car was moving faster. (I'm talking about individual cars because that's what I dealt with--I would assume that entire trains would have similar unpredictable characteristics.) We used to get loads of oats for Cedar Rapids that would be handled very carefully, but would shake my tower so much that I expected to see cracks opening up and hear pieces of stucco falling to the ground. That's right...they were Quaker oats!
__________________
I have to get out today. It's a nice day for a ride. Of course, I'll need permission if I am to take this computer along with me, but I'll go have lunch, visit the hobby shop, and go trackside for as long as I dare. Temperatures are in the low 50s right now, with not too much warmup in the forecast--perfect!
(Responding to Nance's question a couple posts above about all the single-layer containers on an intermodal train:)
Perhaps some of those "cars" of 3 to 5 "platforms", etc. or "blocks" of 1 or more of them were going to different destinations such as interchanges or terminals, and leaving the containers loaded that way would facilitate sorting the containers by merely switching the cars or blocks - instead of all the individual containers - for that destination. Of course, as soon as there is 1 more container than the last full car for a destination, then another entire car is needed to take it along too, and it wouldn't be good physics to have a bunch of fully loaded cars and then 1 car with only 1 container on it, so that may be a reason why they are scattered like that.
And/ or even if the singles were moved to make all doubles, there might then still be a lot of empty wells, because the platforms were needed at the destination anyway for a return load, etc., etc. So why spend a lot of time and effort to unload and reload containers to rearrange them into an apparently more efficient configuration, when in the end the same number of containers and cars are going to the same places anyhow ?
Thanks, Bruce!
The following is part of a post on a different site from a gal I know:
Heavy rain Friday caused a massive landslide near Fredericktown, PA that sent boulders across Route 88 and forced the state Department of Transportation to close the two-lane road to traffic. The road looks closed to me whether the state says it's closed or not. (just my opinion) lol. The mound of rock and mud is larger than a one-story house, and there is at least one boulder that is larger than a minivan on the road...according to a PennDOT spokeswoman. Praise the Lord that this is in an area where there are no homes along Route 88 although the train tracks and the Monongahela River are on the right-hand side of the road. PennDOT fears more boulders will fall at the Route 88 landslide site. The state Department of Transportation has asked Norfolk Southern to slow its trains beside the massive landslide over concerns their vibrations will cause more rocks to part from the steep cliff. Other worries are that vehicles using the local detour will create similar vibrations beside tons of rocks that appear ready to fall. Roughly 6,000 vehicles normally travel the road daily.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.