No further word from Nance to report.
Today dawned clear up here, just like it did ten years ago.
My afternoon was spent mostly trackside.
At the bottom of every hour, an announcement was made and repeated over the "Voice of Metra" (with pauses in the wrong places, as usual): "Although it has been ten years today since the horrific events of September 11, 2001, we will never forget..." It wound up with the usual "If you see something, say something."
Okay...in a little over an hour I saw one train. It was a westbound stacker, led by four units. A new ES44AC was on the point. (Over the past few weeks, a very nice percentage of UP freights have been headed by one of the 60 new ES44ACs or 40 SD70ACEs now arriving.)
As I was headed back home, an eastbound scoot came through, followed very closely (on a different track) by a six-unit light-engine consist.
That's all I saw, so that's all I'm sayin'--for right now.
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)
Yes!!
Dan, I finally scored a couple of GTW double-stack cars! Westbound through Glen Ellyn this morning.
Nance e-mailed me last night; she's sounding hopefully optimistic about her prognosis.
CShaveRR No further word from Nance to report. Today dawned clear up here, just like it did ten years ago. My afternoon was spent mostly trackside. At the bottom of every hour, an announcement was made and repeated over the "Voice of Metra" (with pauses in the wrong places, as usual): "Although it has been ten years today since the horrific events of September 11, 2001, we will never forget..." It wound up with the usual "If you see something, say something." Okay...in a little over an hour I saw one train. It was a westbound stacker, led by four units. A new ES44AC was on the point. (Over the past few weeks, a very nice percentage of UP freights have been headed by one of the 60 new ES44ACs or 40 SD70ACEs now arriving.) As I was headed back home, an eastbound scoot came through, followed very closely (on a different track) by a six-unit light-engine consist. That's all I saw, so that's all I'm sayin'--for right now.
As to Nance, it's good to hear from your later post that she seems to be doing well despite her problem.
Johnny
I'm packing up and headin' for home; thanks for the good wishes!! I'll try to write a bit more ASAP.
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
When you get your curiosity back, Nance, we'll breathe a little easier!
It was decided today that, after days of work on upgrading my sightings of tank cars long gone (on the strength of illustrations in Jim Kinkaid's two Morning Sun books on tank cars), I would turn the laptop over to Pat for stuff she needs to get done, and hie myself to Elmhurst to visit the hobby shop, grab some lunch from the Hot Dog Lady, and hang out trackside. (Lounge trackside, as it were.)
Action began before I even left Lombard, with a westbound WEPX hopper train (coal gons, but we still called 'em hopper trains). Its eastbound counterpart was encountered as I was getting close to Elmhurst. Before I could get settled in at the station platform, the hour's two scoots came in, nearly simultaneously. The "Another Train Warning Syatem" was triggered.
Two units pulled in the next train, an eastbound repo move for Global 2 (it would be known as "baretables" on BNSF; "repo" in this case means "repositioning" of empty well and spine cars). It was followed by a hi-rail truck. The next move was a pair of light engines, eastbound. They were followed by a caboose hop eastbound (yard engine with an MofW caboose, probably going to pick up a work train).
Then came the westound scoot for the next hour. The ATWS went off, in spite of the fact that the scoot was the only train around. I called the grade-crossing hotline to report this, giving as many particulars as possible. None of the eastbound moves so far had tripped the ATWS, just this westbound move on Track 3 (in fact, the westbound scoot that I'd seen may have triggered the ATWS before the eastbound was close enough). The next move, also westbound on track 3, was a trio of light engines headed west, and sure enough, it was "another train coming".
Another light engine move came past the home signals of the control point, then headed back east into the yard--giving the opportunity to see two "forty-five on the bottom" aspects simultaneously. The eastbound train, a ComEd coal train, came in on Track 2, and again the ATWS was triggered! (This was the first train to use Track 2 since I'd gotten there). He wasn't alone for long, though, as a westbound auto train came through while the ComEd guy was slowly entering the yard.
In fact, the ComEd train stopped while he was still strung out across most of Elmhurst (six of seven crossings blocked). The stop didn't last for long...what was most interesting when he started was that the slack ran in, being pushed from the hind end by the DPU.
The next two moves were the next hour's scoots. The eastbound came and went on Track 1, without setting off the ATWS at either grade crossing. Then the westbound came in on Track 3, setting off the ATWS at both crossings again. He was followed soon afterward by a westbound manifest.
I was a little disappointed that, in over an hour after I'd called in the problem, nobody from the signal department had shown up. Since no more trains were lined up, and I'd finished going through the magazine I'd bought at the hobby shop, I headed for home, picking up a few groceries on the way. I think I'll probably go back tomorrow, just to see if the malfunction is still there. Oh, yes, and maybe see a few more trains!
Good work Carl! You saw something, and said something about what you saw.
That makes 2 of us, Carl!!
HOPING to make it out of the house for a little bit tonight but not sure yet. Have to reserve any and all energy for 2 appts tom, one of them LONG, as in 2-3 hrs long, min.!!
Ya'll take care!!
Deggesty Good work Carl! You saw something, and said something about what you saw.
Comes with the territory, Johnny! The Voice of Metra wasn't even issuing the reminders today.
I just realized that I need to spend a little time on our lawn before I make another foray into Elmhurst...hope I don't get too pooped in the process.
A fast run to the post office just now yielded a scoot and a stack train.
Lawn order maintained, plenty of time left for the follow-up to the Case of the Errant Squawk-boxes. (Also known as "Another train coming? Where? Where?")
The follow-up was inconclusive, though. I biked to Elmhurst, and was there for an hour and three-quarters. A team of four signal maintainers was there when I arrived, and I left before they did. I saw malfunctions triggered by single trains on each of the three tracks today, and also saw instances of the two outer tracks working properly. It's possible that they found the problem toward the end.
As for the trains, there were plenty: four scoots, a westbound reefer train, three or four stack trains, a coal train, and a couple of manifests. I hung a little closer to the tracks while biking home this afternoon, and caught a couple of trains in Villa Park: a westbound stack train on UP and a westbound local on the CN (that was a total surprise; just glad I was in the right place at the right time for that one!).
So I guess I shall have to return to Elmhurst yet again to see if the problem has been taken care of. Unfortunately, it can't be tomorrow or Sunday. But this is working out well for me: I'm only two miles shy of my bicycling goal for the entire month, as of now!
Great work; that's fantastic, Carl! Keep up the good job!
Hello everyone, I haven't been around the Lounge for a awhile, so I thought I would drop by.
There has been much hubbub this week on Canadian RR forums about new engines purchased by CP. So what could be interesting about yet even more red GE ES44AC's out and about. Well, after years of dancing around the issue, it has come to pass that if CP wanted to keep all of their AC road units in the 8xxx or 9xxx series they would eventually have to use the 8900 numbers. Even the most hard core head office types, whose historical perspective extends back through the last two fiscal quarters, didn't want to go there.
The original 8900's were FM/CLC H-24-66 Trainmasters. These were touted as the railroad locomotives that were going to conquer the Canadian Rockies once and for all when they were built in 1956. Sadly, their 2400 HP opposed piston engines would not prove to be reliable enough for mainline service, and they were relegated to roles in the mountain areas of southeastern British Columbia. If you are of a certain age, the idea that there are shiny new red 8900's rolling around hits you in a certain spot.
There have been photos and videos posted as each new group of engines makes their way back and forth across Canada on their maiden voyages. I thought I would bring this hubbub here by posting a video of the 8902 and 8901 heading EB about 60 miles east of Calgary, near Gleichen, on the Brooks Sub. portion of the transcontinental mainline. I thought you might find the video interesting because it was taken at a location that is about 40 mi., as the crow flies, SE of Irricana. There are no meaningful differences in the topography, vegetation or atmospheric conditions from what would be experienced at Irricana on that September 14, 2011 day. Only the technology is 50 years newer than what I remember. After the video concludes, if you click on the video of the CP business train, you will see the colour scheme I saw every day growing up. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-o4dJnQNqk
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Nice video...looks like it was breezy there even before those trains blew by!
I know the feeling you have about the latter-day occupation of sacred number series. Either yesterday or the day before I saw a UP GE unit--not sure of the model, but it was occupying the series made famous by the UP's Centennial units. I think this was number 6914.
Had a great time at lunch this noon with daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids: Couldn't make the youngest understand that if you looked at the auto racks you could see the silhouettes of the trucks and cars inside them. Didn't matter much, though; he did comment on the length of that train, and was just as excited to see the next two go through.
[quote user="CShaveRR"]
[/quoteUP 6914 is a GE C44/60AC One of the units that could've been upgraded but wasn't. Glad you had a good time with the grandkids Carl.
Bruce-in my circle of rail/-fan friends there's mixed feelings about the new ES44AC's coming on CP. The feeling is that many of the colorful lease units & older units currently plying the rails will begin to disappear, much like when CN started getting them. But that goes back to "this paint's prettier than that paint" argument and the only constant in life is change. One interesting note on those new GEVOs-the front door is to the engineer's side of the nose now. As I understand things that was the result of several FRA mandated changes to the nose structure.
Dan
CNW 6000 One interesting note on those new GEVOs-the front door is to the engineer's side of the nose now. As I understand things that was the result of several FRA mandated changes to the nose structure.
One interesting note on those new GEVOs-the front door is to the engineer's side of the nose now. As I understand things that was the result of several FRA mandated changes to the nose structure.
Dan, I was going to get back to you on that. These are the first CP GE's to have that change, but apparently BNSF has already received units with the new door position. The first was a DC unit, BNSF 7200 delivered in 2009. I am very curious to see how this works out.
I guess crews lobbied for the change to have the door on the Conductors side, because in very cold weather when the doors on EMD's were on the Engineers side, cold air would blow in against the Engineer's legs and feet. If the cold air blew onto the Conductor, it was thought that at least it would be easier for him to get up and move around the cab. I hope these new GE's are better suited to running at -30°F.
.....One might wonder if the workers population lobby might have pushed for simply have a secure / tight seal around the door, then both would have been warmer...
Quentin
So many engineer jokes... must resist...
Don't those engines have an inside door in the nose as well? I know the newer EMDs used to pop open all the time, but it still beats a standard cab any day of the week.
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
zugmann So many engineer jokes... must resist... Don't those engines have an inside door in the nose as well? I know the newer EMDs used to pop open all the time, but it still beats a standard cab any day of the week.
Yes, both builder's wide-nose engines have a second inside door. The door is located in the middle of the inside wall.
Jeff
I assumed so, but I don't think I ever had the pleasure of having a CP widecab.
zugmann I know the newer EMDs used to pop open all the time, but it still beats a standard cab any day of the week.
I know the newer EMDs used to pop open all the time, but it still beats a standard cab any day of the week.
Man, that would be nasty at -30°F. I recall a discussion about this not too long ago, and it was mentioned that GE's had much better built cabs. I just hope this new mandated change doesn't negatively affect the lives of the crews.
AgentKid zugmann: I know the newer EMDs used to pop open all the time, but it still beats a standard cab any day of the week. Man, that would be nasty at -30°F. I recall a discussion about this not too long ago, and it was mentioned that GE's had much better built cabs. I just hope this new mandated change doesn't negatively affect the lives of the crews. Bruce
zugmann: I know the newer EMDs used to pop open all the time, but it still beats a standard cab any day of the week.
The outer cab doors on the new GEs have been beefed up for crash protection. This makes them a lot heavier than the older doors. If the engine is laying over on the engineer's side, having the door on the engr's side makes it easier to open. The door should open falling away from the nose, hinges at the bottom. If the heavy door was still on the condr's side, it would be hard to open. Gravity would pull down on the door, hinges at the top. I hope that I nor anyone else has to put this to the test.
Engines for Canadian service, at least in the past, have had microwaves. I've seen some that even have heating elements complete with tea pot. Here we get prohibitions (in some areas) against warming cans of soup on the side wall heaters.
jeffhergert Engines for Canadian service, at least in the past, have had microwaves. I've seen some that even have heating elements complete with tea pot. Here we get prohibitions (in some areas) against warming cans of soup on the side wall heaters.
There is a long history of carrying food and heaters/stoves on trains in Canada. Cabooses, Baggage Cars, and Combines all had mandatory packing requirements for safety reasons, should a train break down in a remote area in winter. The microwaves and heating elements are just the evolution of that idea. It just occurred to me though, that that idea is dependent on at least one unit still being able to run to provide electricity.
Along the same line, I guess the first aid requirements are greater up here too. I do know that Canadian engines carry a stretcher to aid first responders in getting someone out of a difficult location.
I finally had the opportunity to bike to Elmhurst and check out the handiwork of the UP's Signal Department in repairing the ATWS problems at the two grade crossings by the station.
Looks like they did a good job. I was there for a proper operation of the system when two trains were simultaneously in the station, and I was also there when a freight went past on Track 3 with nothing else close by, and the system didn't activate. Bravo! How easy it would be just to become annoyed at a mechanical voice that blares every time a train goes through, and thereby miss the whole point of the system.
(Two scoots, three stack trains, one manifest, and a work train, in less than an hour.)
Well, I am taking those $100/each pills, and no, they only come in one flavor--BLECK! (Imagine going to the Pharmacy, not knowing the price, they ring them up and ask you for $2,000!!! I can think of several comments to put here but I better not!) But hey, the ins. covered them, so I was hugely relieved for that!! I think/hope they are just starting to kick in, maybe.
Really wish I had time/chance to do RR reading! I have medical appts, etc much of the time. Oh well, someday I'll get back to it. Just very, very glad for ins, dr's, etc!!
See ya'll later.
jeffhergert.....Here we get prohibitions (in some areas) against warming cans of soup on the side wall heaters. Jeff
jeffhergertHere we get prohibitions (in some areas) against warming cans of soup on the side wall heaters. Jeff
Apparently the trucking industry makes use of that waste heat, too. There are cookbooks on how to cook on the engine - how long, etc.
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...
I know 2 steamer fireman who tried to make coffee, but things did not go well.
I've heard of keeping foil-wrapped goodies warmed (or, yes, actually cooking them) on car engines as well. 'Twould be nice if you could actually put them on at one rest stop and devour the cooked product at the next!
I would think that with locomotives you'd have to continually check something left on the engine, as you wouldn't be able to smell it from the cab (no wonder the heaters were so tempting!).
__________________
I hit the mother-lode in the research department a couple of days ago. Found an old ACF Coalveyor gon with a white rotary-coupler end, and was able to get its previous identity with the help of a friend. But we need to know its original identity now! At the same time, I was researching another series from my older records, and found that these cars were...guess what...Coalveyors with white rotary-coupler ends! In looking at a photo of these cars, I was able to read enough of an ACI label to determine the original reporting mark (OGSX), and decide that some other OGSX cars were probably the ones responsible for the mystery car I'd just seen. So this has turned into a marathon session which involves paragraphs on at least five of my files so far, and caused the complete rewriting of one entire file. I still have hours of typing, photo study, and record comparisons ahead of me. If I sound frustrated, I guess I am...but I shouldn't be!
(Meantime, if anyone sees an old Coalveyor from DJJX series 1400-1680, which has a white-rotary-coupler end, shoot it! Or read the ACI label. The code for OGSX [reading up from "Start"] is "1964". That would be very helpful.)
....I don't know if I'd call it "cooking", but decades & decades ago, while in Asia for Uncle Sam....I remember we "heated" C-rations {cans}, on the engine of a "half track vehicle"....Had a "flat head engine", White, by brand, and we managed to heat and have some heated food. My favorite, baked beans.
Had to be careful it didn't heat too much to have happen what was mentioned in another post here....
Wouldn't just poking a hole alleviate the pressure without spoiling the goods? I'm sure that if one could open the can, one could put a hole in the end before cooking.
(You certainly wouldn't want those baked beans to explode before you've eaten them! )
Someone must have been thinking along the same lines as I was last night...I received a file containing pictures of very readable ACI labels on the cars in question. Files for some of those companies still need to be updated; today the related work caused additions to six files and completion of a new one (one thing almost always leads to another...yes, I'm having fun yet!)
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