Every time I go to where I can use a computer I have to let the beach sand fall off it when I'm done! I actually found a shady spot this time, and I can plug into an outlet! I biked over here, and have spent a few hours catching up on some of what I've been missing, and on things I need to update my files (four of them have gotten very heavy usage on this trip!).
I can see where you might be a little put out if the firemen damaged the cake, Nance...
Trip home's been delayed a day, now it's Sunday. My home town, thanks to its annual Coast Guard Festival, has made it impossible to navigate anywhere near there tomorrow (or today, from what I've heard!).
Going to see if Pat wants me to bring home supper from the Whippy-Dip...
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)
One hour for lunch today...
Westbound autos with DP.
Westbound scoot (no eastbounds this hour).
Lo-o-o-ng eastbound manifest with DP in center, and a new (rebuilt?) Virginia Railway Express unit in the consist.
Another eastbound manifest, faster, shorter, and completely hidden by the first.
Westbound manifest (somewhere between Villa Park and Elmhurst all three tracks must have been occupied at once).
Stack train staging.
Boy, it's good to be home!
Sounds like a nice trip Carl and your timing on being home sounds pretty nice too. It's my turn to head to lower MI via upper MI in a couple days. I'm hoping I can talk my wife into a couple of quick detours on the way but our schedule won't permit much of a long wait.
Dan
Going all the way around the Lake? Tell me more; I might have some suggestions for you.
Getting ready for a bike trip to Elmhurst...bills to pay, hamburger to digest, hobby shop to check out, trains to watch...
Still in Elmhurst, seeing plenty of trains. Not six per hour or anything like that, but still...
One thing I've found out: I can't log new sightings into the computer quickly enough to keep up with what goes through on the trains here. So I guess I need to go home from time to time, after all!
CNW 6000It's my turn to head to lower MI via upper MI in a couple days.
Where ya headed? I plan on hitting the Milford area Friday afternoon, then head to Deshler Sunday.
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...
Hey! Does dat mean you's slightin' Chacaga again?
Unfortunately - kind of a semi-planned/spur of the moment thing, and I'm back on the railroad next weekend, so I'll need a day or three to recover.
Besides, I'm pursuing my hours toward engineer this summer, so the more hours I get, the sooner I get my card. Then the fun begins...
tree68 CNW 6000: It's my turn to head to lower MI via upper MI in a couple days. Where ya headed? I plan on hitting the Milford area Friday afternoon, then head to Deshler Sunday.
CNW 6000: It's my turn to head to lower MI via upper MI in a couple days.
Heading to Traverse City area for a wedding. I should be there around 2 PM Friday through 8 or 9 AM Sunday and then home. Sorry Carl-heading the north way around as the mileage is significantly shorter than the southern route.
Have fun, Dan. I'd say your best bet of seeing anything railroad-wise would be at Escanaba/Gladstone. Otherwise, be prepared for some nice scenery along the coast on U.S. 2. Most of Troll country is UU-2B.
Troll Country--da Lower Peninsula, da land under da bridge.
Yous-2B: You wont find too much railroad stuff there any more.
Love it, Carl (thanks for the hint on the "UU-2B", I wouldn't have gotten that one otherwise).
For those who are enamored of the other "UP" - "Upper Peninsula", see "Da Yoopers" at:
http://dayoopers.com/index.html
- Paul North.
CNW 6000 Sorry Carl-heading the north way around as the mileage is significantly shorter than the southern route.
Sorry Carl-heading the north way around as the mileage is significantly shorter than the southern route.
This week in car news (for Carl):
Lots of STSX corn syrup cars now sport VGTX marks and new numbers. Also some BNBX 3-pocket hoppers are now carrying ADLX marks (same numbers).
HEard this from a hogger, and it is as true as can be: "a railroader never knows the day of the week, but he knows when it is his Friday" Today is my friday.
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, Tom. I knew about the ADLX cars, and am hoping to see some of those ex-STSX cars sometime (may have to head to Decatur or somewhere like that). There were a lot of recently-bought STSX cars, so there's a lot of potential there.
Saw an unusual train today--it seemed to be a unit train for "dirty dirt". Eastbound, with four units (one UP, three CSXT), and a long string of identical FURX gondolas with logos for MHF Logistical Solutions (one or two buffer cars behind the units, but close to 100 of these gons). I don't know whether the gons were loaded or empty; I'm betting on empty because I don't recall seeing any commodity covering.
Carl, that "dirty dirt" unit train was sitting at MP 324ish (just east of Missouri Valley, IA) about noonish (I'm just full of ishes today) on Aug 9th. It was in line with other eastbounds, stopped because of single tracking around a Form B at a derailment site.
The morning of July 31st they derailed 22 coal hoppers at Denison, IA. Right next to the city dog pound. The track was all repaired back to normal speed, the cars and a big pile of coal remaining. Last Monday night another coal train derailed a couple of cars in the same spot. This time nothing turned over, just wheels on the ground. The first one was caused by a bad wheel and I haven't heard anything about the second one yet.
Jeff
I'd blame the dogs.
James
How soft/soggy is it there at Denison right now. Methinks Cronks is doing a landoffice business feeding the troops in Dennison.
CShaveRR Have fun, Dan. I'd say your best bet of seeing anything railroad-wise would be at Escanaba/Gladstone. Otherwise, be prepared for some nice scenery along the coast on U.S. 2. Most of Troll country is UU-2B. Troll Country--da Lower Peninsula, da land under da bridge. Yous-2B: You wont find too much railroad stuff there any more.
As to scenery, we were really struck by the greenery along the highway from Sault Ste. Marie to Marquette, and we enjoyed the waterfront from Rapid River down to Green Bay.
Johnny
Oh, yes, there was a toll-taker near the north end of the bridge; is such a stand-in for a troll?
mudchicken How soft/soggy is it there at Denison right now. Methinks Cronks is doing a landoffice business feeding the troops in Dennison.
Lately, the track through that area has been dry, no mud holes.
When I first heard of derailment #1, I figured it happened on the bridge at the west end of town. (It's a 3 track Whipple truss that I think I posted a link to a while back.) Although it's been OK for a while, there's a spot on the bridge that developes a soft spot. They fix it but after a while the soft spot redevelopes, especially if the weather turns rainy.
Jeff, would you remember whether that "dirty dirt" eastbound was loaded or empty?
Today I caught the front half of a Blade Runner close-up (only the front half because an empty NORX train passed by even closer). I can't understand how even a casual observer could fail to be impressed by a move like that!
CShaveRR Jeff, would you remember whether that "dirty dirt" eastbound was loaded or empty?
I'd say it was empty. The reason being, I caught the westbound loaded train (can you say "key train") last trip after discussing it on here. We had two UP engines, one put on at Rochelle because the first developed air brake faults and couldn't be used as a leader, and three CSXT engines. Five engines look impressive, but only three were being used. Two of the CSXT engines were shut down, one bad-order and the other for fuel conservation. Same type of cars as the previously seen train.
The outbound at Fremont shut down the last running CSXT and only used the UP engines. They don't have as severe grades west of there for their run to North Platte.
While on this trip an incident from the "just when you thought you've heard it all" department happened. A train ahead of us reported to the dispatcher that at Carroll on the siding, a kybo on a dumpy got loose from the tied down work equipment and had rolled down onto the crossing and was blocking it.
Wait, it gets better. A few minutes later the dispatcher comes back on and asks the train to be more specific, know one there seemed to know what a "kybo" or a "dumpy" was. The train answered a port-a-potty on a four wheel cart. (A vital piece of equipment for many mechanized gangs working out in the middle of nowhere.) The dispatcher said, "Oh, a portable s(ryhmes with twitter)r."
By the time we went past it had either been moved or, more likely due to high winds from a storm, rolled farther down the siding away from the crossing. While I normally don't use kybo for the name of those "facilities," I have heard the term used many times. I knew what a dumpy was from the time I spent over a dozen years ago on the Boone & Scenic Valley track gang. Obviously, the terms aren't universal.
OK, Carl - here you go with some "newborns" - either new cars or refurbs. All orange, so probably MOW. One number I caught (and all of them were within 10-15 numbers of it) was 920739.
I didn't get a picture. They were low cars - flats - with special(?) racking and short bulkheads at each end lined with what appeared to be ties. Maybe for picking up/carrying jointed rail?
That train came from the south and went west. As it was clearing the SW wye, another northbound came through the diamonds, and as soon as that cleared, a westbound blew through.
Busy place, this Deshler.
Edit - I was wrong on the last one - it went south and had to wait for the red CPL from that northbound to clear before it could procede aron the SE wye.
Overnight I saw a train go west from the north (NW wye) with a trainload of flats with special racks (empty). I'd almost guess windmill parts...
Boy, what an interesting few pages. Not just in "here" but in some of the neighboring threads. Reading a few of them sure makes me glad I was gone from Thursday through last night. It's still safe to post pictures in here, right?
Carl & Larry-I got skunked in lower MI. Saw some older equipment as a display, including a MI DNR "fish transportation" car and some stations but that was it. Might have seen part of a roadswitcher in the UP off of US 2 and some modern GE power at CN's Gladstone facility...but that was it. I'd agree with the troll part (no personal offense meant...but has someone outlawed the use of cruise control down that way? Holy........yeah, some parts were pretty frustrating. I can say, however, that I have NOT seen a car with at least two kayaks on it and a mountain/trail bike combo in at least 24 hours. Maybe when cruise was outlawed having alternate transport was added...
Any forum readers in the NW corner of WI might want to listen to their scanners along the CN Superior sub (near South Itasca last I checked) as the CN President's Special was northbound in a westerly fashion. Leader is CN 8945 and is trailed by a pair of IC E8's and some passenger cars. I missed that and a bunch of other CN "notables" in the area yesterday. Oh, well...
zardoz CNW 6000: Sorry Carl-heading the north way around as the mileage is significantly shorter than the southern route. And certainly much more scenic.
CNW 6000: Sorry Carl-heading the north way around as the mileage is significantly shorter than the southern route.
And certainly much more scenic.
Yes it was very scenic but (sorry Norris!) I'd have to say it was like the bottom half of MN or the eastern 2/3 of South Dakota...save for the trees. Flat and looooooooong. Some of the trees were already starting to exhibit "Fallitis".
CNW 6000 Boy, what an interesting few pages. Not just in "here" but in some of the neighboring threads. Reading a few of them sure makes me glad I was gone from Thursday through last night. It's still safe to post pictures in here, right?
Aww.. you missed all the fun.
zugmann CNW 6000: Boy, what an interesting few pages. Not just in "here" but in some of the neighboring threads. Reading a few of them sure makes me glad I was gone from Thursday through last night. It's still safe to post pictures in here, right? Aww.. you missed all the fun.
CNW 6000: Boy, what an interesting few pages. Not just in "here" but in some of the neighboring threads. Reading a few of them sure makes me glad I was gone from Thursday through last night. It's still safe to post pictures in here, right?
But I think most of the people here were sober...
How sure R U, zug??
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
I probably should have gotten interested in the photography thread, but I doubt that I'm affected either way, and suspect that my opinion might not matter. I like pictures with good explanations (a picture may be worth a thousand words, but a picture with a good caption is priceless!). So I get a little wordy...how long before I get to what a picture would have replaced?
Dan, do you remember where you saw the fish car? It was the subject of a few photos in the ice cream place we visited at Baldwin last month. East of Baldwin there used to be a state fish hatchery (haven't looked there since they pulled up the railroad!).
You must have gone inland in the U.P. instead of hugging the coast on U.S. 2. There's quite a bit of nice non-flat scenery along there, with many rocky outcroppings courtesy of the Niagara Escarpment, the same geographic feature that brings us Door County, the Georgian Bay, and Niagara Falls, among others.
Larry, the series for the refurbished flats is 920701-920751. There are a lot of MTTX cars in this service, but it might make economic sense for CSX to get its own cars (ex-TTX, I'd almost bet!) if they have a rail-producing plant on their own line. These might be cars that are too old for interchange service, but could still be used over CSX's network.
Had an afternoon of seeing trains yesterday, while working at our historical society's museum. Nothing exciting, but things were pretty busy. Today we're tackling some research projects dealing with cars built by Bethlehem Steel and successors. Every once in a while I can contribute with my sightings logs.
Looking forward to getting together with an old friend of the Forum in about a week. She'll be busy while in Chicagoland, but we're hoping to bike part of the Prairie Path with her and her kids.
Zug & Nance -
They were sober...and that's the sad part. The Best Man started in on Politics in his "speech" which got responses and then murmuring...and it went downhill fast from there.
Carl,
That was about a mile west of the town of Oden on US 31. That's the "interpretive center" with the car (Wolverine IIRC). We didn't have time to stop as we had to get back to WI by a specific time...so we thought but then it turned out (as we crossed The Bridge) we didn't have the restriction on time...but weren't going to go back. Yes, we saw the dunes and walked around on them/near the shore for a bit. That was neat indeed. Just endless stretches of highway at a mile-a-minute with lots of pines on either side of the road.....
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