Trackside Lounge 3Q 2011

[Modelcar]

CShaveRR

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!  )

I really don't remember if we punched a hole in the cans or not....Sure would have been the correct thing to do, If we had a way to keep the can stable.  Punching a hole in a c-ration can was not difficult at all, as all GI's had a "P38" can opener.  A small folding can opener about the size of a finger nail trimmer....You made your way around the can in a ratchet action until you could fold the can top open.

 

[The Butler]

My dad still carries one on his keychain. 

[Modelcar]

.....Yep....I'll wager many former GI's still have one in possession.  I'm curious.  Must go thru my military things and see if I might have managed to keep one....They really did the job well for their size.

Almost a life line to get to "food".

[CShaveRR]

It only took about ten minutes this afternoon for three trains to come visit me at Finley Road (thank Goodness there were three tracks!).  An eastbound manifest that had been staging there on Track 2 started up, but was beaten to the crossing by a coal train eastbound on Track 1 (CNW, CMO, NRLX, and NCUX power-dump hoppers).  The lead engine was UP 5886, a number that I still associate with a C&O GP7 that used to be a regular in Grand Haven in the mid-1960s.

After the gates went up, I headed for home.  But I had barely gone a couple of blocks when a westbound train of empty CWEX gons came through on Track 3.  After that I went home (my errand had been completed earlier--business before pleasure), but not before checking out the tracks in both directions for more action, even though the signals at Finley were showing three reds!

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

CShaveRR

  [snipped]  (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.)

  Carl (and others) - the following may be of interest (none of these are my photos);

DJJX 1481 (mis-labeled as 7481), 21 Feb. 2011: http://www.jeffstrainsite.com/railfan_pics/Industrial_Railcars/gondolas/djjx/coalveyor_index.html 

DJJX 1595, 02 June 2011: http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=61918 

Index/ search pages with some other Coalveyor photos: http://www.railcarphotos.com/Search.php?SearchAARType=J302&Search=Search 

 http://www.railcarphotos.com/Search.php?SearchCapCuFt=4240&Search=Search 

 http://www.railcarphotos.com/Search.php?SearchReportingMark=DJJX&Search=Search 

12-page ACF booklet on them: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_ACF_coalveyor_gondola.html?id=FMn6SAAACAAJ 

And lastly, a couple on this page: http://freightcars.blogspot.com/2008/05/acf-coalveyor.html  

 - Paul North. 

[CShaveRR]

Thanks, Paul!  The picture of 1481 was one I hadn't seen before.

DJJX 1400-1680 is all ex-NPPX (Nebraska Public Power District) Coalveyors.  It's a mixture of cars with green (nee-UNSX), light blue (nee-DAPX?), yellow (NPPX original), and white (nee-OGSX) rotary-coupler ends.  Renumbering was at random; sightings will help make a very colorful renumbering table for me (yes, the colors are shown in my tables!).

Notice that 1595 has two rotary couplers!  Its previous identity was given as NPPX 1500, which is also very helpful...those double-rotary cars aren't always shown in the Equipment Registers.

Just finished updating another old sightings pad.  We're very occupied tomorrow (probably dodging Bears traffic will be one of our chores!), but starting Monday I should be able to get going on yet more old sightings.

[The Butler]

Hi, folks, due to a bout of insomnia, I spent a lot of time going from Forum to Forum here on the TRAINS website.  I found quite of but of interesting reading on the Passenger Forum.  Since they don't have a lounge, I thought I would ask this question here. 

Does my memory serve me correctly in believing the government, in the forming of AMTRAK, banned private competition of AMTRAK routes? 

Meaning, if I had the means and opportunity to build "Jim's Railroad" and offer passenger train travel from Saint Louis to Chicago in direct competition to AMTRAK's Lincoln Service, it would not be allowed?

This was just something that seams to creep into my thoughts whenever I read discussions about AMTRAK.

Thanks ahead of time.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

You're quite welcome, Carl - glad to have been of some help.  Overnight it dawned on me that I have seen some DJJX cars locally and sporadically - usually in WB NS manifest trains.  So I'll be on the lookout for more of them.  The difficulty will be recognizing one in that 1400-1680 number series soon enough for the digital camera to 'wake up' and grab a photo if I'm in my usual location about 30 ft. from the tracks - a second or two at most - because if I move further away, the detail may not be visible (and the sight lines are also more limiting, hence less time to see it from there, too).

The Butler:  Private competition with Amtrak being prohibited is also my recollection, but I can't document or prove that right at the moment.

- Paul North. 

[The Butler]

Thanks, Paul, do you remember if that was interstate only or did that include intrastate as well?

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

The prohibition was against "interstate" passenger competition - 'competing' "intrastate" or commuter service was still allowed, again as best as I can recall.  Of course, there were some commuter runs that were longer than some Amtrak routes - around 150 miles was the nominal 'dividing line' between them (again subject to correction of my dim memory on that point).  As a result, one Trains author opined that the California Western's Skunk and Super Skunk trains were evidently in violation of the Act.  It may have been this article:

"Is Amtrak legal ? Amtrak's status", by Thoms, William E., from Trains, August 1972,  p. 37

and/ or 

"Patching up the Amtrak statute: the Amtrak act needs some changes", by Thoms, William E., from Trains, May 1975,  p. 52

- Paul North. 

[CShaveRR]

We're in the Land Of No Trains right now (unless we get very lucky).  Between taking Pat to places she needs to be, helping move my mother-in-law out of her home of over 50 years, and visiting ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, we'll be occupied, and I may hardly miss them.

[WMNB4THRTL]

Wow.

Good luck with the move.

[WMNB4THRTL]

OK, so back quite a while ago, we talked about washing the ballast. That's fine for a yard, maybe a shortline, but how on earth would a major railroad do that?! Is there a special machine for such a job? (My apologies in advance of that part has slipped my mind.) TIA

[zugmann]

WMNB4THRTL

OK, so back quite a while ago, we talked about washing the ballast. That's fine for a yard, maybe a shortline, but how on earth would a major railroad do that?! Is there a special machine for such a job? (My apologies in advance of that part has slipped my mind.) TIA

Sure is...

 

http://www.loram.com/Services/Default.aspx?id=244

 

 

[mudchicken]

Zuggie:

You posted a shoulder cutter (note the sidewheel arrangement). If you want to get really serious, try an undercutter (think of a chain saw on industrial steroids, running under the ties)

The ballast is not washed, it's "screened" with the fines being conveyored off in a windrow or into an airdump car.

Major railroads own a handfull of undercutters (mostly Plasser or Kershaw), and rent the rest. Most shoulder cutters are rented. Smaller machines also exist like switch undercutters and yard cleaners.

If the ground is frozen, you don't undercut.

Nance: This is an expensive process, a major effort and you only get 1-5 miles a day out of the thing. Only the most urgent mileage gets the treatment, For this reason, yards and branchlines are seeing the re-appearance of sledding (which can be slow, dangerous and eats ties).....and then there is the fun around crossings, platforms and bridges.

[WMNB4THRTL]

Thanks to you both!

Sorry, but what is 'sledding,' in RR terms? I've done plenty on the snow (before anyone comes out with that one) Thanks!

[CShaveRR]

If I remember it right, it's just dragging a plow (or a tie, or whatever) underneath the roadbed and dragging it along to remove whatever' underneath the ties.

[mudchicken]

Carl's got it. (hope it doesn't have a runny nose)  It's a wedge plow only about a foot tall and 10 ft wide. Has runners like a kid's sled - only upside down (runners/skids slide along the bottom of the ties)....pulled/towed by a locomotive, a pair of dozers or a motor grader(s) using cables or chain leads.

(dangerous because of the loads on the chains/cable can break the leads, causing the chain or cable to whip around wildly) Shoves everything in the crib and 12" below the tie into windrows on the side of the ties and lays the skeleton track down on a hard/scraped flat surface.

If the track is not well anchored or the the ties don't hold a spike, ties get skewed or torn away from the rail. (but then, the same is true of the undercutter when the tie is hanging in the air....you don't do either with bad ties if you want production or have a deadline to put the track back into service)

[rvos1979]

In WSOR's earlier days, they did rehabilitate sections of track by the sledding process, there are shots in their 30th anniversary book that show the plow and the Unimog that pulled it.  They used the sled to show where the bad ties were, the ones that dropped away were replaced.  There were only a few portions of the WSOR system that were rehabbed this way.

At home early for home time this time around, but not by design.  Lost power in the truck over the weekend, so shopped the truck Monday night, and found out I roasted both turbochargers to a crisp.  So, we are starting home time a bit early.  I guess it's not a good sign when the turbine housing turns blue....

Uh-oh, looks like I need a new microwave.....

Later.....

[zugmann]

mudchicken

Zuggie:

You posted a shoulder cutter (note the sidewheel arrangement). If you want to get really serious, try an undercutter (think of a chain saw on industrial steroids, running under the ties)

The ballast is not washed, it's "screened" with the fines being conveyored off in a windrow or into an airdump car.

Major railroads own a handfull of undercutters (mostly Plasser or Kershaw), and rent the rest. Most shoulder cutters are rented. Smaller machines also exist like switch undercutters and yard cleaners.

If the ground is frozen, you don't undercut.

Nance: This is an expensive process, a major effort and you only get 1-5 miles a day out of the thing. Only the most urgent mileage gets the treatment, For this reason, yards and branchlines are seeing the re-appearance of sledding (which can be slow, dangerous and eats ties).....and then there is the fun around crossings, platforms and bridges.

 

Does this T&E rat at least get partial credit?

[mudchicken]

Just for you Zugster....(In light of what's happened here with a fellow employee, please get thee back to the classroom and get it done....In the meantime, we go lay serious waste to some clueless college administrators here.)

[zugmann]

mudchicken

Just for you Zugster....(In light of what's happened here with a fellow employee, please get thee back to the classroom and get it done....In the meantime, we go lay serious waste to some clueless college administrators here.)

 

Oh no, I take it someone doesn't understand how railroads work?

[CNW 6000]

C'mon Zug...that's what book learnin' is for....

Enjoy the last day of 3Q 2011, tomorrow starts 4Q.  Off to see if I can bag a steel beast with the digital Rebel...quite the nice toy!

[WMNB4THRTL]

Thanks for the reminder, Dan! (I did get lost after 1Q.)

[CShaveRR]

Just as long as we don't call it 4Q...that's borderline obscene (there was a rock band at my college called 4Q for that very reason...try it with a Bostonian accent).

Today's moving day for my mother-in-law.  We're up in Michigan to help, but the best way I can do that is to stay out of the way, which is why I am up on the laptop instead of "supervising" the professional movers.

 

[mudchicken]

zugmann

mudchicken:

Just for you Zugster....(In light of what's happened here with a fellow employee, please get thee back to the classroom and get it done....In the meantime, we go lay serious waste to some clueless college administrators here.)

 

 

Oh no, I take it someone doesn't understand how railroads work?

Far worse than that Zugs. What would you do when you are 7/8 ths of the way thru a technical degree program (surveying/engineering)  and the university drops the program  and refuses to help those still in the degree program get to the end.?.....and then they say they need the space for more  liberal arts and political science students....(future dime a dozen unemployables) Most of what he had to go were garbage courses whiile he started his family.

Get it done Zugs...

[zugmann]

mudchicken

 

 

Far worse than that Zugs. What would you do when you are 7/8 ths of the way thru a technical degree program (surveying/engineering)  and the university drops the program  and refuses to help those still in the degree program get to the end.?.....and then they say they need the space for more  liberal arts and political science students....(future dime a dozen unemployables) Most of what he had to go were garbage courses whiile he started his family.

 

Get it done Zugs...

 

I really don't know.  Talk about being kicked while you're down.  And in the light of all the complaining about how we aren't training the next generation of scientists and engineers...

Just unreal.   I'm waiting on word for another possible opportunity.   If that doesn't come through...

 

[CNW 6000]

CShaveRR

Just as long as we don't call it 4Q...that's borderline obscene (there was a rock band at my college called 4Q for that very reason...try it with a Bostonian accent).

Ha...maybe the Trackside Lounge: 2011 FRED Edition?

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

mudchicken

  [snipped]  What would you do when you are 7/8 ths of the way thru a technical degree program (surveying/engineering)  and the university drops the program  and refuses to help those still in the degree program get to the end.?.....and then they say they need the space for more  liberal arts and political science students....(future dime a dozen unemployables) Most of what he had to go were garbage courses whiile he started his family. 

  Wow !  One of the few times a lawyer-type could do some genuine good for somebody and society.  Heres' some free "curbstone advice", which is worth exactly what I'm being paid for providing it (zilch): 

Assuming the victim did what he/she was supposed to and when with regard to signing-up for courses and staying registered and on and in the course track, etc., there might be a possible legal action for breach of either an express or implied  contract about keeping the program going, at least for the present enrollees.  Hope the victim saved all the promotional literature from when he/ she was admitted, and from the department and school since then.  That the school says it needs the space for others may defeat possible defenses of impossibility/ impracticality/ frustration/ lack of money, etc.  A claim for damages for lost future wages may be valid; perhaps just for a refund of expenses to date (tuition, books, room & board, plus interest, etc.).  Even if the culprit school claims in documents that there are "No guarantees" or no damages for failure to graduate or obtain employment, etc., that may not apply when the occurrence is self-inflicted by the school.  Better yet, I'd try for an injunction/ restraining order - even just a preliminary/ temporary one - to prohibit the school from changing the status quo ante, at least until until the victim graduates.  Courts and judges sitting in their "equity" jursidiction usually are favorable to cases like this one, where the powers are so one-sided.  As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter once said:  "Courts of Equity have a tradition of aiding infants, incompetents, and sailors.  The average security holder in a railroad reorganization is of like kind." (Or something like that.  And how's that for a slick tie-in to a railroad theme ?)   

Certainly I'd advise the aggrieved person to look for a lawyer with some experience and demonstrable actual cases in that territory with that type of school law - a rare bird, to be sure, but worth finding, because the usual general practice lawyer isn't going to cut it for them here - for an initial consultation and informed professional opinion of the alternatives.  What's the harm ?  What other choice does he/ she have ?  It's not like the school could be any more antagonistic or less helpful than they already are  . . .

- Paul North.     

[zugmann]

 

 

mudchicken:

 

 

.....and then they say they need the space for more  liberal arts and political science students....(future dime a dozen unemployables) 

 

 

[/quote]

 

I am going to refrain from telling you what my major and minor were...

 

Biggest regret of my life.