CShaveRROne thought...if foliage is blocking great vistas during the travel season, how much of this can legally be removed from your right-of-way?
Probably not enough - the ROW is about 100' wide in most areas, and there's lot's more trees than that. Besides, the powers that be for the Adirondack Park don't appreciate such cutting. We can keep the ROW clear, but that's about it.
Edit: Here's pictures of the rock cuts. If some looks slightly familiar, it's because my partner took pictures in both directions.
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose1.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose2.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose3.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose4.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose5.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose6.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose7.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose8.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose9.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose10.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose11.JPG As you can see from those pictures, the line isn't nice and straight. Consider coming down the hill at 40-50 through these curves:
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Moose11.JPG
As you can see from those pictures, the line isn't nice and straight. Consider coming down the hill at 40-50 through these curves:
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Mooses1.JPG
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Mooses2.JPG At the north end of our excursion was a sign:
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Mooses2.JPG
At the north end of our excursion was a sign:
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Summit.JPG What it's supposed to say (and will again in the future) is that that point is the highest on the New York Central at 2040 feet above sea level. Big Moose did some passenger service in the day. The building is now a restaurant (and not a bad one at that!)
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/Summit.JPG
What it's supposed to say (and will again in the future) is that that point is the highest on the New York Central at 2040 feet above sea level.
Big Moose did some passenger service in the day. The building is now a restaurant (and not a bad one at that!)
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/BigMooseStation.JPG Carl - all of this scenery (my partner took a couple hundred shots, but that's another story) occurs in the five miles beyond the "Pumpkin Patch." If you come up again some time, we'll see about getting you up there. Still to come is the "dashcam" video of the trip.
http://www.tree68.net/BigMoose/BigMooseStation.JPG
Carl - all of this scenery (my partner took a couple hundred shots, but that's another story) occurs in the five miles beyond the "Pumpkin Patch." If you come up again some time, we'll see about getting you up there.
Still to come is the "dashcam" video of the trip.
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...
The shots look great! And I'm pretty sure we'll be doing a reprise of this recent trip sometime--perhaps during the dry season.
Looks like there's a siding at Big Moose, or at least a second track from which a runaround could be made. That ought to make things a little easier.
I timed a few mileposts at about 30 on the Utica leg of the trip. I would assume that the NYC maintained this line well when it still gave a rip about passenger service, but I have to wonder how much faster things really went. I can't picture "40-50", though that might attract some thrill-seekers (and the engineer would have to be one of them!).
I had noticed all of the fresh-looking ties on the ride up to the pumpkin patch. Nice to see this work being done.
Looking forward someday to lunch at Thendara, dinner at Big Moose!
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)
Nine bags of leaves up from our back yard this morning; that's after refilling the compost bin. Three of the four maple trees so far are not cooperating (two of those are still green!).
UP's 2012 calendar came out recently; I got my copy today. It's a good historical document, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the UP. They're available for $11.95 from www.UnionPacificStore.com (You lucky people who got free BNSF calendars will probably find them just as capable of showing the dates.)
Me, me, that'd be me! What a happy surprise that was to greet me at the mailbox!! WOOT WOOT!!!
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
WMNB4THRTL Me, me, that'd be me! What a happy surprise that was to greet me at the mailbox!! WOOT WOOT!!!
James
And, if you own even a little stock, you do not have to pay fot the UP calendar--and Ricki's came about two weeks ago!
It's getting cold in northern Utah now; we expect below freezing temperature Thursday morning (our lows hve beenin the upper forties), since a cold front started in last nihgt; right now, there is a cold breeze out of the north. Our linden tree is dropping leaves, and the maple has let a few go. When the maple really gets tired of holding on, most of the backyard is blanketed--and I get the lawnmower out to grind them up.
Johnny
Johnny, our temperatures here today were in the low 70s! I was out on my bike in shorts and Crocs. A cold front is due tonight; tomorrow will be about 20 degrees cooler.
(I don't know whether my calendar comes because my 401K has UP stock or because I'm a retiree...don't mind it either way!)
I spent a lot of the lovely afternoon lounging trackside in Elmhurst. There was absolutely no time when a train was not in sight or lined up, during the hour or more that I was there. I think the hour held five trains for me: a scoot in each direction, a stack train in each direction, and a westbound manifest.
Best show of the day, though, was while I was headed home, when an outbound scoot, an inbound coal train, and a westbound grain (?) train (Bunge Corporation soybean-meal cars) all came through with only short breaks of raised gates at my "home" crossing.
Just caught this story, which I'm sure will make somebody go awwwww, and someone else get upset with the perpetrator:
http://news.yahoo.com/puppy-rescued-top-train-gets-home-173446351.html
.....Nice views of your RR Larry. Some of those shots appear to be somewhat of a grade....Guessing almost 2%.
Quentin
Yes Larry, been trying to get back on here long enough to type more than a few words. Very nice pics! I have been up there (not the extension part, of course) --what beautiful country!!! I can't wait for them to do the extension!!
We should plan to do a 'mutual swap visit' next year. I did try to get out there this year, but I guess it was just not in the cards for now. We'll try again! Good luck with all that work.
Modelcar .....Nice views of your RR Larry. Some of those shots appear to be somewhat of a grade....Guessing almost 2%.
Good guess! And almost for the entire five miles, too. They did use helpers there from time to time.
So I get invited to a hiring session with another company, for another type of position, halfway across the country, Now if only I can convince myself this is the right move...
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
It always helps me to actually make a list of the pros and cons. There is something about seeing it on paper that really helps to spell it out, one way or the other. All the best with whatever you decide!!
I also have a (?): I noticed a set of telephone poles (I think they are, they are 'T' shaped) parallel (and set quite close) to the tracks and driven further into the ground than normal. A bit further away, there is another set of 'electric'/straight poles, parallel to the first set.
Can someone pls explain this? What are these 2 sets and why not string all the wires on one set of poles? Why is the first set driven so far down into the ground? (At first, I thought of way back to early telephone and telegraph, but those days are long gone, of course.) Oh, and this is along an active (Class 1 vs shortline) RR, not a museum/tourist line. Thanks!
Nance, the really modern railroads no longer have any pole lines along them; things are either carried through the air or underground (or both).
If I were seeing two sets of poles along the same side of the tracks, I'd be thinking about the possibility that they were owned by two different companies: the railroad and some other power or communications company. Quite often railroads would allow use of their right-of-way (for a fee, of course) to other utility companies.
I'm pretty sure the first, shorter set of poles closer to the tracks are railroad-owned. It's not that they were driven further into the ground; more likely they were shorter to begin with (tall poles cost money, and if they had to be climbed fairly regularly the height was unnecessary). Often the pole lines were strung low enough to necessitate taller poles at grade crossings for clearance purposes.
If there's a high-voltage power line along a railroad, it might (emphasis on might) suggest the presence of an interurban line. Quite often these interurbans paralleled the "steam" railroads. The power lines often provided the power needed for the trains, in exchange for the right-of-way to run their poles.
I recall reading an article somewhere (either Trains or Model Railroader) that told how to "read" railroad pole lines (this was back when they were common along all railroads): the top crossarm was for communication lines, the second for signal lines, etc.
zugmann So I get invited to a hiring session with another company, for another type of position, halfway across the country, Now if only I can convince myself this is the right move...
Of course, it's the big decisions, like whether to take a new job in a different city, are the ones which we put most of our focus on, since they are the ones for which we have conscious control.
Best of "luck" to you.
Gotta tell you something, Tom: My nephew-in-law wrote on Facebook something about "occupying" his job. I told him how boring that sounded, and that he has to own the job! I hope that any prospective job would give you an opportunity to own it...put in your time, take out your money, and have an enjoyable time doing it. Doesn't happen to everyone (and it doesn't happen all the time), but if this job offers you an opportunity like that, grab it--your current job isn't doing that for you. And then, perhaps, you can become a knowledgeable, and willing, railfan!
(Is your prospect in the Midwest?)
Carl, thanks for 'poles' reply. (Sorry, I wrote that in the middle of a sleepless night, re: 'poles put further in ground!' )
Each of us every day makes seemingly unimportant decisions that could drastically change our lives, for either good or bad. Granted, probably not many of them are significant, but each has the potential to be a game changer. The time you leave the house, the direction you choose to travel, the speed you travel--each of those might either put you in the path of a drastic accident, or it might put you seconds or miles from an incident. And there is no way of knowing if the decisions you make were the right ones. The thing is, is that since we have no way of knowing what the results of making a different decision might have been, all we can do is just carry on with our lives and expect the worst, but hope for the best.
[/quote] Yet, little decisions can have far greater consequences that you could imagine.
I have no idea as to where I would be now if I had not fallen into conversation with a stranger on the City of Portland back in April of 1971. This conversation led to marriage, and when it became evident, about three years after the conversation, that I would be making a move, the fact that I was married to her led to our move to where I am now.
Johnny, how's your weather? I know that Chris was expecting to get dumped on today, and it looks like it's happening with a vengeance. I know that an entire mountain range separates the two of you, but am hoping that you're surviving, warm and comfortable, out there.
Carl, we on the Wasatch Front are expecting varying degrees of less heat tonight, depending upon how high we may be. In the Valley, we expect no snow even though the temperature is expected to be close to, if not below, freezing for a couple of nights. This afternoon, I took Ricki out, and we wished there had not been the gentle, cold breeze from the north as we went between the house and the car. I left her sitting in the sun, in the lee of the house, while I put the ramps back inside the house and locked the door, and did not get her out of the car until I had all ready to take her inside when we got back home.
Today is Kalmbach Day!
(Angela says she remembers why...but I think she's a trifle young to remember the old offices, or the fascination David P. Morgan and his staff had with the number 1027.)
Did you know that the current Waukesha address should have been 21025 Crossroads Circle, but they moved heaven and earth to make it 21027 (or second 1027)?
It used to be fun to watch for locomotives and freight cars numbered 1027. And one evening, many years ago, I saw a tank car, CALX 1027, on 10/27. It wasn't far from 10:27 p.m., either!
Nowadays one can't match locomotives to Kalmbach's Waukesha address, and even freight cars aren't easy. But I did note WPSX 1027 on one of the trains going by me a couple of days ago.
CShaveRR ....I know that Chris was expecting to get dumped on today, and it looks like it's happening with a vengeance.
....I know that Chris was expecting to get dumped on today, and it looks like it's happening with a vengeance.
Denver's high temperature Monday was a record of 81.Wednesday they got 8+' of snow.Saturday's highs expected to be near 60.Wow.
If you're in train service, when called for work over the Moffat line, how do you dress? Get called to work when it's hot, and come home in a blizzard! Although, I suppose in Colorado during much of the year, even in summer, the crews have to take cold-weather clothing along.
I remember one July day it was sunny 90+ degrees in Denver as I left on a cross-mountain trip in my shorts and t-shirt driving my soft-top Jeep. I was going to try to cross at Rollins Pass, but there was so much snow still on the ground, I couldn't even get as far as Needle Tunnel. By the time I decided to make the crossing thru the Eisenhower Tunnel, the weather had turned cloudy, and the temp at the tunnel was only 45.
We received a rather unhappy surprise today. The 2Toots railroad-themed restaurant in Downers Grove has disappeared. We'd planned on lunch there this noon on our way to babysitting Nico, but no such luck. They have a competitor that it much larger and more child-friendly on the other side of town, but you couldn't beat the view of the "Racetrack" from their windows.
Fortunately, the 2Toots by the tracks in Glen Ellyn is still going strong.
My December issue of Trains came today. Now, I am torn between it and Southeastern Conference football. (Ricki puts up with my watching the football games, knowing that this will pass, come January).
Might have seen the first train use one of the crossovers at Lombard this afternoon--an eastbound stack train went from Track 1 past the station to Track 2 across Grace Street. I was told that they had only recently unclamped the switches and given control of the control point to the dispatcher. The signals were first lit either last night or this morning, and with that, train-watching will become more predictable, if not more interesting, at Elizabeth Street.
CShaveRR Erie: A couple of new 8900-series Canadian Pacific units on the GE test track.
Erie: A couple of new 8900-series Canadian Pacific units on the GE test track.
From a post made Oct. 18th. Carl, you must have seen almost the last units from that order. They have up to the 8940's in service now, and there are only 60 units in the order. There has been an amazing amount written about the original 8900 series, considering there were only 21 FM/CLC H-24-66 Trainmasters.
I received a copy of the Morning Sun published book "Canadian Pacific in Color: Volume 2, Western Lines" earlier today. On page 59 there is a photo of NB Train 67 at Keoma, AB, taken in August 1968. Keoma is the next Station south of Irricana, and this would have been 3 years after we left Irricana and two years after the Mixed Train service had been discontinued. Unbelievably, to me at least, the water car we received our drinking water from is hooked up behind the GP9. I have seen a number of photo's of CP water cars used as Auxiliary Water Car's behind branchline steam locos, or Water Cars used in MOW Service, but this is the ONLY photo I have ever seen where the hose that ran from the tank car into the stations is intact and riding on the side of the car. I had pretty much resigned myself to never seeing a picture of that again. And I do not know why that car would still be there after all of the stations had closed on that line. I will be taking that book with me the next time I go visit my Mother. A very moving experience for me today.
Bruce
EDIT @ 8:45 PM MDT: After I wrote this I realized there must still have been a Section Man's house or two that still needed tanked in drinking water.
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
CShaveRRI was told that they had only recently unclamped the switches and given control of the control point to the dispatcher.
One might wonder whether, situation permitting, a DS would route a train through the new crossovers "because he could..."
tree68 CShaveRR: I was told that they had only recently unclamped the switches and given control of the control point to the dispatcher. One might wonder whether, situation permitting, a DS would route a train through the new crossovers "because he could..."
CShaveRR: I was told that they had only recently unclamped the switches and given control of the control point to the dispatcher.
After weaving back and forth between mains 1 and 2 across western Iowa one trip for no apparent reason, I said to the conductor, "They must be testing the crossovers today."
Jeff
Sure, why not? Just like "cleaning the rust" off the switches/track.
Snow is melting here... got at least half a foot. Hard to tell since there was some sleet/rain/melting while it was snowing. But the borough was out plowing,
All these night shots posted lately have made me order a new tripod this morning. I've done a little night work before, but never had a decent tripod. So maybe I can get out of my rut.
There may be something to that "because they could" thing. I went down trackside again this morning before church, and the same scenario repeated itself...after the eastbound scoot disappeared around the curve, the signal on Track 1 went to red-over-green. I couldn't wait around to see the train that crossed over this time.
I could see the logic of crossing over the stack train yesterday. Even if he couldn't have gotten past the scoot before getting to Elmhurst, he could keep moving without being given approaches all the way in (which would still translate to Restricting on account of the ATC). If, for some reason, the stack train were going to the IHB, it just made half of its crossover move in Lombard, rather than having to cross over two tracks east of Elmhurst. Whether it did this ahead of, alongside, or behind the scoot would be immaterial.
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