Zug's thought of the day (now in quote form!):
"Had we been aware of the horrors which were to come, it is unlikely that we would have proceeded."
-- Sir Alastair Pilkington, 1976.
(he was the guy that came up with the process of making plate glass using the float method.)
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
OK, Zug, who's going to be more interested in this: the Houston guy or the Chicken?
Finally, paydirt...in Burlington. Might go back there tonight.
Postscript: Went back tonight, little had changed. However, we were lucky enough to see a VTR freight pass the Shelburne Museum. Between the two places, I saw locomotives from all three components of the Vermont Rail System. The train I saw this morning had two sets of TankTrain cars on it.
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)
My thought of the day:
It's amazing what goes into building a new yard (or yard tracks). But somehow I think that operational needs seem to be a low priority.
Oh well.
Refresh my memory, Randy...how did you escape the railroading mystique?Folks are right...new England is a railroading wasteland! My only really positive experience over the past several days has been seeing locomotives of all three railroads (Green Mountain, New England Central, and Pan Am) at White River Junction. We also caught the line's fourth railroad (Amtrak) headed south in the area of Brattleboro.In a couple of days we'll be roughly following the Vermont Railway south from Burlington through Florence and Rutland. I'm hoping to see some good equipment somewhere along the line.
Ah, yes, the Herzog ballast cars, I remember them well....
Back when I worked for WSOR, we still loaded ballast for UP at Rock Springs, and the Herzog train was a regular. That train took four dumps per car, while the UP greenies only took three, I usually figured tonnage at about 140 ton for every loaded car, which usually was interesting getting the train back to Madison. Train took about eight hours to load, we tried to start at about 6:30 in the morning, and finish up at about 2-3pm....
If I remember correctly, there were at least one, usually two, generator cars in every train, where a diesel generator and all the electronic goodies were housed in the end, and a cable ran the length of the train to operate the dump doors.
Trying to get those trains from Rock Springs to Madison was always a challenge, UP ballast train power in 2003-4 was usually two to three worn out SD40-2s that were CNW units, two would work, but we were usually down into the short-time ratings pulling Dane Hill, and I did stall out once and had to wait for help on the hill. Three units usually meant about 12mph, sometimes we would get lucky and get some newer power, I did get to run one of the SD70s once on an empty. Most horsepower I ever had was about 15,000, we had five units, a 60-car Herzog block, and a GREX conveyor train that had to be on the rear end at all times. That was a tricky train to run, due to the profile of the subdivision, and another engineer had the dubious distinction of being the one to rip out a type F drawbar out of one of the Herzog cars. First time I ever saw a WSOR carman cry......
I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it, I don't think I'd want to do it now, a lot has changed in eight years, the Rock Springs loadout was supposed to be demolished within the last year or so.....
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
CShaveRR [snipped - PDN] . . . was never used for train again. It was reopened as a trail in 2009, and is now a State Historic Park. . . .
I believe the Poughkeepsie bridge was indeed built by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad ("New Haven"), or a wholly-owned subsidiary, etc. It was featured in the late William D. Middleton's book from about 10 -12 years ago, Landmarks of the Iron Road. Link to the website for that walkway over the Hudson: http://www.walkway.org/
and the webpage for the links to fast facts, history, etc.: http://www.walkway.org/history
- Paul North.
We're entering the non-railroady portion of the trip now, where maybe, just maybe, I can catch up on things (but don't count on it!). We're in the land of purple and silver, where the most famous train-rider is named Charlie. We've seen a couple of industrial towns, but nothing unusual or exciting in freight cars. I did see a working Providence & Worcester crew yesterday, in Plainfield, Connecticut, but the yard didn't seem accessible to me.Larry, I knew there was a smaller version of that bridge somewhere, but we headed out of Nicholson on 92 to get to Lanesboro. Nice ride, through scenic countryside.
Carl - about 10 miles north up the Lackawanna Trail (US 11) from Nicholson is the Martin's Creek Viaduct - Tunkahannock's little brother. The two were built in the same style, of course. I discovered it quite by accident when I decided to go that way vs retracing my steps back to I-81 (which was under construction through there at the time. I-81 is always under construction somewhere).
The first time I visited Starucca Viaduct, I came in from the north. It is indeed impressive to have that magnificent structure come into view as you enter Lanesboro.
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...
You're sure getting around, Carl. Cool stuff.
The day I went to the Poughkeepsie bridge it was also 80 degrees on land, about 150 on the bridge. I think they should have made half the bridge a greenway... but I digress.
I have 4 days of work, then it's a week off for me. No real huge plans, but a daytrip to Corning is in the works (with a stop at Painted Post, if for nothing more than to see the Chemung St. trackage). Maybe I'll get lucky and see the B&H alcos...
I don't anticipate too much railfanning in New England, but we're still going to enjoy ourselves. Trains or no, this has been the trip of a lifetime for us.As for photography, Pat tried to catch a photo of the Wanamaker Organ itself. You'd need a time exposure, because things are too dark even in a well-lit department store. (My friend Sherry got a picture of me posing as a mannequin near the organ console--I wasn't dressed as elegantly as the other mannequins, but I had a better tan! I was wearing the same colors, which is what prompted that frivolity.)
....That must be an exciting walk and view out on that bridge Carl. I remember Trains did an article on it several years ago.
Out here....again today, hot..! 96.1 late this afternoon. Maybe a bit of rain overnight...But just a 40% chance.
Sounds like a well planned RR sight trip you have underway.
Quentin
Perhaps we can supply some photographs made by our resident photographer sometime...one of us took a couple of good shots of the viaducts.
We continued our "big bridges" theme today by walking out on one...a mile and a quarter each way, 212 feet over the Hudson River! This bridge was built in 1888 for the New Haven (or a predecessor?) and provided a freight route much closer to New York City than the next river crossing (Albany). It was heavily damaged by fire in 1974 (hobbling the New York, Susquehanna & Western and the Lehigh & Hudson River in the process), and was never used for trains again. It was reopened as a trail in 2009, and is now a State Historic Park. It was the longest bridge in the world when it was built (for a year), and is still spectacular, towering over portions of Poughkeepsie, New York.
The other somewhat-related-to-railroads thing we did today was visit the Pepacton Reservoir, at the southern edge of the Catskill Mountains. Before the east branch of the Delaware River could be dammed to form this reservoir, the railroad in the valley had to be abandoned. This was the Delaware & Northern Railroad, which connected the towns in the valley using a doodlebug, known locally as the "Red Heifer". The D&N was abandoned in 1942, and the reservoir filled between 1947 and 1955. One of the now-submerged towns in the valley was Shavertown, where some of my ancestors settled seven generations prior to mine (the patriarch was Abraham Shaffer; I believe it was he who changed his name to Shaver).It's been brutal on our trip as well--the temp was in the upper 80s officially where we were today, but the temperature out on the deck of the Poughkeepsie Bridge was documented as 125 degrees (no shade), and they issued a "small dog warning" because of that.
trying to see if anyone has seen any locomotives around here
larry stewart locomotive photographer of tacoma Washington
I know you always say you don't take photos Carl...but some of the locations and places you have visited, would have been interesting images on here.....{That organ too...!}.
Your friend Paul North Jr., there, several years ago, helped me reingage with a former home of my father {Allentown area}, when he was about 13 years of age. {He passed away in 1977}, at the age of 80.
I had Dad there back about 1950.....and he recognized it...{and one of his land marks was a former interburban line ROW, he rememberd as a child....They had moved back to Somerset Co. {my home area}, about 1913.
The home was {still is}, a well preserved stone house with walls about 2 ft. thick. I have photos of it now. And have located it on Satelitte images...too!
By the way...our in / out instrument registered 96.7 degrees at about a bit after 5 today.
There was, Quentin!
A word about Dave and Eric, who don't visit this Forum. Dave was the Founding editor of Freight Cars Journal, back in about 1983, and although the magazine has morphed into other things over the years, Dave is still the foremost person for publishing results of freight car research in various forms. Eric is a researcher, author, draftsman, blogger, and so on--and although freight cars of all eras are his primary interest, he is a good reference for history of things in the Lehigh Valley (between him and Paul, they know everything, I swear!). I have known both Dave and Eric since 1983 or 1984, and have met them both on many occasions, but this was the first time that the three of us have gotten together. And Pat informs me that the Sisterhood of Wives of Studious Railfans (which met in the quilt store in Kutztown) was a very heartwarming thing, and she thinks they all appreciated the chance to commiserate and otherwise compare notes. Marie North couldn't join them on that trip, but she made it to dinner with the rest of us, and would have fit right in.Today was bridge day for us--I showed Pat the Tunkhannock Viaduct for the first time today (coming at it from the south blows you away), and we both saw the Starucca Viaduct for the first time. I just realized that I don't have a written "bucket list", and if I had, stuff like we've done on this trip wouldn't be on it, but some of these things are probably once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and I'm very happy to say that we've been there, done that, now. We have something very special and personal planned for Memorial Day tomorrow.
....If Paul is the cameraman....there must be a time exposure and tripod involved.....
Thanks, Carl and Paul!! Very nice!
(Well, I knew who one of them was!!)
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
Hey, I know those people!Left to right: Carl, David Casdorph, Eric Neubauer, and photographer Paul.
Very nice...name labels, please...thanks!
......Enjoyed the photo guys.
"+1" - more later. It was a lot of fun, Carl ! (I'm on the far right.) - Paul North.
The organ trumped the trains yesterday for sure, Quentin! When we started planning the trip, and when we talked to my schoolmate, I made sure that the Wanamaker Organ was on the must-see list. And I got the CD I wanted to buy (put the money in the hand of the man who keyed the keys!). And today, we drove past the factory where Allen organs are made, as pointed out by none other than Paul D. North Jr., of this Forum. If I read him right, he may be posting a photo or two from our trip today.We had a great time touring the Lehigh River Valley (yes, that Lehigh Valley!), with Eric Neubauer and Paul North as our guides. We saw roadbeds that didn't show up in the SPV Railroad Atlas for this region. We four intrepid railfans saw a few NS trains, toured what used to be the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's mill complex (not by visiting the casino that now occupies the spot).
We were then joined by our wives, and found that we all have a lot in common, so it was a fun hour or more, with everyone.
Wow Carl....The organ at Macy's...! Would I love to hear that. Love pipe organ sounds. That would almost trump trains...!
Just read the Newswire...congratulations to our buddy Angela Pusztai-Pasternak, who has been promoted to Associate Editor at Trains. She will settle into her new job just about the time she'll be taking maternity leave.
We had a great time in Center City Philadelphia today, where we saw (and heard about) lots of neat architecture and parks. I've had "Philly Cheesesteak" sandwiches before, but the authentic one I had today for lunch kind of made supper unnecessary! We got it at the marketplace underneath the former lead to the Reading Terminal (where we saw the trainshed and concourse). We also took SEPTA from Market East to 30th Street, and got a chance to see some nooks and crannies there that I hadn't seen on my first visit (and this was Pat's first visit ever, and she was as blown away as I had been). I scored one of my big objectives of the entire trip, listening to a performance on the organ in Macy's (the Wanamaker Organ--the largest usable pipe-organ in the world), and bought a CD of some memorable works for organ and orchestra (one of which had been written with this organ in mind). We also went to the Art Museum for a jazz trio performance, and walked around the grounds there before Pat gave out.So, one more bed, one more breakfast, then we head northeast.
Happy Anniversary, Paul and Marie!
(Gee Carl, hope that doesn't leave a mark!! )
Speaking of Paul, happy anniversary to Paul and Marie North, today!(I'm being dragged down to breakfast as we speak)
Have a great time--WOOT WOOT!!
A former high-school classmate and her husband will be showing us around the city today. I don't foresee much in the way of railfanning ops, except that we will see the old Reading Terminal and what they've done with it.
I'm trusting that tomorrow will be the big railfanning day, in Paul North's "sandbox" (I hope he's around to show us some stuff!). We will be meeting up with two of my favorite freight-car freaks and their wives, and the wives will be going to a quilting venue highly recommended by one of them, leaving us railfans to see the good stuff.
Sounds like you folks are on a good trip....and perhaps will have someone to show you the city in the right manner.
Jean and I used to do that with Wash. D C....Her one brother worked for AT&T at a respectful level, and we'd visit and he'd take the time to do a "tour" of D C....Did that several times and was really great...
I have a niece that lives in Phila. But right now she is a chaperon on a trip to NYC with a very interesting itinerary. 45 boys from a priviate school for 3 days of sight seeing. She and another factuality member. Will meet some people in the UN.
Enjoy all the railroad / quilting stuff you find....
And Jean had a good day and was "released" by home care therapist, so it's looking up for a later visit out east this Summer.
When you saw the sign to Stoystown....You were 10 mi. from our home. And went right by the Hampton Inn at the Somerset exit we stay at when in the area.
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