CShaveRR And, if I hear that joke about the boatload of salad dressing going down on this date one more time...
And, if I hear that joke about the boatload of salad dressing going down on this date one more time...
Carl, thank you for the birthday wish!! So far, it has been a very, very good day.
CShaveRR Happy birthday to Paula--you, you....sexegenerian, you! And, if I hear that joke about the boatload of salad dressing going down on this date one more time...
Happy birthday to Paula--you, you....sexegenerian, you!
edblysard [snipped] Last blind shove or guess shove we had that went wrong resulted in . . . 2 tank cars in the ship channel, and no, they don't float, not at all.
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)
CNW 6000 You're welcome Carl. I had a Wookie Steak for dinner tonight. Surely you've had one...you know, a little Chewy? Hehe...
You're welcome Carl. I had a Wookie Steak for dinner tonight. Surely you've had one...you know, a little Chewy? Hehe...
On the PTRA, we are required by rule to stop 150 feet from the bumper, dismount, stand ahead of the movement and only then are we allowed to finish the shove, which may not be spotted any closer than 50 feet from the bumper.
Considering the customers we serve, and where these idiots manage to run their supply feed and out feed pipes, that's not a bad rule to follow every time!
Last blind shove or guess shove we had that went wrong resulted in a ruptured natural gas pipeline and 2 tank cars in the ship channel, and no, they don't float, not at all.
mudchicken edblysard: On the inside? Is there a soft spot for the cars to land on? Yep - Might get Hulcher to relocate to there and place a big sandpile to boot. Add in replacing a switch point protector every few months. With a number 8 turnout, that's almost a thirty degree curve ....Numbnuts, the engineer, pointed at a switch table and said that it was only a 9-31'-06", I about gagged. Do Engineering schools ever put out recall notices? I assume my favorite switchman shoves downhill against the handbrakes on the car to a hook? How many track bumpers have been replaced at $1500 a pop? (those things the knuckle shouldn't touch!)
edblysard: On the inside? Is there a soft spot for the cars to land on?
On the inside?
Is there a soft spot for the cars to land on?
With a number 8 turnout, that's almost a thirty degree curve ....Numbnuts, the engineer, pointed at a switch table and said that it was only a 9-31'-06", I about gagged. Do Engineering schools ever put out recall notices?
I assume my favorite switchman shoves downhill against the handbrakes on the car to a hook? How many track bumpers have been replaced at $1500 a pop? (those things the knuckle shouldn't touch!)
23 17 46 11
PDN: ATSF Equivilent Curve based on the semi-tangent distance, the turnout lead curve (heel of switch to toe of frog) would be that sharper curve you mention. NN had a switch table from an old UP standard, no longer current. Thinks he can pick and choose whatever he wants - kinda like the old adjustable frog gag.
(ATSF would allow a 6-1/2 turnout, only if you swore your life away on my end of the railroad, industry track turnouts were always No 8 or No 10 [7, 9 & 11 in BNSF's world] )
mudchicken [snipped - PDN] With a number 8 turnout, that's almost a thirty degree curve ....Numbnuts, the engineer, pointed at a switch table and said that it was only a 9-31'-06", I about gagged. Do Engineering schools ever put out recall notices?
A straight/ standard No. 8 has a curvature in the curved lead portion of about 11.8 Deg.+/-, depending on the details of the switch angle and the lead curve, toe of frog length, etc. So I wonder about that 9 Deg.-31 Min.-06 Sec. quoted above. That might be close for the lead curvature of a No. 9 turnout instead of a No. 8 (again, depending on the details). Or, was he reading the frog angle for a No. 6 turnout instead ? Back east here that's usually accepted as 9 Deg.-31 Min.-38 Sec. - and I would have gagged, too, if that's what he meant, because that by itself has a lead curvature of around 22.3 Deg. ! (+ 20 Deg. in the 'parent' track = 42.3 Deg. total - that's essentially inoperable !)
- Paul North.
CShaveRR /snipped/ And happy Star Wars Day to everyone! (Thanks, Dan!)
/snipped/ And happy Star Wars Day to everyone! (Thanks, Dan!)
ATCS is live and humming up here. Having a 4G Android and a laptop/radio rig makes "surgical strikes" much more predictable now.
Dan
Mookie Congrats to Willy! Any word on Ellen?
Congrats to Willy!
Any word on Ellen?
+1
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
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
This just in:
Congrats to Willy2, our Forum meteorologist, who "Received official notification today that I've been accepted for a SCEP internship with the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt AFB!"
(Offutt is downriver from Omaha, in southeastern Nebraska.)
mudchicken I assume my favorite switchman shoves downhill against the handbrakes on the car to a hook? How many track bumpers have been replaced at $1500 a pop? (those things the knuckle shouldn't touch!)
I don't know what that guy does, but for me, it depends on the hogger. A good hogger? No worries. A lesser hogger? Yeah, best be safe. I swear... that is one of those places that is a textbook of how not to design a hazmat rail facility.
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
edblysard On the inside? Is there a soft spot for the cars to land on?
mudchickenMud is going home to drain a bottle of PDN's favorite barleypop. Why is it that I get the client and client's engineer that want to kill somebody working on a railroad? Client is an Agri-dummy and his el-cheapo rubber tired engineer thinks twenty degree reverse curves with a switch off the inside of the curve is no big deal? (builds the building first, then tries to build/jam-in the track to serve it....has not contacted the railroad yet.) Think I'm gonna fire the client, and send a nastygram to the board.
Why is it that I get the client and client's engineer that want to kill somebody working on a railroad? Client is an Agri-dummy and his el-cheapo rubber tired engineer thinks twenty degree reverse curves with a switch off the inside of the curve is no big deal? (builds the building first, then tries to build/jam-in the track to serve it....has not contacted the railroad yet.)
Think I'm gonna fire the client, and send a nastygram to the board.
Reminds me of a few places I go into in the Northeast that believe we can get a 75 foot long vehicle into a place designed for the horse and wagon. You never know how tight a spot one can get a trailer into until you try (like the beer distributor in Randolph, MA; by the time I got it square into the dock, the guy next to me couldn't open his drivers door, our mirrors were overlapping).
I do wish Millis would spec the trailers with extra long slider rails, makes it a lot easier to get in spots when the tandems can go nearly to the middle of the trailer.......
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
Haven't heard much from Dale ("Nanaimo 73") lately, but today's his birthday (thanks to the flat-wheelers for pointing that out!). He's another guy you can count on (along with Paul North) for finding references quickly. Happy birthday, Dale!And happy Star Wars Day to everyone! (Thanks, Dan!)
Haven't seen a public announcement yet, but Lombard has been designated as a "Train Town" by the Union Pacific. The village got a large aluminum sign (suitable for posting at village limits or something...more might be available), a commemorative coin, and will be receiving a set of banners that will be hung in the vicinity of the train station (probably after the Lilac Time banners are taken down in three weeks or so). As the culprit who wrote the application at the request of the Historical Society (who got the request from the Village), I was at the ceremony last night.
Paul_D_North_Jr Well, it's appropriately named, then - "Railbender" (Erie Brewing) - and that's what they make it for . . . I thought that by now, the industries and consultants were past that kind of stupidity . . . Maybe they thought because it can be done with HO scale Snap-Trak [TM], it can be done on the real thing, too ? My sympathies, bro'. Class I or a shortline serving them ? (just curious if there was anyone else in sight who might have been able to catch that mistake in time - not that it's the RR's duty, of course) - Paul North.
Well, it's appropriately named, then - "Railbender" (Erie Brewing) - and that's what they make it for . . .
I thought that by now, the industries and consultants were past that kind of stupidity . . . Maybe they thought because it can be done with HO scale Snap-Trak [TM], it can be done on the real thing, too ? My sympathies, bro'. Class I or a shortline serving them ? (just curious if there was anyone else in sight who might have been able to catch that mistake in time - not that it's the RR's duty, of course)
mudchicken Mud is going home to drain a bottle of PDN's favorite barleypop. Why is it that I get the client and client's engineer that want to kill somebody working on a railroad? Client is an Agri-dummy and his el-cheapo rubber tired engineer thinks twenty degree reverse curves with a switch off the inside of the curve is no big deal? (builds the building first, then tries to build/jam-in the track to serve it....has not contacted the railroad yet.) Think I'm gonna fire the client, and send a nastygram to the board.
Mud is going home to drain a bottle of PDN's favorite barleypop.
I bet this is the same guy that designed a propane unloading place that is on a pretty good downhill slope (towards the bumper), and to spot the first tank car, you have to have the knuckle literally less than 6" from the bumper (did I mention this is a downhill track?) and what's beyond the bumper? A 30' drop.
This place has a lead and several sidings coming off the lead. The one siding actually has 2 clearance points. The parallel(ish) tracks get further apart for about 3 car-lengths, then come back together to foul. I have got to win the lottery so I can go to engineering school...
In other news... have a decision to make. Soliciting dispatcher resumes, but I am also slowly getting close to hogger school (not there yet, but maybe in under 3 years?) I don't know.... ... ...
CShaveRR Larry, I do best when the trains are moving slowly; not sure I can keyboard well enough to do it while still searching the car for info. I do bring my laptop on occasion, for data entry after the train's gone and before I forget what my scribblings mean.
Larry, I do best when the trains are moving slowly; not sure I can keyboard well enough to do it while still searching the car for info. I do bring my laptop on occasion, for data entry after the train's gone and before I forget what my scribblings mean.
Or get a cheap digital camera and take a photo of each car as it passes.
Tonight I get hauled up before the village Board of Trustees. I guess it's something I wrote...
It's all good, though.
MookieA tree that sews;
I've done some embroidery, too. I'll have to take a picture of my major project to share.
Carl - I could see a tablet computer being handy for you, although I'm pretty sure even I could scribble car numbers faster than I could enter them on the touchscreen.
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...
Attention, homeowners! Be on the lookout! 'Tis the season, apparently.Even an animal lover like I has to draw the line somewhere--and for me, gypsy moth caterpillars slither well on the other side of that line.
Note: they are easier to spot and squish from a bicycle than from a car.
________________
Kind thoughts, please, for daughter Ellen, who goes in for thyroid surgery sometime tomorrow. We don't know when or for how long, but she expects to be kept overnight. Husband and kids will be well taken care of while this is going on.
I was using paper, a pen (ball-point), and a clipboard, SJ...this correspondent doesn't have a computer. I had an addressed envelope with me, so the letter was signed, sealed, and is probably sitting in the PO for delivery.
Besides, SILP needs some computer time, too, so I left it home for her.
Hey, if you're a fan of "Wait-Wait Don't Tell Me", I guess they're taping in Lincoln this week. I read that tickets may still be available.
A tree that sews; a chicken that flies thru windows; BC with a quill and inkpot and some parchment;
The things you don't find out on this forum.
or were you using your laptop?
They'd probably point you in the direction of the grays, Larry. The material we used is mostly black, with bits of brown and green in it--it won't be too much of a shock in the field of other pastel colors on these banners.Our continued prayers and wishes for Jean (Mrs. Quentin) 's recovery, after a bit of a setback. (Hmmm...would she be "Modelsidecar?")
I ran my bill-paying errands by bicycle today...that included a 16-mile trip to Elmhurst and back (only five or so miles by rail, but I take the scenic route, and bikes can't always go as straight as the trains do), and about an hour trackside which passed quickly as I was writing a letter. Not too much spectacular today, except the chance to see how the Lombard crossovers are advantageous when a track crew has one of the tracks out of service between Elmhurst and Lombard. The westbound scoots had to use the center track for boarding and debarking at Elmhurst and Villa Park, but before the crossovers there would have been five other stations where that inconvenience would have had to be tolerated.Also saw a lady with two very young girls in a side-by-side stroller, who just came out to watch the trains. She was lucky...a freight came from each direction within about ten minutes of the time I was talking to her.
Pastel Black. Sounds like a good question next time I'm in the fabric store (yes, I do occasionally do some sewing).
All quiet on this front.
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