I'd help if I could, MC!
The following was shamelessly stolen from a Facebook post.Thanks to the desire to run my errands with my bike on the last day of the January Thaw, I was treated to another demonstration of why the railroad needs three tracks through town.As I approached Main Street from the post office, I noticed the eastbound scoot arriving on Track 1, as usual and close to on time. I had to wait for the light, so by the time I got up the hill to Park, it was leaving. Before I got to Elizabeth, though, the gates were going down again. I got to the crossing at the same time as the westbound train of CWEX coal gons on Track 2.Then, coming out from behind the cars around the curve was the headlight of another westbound on Track 3. This one had four units on the point and a trainload of auto racks (loads from various automakers combined by destination in Indiana and delivered to UP near Proviso). He wasn't initially moving as fast as the CWEX train (had I still been at Grace Street, where I'd crossed the tracks for the post office, all three tracks would have been occupied at once by fast-moving trains, possibly to the point where it would have been impossible to determine which of the three had dropped the gates).As I continued to watch (not much choice there...had to get to Walgreens), the auto train started to pick up speed--it appeared that they were matched before the CWEX train's DP unit went past (you don't always see 'em, but you could hear this one--still leaning into it). The auto train had one of the racks that I'd been looking for, but it was moving too fast for me to catch the one-inch-tall lettering that would have told me when the flat car was built. Fellow railfans, please do me a favor if you can. If you see one of those new WRWK auto rack cars, please shoot me the number (starting with 300000; don't know for sure how high) and the build date. We know that the racks themselves (white frames, with commemorative logos for the Kansas City Southern's 125th anniversary) are new, but I still don't know whether the flat cars themselves are new or "repurposed".
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)
Cripes Carl...I have been seeing them for a while. I'll get you some numbers.
Dan
Carl:
3257 is SUPPOSED to be next door to you, owned by CR/NS and used to be operated by IHB prior to 2005 when they gave up on it, CSSHegewich may go by it some days in his travels daily. The problem is, nobody seems to have a complete set of USRA/ CR line code numbers anymore. Does not appear in either of CR's final or proposed system plans because CR and its NYC predecessors, going back to 1906, never operated the line ....Ivanahoe-Gary-Miller-Dune Park. (A related line exists as 3250 and is still IHB operated/CR owned) ....I may have to be there soon (figures, just as the thermometer takes a dive)
Let us know when you're here, MC, and we'll join you for lunch at the Great Lakes Cafe in Gary! (I have books on the initial and final plans in the Dungeon, but if you say that segment isn't there I'll take your word for it.)
Today's the day the architect and contractor come over and we discuss the addition to our house. Details are still sketchy, but we expect something constructive to come out of this session.
I didn't notice if any racks came through Utica yesterday, as I was generally tied up with the train show. It would have been a good day, though, as everyone was slowed down due to signal work at CP239 (CSX is replacing the old NYC signals along the Chicago Line).
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...
MC, much of that IHB line is gone now. From Ivanhoe to Gary is reporterdly still there, but by the time it crosses U.S. 12-20 and the Toll Road on those big NYC-esque bridges, it's gone. (Toll road bridges are gone, too, but the bridge over U.S. 12-20 is still there. The industries around Dune Park are still in; I think this is now the Lake Michigan & Indiana Railroad (LMIC). They connect with CR in the Burns Harbor area, but I don't see a connection with the South Shore.Are you saying that there was a another line parallel to this? Which side of it?
I don't know whether this will work, but over on Trainorders.com they have a nice down-on view or two of the construction I've been blathering about in the vicinity of Bellwood and Provo Junction:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2974051
CShaveRRThe most notable canal, from a historic standpoint, is the Illinois & Michigan Canal.
I understand the Illinois and Michigan Canal connected Chicago to the Mississippi River. I imagine that was quite important at the time. I also understand that Abe Lincoln voted for the canal when he was in the Illinois Legislature. Lincoln was a Whig and he believed government should undertake internal improvements for the benefit of the people of the state.
CShaveRR I don't know whether this will work, but over on Trainorders.com they have a nice down-on view or two of the construction I've been blathering about in the vicinity of Bellwood and Provo Junction: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2974051
Looks to be quite the site there.
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
John WR CShaveRRThe most notable canal, from a historic standpoint, is the Illinois & Michigan Canal. I understand the Illinois and Michigan Canal connected Chicago to the Mississippi River. I imagine that was quite important at the time. I also understand that Abe Lincoln voted for the canal when he was in the Illinois Legislature. Lincoln was a Whig and he believed government should undertake internal improvements for the benefit of the people of the state.
It connected the Illinois (River) and (Lake) Michigan (that was the theory, anyway). The Illinois River eventually flows into the Mississippi River (via Peoria and Havana).
There also was (is) the Hennepin Canal, which formed a three-pronged route from the Illinois River (at its big bend, where it starts flowing south instead of west), and the Rock River (above Rock Falls, appropriately enough) to the Mississippi River south of Moline. The pathways along this canal are also a state park.
CShaveRR The pathways along this {Hennepin} canal are also a state park.
Hmmm. With canals we preserve them for our children and grand children. Here in New Jersey we once had the Delaware and Raritan Canal which carried coal from the Scranton area to New York. That too is preserved as a state park. We maintain canals at public expense and no one even whispers about it. It is an interesting contrast to the way we treat passenger trains.
Ditto for here in Pennsylvania, where we have the Lehigh Canal (short name - more correctly, the "Lehigh Navigation"), and the Delaware Canal, both of which were links/ feeders to the Raritan Canal; the Delaware Canal went on to Philadelphia as well. See generally: http://www.delawareandlehigh.org/index.php
One consolation is that most of the Lehigh Canal towpath / trail parallels the moderately-used present-day "Lehigh Line" of Norfolk Southern (and ConRail), and/ or other former (now abandoned) rail lines. The Delaware Canal is on the opposite bank from the former Belvidere-Delaware branch of the PRR, of which only a few miles are still in operation (Black River & Western now). At New Hope, PA, it passes within sight of the New Hope & Ivyland RR (former Reading RR branch), and further south at Bristol, PA it's close to the Amtrak NorthEast Corridor.
- Paul North.
Paul_D_North_Jrformer Belvidere-Delaware branch of the PRR, of which only a few miles are still in operation
There was a time when the Federal Express (trains 71 and 72) between Boston and Washington ran along the Bel Del and joined the PRR at Trenton. As I recall it ran along the New York and New England Route and crossed the Hudson around Brewster, NY bypassing New York City.
Yep, for about 3 years (Oct. 1912 - Jan. 1916), using the New Haven's Poughkeepsie Bridge over the Hudson River. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Express_(passenger_train)
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=56125
http://lhr.railfan.net/BO92TT.htm
Page 28 of 80 of this document - "NAMED TRAINS OF THE PRR INCLUDING THROUGH SERVICES" by Christopher T. Baer, September 8, 2009 ed., at:
http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR%20NAMED%20TRAINS.pdf
Paul_D_North_JrYep, for about 3 years (Oct. 1912 - Jan. 1916)
President Taft used to ride it.
Pat and I walked over the Poughkeepsie Bridge on the hottest Memorial Day in memory this past May.
John WR Paul_D_North_Jrformer Belvidere-Delaware branch of the PRR, of which only a few miles are still in operation There was a time when the Federal Express (trains 71 and 72) between Boston and Washington ran along the Bel Del and joined the PRR at Trenton. As I recall it ran along the New York and New England Route and crossed the Hudson around Brewster, NY bypassing New York City.
Paul_D_North_JrScenic - but probably ran through it in the middle of the night - and slow, since it is has many curves, esp. north of Lambertville, NJ.
But necessary in its day because there was no easy way to get to the PRR to Washington. When the Hell Gate Bridge was completed all that was changed and the train re-routed through New York Penn Station.
Yep, railroad is still there (saw it in the daylight and in the dark - shoulda quit in the dark while I was ahead ), 4 inch trees between the rails on top of a decrepit 15 foot tall doubletrack fill....(RE: Gary & Western)...
The active line there is the old Reading. I don't know what company has it now. It runs through Hopewell Township, Pennington and crosses the Delaware River at West Trenton. SEPTA provides commuter service into Philadelphia. Also New York garbage trains regularly use the line.
MC, I hope you got as much done as possible before today--this weather is unfit for man, woman, or chicken! As of right now, rain is falling and freezing on contact with the ground. There's a bit of thunder out there, too.On another note, I was surprised to see some new covered hopper cars for the plastics industry yesterday...I don't think we've had too many of those in the past seven years or so. EQUX 12000-12499 (numbers signifying the year of the order, evidently) are ARI Center Flows.
I also found out that somebody else has made the first report of a 2013-built freight car...a flat underneath an auto rack, from what I remember. When I worked at Proviso, I usually won this friendly contest...once I did it on January 5!
More on the freight-car front: one manifest freight on the BNSF yielded sightings of three new (to me...probably built in 2012) series of freight cars, representing over 3000 cars in the books. Over 2900 of them were T109 tank cars (around 31,000 gallons each, probably for the crude-oil business).
Along with LaGrange, where we stopped for lunch and some quick shopping, our little road trip took us into the city, where I explored the area to the north of the old Stock Yards. There are some interesting track layouts in there, with sharp curves and good-looking main lines (probably NS, past their Ashland Avenue Yard). I found one or two industries that were being supplied by a yard with literally dozens of tallow tank cars. We also got to within a block of the warehouse that was burning last week...there are still hot spots in the rubble (Ashland Avenue is still closed past the site).
Yesterday was a little wet during the day, but temperatures went up over 60. Today is more like January, with temps in the 30s and rain expected to change to snow (we got 1.75 inches of rain from late afternoon to this morning), and windy...just perfect for doing my errands around town. Tomorrow we don't expect the high to get out of the teens.
Staring at 11" of snow...blower time! Look ma...no hands! In the blower that is. Off to freeze.
Carl,
Wifey and I might head towards Aurora either Friday or Saturday. Do you have any destination suggestions of either a railroad nature or in the crafty/quilting/sewing genre?
CNW 6000 Staring at 11" of snow...blower time! Look ma...no hands! In the blower that is. Off to freeze.
Jim, the best I can suggest is Eola Yard, west end, at the foot of McClure Road (Not easy to find...from 88 West take Farnsworth south. Cross the tracks, turn left and stay on roads that keep you close to the tracks.
Now, as for quilt shops (best I can do on short notice), the closest thing is Prairie Shop Quilts, on the northeast corner of Randall Road and Wilson Street in Batavia. Sadly, Randall doesn't have an exit off 88.
We'd offer to join you, but things are a bit busy here these days--Friday is payday and all that that entails for us, and Pat has a pillow-stuffing engagement on Saturday (soft-stuffed heart-shaped pillows for cancer patients; something the women at the church do). Dan, be very wary when offering to lend someone a hand with snow removal... we're very glad you feel up to it.
zardoz CNW 6000 Staring at 11" of snow...blower time! Look ma...no hands! In the blower that is. Off to freeze. Good lad!
Thanks, Carl.
I don't envy you going anywhere tomorrow (Saturday might be better). Right now the sun is shining, but it's raw-looking out there!
CShaveRR I don't envy you going anywhere tomorrow (Saturday might be better). Right now the sun is shining, but it's raw-looking out there!
The sun is mostly out at my house. To the south, however, a lot of folks are having some serious problems driving - slick roads and limited visibility due to lake effect snows.
I was considering a run into town. I think I'll just stay home.
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