On the radio show this morning, they were talking about the song "Macarthur Park" - specifically Richard Harris' version.
Now I want to watch the Molly Maguires.
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
tree68 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.
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!
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.
The fellows who had to go take a look at their new fire engine got back a little while ago. They said they were down to 20-ish MPH and turned on the traffic director on the the back of the light bar to help ensure they didn't get nailed from behind...
The lake effect band has tightened up. Oswego will have a healthy dose of the white stuff by morning.
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...
Or "A Man Called Horse" (1970) ? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066049/
Paul, the more I got into that particular movie, the less I liked it.MC, how are things going in the snow belt? Did you shovel your way down to the right-of-way in question?Headed back yet?I'm hoping to get to that new exhibit at the Indiana Welcome Center sometime (check out the Newswire if you can).
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)
Carl:
Have to go home and wait about 10 days to come back. New conflict the railroads have to deal with is beyond my control. (another of CR's skeletons has oozed of the closet and is causing heartburn at NS/CSX and city offices)
Froze my butt off Fri morning near Clark Jcn. ...Batteries in the GPS receivers suddenly had VERY short lives- cold compromises productivity in unusual ways. Surprised to see CN-IC end cab switchers still out in transfer service on the old J - love hearing the old 567's and 645's growling without the turboes.
Didn't shovel on the jobsite, but did have to break out the sandvik and machete to hack my way down two main tracks.
The carnage along I-80 (semi's, 5th wheels, etc) was unbelievable last night between Des Moines and Iowa City.....Hope Mr. Vos was not out there in TH-FR's storm.
Get home tonight and ready for some serious...pushed it a little far in the sleep deprivation dept.
Get to attack a BNSF project on Monday in 60 degree weather....woohoo!
mudchicken [snipped - PDN] . . . Batteries in the GPS receivers suddenly had VERY short lives- cold compromises productivity in unusual ways. . . .
Carl, I really didn't like the movie either, but had to watch it twice back then for some reason - once was as the attendance-mandatory Saturday afternoon "scheduled entertainment" during a winter weekend high school band trip to Malden (a suburban Boston community), which is no doubt why I remember it. As it happened, the previous year our band had also gone to another community up there (Lynn) in the winter, and that was only 3 years after our family had gone to Boston as part of a summer vacation trip. No rail action to speak of on the Boston portion of any of those trips, so there wasn't much redeeming in Boston for any of them. Remember - this was way back in the day before high school bands and classes started to 'routinely' go to such comparatively exotic places as Disney World, Mexico, Carribean islands, Europe, Japan, etc. As a result, I describe it as a variation of the old W.C. Fields joke about Philadelphia: "First prize is a weekend in Boston; second prize is 2 weekends in Boston . . . ". To the disappointment of my historically-minded wife, I still adamantly refuse to go back to Boston until I've seen lots of other more interesting places - most of which are still on the "to-go-to" list - although I have allowed at times that I would be more inclined to go to Boston if we went by Amtrak, especially the Acela Express or the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited trains.
Besides, at the moment I was more interested in finding a way to needle zugmann atfer his Richard Harris remark . . .
- Paul North.
For those among us who are my friends on Facebook, I posted a couple of videos of the goings-on on the UP main line...you know, the stuff I keep raving about.Guess there was a problem today...a freight derailment at Bellwood tied up the tracks for a while, then the westbound scoot, already delayed by the wreck, encountered mechanical problems. It struggled on for a few more stops, but was finally terminated at Villa Park. The next scoot, scheduled two hours behind that one, picked up the passengers. An eastbound scoot had to be annulled because of the lack of equipment (and, one assumes, crew).
Nice videos Carl. I was wondering what they were of.
Dan
It looks like it might have been the Salad Shooter that was involved in the wreck in Bellwood. It happened on the curve of the old IHB connection at Provo Junction, and almost looks like a stringlining incident. Bet they can't wait for that curve to be eased up on! (Not saying that that was the cause just yet, though--if that was the train, it would have been all loads...not a risky consist.) Spilled fuel from the cooling units prompted a hazmat response.
Glad you liked the videos, Dan. It's action worth seeing in person sometime!
CShaveRR It looks like it might have been the Salad Shooter that was involved in the wreck in Bellwood. It happened on the curve of the old IHB connection at Provo Junction, and almost looks like a stringlining incident. Bet they can't wait for that curve to be eased up on! (Not saying that that was the cause just yet, though--if that was the train, it would have been all loads...not a risky consist.) Spilled fuel from the cooling units prompted a hazmat response. Glad you liked the videos, Dan. It's action worth seeing in person sometime!
BTW, check out the Trackside (vol 203) photo contest this week--I understand that the reader submission is really good.....
Looks like you found the ring.
Now if I was into conspiracy theories....
And on another note - I'm back in the saddle again.
Contest checked out and acted upon...one look at just the thumbnails convinced me.Tom, welcome back to the saddle. Good luck.Jim, were you referring to the Glen Ellyn wreck? I remember it well...One of my former co-workers also thinks that yesterday's wreck looked like stringlining, and points out that those cars, with their long drawbars and large distance from coupler to truck centers, would be good ones for that, even when they're loaded.
I saw enough of those rascals (salad shooters) last week on the old B&OCT (Barr Sub)....Ididn't touch 'em!
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 Jim, were you referring to the Glen Ellyn wreck? I remember it well...
Jim, were you referring to the Glen Ellyn wreck? I remember it well...
Yeah, that one was a newsmaker, all right. I got into the car to go to work that morning (from Glen Ellyn, where I lived at the time), and must have just missed the news. By the time I got to work, the hump was processing loads of ballast for Glen Ellyn--I was amazed to see that on the sheets already.The railroad got raked over the coals for that one...running the train too fast for track conditions.How did your weekend trip go, Jim?I just finished a very taxing evening. Hope the forms are filled out right.
CShaveRR How did your weekend trip go, Jim?
How did your weekend trip go, Jim?
Pat and I both agree that Kathy owes you one!I have to admit that the things I look for when scouting an area for train-watching, as a researcher, would not necessarily be the things that a soon-to-be-award-winning photographer would want. But if you found the spot in Eola, that should have gotten you a few satisfactory angles.
CShaveRR Pat and I both agree that Kathy owes you one!I have to admit that the things I look for when scouting an area for train-watching, as a researcher, would not necessarily be the things that a soon-to-be-award-winning photographer would want. But if you found the spot in Eola, that should have gotten you a few satisfactory angles.
Good luck on going back there in better weather!
This morning I was asked by the staff of the historical society what I thought about guided bicycle tours of the town. This has little to do with railroads on the face of things, but a tour that points out some of the interesting old structures in town could also show the current and former roadbeds of three railroad routes through town...it will be nice if the bridges on the Great Western Trail are finished come spring--that could be a vital link in the route.
Just now, I finally turned the page on my sightings pad from June 2008. One page--one line, in fact--has kept me occupied for the better part of two weeks! More missing bits of information found and linked together. It can get a little dull (and often frustrating, when vital bits of the puzzle are no longer available), but it's rewarding when you find the occasional car for which you can track all of its previous (in this case) four identities!
Just when you think there's nothing more that could possibly be said about the year-old control point here in Lombard...Union Pacific Control Point Y019 has been renamed, from "Lombard" to "Grace."Grace Street bisects the crossovers. This was probably done to distinguish the location from the station at Lombard, roughly a half mile west.
The new crossovers being built at Wheaton have carried the name Wheaton, even though they are closer to the College Avenue station. I expect that this control point might get a new name as well. If named for a street, Chase would be most logical. But there is already a Chase on UP's Chicago Division, near Milwaukee. Maybe they'll name it Billy, or Billy Graham, for the landmark building (Wheaton College's Billy Graham Center) not too far away from the tracks here.
And in other news, while the Northeast is getting walloped with up to three feet of snow, Lombard's Dairy Queen opened for the 2013 season today. Free cones tomorrow noon...not particularly interested.
CShaveRR And in other news, while the Northeast is getting walloped with up to three feet of snow, Lombard's Dairy Queen opened for the 2013 season today. Free cones tomorrow noon...not particularly interested.
We got another coating - 2" out there. Seems like the theme for this winter. Just enough to be annoying. Time to go play.
Heck, I just got running the snowblower in my driveway, and I'd take a free cone!
We're not getting huge amounts of snow, but it's drifting, which makes it pretty heavy.
Yesterday proved a bit interesting while trackside.
Two friends & I were near waiting for CN M340 & A416 at Neenah North (just south of the crossing at Winchester Rd/CTH II in Neenah, WI - map link: http://goo.gl/maps/9K1B6). ATCS & horns to the West told us to get out of the cars & set up for the first train, M340, which we did.
Sure enough, here comes CN 2317 south passing under US41. All three of us focused on the train, picking our shots. As it was about 10 cars north of the crossing, one of my friends shouted "Holy crap, they're gonna hit that!" and pointed south.
All three of us turned to see what "that" was and saw a 4x4 scissors platform lift dead-center on the main. All 4 of his wheels were in the gage. A boom/lift truck of the contractor was attempting to winch the lift free. The operator was simultaneously trying to get the lift moving (wasn't happening) and waving gently at the train with his other hand. Another guy (one of the contractors crew that was partly responsible for getting the lift stuck) started walking towards us & the train while gently waving both hands. All of this in the fog & moderately heavy snow.
Mind you, we observed this in about 2 seconds. At this point we realize that the contractors don't know how fast & close the train is and the train crew likely can't see the target in front of them yet (Remember the fog & snow? We barely saw them and we were closer than the train.) thus making a recipe for disaster.
One of us shouted "Start waving!" and all three of us started jumping up & down while running along the RoW towards the train, hoping they would see our gestures & stop. We could tell the crew saw us and then the lift because they began to slow. At this point the train was now less than 2000' from the lift. They then put the train in a full service brake application & activated the dynamics to help stop. Its a good thing the train was already at reduced speed or this would not have gone well.
Thankfully the train did stop, about 200'/250' from the lift. As the crew dialed the RTC to deliver their good news, we got in our cars & headed over to Chapman Ave (next one south on the map link above, the closest street to the lift) for a better look.
Shortly after we pulled up and got out for pictures (staying out of the way & on public property) a CN Trainmaster arrived to see just what the heck happened. One of the contractors started trying to explain the situation to the TM by saying something like "I had to get this thing over here, gotta do what I gotta do" to which the TM said "Nope, wrong answer!"
The contractors went back to removing the lift free of the mainline, but then they got the lift stuck on the Neenah Controlled Siding. They hooked the winch from the boom truck back on & finally got the lift off the rails. Neenah section crew then arrived to inspect all the affected rails. The RTC had radioed the crew and asked more questions, one being "What did you see?". The crew replied that they were first tipped off by seeing "personnel" (us) near the RoW waving frantically & began to slow from their already reduced speed. Then they got closer & saw why. If we weren't there...
Remember that we were waiting for two trains? Well A416 (push-pull) stopped about a mile back from M340's FRED. This is usually a fairly important train to keep moving as there is an engineer (only) on each engine on the north & south ends. If this crew dies on hours it costs two crews off the extra board & that has a ripple effect on other trains that now don't have rested crews. RTC has called them to ask how much time they have left & one of them says "Barely enough to get to Wrightstown" (just south of Green Bay on the Fox River Sub). RTC says "Just great! Plan on recrewing there." Two more rested crews broken up.
Around this time a train tones up for the RTC. Its A44780-06 or X447, bound for Green Bay via the Fox River Sub, just finished with his work at Neenah. He can't go anywhere until the Neenah Controlled Siding is finished being inspected. Next, M341 tones up from Shops wanting to go north but he's held at Wolf (South of Oshkosh) to wait for M340 to clear - again, after inspection. Lots of fun for everyone.
So because this idiot tried to take a shortcut & failed, 6 train crews' (M340, X447, A416, M341 plus the two crews to relieve A416) long days got longer & we almost saw a crash. The Neenah and CN PD were called & the contractors were cited & billed for their misadventures.
Yikes.
Are the contractors being billed for the cost of the dog-catching crews?
Johnny
Deggesty Are the contractors being billed for the cost of the dog-catching crews?
The foreman of the contractor was attempting to thaw the snow with his language as some of the costs about to be incurred were explained to him. Can't repeat that language here.
CNW 6000 Yesterday proved a bit interesting while trackside. ........... Yikes.
...........
So were the contractors working on a railroad project?
And will they be invited back?
Take pride in the fact that you and your friends probably prevented a disaster by being where you were, when you were, and reacting properly.I hope the TM shows a bit of appreciation to you "personnel".
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