Paul_D_North_Jr OK, zug - what's up with the "Protected by Lebanon Levi" tag line ?!? I presume it relates to the nearby city of Lebanon, PA (which had some pretty heavy rail action back in the day). Or are you "channeling" the 1985 Harrison Ford movie Witness ? (see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090329/ ) - Paul North.
OK, zug - what's up with the "Protected by Lebanon Levi" tag line ?!? I presume it relates to the nearby city of Lebanon, PA (which had some pretty heavy rail action back in the day). Or are you "channeling" the 1985 Harrison Ford movie Witness ? (see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090329/ )
- Paul North.
Not quite:
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/amish-mafia/about-the-show/about-the-show.htm
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 would have gone through within an hour of noon, Dan. I can't exactly remember.I have to go back to the dentist in Elmhurst today. They were going to start work next week on replacing a loose crown, but said crown came out completely Saturday (helpful hint: a cube of cheese will remove anything loose in one's mouth). I might go a little early for train-watching; I'll use Metra, because I need the exercise of walking to and from the stations.
Today is a gray day; tomorrow is supposed to be an absolutely white day (reports say that we will get more snow, projected amounts range from four to ten inches). And I have a cardiologist appointment tomorrow; it's possible that my choice to use Metra will be very prudent. That trip will take me west to Winfield, so I might be able to see any recent progress on the crossovers in Wheaton (assuming it isn't buried).Plenty of freight-car stuff to keep me distracted today.
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)
Today was snow-quester day here. I got out for a lab test, but my cardiologist appointment was cancelled (the doctor had an operation to do in another hospital), so we stayed home after about 9:45 this morning. Roads were already slick by then.I noted, while out, that freight trains were running at normal speeds, and there were enough of them (caught three, just on the way to and from the lab work in Glen Ellyn. I monitor the Metra service updates for the UP West Line and the BNSF route, and noted only three reports all day. This morning BNSF had to skip stops east of Hinsdale on one train because it was loaded to capacity (an extra followed and picked up the missed passengers). And this evening, two trains on UP West were delayed by heavy passenger loading (imagine that--two fat folks in the same rush hour trying to board!).We shoveled about six inches of snow off our driveway and sidewalks late this afternoon. It's tapering off, and we anticipate about two or three more inches to take care of in the morning. Schools here were not closed today, though daughter Ellen was stuck at home with the grandkids today.
Got about six inches or so here at the house, as I was shoveling this morning, I thought that a snow blower might not be a bad investment after all......
Went out in the snow to get taxes done yesterday, along with a few errands, saw a northbound go by with a block of INRD hoppers after getting our fire extinguisher filled, then after lunch, a southbound rolled through. Burlington Job has been very late the last few days, must be different call times. Exercised the four wheel drive in the pickup, roads too slick for that diesel power........
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
Carl; Train watching can be as good as a soothing sauve can be. Good luck to on the dentist visit.
Cannonball
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
switch7frg Carl; Train watching can be as good as a soothing sauve can be. Good luck to on the dentist visit. Cannonball
You're absolutely right! And I need to get out and do some! Desperately.It's been two days since the big snow, and we haven't really gotten out much. Pat wants to get out, I want to get out. Now if we could just agree on what we want to accomplish while we're out...Tooth is repaired, with a temporary crown on it, and I haven't eaten any solid cheese since getting it. Next visit to the dentist (impression for new crown) is in five days. Cardio visit is now in two weeks. I just got an interesting download from one of my freight-car-freak friends, concerning all of the remaining 86-foot hi-cube box cars. Lots of good information to go through. How this guy succeeds in things I've been working on for years I'll never know (he's been wondering the same thing about me, no doubt...different projects...).
Observation and a question.
AOK must have picked up some UP boxcars (built by Gunderson on 2002). Seems young. 354xxx for those interested - they kept the old UP numbers.
Question - there was a boxcar owned by one of the lease outfits (MWCX I think, but don't quote me). It was a patched blue boxcar with an old logo from a previous owner. It was a circle with some arrows and stars, red blue and white, I believe (it was pretty faded). I know I've seen that logo before, but I can't remember who it belonged to.
Zug - Sounds like Pickens. Back in the car leasing days, they had a pretty sizeable fleet, including at least one subsidiary (St Lawrence Railroad).
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...
Thank You. That is it.
The company was the National Railway Utilization Corporation, which had cars lettered for Pickens (PICK), the St. Lawrence Railroad (NSL), Peninsula Terminal (PT), Middletown & New Jersey (MNJ), and Indiana Eastern (HOSC...don't ask!). Those cars very quickly went to nearly every other railroad on the continent when NRUC went belly-up; I've been dealing with some sixth-hand operators recently (maybe a little exaggeration). However, I don't think they've gotten to Midwest Railcar just yet. So I won't hold you to that one!
As for those AOK cars, I've found that some of them have gone on to yet another operator, and are lettered TBOX (guess who!).
CShaveRR As for those AOK cars, I've found that some of them have gone on to yet another operator, and are lettered TBOX (guess who!).
No clue?
TTX (owners of the Railbox fleet, which includes TBOX, TOBX, FBOX, ABOX, and RBOX cars...so far!).
A little something for your enjoyment...
watch?feature=playerembedded&v=jR1tXtXBUiM
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Thanks for posting this, Darren--that's a ride I wouldn't mind taking, should we ever head that way (I think I'll keep working on the lower 48 first, though). I am muttering under my breath at myself (and it's kept me awake past my bedtime): Thanks to my friend's info on hi-cube cars, I just found out that UP received 100 secondhand (ex-CR) cars! I have to go through some old Equipment Registers to see when they were acquired, but it was before 2005. Looks like a motley assortment, and not renumbered in any order I can figure out. Still, I'm hopeful I can find out more about their prior identities. The cars were fully repainted whenever they were acquired, which is probably why and how they slipped under my radar.
Thanks Carl!
CShaveRR The company was the National Railway Utilization Corporation, which had cars lettered for Pickens (PICK), the St. Lawrence Railroad (NSL), Peninsula Terminal (PT), Middletown & New Jersey (MNJ), and Indiana Eastern (HOSC...don't ask!). Those cars very quickly went to nearly every other railroad on the continent when NRUC went belly-up; I've been dealing with some sixth-hand operators recently (maybe a little exaggeration). However, I don't think they've gotten to Midwest Railcar just yet. So I won't hold you to that one!
I think it was MQT. They have some classics.
And now another stupid question: What is the significance of the black dot in a yellow square on a railcar? I was told once, but I forget.
Should be the other way around...yellow circle on a black square. There was a type of wheel that was discovered as being defective in the mid-1970s. It was a 33-inch wheel, common to 50-ton and 70-ton cars in service then. All such cars had to be inspected, and this marking was to be applied to cars that did not have these wheels, or which had had them changed out. Eventually a decal with the circle-on-square was devised.I can't say when this marking was no longer required to be maintained on the cars, but not too many 70-ton cars were built after the early 1980s. I do remember some new box cars that were delivered with the dot marking on them, and I can also remember the dot being applied to some 100-ton cars (erroneously, of course--100-ton cars have 36-inch wheels).
MQT has a couple hundred vintage box cars from the late 1970s and early 1980s, with an amazing array of ancestries, builders, and colors. A couple of summers ago I encountered about 40 of these in storage on the MQT at Baldwin, Michigan. This was before MQT was bought by RailAmerica (now G&W), so I don't know their status any more.Nothing exciting on the railroad front here...lots of research projects going on, and sometimes it isn't pretty. On the home front, the first two steps to expansion of our house have taken place now. In a couple of weeks the action will be occurring at a dizzying pace.
CShaveRR Should be the other way around...yellow circle on a black square. There was a type of wheel that was discovered as being defective in the mid-1970s. It was a 33-inch wheel, common to 50-ton and 70-ton cars in service then. All such cars had to be inspected, and this marking was to be applied to cars that did not have these wheels, or which had had them changed out. Eventually a decal with the circle-on-square was devised.
Should be the other way around...yellow circle on a black square. There was a type of wheel that was discovered as being defective in the mid-1970s. It was a 33-inch wheel, common to 50-ton and 70-ton cars in service then. All such cars had to be inspected, and this marking was to be applied to cars that did not have these wheels, or which had had them changed out. Eventually a decal with the circle-on-square was devised.
Carl, didn't cars that had the bad wheels while still in service get a white dot on a black square? I seem to recall that once a car had it's wheels changed out, they got the white dot replaced with the yellow dot. The reason yellow signified good and white bad was in case the yellow faded to white, a bad set wouldn't get missed.
We've had some job realignments in my neck of the woods. Marshalltown yard has been closed, except for one day trick yard goat. (Thought i would throw in a little railroad vernacular for Zug) The switching formerly done there is now at Boone. For the first time in close to 20 years, Boone has goats working around the clock. Amazingly, the people working the jobs in Marshall didn't follow the work to Boone. Also amazing is the age required to hold the jobs. Lots of relatively young hogheads and snakes working them.
Also moved was the home for a way freight and a new Boone-Beverly pool was established. I thought about bidding it, but didn't have the whiskers. These changes did open some pool spots, so I'm back on the chain gang again.
A couple of years ago, they redid some of Marshall's tracks. Not only new ties but ballast, too. It's a bowl yard, the former Louie yard there. It probably is better to switch in than Boone, which is on a hill and you're kicking uphill on the side where most of the switching is done. They did put some new ties in on a few tracks a year or so back, but they probably need to do some more work. So far this week they've been on the ground five times in the yard. Yesterday, the daylight job had one cut go on the ground in two different spots at the same time. They called an extra afternoon job, in addition to the regular afternoon job, and it kicked a car down a track where the rails spread underneath the car. I was called for a manifest for 0135 hrs that usually goes on duty about 0830 and originates in the yard with cars for Council Bluffs. (You can imagine my surprise of not only getting that train, usually a 12 and tow day, but seeing the train summary showing us on duty at 0135 but not leaving until 1335. That changed and we did get out about 0300.) What they did today was call us to just take the inbound cars from MPRBO and take everything unswitched on to the Bluffs to be sorted out.
About 40 miles out, we are going along nicely. Pulling uphill where everything should be stretched, when there goes the air. We come to a stop and the conductor gets a nice early morning constitutional back 40 cars where low hanging air hoses came apart on a crossing. He fixed everything back up, delayed about an hour total and off we go. Coming into South Mo with about 6 hours left we call up the delayer about how it looks to go the final 20 miles to the Bluffs. To our surprise she says she was just going to call us to secure the train and she had a ride coming for us. Evidently that delay cost us our window on getting into the yard. Often they let you rot there until you have 2 hours or less left then want you to go and try to get the train yarded.
I hope everyone realizes the above verbage used isn't really how we talk in normal everyday conversations. Sure there are some terms that are used, but many no longer are. I kind of went out of my way to have a little fun. If you don't understand some of the language, feel free to ask for interpretation.
Jeff
Jeff, be careful when talking about goats working; the SPCA may inquire as to what work they are doing.
Johnny
Deggesty Jeff, be careful when talking about goats working; the SPCA may inquire as to what work they are doing.
Dibs on the 3-legger.
Jeff - got everything except the chain gang. Is that pool turns?
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
That's correct, Jeff--white circles were intended for the cars that had bad wheels. I never saw a white circle, probably because I worked in a yard where inspections were made and wheels immediately changed out.Location, location, location...Marshalltown used to be pretty important. It probably lost a lot of that importance when old main lines that crossed the main line got truncated. We often had references to the "Great West" here, but "Louie" was either too far in the past or just not a local line.
SJ, "pool" was always "pool" around here, but I'll bet you're right.
CShaveRR That's correct, Jeff--white circles were intended for the cars that had bad wheels. I never saw a white circle, probably because I worked in a yard where inspections were made and wheels immediately changed out.Location, location, location...Marshalltown used to be pretty important. It probably lost a lot of that importance when old main lines that crossed the main line got truncated. We often had references to the "Great West" here, but "Louie" was either too far in the past or just not a local line. SJ, "pool" was always "pool" around here, but I'll bet you're right.
Chain gang, is indeed pool service. I must admit that it's usage seems more specific to certain railroads and how their agreements read. I can't say that I've ever heard it used by the ex-CNW guys, or the current UP guys, but a retired RI engineer asks me when I see him if I'm working the extra board or the chain gang. I've also seen it mentioned once in an article on the AT&SF back in the 1980s. So it's usage isn't universal.
I used the "Louie" reference because if I used some of the more familiar monikers, it's heritage would be too easily recognized. I could've used Maimed and Still Limping or Midnight and Still Later and the M&STL would've stood out better.
Just checking in here...lots of news all around, but nothing up close and personal. Two train trips in two days, but nothing out of the ordinary seen. A trip past the Proviso area third-tracking project revealed very little having been done since the last trip, over a month ago. Still no more switches dropped in at Wheaton, nor have the footings for the westward signal bridge been set. Plenty of research going on here, but not of a terribly exciting variety. We're trying to dig out some box cars that are still around, but have gone through many interim operators. Just connecting the dots can be grueling.Today we discovered that the new Smashburger in downtown LaGrange has a reasonable view of the BNSF three-track raceway. I wish it were right across the street from the tracks, rather than down a door. One stack train went through while we were dining there, and I was surprised to see no other headlights at all in view both before and after lunch.
Today is my older daughter Ellen's 35th birthday. I was thinking back about her for a post I made on Facebook, and just realized what a great train-watching companion she made in her early years. She was excited when we'd walk down to see the trains (I'd walk, she'd often ride piggyback). She got to know a bit about trains before she could read. She knew her letters (at our station... "D...R...A...B...M...O...L...Train!"). But she also knew the difference between a scoot and a freight train, and set one kindly old lady straight once: "That's not a choo-choo, that's a freight!" She also teased her old man a time or two. Before she was three, she knew a few railroads by their logos: "Chessie-kitty", Burington Northern, "Daddy's work" (CNW)...and if we'd be stopped by a freight train, or going along a string of cars, she'd rattle them off. One time, we were doing just that, and she was naming the cars she knew, and just casually threw in "Railgon". The thing is, there were no Railgons yet! She'd heard me discussing with one of my friends that Railgons should be appearing fairly soon, and knew that I'd be looking for one. I hit the brakes..."Where? Where?". She just got this impish grin...
Ellen!! WTG!!
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
Things are too quiet here. I'm going to try and catch some trains (one way or another) today. I also have to get at least one bike trip in this month. Only one stone...can I get two birds? We shall see...
Today was just too nice to stay cooped up inside. So while siding was being ripped off our house, I took the bike out for a trip to Elmhurst (and the obligatory lunch at Hamburger Heaven that I do when Pat's not with me). There were some freight trains amid the usual schedule of scoots, and I bought a magazine to keep myself occupied. I also did my usual quotient of good deeds, making sure people were on the right side for the scoots they wanted to board (there always seem to be first-time riders!). But I also was able to do something special for a young lady who wanted to board the scoot with a baby stroller. The little guy (four months old) was sound asleep, and between the two of us we lifted the stroller on without waking him up.After the next hour's scoots, I was treated to a demonstration of why three tracks are necessary on our main line. The signal at Park was red-over-lunar on Track 1 for an eastbound train to enter the yard. I was on the north side, which could have been rough...as the train came in from the west, I looked east and found another freight headed my way on Track 2. The westbound freight was a manifest coming slowly out of the yard, which probably would have some interesting freight cars, but would be shielded from view by the eastbound on Track 1. Fortunately, the eastbound was a "repo" move--empty stack cars being repositioned for loading at Global 2, and I'd be able to see the manifest's cars over them. But before the manifest got to me, another headlight showed up on Track 3! It was moving fast--I don't know whether it came from the yard or not, but the two locomotives just blew past--and that's all it was! We fairly often get light-engine moves in both directions between Proviso (where locomotives are serviced and road crews are stationed) and West Chicago, where coal and intermodal trains are interchanged between the Canadian National Railways and the UP for points west. A pair of units would probably be useful in moving the trains a little faster over our track--once they get out of suburban territory some of our freights are permitted 70 m.p.h.Which is about five or six times the top speed I could muster on my way home on the bike. But I got 16 miles in today (not bad for not hiving had the bike out in over a month), and broke past 50, then 60, miles for the year so far. Maybe I'll do something similar tomorrow. I noticed on the way home that Johnny Dog is open for the season again--that would only take a four-mile ride to involve.
It has been quiet...partly my fault. I've been waaay too busy to get in here because of work and some other things going on. All should be ok now...but things were pretty busy for a while.
Managed to get some interesting shots today of a GP40-2LW, GP38-2 and an SD60. Mighty nice of them to pose in full sun for a while too...
I will be in late Sunday to get the 2Q TSL opened. TTFN.
Dan
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