someone needs 2 be touched in these small town fiefdoms!!
rvos1979 The start of the whole mess in Burlington was when the city forgot to file their extension on time. They only have had seven years to make the upgrades......
sunny luv at 75 degrees in cocoa florida. much luv on the old FEC
Here's a link to the 4Q Edition:http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/221053.aspx
Time to move over there!
Dan
Randy & Jim - I'll do a bit o' digging to see what I can find out on the score of speed.
Had an Alco visit today...VLIX 7222 came south on A416 today and is bound for the Mineral Range RR in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Looked nice paired with an ex-Oakway SD60 in sharp CN colors.
Enjoy the last night of the TSL: 3Q. 4Q will start tomorrow! Wow...
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
Thanks for the tip, Randy...I still have a goodly supply of company-issued plugs. Unlike what SJ intimates, I wore those things every day to work!
(we just won't discuss how I wore them...)
Back home at the southwestern end of the commute. Today we took a drive down Railroad Street in East Chicago, Indiana, which was at one time the Tank Car Capital of the World. Much of the old General American plant is now an "industrial enterprise development center" or some such, with many fewer tracks than at one time (I think the last cars were built there in 1984...tank cars may have moved away before that). And the Union Tank Car Company plant and one-time headquarters, closed a lot more recently, has been completely leveled.
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)
rvos1979 Burlington is counting down the days until the train horns are quiet again, they put in enough concrete medians to get the quiet zone back. Taking bets on how long the medians will last, the one on Milwaukee Ave. already has tire marks and gouges from people hitting it, we may be buying plow blades this winter......
Burlington is counting down the days until the train horns are quiet again, they put in enough concrete medians to get the quiet zone back. Taking bets on how long the medians will last, the one on Milwaukee Ave. already has tire marks and gouges from people hitting it, we may be buying plow blades this winter......
CShaveRR But I can tell you from experience that just watching little kids tends to wear a grandparent out.
Today on one of our trains, we had grandma and grandpa, their kids (two sets of moms and dads, don't know who was who) and a passle of grandchildren. As I was moving through the train picking up tickets, I met G&G, with the passle of kids, headed for the baggage car (I like everyone to stay in their seats until I've lifted the tickets, but it was a big train, passenger-wise).
G&G said I'd know who the parents were (they still had the kids' tickets) by the serene look on their faces...
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...
Carl: Menards sells packs of ear plugs at a reasonable price.....
Back to work tomorrow, after a week of vacation. Lots happened around the house, including my sister getting her daycare licensed, and me getting some projects finished around the house. My sister is very pleased about her license.....
As for that shortline idea, SJ, I'd settle for more frequent Amtrak service from Chicago to Holland or Grand Rapids. Grand Haven had passenger service until Amtrak day, with daily trains that ran the 30 or so miles between Muskegon and Holland on the C&O, connecting at Holland with the Grand Rapids-Chicago trains.
The line to Grand Haven and Muskegon is still there, but it's now operated by the Michigan Shore Railroad north of Cannonball Juncton (yes, really, at least for a while). South of there, CSX still operates the line to run coal trains to West Olive.
It isn't that these kids will be loud (in fact, I doubt that they'll make as much noise as my other grandchildren, whom I don't expect to be there). But I can tell you from experience that just watching little kids tends to wear a grandparent out. This past week we watched our seven-year-old granddaughter tie herself in and tackle a rock-climbing wall. I don't know how she stuck with it as long as she did.
I found a few MQT box cars in Ludington this afternoon, but they weren't close enough for me to look at them for old numbers. I was also smiled at by my 2 1/2-month-old grand-niece.
zardoz Bad day at work?
Bad day at work?
Nah. Just feeling nostalgic, or something. Looking at what was given up for what was gained and wondering how it will all work. End result is to snap back in reality and know that isn't my job.
Maybe it should be some day.
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
zugmann Rant. I swear, I missed my calling. I should be designing rail yards. I sure can't do worse than some people. End rant.
Rant.
I swear, I missed my calling. I should be designing rail yards. I sure can't do worse than some people.
End rant.
CShaveRR Looking forward to Thanksgiving, when we'll have this whole bunch, plus another two nephews, their wives, and our new grand-nieces, plus my baby girl, her husband, and our new grandson. I'll bring ear-plugs.
Looking forward to Thanksgiving, when we'll have this whole bunch, plus another two nephews, their wives, and our new grand-nieces, plus my baby girl, her husband, and our new grandson. I'll bring ear-plugs.
The Guinness Book of World records had just confirmed a new record level for sound at a sporting event of 136.6db. http://seattletimes.com/html/seahawks/2021833455_seahawksscene16xml.html
When I was working at Metra with the F40PH locomotives, the sound pressure level inside the engine room while at full throttle was only 128db.
BC - serious consideration for short line railroad - The C & P Railroad? Lombard to Grand Haven(?)....or thereabouts.
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
SJ, Illinois is still very much home to us, and Michigan is a great place to visit. But you also have to remember that I think of this as the Land of No Trains. I would get stir-crazy in a hurry up here. Today I won't even be stopping at Muskegon on our way to Ludington...I know those cars!However, right now we're getting ready for a dinner with both of my sisters and their spouses, one nephew, three nieces, and a grand-niece. My mother may drop by later. Looking forward to Thanksgiving, when we'll have this whole bunch, plus another two nephews, their wives, and our new grand-nieces, plus my baby girl, her husband, and our new grandson. I'll bring ear-plugs.
Johnny - I told you! Everyone sleeps thru Lincoln. Driver can't take me out to the park w/o me falling asleep on the way!
Wyoming got a lot of snow! I think it might be just a teeny bit early even for them.
Carl - you will have permanent address in Michigan pretty soon. Dual Michigan/Illinois plates on your car? Then you can travel to Illinois to train watch!
That was a hectic day for us anyway, Johnny--we were still working on printing the historical society's newsletter until the offices closed that afternoon (then we took it home to finish applying the labels...we tried Mail Merge and had all kinds of problems).
We are up in western Michigan now. Yesterday there was another coke train parked at Michigan City (complete with CSS GP38-2s on the point), and I was able to walk the entire length of it (98 cars), while Pat sat and knitted an entire pair of mittens. I got former numbers off 97 of the 98 CSXT and NYC cars (GRDX, GSNX, SFIX, HLMX, HJVX, one KCLX). Felt good about that until I got into my computer records and found that I only needed about 35 of them. Some of the cars were the same ones I saw there two weeks ago, but that must represent one turn, because (a) I didn't see all of the cars from two weeks ago, and (b) there were still those new ones. But I have series containing nearly 3000 cars to work with here, and those series show a lot of vacancies in my renumbering tables, so any progress is useful. The oldest cars in the bunch are about 35 years old right now, so there is a little bit of urgency there.This afternoon we'll go up to Ludington to visit my mephew and his new house (and new baby!), and I'll make a point of checking out the yard there. Unfortunately, with shorter days, I doubt that we'll head east to Baldwin from there, where I think I could find some old MQT box cars.
I got back home about midnight last night, having arrived in Salt Lake City a little after 11:30. If there were a better connection to the station from the line down from Ogden, we would have arrived sooner--but it seemed that we had to run two or three miles past the station before we could back in (we did not enter the Ogden station and we avoided Cheyenne completely, using the Borie Cutoff as we came up from Denver to the UP main). Now, if we had headed into Denver and the engine could have been run around the train there, the engine would have headed into Salt Lake City, and then been put on the right end---
We ran late all the way from Chicago--even being late at Naperville. We waited a long time at Utah Junction (yes, we started out as though we would be going on the Denver and Salt Lake) after leaving the Denver station before a UP engine was put on the point. I learned that when we are backing into Denver from Chicago, the switches have to be lined by hand.
Mookie, it is just as well that you do not want to come in and wave to me; even though my roomette was on the south side of the train, I slept through Lincoln again!
Carl, I saw your invitation to wave this morning; I did not have time to use the internet in Chicago, for my nephew, Frank, and his wife, Sue, were waiting when I arrived and they went back to Bolingbrook just before I boarded.
We were also over an hour late arriving in Chicago from New Orleans; it seems that there was some problem with freights well below Champaign; I did not hear any particulars.
Oh, yes, I saw a Burlington caboose in Rifle as we went from Grand Junction to Denver Tuesday, two weeks ago.
It's chilly here, now; time for long pants and light jackets. I saw some snow in western Wyoming yesterday.
I should go to bed; I woke up at the usual time this morning.
Johnny
My bet is a WHOLE lot of ties needing to be replaced. They really need to come back and rework Denison to Missouri Valley and a big part of the Blair subdivision. They've been doing some work on the Omaha sub on the Nebraska side, patch work in spots on the Iowa side of it.
The Iowa side, Mo Valley to Council Bluffs, was getting some bad spots. A couple of times this summer there were a couple of days when the line was shut down for "unplanned maintenance events" for 6 to 8 hours to repair the worst spots.
Jeff
Bob, since that diamond is an automatic interlocking, essentially first-come-first-served, that neat timing has to be pretty much dumb luck. Of course, a long UP train would give the BNSF train a little chance to cool its heels before the crossing cleared...
Jeff, the release said something about 60,000 concrete ties. That would be about 22 miles of new track, or a whole lot of bad ties needing replacement. Either way, it's not the grandiose project I'd been hoping for.
I have been a shut-in for a couple of days, watching the Rochelle cam. I see UP & BNSF trains crossing with only 5 minutes clearance. The timing looks very efficient. Today a long W/B UP double stacker passed through only two minutes after a E/B BNSF stacker cleared.
I wonder how they can time it so perfectly.
I think the tie gang is just replacing bad concrete ties east of Clinton. They spent time this summer working from Denison to Boone replacing ties. I talked to one of the mechanics for the gang and he said they were heading to Clinton next. They weren't using the TRT out here to do this, even though they replaced a lot of ties. At least this time around the ties don't seem to be breaking up as quick. The last time they had a big gang go through, some of the bad spots had new ties breaking just a few days after being installed. Maybe the dry weather is helping, mud holes haven't been much of a problem this year.
I had been planning on working for a day or two after my retirement party, but that would have been anticlimactic. So I went on vacation instead.
__________________
Things could get interesting around Rochelle and environs this fall. A UP news release reports that they'll be working on the track between LaFox and Clinton, including ballast and concrete ties. Right now, Track 1 is concrete ties from LaFox west to Rochelle. The original plans called for concrete ties all the way across the state on both tracks. Having not yet seen the TRT-909 in action, I want to go out that way when they're working sometime.I wonder how much they'll do on the Iowa side, if they've got plans for replacing the bridge over the Mississippi down the road.
Knowing the engr in question, I think he knew what he was doing when he took the call.
Jeff - maybe he thought "well, one more time" and then re-thought "and what if I get hurt or have some kind of mishap" and said - "taint worth it!"
J
I've moved up a couple notches, seniority wise. Two engineers have retired, although one isn't officially done until the first of the month. He's made his last trip and is just going to lay off if his turn works up to the top of the board. He's a railfan and for his last trip he got the UP1995, the CNW heritage unit, and a just shy of 13000 foot manifest to go with it. I heard the train had a couple of UDE (UnDesired Emergency) incidents, but I don't know if it was on his portion of the run or the Nebraska crew's side. Maybe both. He made it to the outskirts of Boone, but died on the HOS. Since our system dosen't allow one to fill out the FRA HOS certification portion of the tie-up when you've died, I wonder how he'll fill it out. He doesn't plan on working again and you have to be on duty to do it. Maybe a written form when he signs the retirement papers?
The other engineer who retired lives in Boone, but was working the Long Pool out of Clinton. The story going around his that he signed his papers, but evidently CMS didn't update his status right away. The robot still called him for a train. He took the call. When his on duty time came, he called up CMS and told a caller that he couldn't make it, he was retired.
I've heard a couple of times CMS trying to call people who have pulled the pin. But he's the first one I've heard who actually took the call.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.