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Posted by Mookie on Sunday, February 9, 2014 2:13 PM

Joe - hoping to get trackside maybe later this week.  Still too cold and a bit of snow for us.  I think it is time to move on to something different.  Maybe a cool spring?  Sunshine is nice, but not always from behind a window.  Would like to get a little vitamin D outside? 

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, February 9, 2014 1:44 PM

Matt's snowhill is getting larger and larger. Saw csx have a recrew of a train in town. Mookie one of your favorites hopefully is going back to you. Friends of ours got stuck at south Deshler but they are ok. Matt is taking a nap. Tomorrow it's back to work.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, February 8, 2014 6:46 PM

Had to make a trip into town this morning to pick up a few things for tomorrow's fire department training.  When I left the house it was more or less sunny.  By the time I got into the city (not NYC) it was snowing to beat the band, the roads were a mess, and the parking lots I used had 6" of snow in them.  At least it was light and fluffy...

Made a second trip in later, again starting in sun and ending up in fairly heavy snow.  At least the roads were better and the parking lots had been plowed...

Most everything is ready for the training.  We're expecting quite the crowd.  It's all "classroom" work.

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Posted by JoeKoh on Saturday, February 8, 2014 6:11 PM

evening

had a chance to go look at trains today. csx's yard is a mess. Y 101 had a big brother attached to it.(es44ah and a gp 15-t). They also hauled a grain train g502-08 from the new elevator. Problem was the switch was misbehaving. The switch is on track 2. Track one has spots with a 25 mph slow order. More snow here in Nw Ohio. Weather guessers say watch out the end  of this week. Going to get some chores done.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by samfp1943 on Saturday, February 8, 2014 10:10 AM

Murphy Siding

     Sam-  If they find oil or gas on your street, and presumably under your property, are you planning on moving to Beverly? Hills, that is, with swimmin' pools and movie stars? Cool

   Not sure if I'm ready to move...I'm already a "Land Barren"Huh? here in So Central Kansas...The current Regime in Washington has seen to that! Crying

   And you can bet that having owned a Swimming Pool and having dealt with that, My current position is that the only thing that looks good in a cement pond is  several big loads of dirt. Grumpy  I am never going to maintain another amphibious airport for Ducks or Geese! Bang Head    

   I think it is time for that coffee to be ready, A long walk in the snow and on ice will do that!  Confused  Stay Safe and WARM, Norris.    I'll let you know when and if they start drilling in the back yard! Smile, Wink & Grin

 

 


 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Saturday, February 8, 2014 9:57 AM

     Sam-  If they find oil or gas on your street, and presumably under your property, are you planning on moving to Beverly? Hills, that is, with swimmin' pools and movie stars? Cool

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, February 8, 2014 7:30 AM

Re:  Love Canal - We're encountering a similar issue here now with a large railroad supply company and their landfill.  Obviously they no longer use the landfill, but they're still very much in business.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by samfp1943 on Saturday, February 8, 2014 7:09 AM

Mookie

Deggesty

I cannot cite the source, but several years ago I read an interesting article about the Love Canal incident. the company responsible for the buried toxic waste made its presence known to the people who were using the land--and the people ignored the warning.

Johnny - I go back to my original statement - somewhere - that if  you put tank cars on rails in the middle of nowhere - someone will want to build right next to the tracks and thdn complain about it. 

My Dad said over and over - people will drive many, many miles across country to get on the tracks with the train!  If you want to play chicken - use a chicken. 

To Johnny's (deggesty) statement... Re;Love Canal;  Was a residential neighborhood along a natural creek that flowed into the Niagara River in the area of Niagara Falls.  As with many local's,(prior to the 1950's) dump sites were chosen to fill in areas of natural depressions, and little care was give beyond that motive.  The Love Canal area was used by primarily the Occidental Petroleum Corp's,Hooker Chemical Co. to dispose of their industrial waste. Over a period of years in the near-by residential neigfhborhoods, there was an abnormal (per population numbers ) of Cancer and birth defects. There was a School that had been erected adjacet to the former land filled area, and part of the playground was found to have highly toxic residue on it.  It becane a media cause celeb and example of worst case scenarios for land fills. It lead to Federal and State regulations governing placement and environmental mediation actions; all over the Country, as populations became more aware of the need to control various levels of waste, Industrial and 'Household'.

To Mookie: Your father was a very wise man !Bow

        Temps around here(BNSF MP225) are still in the low 20's F and very little wind is blowing, Still snow cover to about  somewhere between 4 and 8 inches. Ice is on the streets from the snow being compacted by passing traffic.

        Some interesting activity in the area Traffic on the T-con seems to be moving at close to normal speeds, still not a lot of volume.  Got stopped just North of town coming back in, an Eastbound Container train and Westbound Container train passed at the crossing, both running pretty well (guestimate 50'60mph) Lots of JB Hunt Intermodal cans,on both trains; with Swift and CH Robinson cans in the mix, both trains.

      Yesterday morning, there was a lot of commotion in the street, heavy diesel engine noise, and other vehicles. Unusual for a dead -end residential street. . Turns out the Company that has been doing a seismic study around here for the last month had gotten into out area.  Their vehicle use a hydraulic system mounted on a big 4 wheel earth-mover style looking beastie.   To generate the sound waves in the soil to explore for possible oil/gas deposits.  It was chaos while they were here, all the dogs and cats were disturbed.  Last week it was a heliocopter flying a magnetometer up and down.   I guess they are going to have toleave their sensors til the ground and ice thaw so thei can pick up their wires? 

     Another cold day in Paradise   Stay warm and safe, all!  Mischief

 

 


 

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Posted by Mookie on Friday, February 7, 2014 4:56 PM

Deggesty

I cannot cite the source, but several years ago I read an interesting article about the Love Canal incident. the company responsible for the buried toxic waste made its presence known to the people who were using the land--and the people ignored the warning.

Johnny - I go back to my original statement - somewhere - that if  you put tank cars on rails in the middle of nowhere - someone will want to build right next to the tracks and thdn complain about it. 

My Dad said over and over - people will drive many, many miles across country to get on the tracks with the train!  If you want to play chicken - use a chicken. 

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by JoeKoh on Friday, February 7, 2014 3:22 PM

afternoon

ns has another train waiting to go west. Matt was named student of the month for his room. Need to get some chores done so we can out tomorrow. Bad news from the other end of the county. Don't know why bad things happen. Just want to give hugs to those affected.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, February 7, 2014 3:05 PM

I cannot cite the source, but several years ago I read an interesting article about the Love Canal incident. the company responsible for the buried toxic waste made its presence known to the people who were using the land--and the people ignored the warning.

Johnny

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 7, 2014 1:28 PM

Coolnuthin from nuthin leaves a whole lota something. any time there is any government involvement it bis going to cost money. do we really want to return to the days of the love canal era. nobody knew the subdivisions house were being built on a very toxic waste site. we the people are all responsible for what happens to the only planet new have. protect our mother nature. she is the only one we have!!Embarrassed

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Posted by samfp1943 on Friday, February 7, 2014 12:31 PM

wjstix

switch7frg

SmileCarl, is it still feasible to load that snow in empty coal cars  and ship them south to melt the snow and wash out the coal dust . I don't think you have a siding in your back yard, do you?? Just kidding you.That seemed to work in days gone by.  Stay warm and dry.

I would guess it couldn't be done for environmental reasons. Here in Minnesota, it used to be common for cities and counties to plow snow onto frozen lakes or rivers, figuring it would all eventually melt. That ended maybe 30-40 years ago, because the plowed snow contained pollutants, particularly salt and chemical melting compounds spread on the roads during the winter to try to stop ice from building up.

p.s. I see a tank car on a CP train (on the old Milwaukee Road mainline to Chicago) started leaking oil a day or two ago, left a black mess between the rails for about 50 miles between Red Wing and Winona. That should be an interesting clean up job.

Wjstix wrote: 

                "...p.s. I see a tank car on a CP train (on the old Milwaukee Road mainline to Chicago) started leaking oil a day or two ago, left a black mess between the rails for about 50 miles between Red Wing and Winona. That should be an interesting clean up job..."        You can bet in this day and time it would be very expensive, Cost would be exacerbated if there was a stream crossing involved, particularly, if it flowed into a navitable waterway...  I was working for a trucking company when a driver on I-65 in Ky hit a racoon with his unit. the racoon took out the duel crossover line between the fuel tanks; for what ever reasons the driver elected to drive the seven miles to the Truck Stop and then circled the lot looking for a place to park.  My company paid to have the contaminated surface rermoved and that seven miles of Interstate repaved as well as having to put an asphal;t cap on the parking lot at the truck stop.  A very expensive racoon to our Company...

   Any kind of hazardous material spill or any substance so considered can be a very,very expensive item to the company or person responsible for that spill.  It gets to be an amazing show of who all can get involved. Starting most like ly with the local first responding agency ( Fire Dept?), then the State agency gets involved, notified by the local responding agency...Depending upon the spill and its size you can have a State Emergency Response agency, The National Response Center, CHEMTREC ( Hazardous Chemical spills), The Federal EPA,  and on and on, If there is a navigational river or waterway in the spill scene, The Coast Guard will be involved... Each responding agency has some one else on this list to call. So an incident will take on a life of its own, and the costs climb exponentially.  It is truly an amazing chain of events that will unfold.Whistling

 

 

 


 

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Posted by wjstix on Friday, February 7, 2014 11:46 AM

switch7frg

SmileCarl, is it still feasible to load that snow in empty coal cars  and ship them south to melt the snow and wash out the coal dust . I don't think you have a siding in your back yard, do you?? Just kidding you.That seemed to work in days gone by.  Stay warm and dry.

I would guess it couldn't be done for environmental reasons. Here in Minnesota, it used to be common for cities and counties to plow snow onto frozen lakes or rivers, figuring it would all eventually melt. That ended maybe 30-40 years ago, because the plowed snow contained pollutants, particularly salt and chemical melting compounds spread on the roads during the winter to try to stop ice from building up.

p.s. I see a tank car on a CP train (on the old Milwaukee Road mainline to Chicago) started leaking oil a day or two ago, left a black mess between the rails for about 50 miles between Red Wing and Winona. That should be an interesting clean up job.

Stix
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Posted by Modelcar on Friday, February 7, 2014 8:21 AM

....This season, both cold and snow has been a problem for my part of Indiana.  Much more below zero in temps., especially this January.  More than average, for sure.

And for the snow part: Our normal snowfall seasonally, is 25 inches.  Up to now, Feb. 7th....we've had 45 inches of the stuff, and enough laying on the ground right now to last for several seasons. 

Have had my driveway cleaned more this season than has been necessary for many previous seasons.

We're all going to see a jump in energy costs to keep warm during all this mess.  I'm total electric, and did lose Power once several weeks ago when it was sub zero, but since then, we've been very fortunate to not lose it....

However with these below averages temps., and the extended time we've been exposed to them....Heating costs will be somewhat higher.  No matter what fuel one uses.

Right now, the sun is shining in my office east window and feels mighty nice...and it's about 1 above zero now.  Fortunately, no wind this morning.

Quentin

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, February 6, 2014 10:17 PM

tree68

Murphy Siding

 A sign of the times?  I went to a farm store today, because most all of my wool socks are worn out.  The farm store is sold out of wool socks for the season.Sigh

I've found that all I have to do to get a store to stop carrying something is like it and buy it there reasonably often.  Invariably it will disappear from their inventory...

Ditto grocery stores!

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, February 6, 2014 8:19 PM

Murphy Siding

 A sign of the times?  I went to a farm store today, because most all of my wool socks are worn out.  The farm store is sold out of wool socks for the season.Sigh

I've found that all I have to do to get a store to stop carrying something is like it and buy it there reasonably often.  Invariably it will disappear from their inventory...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by CShaveRR on Thursday, February 6, 2014 8:14 PM

Mike, you'll have to try Cabela's or the Bass Pro Shops; they should have the type of clothing you're after.  If it's Merino wool, it shouldn't be scratchy.  There are also certain wool materials that are washable.

Norris, you may have to travel the frozen tundra to another such shop to acquire your wool socks.  Pat and I have a very good, very local, source for ours.  Wink 

Carl

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Posted by MikeF90 on Thursday, February 6, 2014 6:23 PM

Murphy Siding
  A sign of the times?  I went to a farm store today, because most all of my wool socks are worn out.  The farm store is sold out of wool socks for the season.Sigh

I've been living that consumer nightmare in our most populous state for years. B&M stores don't get much sympathy from me when items I've been buying for years just *POOF* disappear from every store in the state.

Not sure where to get colder weather clothing for next time I visit my relatives in WI / MN / IL. Last year no store in Cali would stock fleece scarves (hate wool), had to mail order and make a long drive to Sears for p/up. Angry  This year it's long sleeve shirts and long fleece pants that can't be found anywhere, same result. Bang Head

Stay warm out there!

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, February 6, 2014 5:52 PM

 A sign of the times?  I went to a farm store today, because most all of my wool socks are worn out.  The farm store is sold out of wool socks for the season.Sigh

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by JoeKoh on Thursday, February 6, 2014 4:24 PM

back to work today.Ns had another yard train in the siding. Had some nice WC sand hoppers in the mix too. They have some empty cars to pick up from uptown as well. On the way home a young lady had made a trip into a ditch. She said that help was on the way. Might have a record low tonight. We've had record snow so what's another record low. Tomorrow is Friday. Off to do chores.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, February 6, 2014 1:59 PM

switch7frg
Carl, is it still feasible to load that snow in empty coal cars  and ship them south to melt the snow and wash out the coal dust .

I believe they tried that in Buffalo during/after the Blizzard of '77.

A cold snap followed the cars south, and the snow didn't melt.  Oops.  I don't think the folks who expected to be loading the cars were amused...


LarryWhistling
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...

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Posted by samfp1943 on Thursday, February 6, 2014 11:16 AM

switch7frg

SmileCarl, is it still feasible to load that snow in empty coal cars  and ship them south to melt the snow and wash out the coal dust . I don't think you have a siding in your back yard, do you?? Just kidding you.That seemed to work in days gone by.  Stay warm and dry.

 

 

                                                                 Cannonball

     Well, Here it is Thursday, morning... Temp is now about 7 to 8 deg F Was about 4-5 when I rolled out this morning. Captain  No new  snow, but it is changing into ice, as the traffic beats the powder down.. Sigh  

    Not a lot of traffic on the T-con during daylight ( 1 train so far);  from midnight to dawn there were about 6(?).. No idea which way they were going..judging by the way they were blowing for the crossings;speed was pretty reduced. Too cold to even get close to look outside.  My guess is that with the ground so covered and the cold they are probably being cautious due to the possibility of issues with the track (?)   I'd leave that to one of the experts to comment on!

   Prediction is for more cold and a "dusting" of more snow this afternoon, and then overnight.. Temp to be -1 (or lower.)  Sure am glad that 'Global 'Warming' is happening. Mischief  Hope Owlgore is a happy camper...Huh?

 My  plan is to drink more coffee, and read.   Not sure when The State Saltwater truck is due thru here to treat the Highways, to prevent ice formation.  So far they seem to be doing nothing...More of that " The Good Lord gives it, and who are we to remove it, philosophy!" Grumpy

 

 


 

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Posted by CShaveRR on Thursday, February 6, 2014 11:08 AM

Staying warm here is only barely an option.  It has finally gotten up to (not above) zero, late in the morning.  The forecast is for more accumulating snow on Saturday.

No spurs in backyard, or anywhere in town (yesterday, however, it looked like UP had a center track that they weren't using by us).  Since I'm on the Mississippi side of the divide, I'd be happy to donate some snow where it's needed.  Most coal gons or hoppers aren't watertight; the gons have drainage holes in the tubs.  I wish we could load up the gons with snow and take them to where the meltwater would do some real good, and build a rotary car dumper by some depleted reservoir.  It probably wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket, though.

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)

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Posted by switch7frg on Thursday, February 6, 2014 9:41 AM

SmileCarl, is it still feasible to load that snow in empty coal cars  and ship them south to melt the snow and wash out the coal dust . I don't think you have a siding in your back yard, do you?? Just kidding you.That seemed to work in days gone by.  Stay warm and dry.

 

 

                                                                 Cannonball

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Posted by floridad on Thursday, February 6, 2014 9:05 AM

Coolwind and colder in cocoa. rain and wind chill near 50. how do u people live where u do?Alien

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, February 6, 2014 7:57 AM

-12F this AM, but sunny.

Lake effect warning for tonight and tomorrow, which is just peachy as I have several errands to run on Friday for our class on Sunday.

Off to do the books for the FD for the meeting tonight.

LarryWhistling
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...

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, February 6, 2014 6:28 AM

BC - that would be a normal pattern for us.  Warms up enough to snow and then bottom drops out of temp.  This year, we haven't had much snow at all.  We used to have your problem of where to put all the snow and it stayed until well into April.  Right now -9 and -25 wc, which is liveable if the wind doesn't go above the 8 mph and westerly. 

Once again, it is the ice on side streets/parking lots and i-dot drivers w/ cell phones that will keep us home for at least another day.  (I wish some of them would ice over!)

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 10:17 PM

We were in the seven-inch zone for the last snowfall.  And, as has been typical after our snows, the temperature is supposed to plunge tonight.  SJ, you probably got something like what we're in for, temp-wise.

As for the dreaded Named Winter Storm (which I refuse to dignify), latest meteorological intelligence (this guy is usually good) says that the worst of it will avoid us.  Still, nothing much above 20 degrees for the next seven days, so I don't expect we'll lose much of what's already on the ground.  Some of our shoveled piles of snow are over five feet high, and we're running out of places to put the stuff.

Carl

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CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by Norm48327 on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 7:16 PM

Murphy Siding

    Run for the hills!!   The Weather Channel has given this winter storm a name- Nika! ...And we all know, the only thing worse than a named winter storm is a *Named winter storm!!! Media Event* Dead

Cold it is. Saw a Polar Bear on I-75 the other day. He was hitch-hiking southbound. Wink

Norm


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