I thought that we might give this one more try. Here's a link back to the last one:http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/221053/2517992.aspx#2517992
Welcome to a frigid 2014.
Dan
Hey - we have fun over here, too. It's a good place for generic railroad talk that doesn't warrant its own thread.
Wonder if Carl is familiar with the minor league baseball stadium near Grand Rapids that suffered a fire today...
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...
I can't imagine that went over well...especially if their temperatures are like what ours are.
CNW 6000 I can't imagine that went over well...especially if their temperatures are like what ours are.
It didn't - the parking lots are apparently now better suited as skating rinks, per the local news there...
I heard about the fire. I'm not intimately familiar with the stadium (never having been there, or even directly past it...it's on a route out of Grand Rapids that goes places I usually don't). I think last spring this stadium, or at least much of the parking area, was under water when the Grand River flooded.They expect to have it rebuilt, or at least usable again, in time for the opening season (the club that plays here is a minor-league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers).The parking lot is supposed to be in use next month for a beer festival of sorts. Hop-sicles, anyone?No train stuff to report today, it's just too rough to spend much time out there. I saw a manifest and a grain train yesterday while we were out running errands, but wasn't close enough to them for useful sightings. I may venture out for a paper today; we'll get to church tomorrow (our church will have a warming station for the first time I can remember), but am not thinking beyond tomorrow...after sometime tomorrow evening it may be midweek before temperature gets above zero again.
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)
The other night, the guy ahead of me had to put his train away in the siding at Boone and tie it down, no outbound crew. For some reason they couldn't pull into the siding, but had to pull by and back in. The next day I happened to catch the beer commercial, the one that has the most interesting guy in the world and how he once parallel parked a train. Thinking about it, that's kind of what the engineer on that train the night before did.
When I saw him at work, I mentioned that to him. He kind of liked that line of thinking, that he parallel parked a train, too. Come to think of it, most of us out here have done that at one time or another.
Stay thirsty my friends.
Jeff
and stay happy!! merry new years to all and god bless from cocoa,fl where we are suffering with cloudy skies but 73 degrees. wow am I shivering?
Kinda like this?
Might take a bit longer with a train though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwyVWWlQnHg
Norm
Norm, I'd rather use that ability to clear sidewalks!And (he says, as he sips he cool beverage of his choice), why would I choose staying thirsty over quenching a thirst? Guess that's why I'm so uninteresting.
By the way, I lied...I did get out today. Wasn't lucky enough to see anything except red home signals and default-green signals, though.
You know what they say, Carl. Liar, liar, pants on fire! That warmth would probably feel good over the next couple days. Grocery stores around here are being hit hard...things are cancelled. Precautions are good...and needed...but the world isn't ending. We're turning our furnace up to prevent frozen pipes (it helps heat the crawl space) and won't be ice fishing...but that's about it.
CN bought 4 SD70ACe units from CREX via EMD. The 4 will become CN 8100 - 8103. I saw 8101 and 8100 already on a Q119 yesterday (Markham to Vancouver). They are still in EMD demonstrator paint so they look kind of cool. No reports on how beat on they are yet. Also got word that CN will start getting it's second batch of ex-UP (CNW) Dash 8-40Cs in service soon. They are en masse in Illinois and should start coming online in 1Q 2014.
I know...just sitting here watching the temperatures drop and the snow fall. All the brutality I need for today will be putting the trash out by the curb...if I can find the curb!We're at about 20 degrees cooler than it was yesterday at this point, and we'll be losing another 25 by tomorrow morning. During the day tomorrow it's supposed to climb all the way back up to 13 below.But the trains are running...I heard one a while ago.Those old Dash 8s look pretty good in CN paint! It won't be too long before Dash 9s become surplus, too.
I don't know what to call it. I had the Rochelle webcam on last night. An e/b UP coal train came through the diamond. Almost immediately a w/b UP manifest was rolling slowly through. While he was still in the diamond an e/b UP stack train came through, chasing the FRED of the coal train.
Is this a double meet?
spokyoneIs this a double meet?
You could probably call it that. More likely, UP was holding the diamond against BNSF...
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas. I hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous 2014.
I've just finished reading news stories about the cold weather affecting a large area of the US. I hope all the railroaders and railfans stay safe. I expect there will be some interesting stories on the forum in the next few days, but everyone be careful out there.
We have been experiencing comparable weather here, but of course we are prepared for it. There was a story in a magazine last week about the record coldest temperatures in Canada's Provincial Capitol Cities. I have to say I have never actually experienced temperatures that cold. -50° C. at Regina, SK, and -49.something at Edmonton, AB and Winnipeg, MB. That would be getting unreasonably close to -60° F. Man, that must have been a bearcat keeping steam locomotives running at that temperature.
Stay safe and warm.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Bob, Rochelle is an automatic interlocking. The signals would not clear for BNSF as long as UP trains are in the circuits.The second westbound probably wasn't chasing the first one too fast, if he was "following the FRED". There are block signals there, and if they were anything less than clear or a diverging aspect, the Automatic Train Control would have kept them at Restricted Speed (fastest you could have seen under the rules was 20 m.p.h.). And if the second train encountered a stop signal at the diamond, it would be stop and stay.Maybe you tuned in right after a barrage of BNSF trains caused things to back up on the UP!We're down to zero right now, and probably going into negative territory until sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. Yes, I got the garbage and recycling bins out there. While I was carrying them (they wouldn't roll through the drifts...I just shoveled out the patio yesterday, darn it!) out to the street, Pat took a robo-call from Waste Management saying that collection would be delayed a day.They're still out there. I'm going to see whether my very heavy snowsuit still fits tomorrow, and address some of these problems we have (I was sweating in that suit at ten below after a walk of a couple of blocks or so--it's that good!). We have to get out on Tuesday for some shopping, but the wind-chill warning lasts only until Tuesday noon so we should be okay. There are actual blizzard warnings in some northern Indiana counties and Berrien County (extreme southwestern) Michigan. Our snow is over, but thanks to the fierce winds I can't get an accurate measurement of what we got. The knee-high drifts don't count.Has anyone else seen or heard the reports that it's warmer on Mars right now than it is going to be around here?
jeffhergert The other night, the guy ahead of me had to put his train away in the siding at Boone and tie it down, no outbound crew. For some reason they couldn't pull into the siding, but had to pull by and back in. The next day I happened to catch the beer commercial, the one that has the most interesting guy in the world and how he once parallel parked a train. Thinking about it, that's kind of what the engineer on that train the night before did. When I saw him at work, I mentioned that to him. He kind of liked that line of thinking, that he parallel parked a train, too. Come to think of it, most of us out here have done that at one time or another. Stay thirsty my friends. Jeff
I looked up the beer commercial (I haven't seen it on the TV yet). It's Dos Equis Beer, and in that ad it says (or implies):
"The Most Interesting Man has a black belt in fishing [fed a bear - grizzly, it appears], once parallel parked a train, and spent a day with two beautiful women in a snow cave."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlmwXolYH9A (Published on Jun 17, 2013)
Interestingly (or ironically), the ad shows the first and the last, but not the parallel-parking of a train. Draw your own conclusions . . .
- Paul North.
In hibernation mode.That is all.
Then I got to thinking about how to film or video "parallel-parking a train". I suggest using a steam loco and a short passenger train, say 3 cars.* I'd back in into and through a single crossover to a parallel track or siding so as replicate the difficulty of parallel-parking a vehicle between 2 other parked vehicles. I'd use at least 1 freight train at the front for contrast, and the loco of another at the far end of that crossover. I'd position the camera on the 'field side' of the siding just ahead of the crossover, so that the freight cars would block the view of the 2 turnouts that comprise the crossover. (Like any good magician, I don't want the general viewers to see the sleight-of-hand which enables that maneuver to be performed - why give it away ?) But with skilled placement of high and low cars (double-stacked containers and empty well cars or flats, etc.) on the train closest to the camera, the viewers could see enough of the train being parked to get the effect or illusion of parallel parking.
*The Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad ought to be just about right for such a venture - see: http://www.scenic-valleyrr.com/
CShaveRR In hibernation mode.That is all.
We hit -22 last night, so sayeth my weather station. In the Battle of the Arctic Vortex 2014 my wife's car fell victim. Dead, won't jumpstart and to get at the battery requires partial disassembly of the left-front end. Guess it waits a couple of days. My Blazer, however is running just fine. God bless Chevy. And Die Hard batteries. The pipes in our crawl space seem to have survived despite a brief period of time below 30 degrees. After some creative engineering on my part with heaters and fans (yes, there are lightbulbs under there) temperatures are up near 40 now. I'll chalk that up as a "W" for now.
Off to work. Stay warm!
We've finally gotten our heads above zero! We weren't as cold as you got, Dan, but it still wasn't worth it for us to venture out yesterday. Today we divided the labor (Pat did most of the driveway and the front walk; I did the driveway apron--with the plowbergs--and the parkway walk, the side walk, and the back patio). We also got out to lunch, got some shopping done for tomorrow's church activities, and just make sure the car runs. Streets actually look pretty wide open, but are still icy, as salt doesn't do much in these temps. The scoots and dinkies are still having a rough time (my delete box is full of Metra advisories), but UP intends to attempt a normal rush hour tonight (BNSF, not so much).I saw a westbound manifest today...I think it had perhaps five or six cars (that suggests that Proviso has a few problems). We got about ten inches of snow Saturday night and Sunday before the bottom fell out of Mr. Fahrenheit's scale; that was probably the one-two punch that did things in all around. An eastbound coal train made it through on our line (WEPX, if that helps, Jeff; I suspect not much is moving yet).Amtrak's stalled trains out west of here will probably disrupt schedules for a while, just because the equipment won't be in position. We had the Southwest Chief and California Zephyr behind the snowdrifts, and a rotary plow is on the way (would love to watch that, but we have things to do tomorrow closer to home). SpokyOne Bob, are you close enough to Zearing for the show? It's going to be a Zea-Ring Circus!
I don't know if I should laugh or cry: I just saw a brief report on WGN news from Chicago that said an AMTRAK train, heading from St. Louis to Chicago, derailed. I quote the anchorman, "It was a minor derailment, but enough to stop the train."
James
The Butler I don't know if I should laugh or cry: I just saw a brief report on WGN news from Chicago that said an AMTRAK train, heading from St. Louis to Chicago, derailed. I quote the anchorman, "It was a minor derailment, but enough to stop the train."
Oh, the agony of listening to those talking heads.
Major giggle today while doing serious railroad research. In 1885, the first railroad commissioner in Colorado had major issues with C&S between Denver & Pueblo. Seems there were 3 floating gangs roaming a 4 year old line that was already in rough shape. As far as the RR Commissioner was concerned, they could remain "floating", hopefully out of state. Maybe somebody else could do some honest maintenance work. Blame it on today's peyote issue?
(Finding a surviving railroad R/W map for the area between Falcon and Pueblo (45 mi) that was gone before WW1 and a county road by 1928 remains a struggle - C&S never got around to making val maps for it. The place I'm at also has no GLO filing map - weird. Same issue happened with Colorado Midland in places. Calling Tom Wigglesworth's ghost!)
They must have been floating pretty high above the roadbed!It's a slightly warmer day out by us (actually above freezing here, for one of the first times this whole year!), but I'm glad I don't have to be out. I'm running into research problems of my own here, trying to find the precise numbers for a certain series of cars whose pedigree looks something like MBFX > BN > ACHX > GACX > CEFX > and beyond, in the case of some of them. The information gap is between ACHX and GACX.So I sympathize with you, MC, about things not being documented. Fortunately, nobody is expecting me to be too productive, as I don't do this for my living. Just the joy of having accomplished something that some esoteric historians will be able to use someday.The railroad(s) seem to be coming back to normal now; haven't gotten too many Metra service advisories. I haven't gone out for any direct research yet this year. However, we just got an e-mail from a fabric store in Michigan City, inviting anyone who wishes to to bring their quilting project, chat, and drink coffee for much of the day. This is a week from today, I think... I'm pretty sure I can find something to do if we go there. That Trains map of the NS between the Land of Goshen and Chicago in the February issue is very inviting
Speaking of that, yesterday (Thursday) was the first day that we received mail of any sort last week. My February Trains Magazine, which I'd anticipated sometime last year, finally came on the 9th (seems like old times for this longtime subscriber!).Well, time to check on the news, then back to work...
CShaveRR trying to find the precise numbers for a certain series of cars whose pedigree looks something like MBFX > BN > ACHX > GACX > CEFX > and beyond, in the case of some of them. The information gap is between ACHX and GACX.
trying to find the precise numbers for a certain series of cars whose pedigree looks something like MBFX > BN > ACHX > GACX > CEFX > and beyond, in the case of some of them. The information gap is between ACHX and GACX.
There seems to be a lot of swapping around with cars lately. A lot of new patches on lots of older hoppers. They change reporting marks more than some people change their underwear.
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
Last year while leaving Mason City, there were a bunch of new sand hoppers on the juice line (Iowa Terminal) transfer. The dates on the cars were within the last year, but they were already "patched" with new reporting marks.
Carl, I thought you retired. You seem busier now then when you were railroading.
Yeah, that's something to look forward to, Jeff. It didn't take me long to start wondering how I ever had time for work! I have two regular weekly volunteer projects, and I'm hoping I can add a third one (have to talk to the gal in charge...if my plan is a good one, it will be a win-win for everyone--especially me!).It does cause a few problems, because I like to drag Pat along when I go places. And she isn't as willing or anxious to travel as I am. She has her own projects, that usually center around her quilt frame or sewing machine, which she isn't as willing to leave or take along as I am our laptop.One of the freight-car-picture sites has a report about a brand-new TBOX car being relettered AOK already. Those things are only a couple of months old!In other news...I caught a train! I caught a train! (I followed its tracks.)This will cause my first sighting entries into my "paper trail" for 2014.
Norm48327 The Butler I don't know if I should laugh or cry: I just saw a brief report on WGN news from Chicago that said an AMTRAK train, heading from St. Louis to Chicago, derailed. I quote the anchorman, "It was a minor derailment, but enough to stop the train." Oh, the agony of listening to those talking heads.
Regarding rapidly changing reporting marks - one might wonder if it's the result of business buy-outs, or if the cars themselves, like the materials they carry, have become commodities.
Probably a little of both, but the question remains.
Oh, the cars are already commodities--in demand to varying degrees in relation to the supply.A lot of times the relettering comes about because of an expiration of the lease, or something as simple as that. And a lot of these railroad companies (which, as we've mentioned before, don't own enough track to hold all of their own cars, let alone move a train if they should all show up) are owned by major leasing companies, and their reporting marks are used to get the biggest amount of car hire, given the value/age of the cars in question.
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