we are down 2 less than 100 florida cougers. a very limited gene pool. on the verge of extiction.
Aw, Jeff. One of my all time favorites. And the 1st Peter Sellers movie was seriously funny! Especially the chase at the end!
Won't even mention the "roadrunner"....
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Mookie Florida. Don't you have some big, real cats? Your "panther" is our "cougar" or "puma" or mountain lion. To me - a "panther" should be black and the carmel/vanilla ones are all the rest.
Florida. Don't you have some big, real cats? Your "panther" is our "cougar" or "puma" or mountain lion. To me - a "panther" should be black and the carmel/vanilla ones are all the rest.
Most of the time when I've seen a panther on TV, it's been pink.
Jeff
blue streak 1 Mookie Watched a program on a Coywolf from Canada. Interesting. MOOKIE -- Did you catch that the way they are spreading is by walking along RR tracks ? Now if is an abandoned ROW that is a trail ?
Mookie Watched a program on a Coywolf from Canada. Interesting.
Watched a program on a Coywolf from Canada. Interesting.
CShaveRRPOTX cars (as well as a lot of GACX cars, pink and otherwise)
Carl, I hadn't read before that Potash Corp. had cars with GACX reporting marks. Thank you for that info.
You folks in the Chicago area that are experiencing this most recent cold snap, be careful out there.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Now about that chocolate.... ^~^
rbandr only because there are sisters to the mookies in cocoa florida. they r little one and big one too.
only because there are sisters to the mookies in cocoa florida. they r little one and big one too.
Nebraska is allowing a "mountain lion" hunt. Everyone hates it, but Game & Parks sez we have to control the population. They are allowing 2 I think. Some one can correct me. We have a lot of cattle and deer - so the big cats have a pretty good food source. Just not always the right one.
Watched a program on a Coywolf from Canada. Interesting. Unfortunately, I think they may be smarter than a lot of humans. You see humans feeding the wild animals. You never see the wild animals feeding humans.
Moo.....
Gotta watch them cats!
Currently -11F air temp with -32F wind chill. Supposed to cool off later today with air temps in the -25/-30F range and wind chill in the -50/-60F range. I'm "lucky" that I don't have to go out today. Little guy has strep and daycare won't take him with that so we're home where it's 68F inside. Truck still starts and life goes on.
CN ran an oil train last night out of Hawthorne bound for AB. Pair of ex-EMDX SD70ACe units. Power was already bad ordered with computer and generator issues by the time it hit Shops (North Fond du Lac, WI) last night. That's now three of the four of these engines CN bought that have problems.
Dan
Mookie rbandr horizontal mookies are easier to katch them vertical ones You know from experience? I am intrigued.
rbandr horizontal mookies are easier to katch them vertical ones
horizontal mookies are easier to katch them vertical ones
I am intrigued.
Corn snow here [2+ inches expected] with all of last storms snow melted and 57 degrees this afternoon. Cycle again - melts almost as fast as it's shoveled.
The cars I could make out were POTX cars (as well as a lot of GACX cars, pink and otherwise), and CP system (mostly SOO) covered hoppers.I'm sure that doesn't preclude trains from Canpotex, and I have in the past seen the POTX Corporation cars on the CN as well.Today was better...after church we decided to combine a few necessary shopping errands and dinner out, before the temperature plummets again. That took us to LaGrange, where we dined trackside and saw a total of three manfests, a stack train, two scheduled dinkies, and a Metra equipment move. What we didn't see was the anticipated cutover of signal bridges, shutting down for good the old searchlight signals between Hinsdale and Downers Grove.
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)
CShaveRRa potash train on CP
Carl, I am kind of curious to know who handles the Potash deliveries in your part of the world. Was it being shipped in gray Canpotex covered hoppers, or pink Potash Corporation cars. Being a follower of goings on in that industry, it is always interesting to see what is happening where. Disagreements between the two entities often makes for reading in our business pages, which always strikes me as a bit odd, considering Potash Corp. is one of the co-owners of Canpotex. The stories always have a kind of eating their young vibe to them.
Please let me know when you get a chance.
Thanks
P.S. I know it seems unprofessional but I mentioned the cars colours because Canpotex cars have a variety of reporting marks; their own, those of the co-owners, and the marks of various companies financing the purchase of the cars. I think the only reporting mark Potash Corp. has is POTX.
Cold weather coming yet again (though we've been down in single digits nearly every night); early next week we won't get out of negative territory for a while.Absolutely no train-watching activity to report. I tried tonight, but the only luck I had was bad luck. When we go to a certain quilt store in Bensenville for Pat, I usually drive further north to see if any trains are being held out at Irving Park Road...since that's CP, not UP, they often have a different mix of freight cars and I'm more likely to see something useful. So tonight, we came home from an all-day organ immersion in Winnetka. I went past this site, and there were three trains sitting in the area...a potash train on CP, a northbound EDGX coal train on UP, and a manifest on UP waiting to enter Proviso (it was stopped there--there must have been something ahead of it as well). Of course, I came upon this lovely sight after dark, when nothing could be done.Then, coming home through Elmhurst, the gates dropped in front of me on the CN line (that's a scarce happening in itself), and an ethanol train blew through. Because they aren't anywhere near a yard, their trains seem to move a lot faster than UP's (definitely an improvement from the days of jointed rail and rockin' and rattlin' trains at 20 or less). Again, too dark and too fast to discern much except for reporting marks and numbers.Also in Elmhurst, I looked down the UP tracks to see the block signals by Villa Avenue in Villa Park. The default aspect for this signal bridge in both directions is flashing yellow, and all three tracks had the flashing yellow...until Track 3 turned to green! Something was lined up to go west, and it was over an hour before the next scoot. I looked back as we crossed the tracks, nothing. We stopped for the CN freight mentioned above, made our way through Villa Park and into Lombard, where I could see that the westbound home signal for track 3 at Grace was also clear. Crossed the tracks, still nothing visible. Went through the downtown, stopped at the drug store for a newspaper, got out, crossed the tracks again...still nothing. To heck with it, at that point...we hadn't been home for over ten hours, and it was time to get there (I'm sure he showed up within three minutes of the time we crossed the track--they always do, don't they?).I think I'm going to call my next train-watching trip an "immersion". I can do a good job of immersing even when the trains don't show!
Intriguing indeed.
I thought I would post to say it was a bad day for UP 9377, a C40-8W, in Lethbridge, AB yesterday. It was working mid-train, it looks like, on a Potash unit train when a tractor-trailer unit made an abrupt turn and drove right into the side of it. I can't recall ever seeing a cab so trashed without the hoods on either end being that undamaged. I don't have a still photo to link to, but the roof above the engineers side window looks like it has been cut into with tin snips. The engineers side door has been bent into a fascinating shape.
Numerous charges under the Motor Vehicle Act have already been laid.
I have linked to a photo of the 9377 in better days. In the photo, taken in 2005, you see a panel with mismatched paint below the cab. That panel never was repainted, but it looks like it will get done now!
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=115562&nseq=4
BC - OMG, we ARE related. I got your spotted joke the first reading. I think I must go lie down!
Probably not to their operation...perhaps a given lessee. Sorry...I was just making a joke in reference to Jeff's "spotted" ethanol train. But I have seen the variants you describe on crude trains, Norm.
CShaveRR Gee, most of the ethanol trains I see are solid black. What comes next...stripes?
Gee, most of the ethanol trains I see are solid black. What comes next...stripes?
Carl,
Been wondering about that kind of thing. I've been watching the Chesterton railcam lately, and see lots of black tanks with white end-caps and white tanks with black in the area of the manway. Have been wondering if those markings are of any significance.
Norm
jeffhergertOh, the mty ethanol train was spotted without making any headlines in the paper, or on the Trains forum.
Gee, most of the ethanol trains I see are solid black. What comes next...stripes?I'm staying out of trouble and away from the tracks these days, with enough work to do on my sightings files to keep me indoors and out of the bad weather for the next few days. Right now I'm working on the history of a series of KCS covered hoppers that were previously NRLX (and went back to NRLX after a short time). Some of those cars were ex-Cons...and before that PRR, NYC, EL, LV, or PC. Tryin' to get it all down; my NRLX documentation is taking a whole page per 100 cars.
What a weekend. It all started Friday. On Thursday afternoon, my pickup acted up on the way home. I suspected the battery was going to need replacing. Friday morning, before the wife left to go do some volunteer work, I started it up to make sure it was OK. Started fine, she left. I was about 6 times out with a few vacant turns ahead and no extra board rested to cover them. Some trains coming and I moved up to 4th out but first available. The westbound hopper that I thought I would be called for got hung up at Marshalltown for some reason. I then noticed an mty ethanol train behind it that goes to Grand Jct, IA. That would normally be extra board work, except there isn't anyone at that time.
About this time an extra board guy comes off Federal rest. Soon after they decide to call that hopper. Since an extra board person is available, they fill a vacancy ahead of me. I'm 3rd out/1st available and no extra board rested. They try to call the ethanol train. A live caller is on the phone and would I be interested in doing a short turn? No, I wouldn't. About 40 minutes later, the caller again calls and asks if I wouldn't take the short turn? No, I really don't want to. "Pleeeease?" "Sorry, Nooo." Ten minutes after this on the 3rd try, the caller says I now have to take the call per the corridor manager because there's no extra board. OK, I told her that's all it took. I explained that as long as it was a choice, I wouldn't volunteer. (It's the position of our union division, what the BLE&T calls their locals, that if they wouldn't keep cutting the boards they would have the manpower they need. That by volunteering to work off your normal assignment you just help keep them from properly staffing the boards.)
By this time my wife was back home. I go out to start my pickup. Door nails have more life in them than my pickup did. Not even a hint of life in the battery. My wife got the pleasure of taking me, and later picking me up. On the way, we stopped at NAPA to pick up a replacement battery for me to install later. The ethanol train had been held back, partly I'm guessing while they tried to find an engineer. My regular assignment is the engineer's west road pool. What they are supposed to do is take my turn and put it on duty. Then when I tie up it would place me at the bottom of the board. They never do this. Instead they leave my turn where it is on the board (3rd out) and show me in "other assignment" status. My turn is now a vacancy and if an extra board person becomes available, it could be filled and sent out of town. That's exactly what happens. They don't have an extra board person to fill an assignment that should go to the extra board, so they take a pool guy to protect the extra board, then use an extra board guy to fill the pool turn of the person filling the extra board. Makes sense doesn't it?
So when I tie up, my turn is on the way out of town. I'm getting some time off, on a weekend to boot. It gets even better. Since they sent my turn out of town without me I get to put a claim in for lost wages that my turn makes, less what I made doing the short turn.
On the way home, my wife reminds me that they're predicting snow the next morning. So at 830pm, I'm changing my battery. It goes relatively well for doing it by flash light in the cold, I don't have a garage. It works fine now. Saturday afternoon we get to go to a historical railroad presentation over at the B&SV museum. This morning I got to make breakfast, something I haven't done in a long time. This afternoon the temp hits 50 degrees, so my wife suggests we grill out. So we did, in January. Last year we only grilled out twice, late in the year. We talked about doing it more, but never seemed to find the time when the weather was ok. We're halfway towards last years grilling events, and the year is still young.
Oh, the mty ethanol train was spotted without making any headlines in the paper, or on the Trains forum.
sometimes it is by the grace of god no one was killed or maimed. in the real world it can go either way
The Butler CShaveRR One time, pulling a track-full of rehumps out of the hole, we dragged a derailment the entire length of the yard. The errant car(s) rerailed themselves at the switch on our end of the yard right after someone told them to stop pulling. (Car still had to be bad-ordered; at least one axle was no longer properly seated.) Carl, I have wondered if a trailing point switch would rerail a car.
CShaveRR One time, pulling a track-full of rehumps out of the hole, we dragged a derailment the entire length of the yard. The errant car(s) rerailed themselves at the switch on our end of the yard right after someone told them to stop pulling. (Car still had to be bad-ordered; at least one axle was no longer properly seated.)
One time, pulling a track-full of rehumps out of the hole, we dragged a derailment the entire length of the yard. The errant car(s) rerailed themselves at the switch on our end of the yard right after someone told them to stop pulling. (Car still had to be bad-ordered; at least one axle was no longer properly seated.)
Probably as often as not, if the stock rails were low enough to be climbed up on, and the other rails strong enough to straighten out any askew wheels. Wouldn't want to count on it, though, and pulling a derailment for any length (such as the entire yard) to get to a trailing-point switch is something that is usually not encouraged.Hey, did anyone else see or report that former Trains Associate Editor, railroader, author (and designer of Soo Line's red-and-white paint scheme) Wallace W. Abbey had passed away, around the beginning on this year? He was 86. (I went to a meeting in Chicago once where he was the speaker...he looked and sounded like the consummate railroader to me back then, nearly 40 years ago.)
James
zugmann Saw an old best up RBOX - now running around with CNA markings.
Saw an old best up RBOX - now running around with CNA markings.
Not to try to one up the Zugmann, I saw an old RBOX car (build date 11-80) with RBOX marks heading west.
CNW 6000Maybe the railroads can take a page from Atlas and start using rerailers in key spots...
I recall two incidents, one from Trains, one from personal knowledge, where despite the lack of rerailers, trains managed to rerail themselves, leaving their derailment undetected until other factors made them known. I'm sure there have been others.
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...
CNW 6000 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. Maybe the railroads can take a page from Atlas and start using rerailers in key spots...
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.
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."
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.
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