I can vouch for the fact that Johnny made it to Chicago and hung a right toward Nawlins.MC, I'd like to think that the area of Gary we were exploring was much safer, though not much prettier. The road looked impassable (mud and water) beyond the old NYC; we turned around short of that.In the vicinity of the old PRR/new MC line and the old Wabash, there was a remnant of a crossbuck without a track. It was all rusty, and the words could be seen because they were formed by holes for the old "cat-eye" reflectors that were state-of-the-art once.
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)
Deggesty Mookie, I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you that I would be coming through Lincoln this morning. As it was, I was still asleep and so would not have seen you wave even though my bedroom was on the south side of the train.
Mookie, I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you that I would be coming through Lincoln this morning. As it was, I was still asleep and so would not have seen you wave even though my bedroom was on the south side of the train.
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
BC: Looks like I'm gonna be here into Thursday. Yesterday, be'cuz of da' threat of rain, we hacked our ways down the two dormant main tracks before it rained until dark. . Fortunately, no leaves on the trees helped with the GPS. I wouldn't want to work that this summer. The sandvic and the machete blades are now dull. There are 5" trees growing between the rails in the cribs of the PRR Ft. Wayne line and the Dune Park Line isn't that much better up high on it's fill. The sad state of affairs in Gary makes it harder to work than most places.
I would like to thank everyone for their Birthday wishes. The day passed nicely and with being the first warm one in many months, quite enjoyable. It is 66° now.
I don't have my sources of RR news like I once did, as both railways seem to strive to keep their activities more secret than a nuclear research facility so as not to upset the shareholders. And I no longer seem to be able to get out to my favourite train watching spot anymore. That is partly due to the fact that one of the cycle/walking paths to get there was damaged during last years flood, and may not even be fixed this year.
Bye for now.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Johnny
CShaveRR Pat was prepared...not only did she have a book to read, but she was able to finish knitting herself a pair of socks.
Pat was prepared...not only did she have a book to read, but she was able to finish knitting herself a pair of socks.
Carl:
Tell Pat our neighbor minister has a license plate " I QWILT ". She does wonderful work that my wife can only envy.
afternoon
busy at work today.spring is springing.need to get chores done and get Matt from school.Ns was quiet when I left work today.
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").
Carl, sounds like a good trip. I haven't seen a C&NW painted engine in years. Jealousy rears it's ugly head.
James
The one day I don't visit the Forum, and I miss a birthday. Hope it was a great one, Bruce! SJ, it's experience! We traveled home from Michigan yesterday, with the intention of hunting trains and cars, and going shopping for Pat. We were successful on both counts, though I was apprehensive until we got to about Burns Harbor. The first train we saw was a NICTD train coming off the street in Michigan City on its way to the Shops station.We went to our usual lunch spot in Gary, where we were interrupted (anything from an upward glance to a run outside) by four trains: westbound Amtrak Michigan train, eastbound coal train, westbound manifest with NS and CN power, and eastbound farm-implement train.Also at Gary, we went to one of the Mudchicken's work sites, up Clark Road. It appears that a new track is being built on an abandoned roadbed. There are so many tracks and former tracks crossing that road that I'm not sure exactly what I was seeing: I think it was the former PRR roadbed. We also saw a westbound NS local on the former Wabash line there, made up mostly of sugar covered hoppers. I would have made more rooster-crowing noises, but I figured that around noon MC would still be checking things out in the county courthouse, and out of earshot (besides that, this is one of two or more sites in connection with his current project). We also saw the same westbound manifest we'd seen at the restaurant (it had stopped for a signal in the meantime). In Hammond we saw another NICTD train, and followed it into Illinois.Nothing much at Dolton as we crossed (a locomotive with one car was coming south on UP, but we didn't wait for that). However, we had a mandatory hour or more of train-watching at Blue Island...mandatory because a westbound freight on the IHB was strung out across the crossing. I had enough time to get out and walk up a little way along the tracks (but off the property), catching a few interesting IAIS covered hoppers that I hadn't seen the likes of before. While he was sitting there, an eastbound came off the IHB for the old GTW. It was headed by CNW Dash 9s 8646 and 8701--the only two locomotives still carrying their old Chicago & North Western numbers and paint jobs. Pat figured the IHB train would start moving when the C&NW guy cleared...I guess I taught her well, since she came up with that--and that was exactly what happened! Meantime, the C&NW train stopped, also blocking our crossing, so we still couldn't go anywhere. While he was sitting there, a train of empty coal gons and hoppers with BNSF power went through northbound on CSX. Lots of variety on that train; I'm hoping some of the sightings I noted are news (I might have seen them before; my short-term memory is sometimes pretty poor). Pat was prepared...not only did she have a book to read, but she was able to finish knitting herself a pair of socks.Soon after the hoppers and gons cleared, the last train also moved up to clear the eight-track grade crossing. We went to Bedford Park to visit the store Pat wanted to (we had fun there!). Nothing seen on the BRC as we headed toward Summit, and nothing up close on the IHB through McCook and LaGrange. However, we made another shopping stop at LaGrange, and saw an empty oil train of STAX tank car (all of the current design, and perfectly safe) headed west on the BNSF "Racetrack". It looked like over 100 identical tank cars, but a pair of trained eyes could see that two different orders were represented in that string. By the time we got home, we'd been eight hours on the road. Compare that to the four hours we'd taken to get up to Grand Rapids (including a fuel and meal stop) the previous day. (That trip included a picnic lunch in the park in Chesterton, where we were treated to the passage of an eastbound stack train on the NS Chicago Line, ex-NYC.)
60? Happy Birthday, kid. All through my years, I never gave any thought to the passing of each decade until I reached 70. Then it hit me: Hey, I'm old!
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
tree68 Mookie Happy Birthday! Hope you find a chocolate cake under your birthday tree. Ditto! Although I like my chocolate cake in front of me instead of under me....
Mookie Happy Birthday! Hope you find a chocolate cake under your birthday tree.
Happy Birthday! Hope you find a chocolate cake under your birthday tree.
Ditto! Although I like my chocolate cake in front of me instead of under me....
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...
Bruce happy birthday Sir !
Ns was busy today.got to peek out once in awhile at work.Had a freight in the siding with a CN unit in the #2 spot.Then a norange BNSF came up with an autorack train.Had to wait on a gp 38-2 high hood while he was switching uptown on the way home.rain here right now.Matt's snow moutain is finally all gone.Chores to do and homework to check.
ModelcarChatterbox 2....We'll see if I might find my way in here
I'll echo that sentiment.
Good afternoon and good to see everyone. I just wanted to post and say that now I've gone and done it,... I turned 60 years old today. Quite a strange thing. It seemed old at one time. Now there are more and more places that are moving their seniors discounts out of my reach. Seniors discount, who'd of thunk it?
One good thing though, I don't hardly remember my Dad ever having this much hair.
We have had quite the winter. We didn't have those ferocious storms like I've seen on the news from the US but we have had a long winter. We are supposed to break the 60° mark today for the first time since the fall of 2013. We set some total snow accumulation records, but fortunately I don't recall any record breaking temperatures or one day snowfall records. Calgarians would always say the one thing different between our winter and winter in Saskatchewan was they kept every flake of snow from the start of winter until the end. We can say the same thing here this winter. Not once did all of the snow on the ground melt off during the past five months.
I'm kind of curious to see how the CPR's First Quarter of 2014 report goes in a couple of weeks. Between the total amount of cold and snow we have had in this country, coupled with these new grain handling regulations on the table, I think they will have to find an asbestos wrapped phone for EHH to use on his investor conference call. And maybe have some EMT's on standby in case he blows a gasket. Even I have to sympathize, it has been a tough few months to be a railway boss.
Paul of Covington Tree & Norm, re waking up in the wee hours: Welcome to old age. Been there. Still there. I keep telling myself, it's hell to get old, but it beats the alternative.
Tree & Norm, re waking up in the wee hours: Welcome to old age. Been there. Still there. I keep telling myself, it's hell to get old, but it beats the alternative.
I find that I tend to wake up on what appears to be my REM cycle - almost always an increment of an hour and a half, give or take. Normally it's no problem falling back to sleep. Every now and then, though, for whatever reason, I end up having to get up and do something 'cause just laying in bed trying to fall asleep doesn't seem to work.
If I'm good and tired when I head for bed, I'll often sleep longer in a stretch.
Paul,
I had to get up at 0500 for so many years I forgot how to sleep in.
Norm
Chatterbox 2....We'll see if I might find my way in here.....First off, Jen, your forecast for up to 80 degrees at this time of the year, is unfair you know.....Thursday we're to touch 70...I thought that was good....and it will be if it really happens.
Bright and overcast this morning, but dry...mild temps. Just switched over to the Roanoke cam and they really mean business there in rail structure...."They" are really going at it {not sure what}, to accomplish something......I've been watching off and on for weeks, and still don't really know just what they are trying to end up with.
Plenty equipment an workers on site right now.
Interesting it's in sight of the rail cams....How convenient for rail fans.
Speaking of our possible 70 degrees later this week....It appears {now}, I will be mowing yard by the end of this week....Have rolled it twice and it's been fertilized.....Bring it on...ready for real Spring activity...!
Quentin
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
Put on mah sunglasses and smile , Gonna sit in the sun - outside. 60's to 80 - all week!
Will send postcards to the Chatterbox from Phoenix Nebraska!
Me too; 0445 this morning.
I just love it when I wake up at oh-dark-thirty, it's too early to stay up, but I can't get back to sleep...
CREX GEVOs? I'd love to see those! I'm sure I will eventually. I make a decent few road trips to get at the trains nowadays!
Got some sand trains through Eau Claire today. I'm sure I'll say this a lot, but it just makes me crazy-happy to see long road freights on the track by my apartment. The old CNW mainline to Itasca (now only as north as Rice Lake) and the considerable increase in train count on the Altoona sub.
Bonus: Caught me 4 CNW hoppers in Altoona today. Not much for foreign power this time, but...I've had some very nice luck, to put it lightly..heh heh
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
BC - I read double-stack collapse in the dungeon and right away thought train wreck! Double-stack collapse but where is the dungeon???
Then it dawned on me - dungeon in house and part of your collection. Clean up will probably be a whole lot cheaper, but a mess just the same.
Also we saw an engine CREX 1348 (Citirail) - my first sighting of one - and I was sure it was green and white. However, I had on sunglasses and the way the sun was shining on it, could have turned the blue to green. Smart looking paint job!
Glad to hear you found Willy and "resurrected" him, as it were, SJ. Sunny day here (thanks, Willy! ) and that led to a non-productive bike ride. Later in the afternoon a double-stack collapse in the dungeon (I must have breathed on it wrong) led to a non-productive cleanup job. Tomorrow we have to take a non-productive (as in "no time wasted looking for trains") trip to Michigan.So come Monday, and the trip home, I will look forward to some very productive time!
evening
csx was a parking lot.Lot's of trains going nowhere fast.Even train q 016 got 2 recrews today.Met new and old friends today as well.Tomorrow is Sunday school and Church.The Garrett model railroaders are having an open house in the afternoon.Matt wants to go check it out.We'll see what else is going on.
joe
PS - NS must have bought stock in BNSF - we saw 4 different trains with NS engines (one in the lead!) and one CP.
Spring - clean closets and send engines home?
Tree - I have been watching NL pretty closely and found about 20-25 workers working after 1 am, their time last nite. They shut down all train traffic and then they must have worked in Dutch, cuz I didn't understand any of what they were doing!
So far, I think - and that is a really broad statement - I think they put in hi-way dividers next to the rails so after they fix the old platforms, the trains will come in and the doors will open onto a flat surface and no step down. I think. This would be like the Metra we rode in Chicago. Wheels are below the walking surface for safety?? (rather than say I think again)
Looks like they are putting up protection from rain/snow and maybe places for people to sit until the train arrives. Maybe come out of the depot and go left or right if you want to sit at that end of the train.
It is a huge project and has some huge cranes working it! What fun!
And for anyone that has been on the forum for more than 2 years - remember Willy2? Willy is from Omaha and joined the forum as a boy. He came to Lincoln to see Mookie and the Driver and we had lunch. I was so impressed with his interest in trains.
He is now a young adult and came back to Lincoln to visit Mookie and The Driver for supper. And he is still interested in trains! I am hoping he will stop in the CB and tell us a little more about himself. I had a lot of questions for him about his career, which is something that everyone talks about but no one can do much about it.
Watching the Mierlo-Hout, Netherlands rail cam as the Saturday night crowd filters home... It's coming up on 2AM there...
The local signal technician is working in one of the boxes there, too...
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