810 would have been an all-time record, for sure!
Had a 5-unit limit on the NYC "back in the day" (early 70s). I counted 8 on a train arriving at Collinwood (OH) for a crew change once and asked the inbound crew about it. They assured me that the last 3 were dead-in-train being moved east to balance power. Guess how many plumes of exhaust smoke I counted as the train left.
ChuckAllen, TX
"810 would have been an all-time record, for sure!"
And if they were 86 foot auto racks, they would have totaled 66,960 feet. A train over thirteen miles long sure would be impressive.
Norm
I think we need a mind-reading Czech; I know I could use one at times.
I wonder why it is that when my cursor is at the end of a line the emoticon appears at the start of the post and I have to move it. To keep me on my toes?
Johnny
Deggesty I wonder why it is that when my cursor is at the end of a line the emoticon appears at the start of the post and I have to move it. To keep me on my toes?
cefinkjr Deggesty I wonder why it is that when my cursor is at the end of a line the emoticon appears at the start of the post and I have to move it. To keep me on my toes? I've had the same problem. On my last post, I hit enter BEFORE going to the emoticon menu and the emoticon was inserted at the beginning of the new line rather than at the beginning of the post. I must remember that; I've "lost" emoticons when I tried to add them near the end of a long post.
Deggesty
Just another of the Kalmbach bug universe.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Winter has returned to Rochelle - Snowing!
BaltACD Winter has returned to Rochelle - Snowing!
UP stack train stretched across diamonds just started to crawl west.
Snow seems to have stopped ... for now. 27 degrees and fresh snow on the ground.
Our forecast for today is sunny and 75; 80 tomorrow. I'm wearing shorts and a polo shirt. Ask me again why I'm glad to be in Texas.
wb on the BNSF lead by a UP and a BNSF loco's... "Hey, your on the wrong track!!!!!" 1836 on 0324 mixed consists.
A stack train stopped, then sllloowwllyy crawled out of the picture headin west on the UP. I would think this is a train of empty stacks. Is there any way to tell if a stack train is full or empty?
Also, the M of W crew is back working on the tracks again. THey are nmoving those reels of cable? around. They hooked one of them up to a truck and took off with it.
northwesterner Also, the M of W crew is back working on the tracks again. THey are nmoving those reels of cable? around. They hooked one of them up to a truck and took off with it.
[/quote]
northwesterner Is there any way to tell if a stack train is full or empty?
Is there any way to tell if a stack train is full or empty?
Not certain but I don't think railroads (or ships) move many empty containers. Any agents on here who can fill in the details on this?
[quote user="william6"]
[quote user="northwesterner
I think they are reels of plastic drain tile.
It is similar to drain tile, but not used to channel water away, it is used to keep water away from electrical cables that get strung through it later.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
It being orange, my guess would be conduit for communications cables.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Paul of CovingtonIt being orange, my guess would be conduit for communications cables.
Based on my time in the comm industry, I agree.
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...
Question... 1644 on 03.25 track inspector pulled right up to the diamonds on BNSF, but instead of crossing, he backed up past the switch to the service track.
Then a EB on UP went through with covered hoppers. After the train went through, he then went across at 1625.Does he have to follow the same crossing restrictions as the engineers do?
cefinkjr northwesterner Is there any way to tell if a stack train is full or empty? Not certain but I don't think railroads move (or ships) move many empty containers. Any agents on here who can fill in the details on this?
Not certain but I don't think railroads move (or ships) move many empty containers. Any agents on here who can fill in the details on this?
Probably won't be able to tell by watching the webcam, but if you're trackside check the container doors. Loads will have at least a seal. Some may have some kind of lock. Empties don't.
Jeff
the lights are on at the diamonds but can't see any one working. wonder what's going on. signal was there all day long.
Uhhh, check your times, Dave. You have the BNSF track inspector crossing the UP before he arrived.
But to answer your question: Only if he would rather go home in one piece. My guess is that he saw the headlight of the oncoming UP train, remembered that judging the speed of an oncoming train is very difficult, and wisely backed off to be safe.
Another thing you may not understand: You didn't say what kind of vehicle the track inspector was in but I'll assume it was a hi-rail truck of some sort. Such equipment is not heavy enough and doesn't have enough steel wheels to ensure good electrical contact with the rails. Because of this, they aren't protected by signal systems the way a train would be. So when this track inspector approached the UP, he had no more protection than you would have if you were walking across the track.
One of my jobs with PC was to coordinate hi-rail equipment of all kinds. We had a 50 ton capacity, hi-rail crane stationed at Conway, PA that WV wouldn't allow on its highways. When that crane had to go to a derailment in OH, it had to go across the WV panhandle by rail even though that was much slower. But even as heavy as it was, dispatchers and the signal system couldn't "see" it so everyone concerned was extra careful about such moves.
sorry about that, meant to be 1624... It was a crew truck with hugh tool boxes mounted as fenders.
thanks for the info.
cefinkjr Uhhh, check your times, Dave. You have the BNSF track inspector crossing the UP before he arrived. But to answer your question: Only if he would rather go home in one piece. My guess is that he saw the headlight of the oncoming UP train, remembered that judging the speed of an oncoming train is very difficult, and wisely backed off to be safe. Another thing you may not understand: You didn't say what kind of vehicle the track inspector was in but I'll assume it was a hi-rail truck of some sort. Such equipment is not heavy enough and doesn't have enough steel wheels to ensure good electrical contact with the rails. Because of this, they aren't protected by signal systems the way a train would be. So when this track inspector approached the UP, he had no more protection than you would have if you were walking across the track. One of my jobs with PC was to coordinate hi-rail equipment of all kinds. We had a 50 ton capacity, hi-rail crane stationed at Conway, PA that WV wouldn't allow on its highways. When that crane had to go to a derailment in OH, it had to go across the WV panhandle by rail even though that was much slower. But even as heavy as it was, dispatchers and the signal system couldn't "see" it so everyone concerned was extra careful about such moves.
I thought I'd heard that the rail wheels on a hi-rail are, in fact, insulated, so they definitely won't trip any circuits...
cefinkjr We had a 50 ton capacity, hi-rail crane stationed at Conway, PA that WV wouldn't allow on its highways. When that crane had to go to a derailment in OH, it had to go across the WV panhandle by rail even though that was much slower. But even as heavy as it was, dispatchers and the signal system couldn't "see" it so everyone concerned was extra careful about such moves.
We had a 50 ton capacity, hi-rail crane stationed at Conway, PA that WV wouldn't allow on its highways. When that crane had to go to a derailment in OH, it had to go across the WV panhandle by rail even though that was much slower. But even as heavy as it was, dispatchers and the signal system couldn't "see" it so everyone concerned was extra careful about such moves.
Hi-Rail equipment is designed NOT to shunt track circuits and thereby activate the signal system.
Vehicle weight has nothing to do with activating track circuits - electrical conductivity does the job - rusty rail can prevent small 'train' movements from activating track circuits and/or crossing protection devices - in such cases there are normally train messages in place for crews to stop and flag such crossings. Hi-Rail equipment must flag themselves across all road crossings as they DO NOT activate the crossing protection.
cefinkjr Uhhh, check your times, Dave. You have the BNSF track inspector crossing the UP before he arrived. But to answer your question: Only if he would rather go home in one piece. My guess is that he saw the headlight of the oncoming UP train, remembered that judging the speed of an oncoming train is very difficult, and wisely backed off to be safe. Another thing you may not understand: You didn't say what kind of vehicle the track inspector was in but I'll assume it was a hi-rail truck of some sort. Such equipment is not heavy enough and doesn't have enough steel wheels to ensure good electrical contact with the rails. Because of this, they aren't protected by signal systems the way a train would be. So when this track inspector approached the UP, he had no more protection than you would have if you were walking across the track.
I think he had more protection than someone casually crossing the tracks. Both UP and BNSF have rules on operating on-track MOW equipment. Including how to cross through or work at automatic interlockings.
Reading UP's rules (which differ slightly from what I could find on BNSF. Both sets I found that the public could read were a few years old.) hi-rail equipment is supposed to be equipped with track shunts, but not always required to use them.
One place where it's required to disable shunts if in use, is at automatic interlockings. I suppose so as not to rely on protection from signals in case the shunt loses contact with the rail.
i wonder why the lights are on .2nd time i checked at nite.lots of things happening lately, maybe just for security.
BNSF stack train EB at 2308 on the far track (Is that track 1 or 2?). Something stopped on the near BNSF track ... looks like an oil train. That's unusual; I've never seen an oil train on either road stopped.
2312: BNSF oil train slowly moving off WB. By at 2316. EB UP stack train apparently waiting for the crossing; came into view at 2319. BNSF had the crossing pretty well tied up.
It would be nice if the admin of the camera could turn off "Auto-Focus" and manually set it to infinity so it would not keep hunting for focus when it is getting dark and a train passes. The rapid changes in pinpoints of light drive the focus control nuts and most of the time it is so out of focus that anything illuminated is just a big ball of blur.
Must be windy today - can hear the wind gust from time to time when there aren't any trains.
I also viewed a unusual train - Westbound on the UP - Intermodal with all empty container chassis.
I suspect that the chassis train didn't go more that a couple of miles further west, to Global 3. Just a suspicion.And yes, it was bitterly windy in our neck of the woods today. It was from the south, but not particularly warm.
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)
Semper Vaporo It would be nice if the admin of the camera could turn off "Auto-Focus" and manually set it to infinity so it would not keep hunting for focus when it is getting dark and a train passes. The rapid changes in pinpoints of light drive the focus control nuts and most of the time it is so out of focus that anything illuminated is just a big ball of blur.
Charlie, I've made the same suggestion way back towards the start of this thread, but either it was ignored or they can't do anything about it.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
For those tracking the Heritage Units, UP 1988 Miss Katy crossed the diamonds at 07.14 EB for Chicago. It was a mixed consist which included a number of refers, made me think of the 'Salad Bowl Express'. She was at speed. I also noticed the horn was a deeper horn than normal. (ex sonar tech, us navy here.)
spent hours listening to sounds of the ocean.
That is the third heritage unit i have seen on the cam now.
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