Trains.com

Semi-official Rochelle webcam discussion thread

373238 views
3712 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    August 2008
  • From: Calgary AB. Canada
  • 2,298 posts
Posted by AgentKid on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 2:41 PM

jeffhergert
UP 5414 was leading No. 6 today.

Thank you Jeff.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 3:51 PM

That crossing certainly has been busy the last hour or so, with several trains on both roads. Two trains have stopped on the crossing--a westbound UP train with (empty?) hazmat tank cars on track 2 which was passed by an intermodal train (did the DS move the tank car train to track 1 after the intermodal cleared the next crossover?), and a westbound BNSF train which seems to be waiting for another train.

I have company now, so I will sign off.

 

Johnny

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • 192 posts
Posted by MrLynn on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 6:13 PM

jeffhergert

UP 5414 was leading No. 6 today.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkCHgh6pWPo  Another Amtrak detour from a few years ago.  Going through Grand Mound, IA and although you can't really tell, I was at the throttle on my first Amtrak detour. 

Jeff

Why tack on the freight engine?  Was a P42 disabled?  Or did they just need the UP in-cab signaling?  Would the Amtrak crew run the UP engine, or did UP have to supply an engineer?

/Mr Lynn

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 6:38 PM

MrLynn

 

 
jeffhergert

UP 5414 was leading No. 6 today.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkCHgh6pWPo  Another Amtrak detour from a few years ago.  Going through Grand Mound, IA and although you can't really tell, I was at the throttle on my first Amtrak detour. 

Jeff

 

Why tack on the freight engine?  Was a P42 disabled?  Or did they just need the UP in-cab signaling?  Would the Amtrak crew run the UP engine, or did UP have to supply an engineer?

/Mr Lynn

 

In ATC territory, the lead engine must be equipped with the Automatic Train Control equipment. Also, if there is no engineer or conductor who is qualified for the territory, the host road must provide qualified crew. Since Amtrak does not ordinarily operate on the UP here, a pilot engineer and a pilot conductor are necessary.

When this train is detoured across Wyoming instead of crossing Colorado through Grand Junction, pilots are also required.

Last spring, a detour was necessary because the UP was working on the former D&RGW track; I rode east on the last detoured trip and asked one of the Amtrak conductors if he was going to be qualified between Salt Lake City and Green River--he told me he did not want to be qualified.

Johnny

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Central Iowa
  • 6,901 posts
Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, November 12, 2015 1:53 PM

When Amtrak detours over us, the UP engineer and conductor are on the engine and in radio contact with the Amtrak conductor.  The Amtrak engineer can ride the engine, but two of the three times I've caught them, they rode back on the train.  

The video was of the first detour I ever had.  Unlike the UP's business trains where they always have (with or without the big wigs aboard) a company officer ride, on these passenger trains you're on your own.  They aren't hard to handle and really are fun to run.  Especially if there is enough room to run.

Jeff

PS  Somewhere among the forum's dust and cobwebs there should be a posting I wrote about that trip.    

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, November 12, 2015 10:56 PM

Jeff, when the CZ is detoured across Wyoming, the pilot conductor rides 

jeffhergert

When Amtrak detours over us, the UP engineer and conductor are on the engine and in radio contact with the Amtrak conductor.  The Amtrak engineer can ride the engine, but two of the three times I've caught them, they rode back on the train.  

The video was of the first detour I ever had.  Unlike the UP's business trains where they always have (with or without the big wigs aboard) a company officer ride, on these passenger trains you're on your own.  They aren't hard to handle and really are fun to run.  Especially if there is enough room to run.

Jeff

PS  Somewhere among the forum's dust and cobwebs there should be a posting I wrote about that trip.    

 

Jeff, when the CZ is detoured across Wyoming, the pilot conductor rides in one of the passenger cars at least between Salt Lake City and Green River, for the westbound has to back into the station here, and the eastbound has to back out of the station--on track that the Amtrak crews are not qualified on. Thus, the conductor continually tells the engineer what his line of sight is (just as when the train is backed into Denver). I do not know if the UP conductor has to do the same when the eastbound is backing into Denver; it backs in on the same track that is used in normal operation.

Johnny

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Friday, November 13, 2015 8:48 AM

Deggesty

Jeff, when the CZ is detoured across Wyoming, the pilot conductor rides 

jeffhergert

When Amtrak detours over us, the UP engineer and conductor are on the engine and in radio contact with the Amtrak conductor.  The Amtrak engineer can ride the engine, but two of the three times I've caught them, they rode back on the train.  

The video was of the first detour I ever had.  Unlike the UP's business trains where they always have (with or without the big wigs aboard) a company officer ride, on these passenger trains you're on your own.  They aren't hard to handle and really are fun to run.  Especially if there is enough room to run.

Jeff

PS  Somewhere among the forum's dust and cobwebs there should be a posting I wrote about that trip.    

Jeff, when the CZ is detoured across Wyoming, the pilot conductor rides in one of the passenger cars at least between Salt Lake City and Green River, for the westbound has to back into the station here, and the eastbound has to back out of the station--on track that the Amtrak crews are not qualified on. Thus, the conductor continually tells the engineer what his line of sight is (just as when the train is backed into Denver). I do not know if the UP conductor has to do the same when the eastbound is backing into Denver; it backs in on the same track that is used in normal operation.

I don't know UP rules, however, I suspect they are similar to my carriers rules.

Mandatory directives (Track Warrents etc.) must be copied by an employee on the lead locomotive and that person cannot be at the operating controls while the train is in motion.  On a Amtrak detour move, the Amtrak Conductor and Engineer would not be considered employees that are qualified to copy such a directive even if they are on the lead engine with the Engineer.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Friday, November 13, 2015 9:38 AM

BaltACD

 

 
Deggesty

Jeff, when the CZ is detoured across Wyoming, the pilot conductor rides 

jeffhergert

When Amtrak detours over us, the UP engineer and conductor are on the engine and in radio contact with the Amtrak conductor.  The Amtrak engineer can ride the engine, but two of the three times I've caught them, they rode back on the train.  

The video was of the first detour I ever had.  Unlike the UP's business trains where they always have (with or without the big wigs aboard) a company officer ride, on these passenger trains you're on your own.  They aren't hard to handle and really are fun to run.  Especially if there is enough room to run.

Jeff

PS  Somewhere among the forum's dust and cobwebs there should be a posting I wrote about that trip.    

Jeff, when the CZ is detoured across Wyoming, the pilot conductor rides in one of the passenger cars at least between Salt Lake City and Green River, for the westbound has to back into the station here, and the eastbound has to back out of the station--on track that the Amtrak crews are not qualified on. Thus, the conductor continually tells the engineer what his line of sight is (just as when the train is backed into Denver). I do not know if the UP conductor has to do the same when the eastbound is backing into Denver; it backs in on the same track that is used in normal operation.

 

I don't know UP rules, however, I suspect they are similar to my carriers rules.

Mandatory directives (Track Warrents etc.) must be copied by an employee on the lead locomotive and that person cannot be at the operating controls while the train is in motion.  On a Amtrak detour move, the Amtrak Conductor and Engineer would not be considered employees that are qualified to copy such a directive even if they are on the lead engine with the Engineer.

 

So, it could well be that after the train is stopped before the backup move begins the UP conductor walks back to direct the move. I do not know if the switches here are controlled remotely or not; I do know that the switches in Denver are manual.

Johnny

  • Member since
    August 2015
  • 12 posts
Posted by SushiLover on Wednesday, November 18, 2015 7:22 AM

I stopped by the park the other day and noticed that directly across from the gift shop, there's a camera mounted on the garage of a private residence. Does anyone know if it's a cam that can be accessed pubicly? It looked to be pointed west just like the Rochelle cam, only more at the UP side.

  • Member since
    June 2001
  • From: Lombard (west of Chicago), Illinois
  • 13,681 posts
Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, November 18, 2015 10:53 PM

Johnny, I keep meaning to ask you:  have you ever been out to Rochelle?  If not, that's something we may have to work on when you're up, out, and about again.  If necessary we could even put you on or take you off the train at Mendota.

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)

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, November 19, 2015 7:18 AM

CShaveRR

Johnny, I keep meaning to ask you:  have you ever been out to Rochelle?  If not, that's something we may have to work on when you're up, out, and about again.  If necessary we could even put you on or take you off the train at Mendota.

 

Carl, I have been through Rochelle once--on that fateful trip to Portland in April 1971 that I took to add passenger mileage that was going to be gone at the end of the month and a freight train introduced me to a fellow lover of travel by train--little did I know that fifteen months later we would begin almost forty years of life together.

That sounds like an excellent idea; I will have to work that in when I am able to travel again. 

Johnny

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • 192 posts
Posted by MrLynn on Thursday, November 19, 2015 9:53 AM

What's this MOW machine on the UP track right now?  There's a front-end loader dumping ballast on the diamonds, so I assume it's some kind of ballast tamper, but why the long neck with the platform (?) at the end?

/Mr Lynn

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, November 19, 2015 10:01 AM

That is a ballast tamper.  The long scissors device extended from the far end is a track geometry measuring device, used to ensure the track is uniform in shape (curve or non-curve and rise and fall as well as cross level/super-elevation).

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, November 21, 2015 6:26 AM

Ground appears somewhat white this morning!

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, November 21, 2015 10:08 AM

The ground is white now--and an empty? oil train going west on the UP has black cars with irregular white splotches on them.

Johnny

  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Allen, TX
  • 1,320 posts
Posted by cefinkjr on Saturday, November 21, 2015 11:40 AM

BaltACD

Ground appears somewhat white this morning!

Deggesty

The ground is white now--and an empty? oil train going west on the UP has black cars with irregular white splotches on them.

Accuweather is calling for 4"-8" by lunch time and 1º (yeah, that's ONE as in colder than a _______) by 6:00 am. Looks like they've got a pretty good start on that 8".
 
Aside: Here I sit in a warm house in Texas checking the weather a couple thousand miles away.  Is this a great Wonderful Wired World or what!?
 
 

Chuck
Allen, TX

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, November 21, 2015 12:59 PM

cefinkjr
 
BaltACD

Ground appears somewhat white this morning! 

Deggesty

The ground is white now--and an empty? oil train going west on the UP has black cars with irregular white splotches on them. 

Accuweather is calling for 4"-8" by lunch time and 1º (yeah, that's ONE as in colder than a _______) by 6:00 am. Looks like they've got a pretty good start on that 8".
 
Aside: Here I sit in a warm house in Texas checking the weather a couple thousand miles away.  Is this a great Wonderful Wired World or what!? 

Sure, it wonderful... if the distant weather you're checking is worse than it is where you are!  The snow that Rochelle is getting now is what I got last night... 9-inches of the lovely wet fluff last night.  My neighbor's all used their snow blowers to clear their sidewalks and I SHOVELED mine by hand (I just pretend I am hand-bombing a big Steam Loco, that actually makes it FUN!  Cool )

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, November 21, 2015 1:44 PM

Semper Vaporo

 

 
cefinkjr
 
BaltACD

Ground appears somewhat white this morning! 

Deggesty

The ground is white now--and an empty? oil train going west on the UP has black cars with irregular white splotches on them. 

Accuweather is calling for 4"-8" by lunch time and 1º (yeah, that's ONE as in colder than a _______) by 6:00 am. Looks like they've got a pretty good start on that 8".
 
Aside: Here I sit in a warm house in Texas checking the weather a couple thousand miles away.  Is this a great Wonderful Wired World or what!? 

 

 

Sure, it wonderful... if the distant weather you're checking is worse than it is where you are!  The snow that Rochelle is getting now is what I got last night... 9-inches of the lovely wet fluff last night.  My neighbor's all used their snow blowers to clear their sidewalks and I SHOVELED mine by hand (I just pretend I am hand-bombing a big Steam Loco, that actually makes it FUN!  Cool )

 

Oh! you still have an Armstrong snow thrower! I used one a little over thirty years ago to keep my driveway clear when it snowed every day for three weeks. I do not remember just when I traded it in for a mechanical one. Back then, I built a nice Chinese wall by my driveway.

Johnny

  • Member since
    August 2008
  • From: Calgary AB. Canada
  • 2,298 posts
Posted by AgentKid on Saturday, November 21, 2015 1:58 PM

Deggesty
an Armstrong snow thrower

From the time we moved to Calgary until he died, my Dad always refered to snow shoveling as "running the plow".

For the first couple of winters we lived here he used to grumble about not having a Section Man to do the job. They always did it around the stations.

As soon as I started the webcam this mornign and saw the snow piled up like that on the little track section, I knew they were dealing with "heart attack" snow. It has to be pretty moist to pile up on narrow surfaces like that.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

  • Member since
    August 2008
  • From: Calgary AB. Canada
  • 2,298 posts
Posted by AgentKid on Saturday, November 21, 2015 2:18 PM

AgentKid
"heart attack" snow. It has to be pretty moist

Watching that autorack train pass showed just how heavy that snow is. Up here, after the first third of the train passed, you would hardly be able to see the cars for swirling snow. Especially tall uniformly shaped cars like autoracks.

There are good videos on youtube that show the swirling effect.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 6,199 posts
Posted by Miningman on Saturday, November 21, 2015 2:33 PM

Amtrak with highliners going through last Saturday..must have been a detour somewhere...large plant at the top is Del Monte to answer question 

 

 

  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Allen, TX
  • 1,320 posts
Posted by cefinkjr on Saturday, November 21, 2015 3:37 PM

It's quit snowing in Rochelle.  Doesn't look like BNSF tracks have been used all day, particularly #2.

Chuck
Allen, TX

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, November 21, 2015 3:40 PM

cefinkjr

It's quit snowing in Rochelle.  Doesn't look like BNSF tracks have been used all day, particularly #2.

 

Yes, there is not quite as much traffic as there is on the UP; I have seen several trains go by, though.

Look at the accumulation on the benchs.

Johnny

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • 3,231 posts
Posted by NorthWest on Saturday, November 21, 2015 3:41 PM

That empty coal train sure was quiet. The snow really dampens the sound.

  • Member since
    July 2008
  • From: Southeast Missouri
  • 573 posts
Posted by The Butler on Saturday, November 21, 2015 4:20 PM

James


  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Allen, TX
  • 1,320 posts
Posted by cefinkjr on Saturday, November 21, 2015 4:28 PM

The Butler

Nice picture, James.  How'd you do that?

Chuck
Allen, TX

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • 59 posts
Posted by alpinemike on Saturday, November 21, 2015 4:34 PM

love the new snow

pretty cool

  • Member since
    July 2008
  • From: Southeast Missouri
  • 573 posts
Posted by The Butler on Saturday, November 21, 2015 4:54 PM

cefinkjr

 

Nice picture, James.  How'd you do that?

 

My computer came with a program called "Snipping Tool."  I first found the program on Vista.  It has been on Windows7, 8.1, and 10 (which is what I am now using).

James


  • Member since
    September 2014
  • From: Muskogee Oklahoma
  • 185 posts
Posted by MKT Dave on Sunday, November 22, 2015 2:56 PM

 I use the snipping tool a lot. today about 1300 to 1400 there was a machine on UP track #1, it was blowing air onto the diamonds and I suspect it had rotarty brushes also going back and forth blowing white to black dust or snow.

ack, can't remember how to post an picture.

 

closer view of the blower brusher

 

...
  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Sunday, November 22, 2015 3:14 PM

I just got around to looking at the intersection. Those benches look as though they will provide cold seats.

The temperature here was in the low twenties this morning; it is much warmer now. So far, no snow has stuck here in the city.

Johnny

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy