That empty coal train sure was quiet. The snow really dampens the sound.
cefinkjr It's quit snowing in Rochelle. Doesn't look like BNSF tracks have been used all day, particularly #2.
It's quit snowing in Rochelle. Doesn't look like BNSF tracks have been used all day, particularly #2.
Look at the accumulation on the benchs.
Johnny
ChuckAllen, TX
Amtrak with highliners going through last Saturday..must have been a detour somewhere...large plant at the top is Del Monte to answer question
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"
. . . __ . ______
Deggestyan 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.
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! )
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!?
BaltACD Ground appears somewhat white this morning!
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.
The ground is white now--and an empty? oil train going west on the UP has black cars with irregular white splotches on them.
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! )
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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).
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
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.
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.
That sounds like an excellent idea; I will have to work that in when I am able to travel 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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
jeffhergertUP 5414 was leading No. 6 today.
Thank you Jeff.
jeffhergertGoing through Grand Mound, IA and although you can't really tell, I was at the throttle on my first Amtrak detour.
Well, we'd hardly expect and open window and a wave at the end of January in Iowa!
Jeff, that UP engine was proabbly going the fastest it ever went.
Did anyone get pictures, if so can you post them.
OK, now that the Zep is gone, one note from the track work earlier, which is that it appeared that at least once there was a thermite weld going on. Either that or someone lit a huge barbecue with a gallon of fluid. Nice plume of smoke coming up and some glow at track level for a short while. This was while the red board was up on the WB UP track and the MOW folks were on the west side of the diamonds.
O. S. Rochelle. Passenger Extra Engine UP ???? East. 1646.
BWM
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