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Chatterbox Winter

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:22 PM

     Thanks for the explanation on the truck tires.  As trucks pull off the highway into our lumberyard, It sure looks like the far back tires are kind of skidding sideways a bit.  'Looks pretty hard on tires.

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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 7:11 AM

Murphy Siding

    Oof duh!  We had quite a day.  Youngest son-16- has mono, hepatitis, and some other complictions going on.  Today he got dehydrated and fainted at lunch time and we ended up in the ER.  It looks like he'll be in the hospital overnight as they pump him up with fluids, steroids and painkillers.  Mom is staying the night as well, on the ever comfortable, hospital fold-away couch/bed.

 

Please keep us posted!  

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 10:30 AM

Norris, I remember those times when our elder daughter had pneumonia and a pleural infection at the same time.  Pat would take the day shift and I would go there after work and spend the night and early morning.  She was in for close to a month, and required some surgery to get things right.  Best wishes for you and your family!  And, yes, keep us informed!

Carl

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CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by JoeKoh on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 2:26 PM

Hope your son gets better soon Norris.Ns had the siding clear and no cars uptown.Saw an eastbound with 6 or 7 engines as I left work.Work is staedy now.Need to get cleaned up for tonights lenten service.Matt goes as part of his confirmation class.

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").

 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 2:48 PM

     Update-  Luke got dischrged from the hospital.  If things go good, he'll be healthy enough to go back to school next week-maybe.

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 3:15 PM

Murphy Siding

     Update-  Luke got dischrged from the hospital.  If things go good, he'll be healthy enough to go back to school next week-maybe.

 

Thanks for the good news; may he recover fully.

Johnny

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 3:28 PM

Murphy Siding

     Update-  Luke got dischrged from the hospital.  If things go good, he'll be healthy enough to go back to school next week-maybe.

Glad to hear it!

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Norm48327 on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 4:13 PM

Teens are resilient. He'll be back to chasing girls in no time. Big Smile

Norm


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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 7:10 PM

He was discharged?  Let's hope he can charge up quickly while at home.  Good news!

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)

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 8:48 PM

BaltACD
Closest I have been to that area is racing at Pocono Raceway several times over the years.  The State routes in the area are not forgiving. 

That's part of my 'territory', but not much happening over that way lately (other than utility pole replacements). 

Pennsylvania Turnpike's NorthEast Extension I-476 will have a new "slip ramp" to/ from PA Rt. 903 at the overpass about 5 miles west of the Raceway around June of this year (2015) - in time for the big events there this season.  But you're right - 903 from there to the Raceway was "low side of fair" even before this winter got serious - I shudder to think of what it looks like now.  We use various 'back roads' most of the time to get to/ from there instead anyway.  Otherwise, I-476/ I-80 East/ PA 115 South is popular; PA 940 from I-476 to PA 115 also works well.  Next time you go, let me know which direction you're coming from, and perhaps I can suggest a workable alternate route.

- Paul North.   

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by JoeKoh on Thursday, February 26, 2015 3:22 PM

afternoon

siding is clear.Saw a westbound stacker and the local picking up cars on NS.Had errands now chores.Tomorrow is Friday.Early reports say March is going to roar in.Where did Willy hide that weather machine????

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").

 

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, February 26, 2015 3:50 PM

About 3 above this morning.  WC never got into the +.  But the sun was as bright as a July day.  One thing about this cold winter, when the sun shines, it is with great vigor. Ice has mostly been in the fast food pop. That's the only things nice about this cold spell.  North wind hasn't changed from any other winter.  

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, February 26, 2015 5:39 PM

Had to return our "show kit" to the railroad HQ today, ended up in a staff meeting with another job...  "Thomas" is coming, and there's a whole bunch of work to be done to make it work.

Dumped my jacket when I got in the truck for the drive down, and never put it on until I stopped at the home improvement store near home on the way back.  The temp never got above +10F, but the sun was out and there was no wind, so for short jaunts all was good.

Picked up material to make storage trays for the cars on my RR.  I want to start working on it again, but it's got a lot of cars I need to move and I don't want to just stick them in a box.  Besides that, now I'll have handy storage for "fiddle yard" supply and storage.

The garage is a little cold, but I've got heaters for that.

LarryWhistling
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...

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, February 27, 2015 7:11 AM

     It's 10 below zero and we're sick of winter. Sigh

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Posted by JoeKoh on Friday, February 27, 2015 7:25 PM

evening

Ns had a train in the siding but cut the power away.Had quite a jam near Butler as a NS train was talking to the dispatcher that their horn was frozen. Brother found it funny.Chores and things to do for tomorrow.We are under a winter storm watch for Saturday night/Sunday too.

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").

 

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Posted by JoeKoh on Saturday, February 28, 2015 3:56 PM

afternoon

made our rounds and came back home to warm up.The CSX yard in lima had rebuilt gp 38-3's.There was an I&O train waiting for a crew in Leipsic.CSX is also starting to replace the B&O cpl's in Leipsic too.Stopped in Deshler and saw a few trains.Have chores to catch up on.Tomorrow it's shoveling snow Sunday.

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").

 

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Posted by Mookie on Saturday, February 28, 2015 6:49 PM

I have been so cold all day, it will take me all summer to thaw out.  And yet, a bowl of chocolate ice cream sounds really good.  

Just goin' round the bend!

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by samfp1943 on Saturday, February 28, 2015 7:37 PM

Mookie

I have been so cold all day, it will take me all summer to thaw out.  And yet, a bowl of chocolate ice cream sounds really good.  

Just goin' round the bend!

 

Mookie:   Ain't Spring Wonderful? Sigh   We've got about six to seven inches of snow on the ground, and it is supposed to continue through noon on Sunday.. Now the weather dudes are talking about sleet and freezing rain on top of it, overnight.  Between about 4Am this morning and about 9 AM I heard about 8 trains whistling through town..Been quiet since, except of a couple of mixed and tank trains.  I hope those canbs are warm on Warren's engines. Never got over 22 here today. Snowed all day. The dog and I walked twice,  both were two bush trips. I'm still cold.

 

 

 


 

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Posted by CShaveRR on Saturday, February 28, 2015 8:35 PM

We had an interesting, very cold couple of days Thursday and Friday.  I got a few unusual pieces of equipment (including two previously-unseen reporting marks), and Pat got to see some exotic materials at a Downton Abbey trunk show.

Snowy weather stayed with us until past DeKalb.  They remodeled and reoriented the Mickey D's in downtown DeKalb.  There are different windows from which to view the UP main line, but the wooden fence they put up on the concrete barrier between their drive and the tracks doesn't look too promising.  No trains came through while we were breakfasting there, but when we headed to Rochelle we met three eastbounds in those 17 miles.

Rochelle:  We didn't want to stay there long so we could get to our destination in time,but we checked out the yard.  There were literally trainloads of frac-sand covered hoppers on the City-owned trackage.  The yard nearest the UP had a couple of full tracks of these cars (and UP power as well), the yard under the Tollway had a couple of full tracks of them, and the spur curving around the Nippon-Sharyo plant was also full of them.  I don't know what the occasion was, because I don't think there are any sand pits nearby.

We followed UP from Morrison to Fulton (quilt store site), then went up to Savanna for lunch.  We could see, though not closely, three BNSF trains go through town during lunch, and we'd just missed a CP train before we arrived downtown.  We took a walk over the bike-path bridge--our footprints were the first up there after the Wednesday night snow.

From Savanna we crossed to Iowa, drove down through Clinton to LeClaire, site of Pat's trunk show.  I had a seat in the show, but didn't stay for the whole thing, choosing to update a few computer records.  Pat came in with a door prize she'd won and a few purchases, and we decided we had time to travel to Muscatine for supper.  This plan was interrupted by a northbound CP train, which I decided to chase (note:  Muscatine is south, not north).  We caught this train (powered by a pair of NS units) miles north of town, got in position to be blocked by it, and I documented some neat stuff, including some ex-CN long, low coal gons relettered EMRX.  Then south again, meeting a solid train of MRDX coal cars.  This train blocked my usual view of exotic cars in Buffalo, but they looked like a lot of the salt cars I'd seen there on past trips.  We saw a small freight as we got into Muscatine, found a neat little restaurant for supper, from which we could view the action on the tracks (turns out the yard office was just up the street!), then quickly returned to LeClaire for the night.

Our breakfast room in the hotel had a view of the tracks, but more people were commenting on the river beyond them...frozen over in temperatures of 17 below. We had to go to the local quilt shop after it opened (Pat was on a Mission), and by the time we got out of there and filled the car with gas there was a bit of open water in the river again.  It was a sunny trip down to Galesburg, where we saw a few trains (not much in motion by the Amtrak depot).  We lunched at the Packinghouse (first time in that august establishment, but not the last, I suspect!) before heading east along the BNSF.  First thing we saw after getting on U.S. 34 was a standing eastbound CPOX coal train and a standing westbound manifest.  The manifest had some good stuff, I thought, so I turned around and strafed it again.  Naturally, it started moving, so I found a good place to watch it all go by.  In the middle of the train, the coal train also came through...fortunately it was on the track behind my target train.  Two more new reporting marks for me:  CAEX, on some old (relettered) and new covered hoppers, and NCPX on some tank cars. NCPX is the reporting mark of Nebraska Corn Processing, LLC, which seems to have 100 brand-new ethanol-sized (or better) tank cars built by National Steel Car.

We then followed BNSF up to Princeton, seeing another colorful train of empty coal cars (mostly CRIX).  Princeton is home to a quilt shop run by a person that we've known for about 40 years now (she was the preacher's kid when we first knew her; she's now a grandmother several times over).  We cut away from BNSF and headed north to intercept UP at Dixon, seeing a couple of stack trains en route to Rochelle.  Still lots of sand cars in the yard there, but not as many as before (some were the same ones).  Since it was nearly dark, we took the Interstate home from there.  This was last night...I've still got plenty to do with the stuff I sighted!

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)

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Saturday, February 28, 2015 10:03 PM

Mookie

I have been so cold all day, it will take me all summer to thaw out.  And yet, a bowl of chocolate ice cream sounds really good.  

Just goin' round the bend!

 

 The answer is simple- hot fudge!

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by Mookie on Saturday, February 28, 2015 10:09 PM

Murphy Siding

 

 
Mookie

I have been so cold all day, it will take me all summer to thaw out.  And yet, a bowl of chocolate ice cream sounds really good.  

Just goin' round the bend!

 

 

 

 The answer is simple- hot fudge!

 

 

Murphy Siding

 

 
Mookie

I have been so cold all day, it will take me all summer to thaw out.  And yet, a bowl of chocolate ice cream sounds really good.  

Just goin' round the bend!

 

 

 

 The answer is simple- hot fudge!

 

 

I think that has great possibilities!  Chef

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, February 28, 2015 10:22 PM

Sounds like Carl's been busy!

Easy weekend - maybe some cleaning.  Several things I need to locate.

Built some drawers to hold my N Scale rolling stock.  I need to get to work on the layout (grandson will want to see it one of these days) and I can't work on it if it's full of cars.

Cold here, too.  Headed below zero again tonight.  This was the coldest February in quite some time.  The frost line has plunged down to the level of water pipes under ground, and that's causing some serious problems around the area.  Many communities are asking residents to leave water running at a trickle.

New granddaughter will be one month old Sunday.  Next trip down to see her will probably also involve loading up my diecast fire truck collection so the grandson can see them first-hand.  

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, March 1, 2015 11:20 AM

afternoon

still snowing here in Nw Ohio.People had their ditchfinders on as we were going to church.Going to stay home and work on things here.

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").

 

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Sunday, March 1, 2015 2:43 PM

tree68

Cold here, too.  Headed below zero again tonight.     The frost line has plunged down to the level of water pipes under ground, and that's causing some serious problems around the area.  Many communities are asking residents to leave water running at a trickle.

So what was the frost line and what will the new one be ?  Called a friend whose lines were OK but water meter was freezng up.

 

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, March 1, 2015 3:16 PM

blue streak 1
So what was the frost line and what will the new one be ?  Called a friend whose lines were OK but water meter was freezing up.

Not sure what the "standard" frost line is here.  Local paper said the city DPW said it had reached 4 feet...

NWS now says that this was the coldest February on record for this area.

LarryWhistling
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...

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Posted by CShaveRR on Sunday, March 1, 2015 3:25 PM

tree68
Sounds like Carl's been busy!


Yeah.  It's hard to keep up with the sightings...or, more accurately, where to begin when I attempt to tackle them.  My connection to the Surface Transportation Board's website is down this weekend (I'm sure it's at their end, not mine), and others involve a lot of digging.  But if I have to be digging, it had better be out on our patio, so we can move the trash/recycling cans for pickup tomorrow.

This weekend will be at least as busy as last...we're going to the wedding of a dear old friend of all of ours in Pittsburgh, but we're also going to visit Berea and North East on the way out, and Fostoria on the way back (Joe, Fo-town will be Sunday night/Monday morning).  Pat won't be forgotten...there's a quilt shop in North East that I can leave the car at while I wait for trains, and we'll get down to the Pittsburgh area in time to visit an interesting place called "The Quilt Depot".

I hope I don't get into trouble for spilling the beans again, but I think it'll be okay. It's Nora who's getting married!

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)

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Posted by mudchicken on Sunday, March 1, 2015 4:24 PM

Carl: STB website has had issues every weekend since the beginning of February, compounded by system crashes during snowstorms while they moved servers and offices around. (I'm still waiting for an e-mail response from an old reliable STB Librarian sent 10 days ago - I think the digital cyber gods are pissed at world events hackers right now and we are seeing the fallout.)

Congrats NORA.

Just reported here that this last February was the snowiest ever in CO. (and back in January we were talking drought and summer fires?)

On a sad note, the last of "Da Boyz" (Nigel, 12 yr old scottie) is now dealing w/ cancer and won't be with us for much longer. It's been a long week.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, March 1, 2015 4:38 PM

MC - Sorry to hear about Nigel.  I know how you feel.

Good news about Nora.  One of these days maybe I'll meet the young lady.

LarryWhistling
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...

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  • From: Lombard (west of Chicago), Illinois
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Posted by CShaveRR on Sunday, March 1, 2015 6:18 PM

Sorry to hear about Nigel; glad we got to meet him and the others eight years ago.  As a non-pet-owner, I don't know the feeling so much.  Our daughter had a cat with cancer that they had to prepare to let go; the granddaughters both remember Max, as do we.

It's been a while since we've seen Nora and her boys (I'll embarrass Chuck here; we remember when "Charlie" was in diapers; he's now 12--Jay's 14).  We were hoping to meet Nora's parents, but they can't make it due to her dad's health issues that keep him in California. 

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)

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, March 1, 2015 9:52 PM

Hmmm.  Getting a light dusting of snow.  Old Man Winter isn't done with us yet.  At least it looks like the temperature will stay above zero tonight.

LarryWhistling
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...

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