The lake effect machine has wandered north - we're seeing a little "action" right now. At least it's warmed up a bit: now at +21F from a low around +10F overnight.
Had to thaw out the anemometer for my weather station. Our rain of a couple days ago, coupled with the drop in temperatures, were enough to keep it from spinning freely. Getting it freed up involves using an old hairdrier secured to a pole and leaning out an upstairs window in the garage to point the blower where it needs to be pointed. You have to see it...
Better get my measuring tools ready - will have to record some snowfall amounts.
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...
mudchicken (1) CBS News here this morning was showing switch heaters at work this morning like it was something new (and dangerous ***)...FOF/LMAO, fire sticks, salamanders, diesel soaked rope/rags, kindling and dragons have been around for over 100 years. (2) Some of the comments about the school bus tragedy in ND have me seeing red. The bus driver, had he lived, should have been put on trial for murder and attempted murder. BNSF and OLI have every reason to be outraged. (*) Never fails. Being sent to meetings in western CO right in between two snowstorms. More time spent being concerned about driving in winter conditions and ducking the clueless snow-bunnies with baloneyskins for tires than the meetings. (**) Why is it that every time there is railroad or transportation spokesman in an outdoor setting, the person is in brand new safety gear, most of the time w/o safety glasses and sometimes minus the hardhat. Would be a lot more credible/better/honest if you had real railroaders with scuffed and dirty hardhats, glasses, high-viz gear instead of some clown that almost couldn't find his/her way out of the office?
(1) CBS News here this morning was showing switch heaters at work this morning like it was something new (and dangerous ***)...FOF/LMAO, fire sticks, salamanders, diesel soaked rope/rags, kindling and dragons have been around for over 100 years.
(2) Some of the comments about the school bus tragedy in ND have me seeing red. The bus driver, had he lived, should have been put on trial for murder and attempted murder. BNSF and OLI have every reason to be outraged.
(*) Never fails. Being sent to meetings in western CO right in between two snowstorms. More time spent being concerned about driving in winter conditions and ducking the clueless snow-bunnies with baloneyskins for tires than the meetings.
(**) Why is it that every time there is railroad or transportation spokesman in an outdoor setting, the person is in brand new safety gear, most of the time w/o safety glasses and sometimes minus the hardhat. Would be a lot more credible/better/honest if you had real railroaders with scuffed and dirty hardhats, glasses, high-viz gear instead of some clown that almost couldn't find his/her way out of the office?
As to comment about the spokesmen, I think of some of the stories of greenhorn supervisory personnel found in A Treasury of Railroad Folklore; people haven't changed much, have they?
We are enjoying temperatures in the forties during the day now, with below freezing temperatures at night. I have to be careful when going out my door, because there is a low spot in the concrete floor just outside, which can hold runoff from the roof as the snow up there melts. We do have some buckets set out, but there are too many drip points for the buckets to catch it all. There's no ice this morning, though.
Johnny
BaltACD
I hesitate to say much about this; Many here seem to have their feelings out on their fingertips these days [Cabin Feaver?] That is a nice job on that hopper car...It would seem like that kind of talent would be better served in a differen venue...IMHO.
I think it is a good job of railroad art...
Temp around her is about 18 deg and the wind is about 22 mph. Carhartts to walk the dog this morning! Cold ! Cold!
Traffic on BNSF has been quiet so far, couple of fast moving westbounds very early (Usually a Container 'Z' and a mixed Container,w/ COFC and TOFC.
It was about +5 degrees this morning when I got to the station (5:20 AM). Train was on time and didn't encounter any additional delays. Seeing lit switch heaters in the pre-dawn darkness is always an interesting sight.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
back to work today.Matt went back to school.Ns had a train in the siding and amtrak came by this morning.This afternoon the local was in town getting ready to go back west.Chores to work on.
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").
Norris, we're not too far behind you, and Wednesday is supposed to be the cold day (or night) here as well. This morning I woke up to 7 below, and it's clear up to two above now. We've also got snow on the ground, and the promise of more for tonight. Figures...it's over 70 degrees where the daughter and grandson are now, and we had no snow to show them at all when they were here.Interesting thing, meteorogically speaking, today. It was cooler along the lakefront in Chicagoland. O'Hare (the official site for weather readings) is uaually more extreme in temperatures, but not this morning.
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)
Norm48327 Two degrees here at 8:00 AM. It's headed your way Larry. Keep your turnout coat handy.
Two degrees here at 8:00 AM. It's headed your way Larry. Keep your turnout coat handy.
High yesterday, +47F. Current temp here at the house, +16F and still trending downward.
I keep my gear at the station these days. That way it's warmer than when I carried it in the truck...
Busy day to start out a busy week. Better get to it...
If it's 10 below, it must be Monday. Weather guessers keep saying this is nothing, wait until Wednesday.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Norm
Mookie Maybe we could take "some" of the old forum posts, put them in a pile, light it and gather around it for warmth?
Maybe we could take "some" of the old forum posts, put them in a pile, light it and gather around it for warmth?
Some generate enough heat on their own. No need to light them...
Called out tonight for a structure fire. I was on the engine (pumper) as the driver - we ended up setting up a fill site to fill tankers.
The fire building was a trailer. They apparently got a good stop on it, a lucky thing given the wind we're having.
We knew we had a "worker" when the dispatcher came on the air and said the caller had said "I'm losing everything."
So we went from +10F overnight Friday, to around +30F with freezing rain overnight Saturday, to +45F around noon on Sunday, and cold will be the order of the day very soon again. Mother Nature is very fickle these days...
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
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
The bottom of the thermometer is going to fall out here tonight.
blue streak 1 Please take back your weather. Wedensday night forecast for Atlanta is 15. here in the outskirts will be 12. Thanks mookie.
Please take back your weather. Wedensday night forecast for Atlanta is 15. here in the outskirts will be 12. Thanks mookie.
Morning Joe; read your latest post and wondered if there is any trains running through Dayton Ohio still. The Big four used to run through Dayton to all points north and east. That was a long time ago.
Respectfully, Cannonball
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
Thing quit freezing on around midnight. But it's been pretty much raining ever since, to the tune of 3/4" so far. Of course, that would translate into 7 or 8" of snow.
The problem is that now well-soaked inch and a half of snow on my driveway. If I don't get it off I'll have a frozen mess when temperatures do drop. The snowblower is useless with this heavy stuff, so it'll be push, lift little bits, toss, repeat.
Of course, there's that wind they're promising us, too...
If misery loves company - our high Wed is 5 above.
Doesn't this cold just stink! Since we got some snow, I will send that along, too! I think it is a dry snow, which won't do us much good other than being a pain.
morning
Haven't looked outside yet.Mother nature is going to get nasty today and colder next week.Wemt over and looked at NS and CSX too.Both yards were active.Csx was working on switches at west garrett.Then everyone started to come for the crew changes.
Hmmmm. Better take the Christmas decorations down Saturday, before we get the freezing rain they're suggesting. Hard to take the lights off the trees when they're frozen in place...
With all the up stuff ns is buying, it may return in black paint.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Over New Year's one of the two remaining CNW engines escaped the confines of the Chicago area. It went west on a NS run thru manifest (MELNP) and I think it was added at Proviso. They usually don't add power and the second engine was a UP engine that should've had cab signals, so I'm guessing it had some kind of failure and they had to grap something fast. It was tied down over the holiday at California Jct (Iowa, just west of Missouri Valley) in the siding.
Hopefully, it will make it back to Chicago as a CNW unit. It should, there is a note in it's computer status not to paint or renumber it.
Jeff
SJ, Fremont (at least in TMW terms) is in Nebraska, just to the north of you by perhaps 50 miles. Take U.S. 77 through Wahoo to go there. And it's definitely worth the visit.I had to add the "TMW" restriction, because I also know of Fremonts in Michigan (home of Gerber baby foods), Ohio, and California.
To answer Tree's question, fortunately the pot was covered, that kind of smoke likely woudn't have been good for us.
One thing I forgot to do in my last post was to make a book recommendation. I received what might be the nicest book I have gotten in a long time. It is "Rocky Mountain Sunrise" by Nils Huxtable, 2009. It is an "art" book that happens to include all Canadian railway scenes, as opposed to a railfan book with some "artsy" photos. It has the kind and quality of pictures I wish we could see in the "Trackside with Trains" contests. I would compare it to O.W. Link's "Steam, Steel and Stars", except Mr. Link's book is all night photos and there are only a handful of night shots in Mr. Huxtable's book. A very fine book, indeed.
Once again wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Jeff - you may have told us before, but I don't remember - is Fremont NE or IA?
Happy New Year everyone.
2014 almost went out with a bang, but it turned out to be a whimper. Last night our third engine caught on fire. Had the Jefferson IA FD meet us, but it turned out we didn't need them. Engine had developed a fuel leak and the fuel was burning at the point of the leak. It would flare up or die down with throttle position. Looked impressive. Luckily, fuel and oil in the bottom of the car body didn't start burning. Otherwise it would've been much worse. Had a mechanic come out to make sure the leak had stopped once we had shut the engine down. and make sure it wouldn't leak any unburned leaked fuel onto the ground. After about an hour, we were given the OK, and off we went.
Brought in the New Year on the change-out pad at Fremont, waiting for the outbound to come relieve us.
AgentKid...but it was enough to get the smoke alarms going.
Our last fire call (and the last one in the county) for the year was.... a smoke alarm, at a local hotel.
Glad that's all it was. This is a big season for big fires. Did whatever was in the pot get a "smoked" flavor?
Still snowing, but not really heavy. Areas to the south have seen two feet, we're on the order of seven inches here at the house. The band did slide north, over us, last night for a while. Decided to be lazy and blow the snow out of the driveway. With the wind and its eddies around the house, though, some immediately made its way back on the driveway...
Hopefully no one is nursing the results of overindulgence today as they peruse the forum.
My first post of 2015.
We have had a pretty decent winter by Canadian standards. Right now it is 30º F. and has been like that, or just a bit cooler, for quite some time now. There has been a bit of snow once in a while but nothing significant in the last few months. Being at or near freezing has made driving difficult for some people though, they think they are driving on a dry road and then hit an icy patch and kill themselves or someone else.
Happy Birthday Ed B. I was thinking of you and Tree during a brief incident up at my brother's place on Christmas Day. While making dinner someone put a pot on the counter, not noticing that there was a small piece of plastic from a package that stuck to the bottom of the pot. It was at most about an inch square, but after the pot was put back on the burner after a time all of a sudden smoke was coming out from the top of the stove that looked like one of those oil refinery fires you see on the news from Houston. It only lasted for 5-10 seconds but it was enough to get the smoke alarms going. Once windows were opened, everything proceeded apace. All in all I had a very enjoyable Christmas season.
I hope everyone has a Happy and Joyous New Year.
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