It's been coming down pretty good all day today. Supposed to continue to midnight. They're guessing a total of around 18". This, of course, will mess everything up and effect transportation well beyond Chicago.
Rail, air, highway...they're all going to get messed up. There's nothing to be done except plow it and shovel it.
I hired a guy who has a 4x4 truck equiped with a snow plow to clear my driveway. He got badly stuck in my driveway. They did get him pulled out after some difficulty. Don't want to be out in this tonight.
greyhounds It's been coming down pretty good all day today. Supposed to continue to midnight. They're guessing a total of around 18". This, of course, will mess everything up and effect transportation well beyond Chicago. Rail, air, highway...they're all going to get messed up. There's nothing to be done except plow it and shovel it. I hired a guy who has a 4x4 truck equiped with a snow plow to clear my driveway. He got badly stuck in my driveway. They did get him pulled out after some difficulty. Don't want to be out in this tonight.
You sure got that right. With sustained winds above 35 mph (gusts higher) and very low visibility, it is actually a blizzard. Not safe.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
We've got an advisory for up to eight inches. Along and south of the NYS Thruway (I90) they're under a warning for 10-14" of the white stuff, but with moderate winds (up to 20 MPH). It won't be pretty, but it doesn't sound like what Chicago and environs will have to deal with.
I don't have to be anywhere.
No snow day for our kids, although central NY may see some closings.
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...
Yup...it was rough this morning when it was merely a winter storm, but the temperature has dropped and the wind has riz, so yes, it's a blizzard. And we're indoors until we have to go somewhere...next month, maybe?
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)
CShaveRR Yup...it was rough this morning when it was merely a winter storm, but the temperature has dropped and the wind has riz, so yes, it's a blizzard. And we're indoors until we have to go somewhere...next month, maybe?
Carl: I used to work for an outfilt in Chicago ( just North of the 'Big Hole' on the 27th St end of Bridgeport). My psyche still bear 'scars' from a three day stay at the 76 Truck Stop near Joliet. It was so cold and windy that the water was freezing in the glasses on the tables in the restaurant, and the floor was so cold one had to sleep in a chair. It was three days til my number came up on the wrecker list to drag my truck out of the median on I-55... I can still get cold thinking about it.
Things are fine my way cold but sun shining. Wife's train UPW almost on time. Chicago recovers quickly.
Trains are moving this morning in NW Indiana, albeit with difficulty. There is a sliver of L.E. snow, about 10miles wide which is effecting visability around Porter. A westbound NS just reported "white out conditions" about 1020am this morning. Winds are about 20mph.
Amtrak 49 just passed thru town at 1031 with the usual 2x12. Amtrak 29 was around 915am...a little late. The van trains out of Chicago are very light. Q010 was only 1700 ft and 82 axles and was about 2 hours late. No doubt there were few trailers delivered to terminals the past 24 hours.
Amtrakers to and from Michigan seem to be reasonable on time.
Personal note...our street in NW Indiana has yet to be plowed...the mayor is not up for re-election for a year or so and there will be little opposition.
Ed
We got 18" easy in Somonauk. The evergreen tree 4 houses down was so heavy with snow a limb broke caught the power line and made it sag big time, Thank the Lord it did not take it down. The scanner was busy with snow drift Questions on the Mendota Sub, A NS 9157 consist was tied down and the main line dispatch was wondering if they could get it moved off of Main 2. Sunny now still cold. Amtrak had a semi stall across UP Tracks this morning. Midwest Winter.
I just checked on the Cardinal. It apparently had little bad weather to contend with, for it left Indianapolis three minutes late, and arrived in Chicago fourteen minutes late.
Johnny
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
Update: Just saw a west bound on the other track so the stopped train is "real".
Around 2:40 P.M. EST the cam did go out. The train was still there at that time. About 15-20 minutes before that, there was a lot of siren noise (couldn't see anything). Hopefully, they didn't have to get to the other side of the tracks or, if they did, there is an overpass in town. It's still out as I write this at 3 P.M.
The cam is back up (3:10 P.M.) and the train is still there. Interestingly, just now, a single engine, running light, eastbound and long hood first, slowly passed the stopped intermodal. So, is this a replacement for an engine that died? I have seen auto rack trains with a single unit, but can't recall if I've seen ever any IMs with a single. Wait. NOW the light engine just went back in the other direction. OK, I give up. Obviously, I have too much free time on my hands.
I rode UP West into Chicago this afternoon. Both the inbound and outbound trains I rode were right on time. But the trips were interesting nonetheless.A freight train was staging at Finley Road when I headed in. Nothing unusual about that, except that where I crossed the tracks, it looked like nothing had moved for a long time on Track 2. We got slowed by a signal at Elmhurst; I presume that was caused by the opposing scoot using Track 1 instead of 3. No proof of that, but I didn't see anything else that could have stabbed us. But we were just slowed, not stopped, and speed picked up right away before we passed the control point.At the east end of the three-track line (25th Avenue), it was Track 3 that appeared to have not been used for a long time, between Provo Junction and the end of the track. That wasn't a problem for anyone, because scoots have platforms on all three tracks at Bellwood and Berkeley.East of Vale (River Forest) there were two westbound NS freights sitting on Track 2--one at Oak Park and the other by 40th Street. Again, Track 2 had some amazingly tall drifts on it. A moving train could take care of that, but these trains might have required some added effort to get moving. We almost came to a stop at Kilbourn Avenue (the only grade crossing in the city on our route). Our horn wasn't working! I was in the cab car, and the engineer was aware of this, obviously, because he slowed way down until he could see that the gates were down and the traffic stopped. He sounded the horn, too, but all that came out was a faint wheeze.Coming out after about two hours, we had more encounters. We slowed 'way down at Western Avenue, and I was hoping they weren't having any problems with this balky control point. But no, we were just waiting for a scoot on MILW to cross, and we kept moving. At Kilbourne, we slowed down again for the crossing. I could hear the horn, so that wasn't it. I think it was just to be safe with the NS train on Track 2 blocking visibility there. The NS train was still there at Oak Park, too.The only thing I can come up with for an excuse on this is that Proviso was having some problems, probably hump-related. Plenty of snow and switches to clear out and check out in that 66-track classification yard. (As we'd passed eastbound, nothing was being humped, but I attributed that to the shift change.)
At 25th Avenue, we switched from Track 2 to Track 3, so that disused-looking track was just fine, thanks.West of Elmhurst I was startled by the eastbound scoot meeting us on Track 2 instead of being on Track 1. After we met him, we met a brace of about five units --no cars--moving east on 1. Strange... That was rough--commuters at Villa Park and Elmhurst had to access the train on the center track, using a street crossing instead of a platform.
I got off the train at Lombard, and saw an eastbound manifest on Track 1 before I left the tracks for home. It had used Track 1 to get around the staged freight at Finley Road (yes, it was still there), and was crossing over to Track 2 at Grace to get around those light engines, presumably. This looked like a train from North Platte...it may have been bound for CSX or NS, so it wouldn't have to be humped.So yes, things stayed moving, but it was hardly normal!
Outstanding report of the snow conditions and Track operations.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.