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Chatterbox spring

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Posted by JoeKoh on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 6:03 AM

morning

Great day at Deshler yesterday.Chicago dispatcher dealt with crews finishing up crossover at West Standley.Indy dispatcher dealt with trains crossing in Deshler,signals out at Galetea and operating Fostoria.Cincy dispatcher dealt with a local and opposing northbound/southbound trains in Leipsic.Variety in power and cars.Saw an old DT&I car(rusted but still pink) go east on the R 342.Even talked to a trains editor who stopped by after covering the closing of F tower. After one last eastbound it was time to go home.Today it's chores and see what else we can find 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 Norm48327 on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 6:52 AM

Larry,

Check Michigan Railroads.com. There are photos there but most are black and white or sepia.

Norm


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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 11:28 AM

Norm48327
Check Michigan Railroads.com. There are photos there but most are black and white or sepia.

Yeah - already been there, and there's a member of the PM Historical Society in on the conversation, too.  Since the modeller in question is apparently trying to represent the 1950's, it may just come down to what shade of gray is appropriate.

I just called up that postcard - I remembered the wrong representation.  The post card showed the station as green.   .  It was someone who had restored a PM station that had it as red and gray, with yellow trim.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by CShaveRR on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 7:32 PM

I'm going to say gray with white trim for C&O depots in the 1950s.  The ex-PM depots I was most familiar with, unfortunately, were brick structures, and their doors and trim were dark green (probably unrepainted for a while).  
______________________

All local functions are on hold as we travel to California to be of aid to Linda and her family.  I don't know yet what that's going to entail, but I'd gladly just quietly hold onto my daughter, and maybe share some good music together.  The trip begins Thursday.  Her diagnosis is Stage IV breast cancer (all but definite...there's still a chance that it's lymphoma instead).  Treatment will be estrogen therapy, which will ensure, unfortunately, that Linus will be an only child.  Radiation will also be used to treat the lesions in her spine.  Those lesions have cracked some vertebrae, which were the indicator that something was wrong.  Prognosis:  about five years after diagnosis on average, but Linda is young and in good health otherwise, so she should beat the average (definitely nothing new for her!).

Carl

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 10:12 PM

Now to bed, to get up in time to catch #6 for Chicago. Whee!!

Johnny

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 11:07 PM

Carl - I think we're all hoping for the best.  I'm also sure we'd want her to have a hug on our behalf.

----------------

Most of the PM depots I found pictures for were brick.  But the green trim is an indication of what may have been used for wooden structures as well.

Got the ham radio all installed in my truck, and working.  Now the fun begins.  Can't put up a base station antenna yet - there's still a large pile of snow in that corner of the house, courtesy of the snowblower and the fact that it's always in the shadows.  

LarryWhistling
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Posted by mudchicken on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 6:15 PM

72 Degrees today, 3-5" of snow tomorrow............First front coming through right now and I'm concerned about two guys up in BumFup Egypt, Wyoming getting caught out in wet snow, miles from any pavement.

Carl, fingers crossed here with both us chickens.

Johnny will be thru here at 7:10 PM ( 1 hour late ) IF the winds don't blow over the high level cars first. Absolutely howling outside here on the 11th floor.

 

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 JoeKoh on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 6:26 PM

finally spring here here in Ohio.Went to Marion.Had zebra's,90 macs and smelly trash train.Matt also made a new friend.Wanted to know about trains.Shoveled in our lunch.New industry across the street was using a tractor car to shuffle boxcars on a quick made siding off the C&O.Found a kcs and a tfm unit waiting to go west when we left.Checked in Fostoria.Trains moving slower.Caught up with an autorack train we saw in Fostoria in Deshler.The transformer and tractor cars that q 368 dropped off are still in Hamler.Going to get some supper.

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 BaltACD on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 7:45 PM

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 8:09 PM

     Today is the first day of the new 80 m.p.h. speed limit on the Interstate highways in South Dakota.  Now all the fools that drive like idiots can do it faster.Dunce  This can shave an easy 21 minutes off the time it takes to go the full 415 miles from Minnesota to Wyoming.

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 8:14 PM

How about MN to NE?  Shy

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 8:15 PM

After seeing Balt's Spring - I looked at the title and now wonder if Chatterbox's have springs? 

Inquiring minds, you know.

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 8:18 PM

Mookie

How about MN to NE?  Shy

 

 Well, I guess you could save 6 minutes, but who wants to go to Nebraska? Mischief

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 8:19 PM

Mookie

After seeing Balt's Spring - I looked at the title and now wonder if Chatterbox's have springs? 

Inquiring minds, you know.

 

 Is there a big difference between a Chatterbox and a Jack-in-the-box? Clown

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 9:02 PM

Murphy Siding
 Today is the first day of the new 80 m.p.h. speed limit on the Interstate highways in South Dakota.  Now all the fools that drive like idiots can do it faster.

The Interstates were designed for such speeds.  Even if some drivers can't handle them (most of that ilk can't handle 65, either)

A problem I foresaw with the raising of the speed limits back to pre-gas shortage levels was folks whose practical experience was all at or about 55 MPH.  I feel there's a threshold around 60-65 mph where the needed skill set changes, and we had a generation with no experience at the higher speeds.  There didn't seem to be any carnage, however.

Back when the national speed limit dropped to 55 MPH, the death rate on the highways actually increased.

In weather news, our snow isn't going to melt very fast if the temperatures stay as cool as they are.  I suspect any Easter services planned for outdoors will be moved inside.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by blue streak 1 on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 9:36 PM

80 MPH?.  lets see.  Most tractor trailer tires rated for 65 MPH MAS with a few to 75 MPH.  Now how many gators will we see on the roads ?

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, April 2, 2015 11:37 AM

Wow!  +55F right now!  Maybe spring is finally actually arriving!

LarryWhistling
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Posted by CShaveRR on Thursday, April 2, 2015 11:45 AM

Feel good about that, Larry!  You're warmer than we are at the moment.  And where we're going, it isn't much warmer...last night we had Lompoc beat by a degree or two.

Hitting the trail in an hour or less.

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, April 2, 2015 12:48 PM

Lompoc - The Valley of the Flowers!

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, April 2, 2015 5:30 PM

It snowed in Fraser, Colorado (just west of the Moffat Tunnel), yesterday in the afternoon; I do not doubt that the cloud had the energy to give MC a white coat today. We sat there for an hour because the UP was  doing something (we were not told what) inside the tunnel. We still arrived in Chicago five minutes early this afternoon, making some time up as we came down the Front Range (twenty-two minutes late into Denver), and we make up another twenty-four minutes after leaving Naperville.

For some reason, the conductor could not get the door at the rear of the last car open (it was locked, and even with his key he could not unlock it) as we were backing into Denver; he had to tell the engineer when to stop because he was unable to get to the monkey tail to dump the air (the usual practice). As we back in, the conductor continually tells the engineer what his line of sight is (so many cars).

Sorry,Mookie, I slept all the way across Nebraska last night.

Johnny

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, April 2, 2015 7:54 PM

Johnny - I did too!

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Posted by switch7frg on Thursday, April 2, 2015 8:53 PM

WinkThere would be enough per mi. to call T-Roy and Joe Lafon out . Otherwise ,when hit the car behind will feel the full force damage.Seen that happen here in Az.  quite often.

Y6bs evergreen in my mind

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, April 2, 2015 9:31 PM

Deggesty
For some reason, the conductor could not get the door at the rear of the last car open (it was locked, and even with his key he could not unlock it) as we were backing into Denver; he had to tell the engineer when to stop because he was unable to get to the monkey tail to dump the air (the usual practice).

Heck, that's normal procedure for us - two cars, one car, half a car, 20 feet, 10 feet, far enough...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by JoeKoh on Friday, April 3, 2015 6:50 AM

Good Friday Morning

Foggy this morning.Had to go milk the cow.Guessers say more rain this afternoon.Read article that most semi truck tires are rated for 70-75 mph.You get those big boys going 80 might be asking for blowouts.I watch for them and most watch for us.

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 tree68 on Saturday, April 4, 2015 8:07 PM

A busy Easter Saturday on the railroad - over 1300 riders between the four trips on the Easter Bunny trains.  I wasn't on the schedule, but had to return some materials to Utica after the outdoor show last week, and took the opportunity to give the conductor of record a check ride.

Unfortunately, the take for the day also included two deer (one on each of the first two trips), one of which temporarily disabled one of the locomotives.  Mechanical got that fixed fairly quickly, but they've still got a mess to clean up...

Off to daughter's for Easter service and dinner tomorrow.

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 Saturday, April 4, 2015 9:28 PM

I didn't sleep across any state on our way out here to my new western headquarters.  We did, however, sleep through much of all of the states on the usual route except Illinois and Iowa.  I managed to be awake to see some tall grain elevators in Kansas, to see lightning by the horizon before a fierce thunderstorm caught us later in Kansas (we were told it was severe--we didn't see or hear that aspect), to see some California desert under the light of an eclipsing-but-nonetheless-bright-enough full moon (something I've always visualized, but the reality exceeded any imagination I had!), and was able to stay up to see from the Sightseer Lounge the entire descent as we floated down Cajon Pass.  Pat recognized Hill 582 right away (thanks again, Chad Thomas!).  

BNSF apparently has plans to rehab the line over Raton Pass for Amtrak's use.  But we lost plenty of time on that stretch...from being nearly on time in Dodge City to down by an hour and a half by Trinidad.  We lost more time going into Albuquerque because of several of "those beautiful Rail Runners" that were running their schedules.  (One of the Amtrak employees may have been a little sarcastic on the speaker there...)  We were 2.5 hours late out of Gallup...but we'd picked up an hour by the time we got to Barstow, and another hour with the padding into LA.

It is nice to be able to fall asleep by counting opposing freight trains instead of sheep...after I settled down out of Albuquerque, I got up to 14 before we got out of New Mexico.  Might have missed a few...  Cajon was also spectacular, as we met at least six stack trains beginning their ascent before reaching San Bernardino.

Much terrible track along Uncle John's route, I'm sad to report, including what felt like rough jointed rail, and switches, grade crossings and other such that seem to have taken a bit more of a beating than the rest of the roadbed.

During the trip we'd gotten word that Linda had been transferred to a hospital in Santa Barbara, so we were able to catch an earlier train there and get there around noon.  Poor kid looks good, but this disease has wiped her out, and the fight has hardly begun.  We're here to help her, though, making certain aspects of family life easier for her and her husband.

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 Deggesty on Saturday, April 4, 2015 9:36 PM

Mookie

Well, we did receive rain.  Not the storm of the century by a long way, but definitely is wet and falling in the right places.  It has hovered in the mid 30's all day so we are a whisker away from having snow.  

Just a nice spring shower(s).  

Was reading some of the replies on how people got to be railfans.  Some of the "boys" got train sets for Xmas.  I wanted one.  I got dolls instead.  

Now as an adult - I would like a full size engine.  Like in one hand - want in the other....

It's ok - I can watch the Tonka Toys work in the Netherlands.  Digging an underpass under the railroad tracks.  So much better than tv!  And a lot cheaper than a train set or locomotive!

 

Coming down to the Crescent City (Oh, for a Crescent Limited to take to Charlotte!) the sleepers (transition and standard) are right behind the engine, so the engineer can keep people awake during the night (I did sleep, though).

We were delayed leaving Memphis this morning, because the northbound waas late coming in last night, and the engine crew needed to rest (they run Jackson-Memphis). We lost some more time with a meet with a northbound at Swan Lake while we were following a southbound--the pass track was not long enough for both of us, so our last car hung out until the northbound had cleared the south switch and the southbound was able to move back onto the main and let us come in and clear the north switch; then we followed the southbound to Yazoo City. I don't remember how many nb freights we met; I think it was at least four in the twelve hours from Memphis. I counted the cars in only one--about 150; fifty years ago the IC ran 180 in each of the three daily through freights.

In Jackson, I saw at least two sets (three cars and four trucks to the set) of the prisoner cars that have small holes instead of slots for breathing air; they were lettered CMO.

 

Johnny

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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, April 5, 2015 6:56 AM

good morning

Happy Easter

Off to church and G+G's house.

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 tree68 on Sunday, April 5, 2015 8:28 PM

Had a great Easter afternoon with daughter and family.  Showed grandson my collection of fire die cast models, and let him keep the "transformer" truck, which he played with the rest of the day.

Found out I've still got my touch - some back rubbing with the two month old got her past fighting to stay awake (and avoid a nap), and she was soon snoozing.  What a sweetie!

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 JoeKoh on Monday, April 6, 2015 4:29 PM

afternoon

work is playing catch up with the holiday.Ns has a westbound in the siding.Nothing for the local yet.going to help Matt finish up his homework.

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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