evening
Good day today.Reported that q 324 had to be split at Haskins before they continued to Toledo.Q 389 had 8 units,Q 369 had a cp,ns and bnsf units.Q 342 came around the wye at Deshler and had 9 units and 700+ axles.North Baltimore was abuzz with intermodal trains and power switches(along with a KCS unit that came in on Q015).Brother said thanks for the show.Time to get stuff for tomorrow.
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").
near 70 today here in Nw ohio.Lot's of snow coming tuesday??? Up 1996 was sent back to Up on L 091 today.Couldn't lead due to mechanical problems.Back to work tomorrow.
After several days of intense preparation, we held our safety day training today. Some 95 firefighters from a dozen fire departments attended, hearing from half a dozen speakers on eight different safety topics.
All in all, it went very well. And I'm pooped.
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...
not bad today.stuff coming tomorrow.Ns was clear when I left work.Chores to do.
Mother Nature has a sense of humor. Last Friday we broke a high temperature record going back to 1895. 60 some degrees. Starting yesterday at 4:00 we got ice and 5 inches of snow. The auto body shops will be booked for the next month solid. Tomorrow, it's supposed to warm up and melt everything; weekend is supposed to be in the upper 50's. I suppose that means it's going to snow next week.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
We are having that same roller coaster ride in southeast Michigan.
Here today, gone tomorrow.
Norm
We're good on the "in like a lion" part...we woke up to icy streets, but the temperature is such that they are dry now, for the most part.I was outdoors yesterday in the "setup" for this...the temperature in the early afternoon was in the middle 50s (light jacket over a hoodie) when I went out train-hunting. I walked outside the station building at Elmhurst to go back home, and felt the wind shift and the temperature drop almost immediately. You'd better believe that the hood was up as I got off the train and walked home!My train-watching afternoon was full of trains, mostly of the double-stack variety. Herewith my report (written last night):
There are days when everything goes smoothly, but then there seem to be days when the dispatcher seems to be fighting the railroad. Things are still moving, but it feels like a struggle is going on, and that one is about a minute or two away from a total collapse at all times.
I took the scoot east from Lombard at about 1:05 with the intention of watching trains at Elmhurst. But when we were arriving, I thought I'd go as far as Oak Park if there were no freights visible close by. There was none (that opposing headlight was from the other scoot), so I stayed on the train. The first freight we encountered was an auto-rack train standing at Wolf Road. By the time we got to Bellwood, he had started moving west. He was long--he was still coming off the connection from the Harbor at Provo Junction when we went by there.
As we approached Oak Park (on Track 1), we met a westbound stacker standing still on Track 2, and another westbound stack train moved past on Track 3. I had about 20 minutes to wait for my westbound train. And not long before it was due, a westbound manifest (off the NS, judging from the power) came by on Track 3. After all of the good stuff had gotten by me, he started slowing down (don't know why--the signal at Vale should have been clear). After he cleared, the stack train on Track 2 moved out. Then our scoot came in--he had an approach signal because the freight ahead of us on Track 3 was still up there somewhere. We moved very slowly into River Forest, then out, before speed picked up to more like normal. At the stop in Maywood, we'd caught up to the stack train (he was on Track 1, we were on 2; there are still only two tracks between Vale and 25th Avenue). He stayed parallel to us all the way past 25th, where his head end was just going into the yard. For some reason, we were suddenly on Track 1 after 25th, and the westbound manifest was stopped on Track 2. Never saw anything on 3, where we should have been.
We crossed over to Track 3 at Park, and I got off at Elmhurst. The next eastbound scoot was sitting at Park, waiting for us to get out of his way. Now I could see the signals, and as soon as the scoot was off the plant at Park, Track 1 got a lunar (restricting) light. (The LEDs are bluish, but the light comes out very, very white.) In comes an eastbound stack train, headed into the yard. As he went by, a westbound stacker went through on Track 3.
The eastbound stacker cleared the plant on Track 1, and right away there was a flashing yellow for the next train--another stack train going around the yard. He cleared up, and Track 1 got another lunar signal. This time it was a Sheboygan coal train with mostly blue EDGX gondolas.
The two scoots then made their scheduled appearance and left. It was a little after 3:00. I was hoping that that westbound manifest off the NS would come through. He was, as far as I knew, just waiting at Wolf Road for the dispatcher to turn him loose (perhaps he needed a third unit on him, but he already had a UP lead unit).Then we got a show...the next westbound train was a stack train again, and before he got out of the way, the ATWS signs started in with their "Danger--another train coming" warning. An eastbound stack train came in on 2, with a lunar signal to take him into the yard. It wasn't long after he moved by that we got another lunar signal on Track 1, and yet another stack train headed in! This one was long. I'm not sure what was going on with him--while his cars were passing I saw two different brake applications made, and released. The distributed power was in the center of the train, and as soon as that got past the station, the train stopped briefly, then started up again, only to stop with the hind end at the platform--train blocking York Road and everything east of there in Elmhurst.Keep in mind that this guy was on Track 1, the platform track for eastbound scoots, and it was getting kind of late. At a little before 4:00, I crossed over to the outbound platform to catch my train--the piggyback train was still strung out over everything.
When I got over to the Track 3 platform, I could see a headlight reflecting off the trailers on the train on Track 1. My train! By golly, I wasn't going to let that good stuff get past me without getting lot numbers and dates off the cars I knew were in there! Well, it was a manifest train, but not the one I was looking for--this one was coming out of the yard. It still had some good stuff, and surprised me with a tank car from a company I hadn't heard of. As he was clearing, I heard the Voice of Metra give a seven-minute warning for my scoot, then a seven-minute warning for the eastbound scoot. I looked up, and the train on Track 1 was finally moving out of the way. I had my doubts, though, about whether he'd clear the scoot in time. He must have gotten in far enough, because the eastbound scoot got a red-over-green, to cross over to another track. Wait...what? He couldn't go from 1 to 3, because our train should e coming in on 3. And Track 2 still had "my" freight on it, or so I thought. Apparently, said freight had to back up through 25th Avenue when things cleared up sufficiently, then head into the yard...maybe for more cars, maybe for more power. I suspect they'll really appreciate that third track whenever they get around to building it!
My scoot left the station, met the inbound scoot a block or two away, stopped at Villa Park, then met a manifest coming in on Track 1. I might be able to see a little something off this guy, I thought. But no, at Grace I could tell that he was crossing over from 2 to 1, so his hind end was too close for me to see anything.
But man, what action! I got maybe a page of interesting sightings i my notebook...nothing I was looking for, but several real finds. And I lost count of all of the trains I'd seen everywhere in less than 3 1/2 hours. The dispatchers were probably sweating this, but I was loving it. Until about 4:00. That's when the wind suddenly came up and the temperature fell lie a rock. From the mid-50s earlier in the afternoon, we were suddenly in the upper 30s. With the forecast for snow and ice tomorrow, I will be unlikely to be out hunting 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)
Norm48327 We are having that same roller coaster ride in southeast Michigan. Here today, gone tomorrow.
We're supposed to see that stuff tonight in the wilds of northern New York.
The big class on Sunday went well. One hundred is attendance. Right now I'm in recovery mode...
Rain here in Nw Ohio for now.Ns had a westbound grain train waiting when I left work.Chores to do.
Red Flag warnings here. Dry, wind and warmer temperatures not a good combo here at this time of year. We had a city park open space area on the far east side of town burn yesterday that usually would never burn.
Expecting another three inches or so overnight. Roads are slick. Drivers are being stupid.
Looks like the nasty stuff will hit overnight. Plenty of wind right now - wind chill is at zero or less. If the wind keeps up, there will be drifting.
Might be some mixed stuff in there, too, but that'll make things just that much more "interesting."
Tee shirt weather, outside at 5:40am with a cup of coffee and a smoke, watching the ISS glide by overhead.
Tomorrow it will show up at 6:22 going SW to NE, visible for 4 minutes, might get all the kiddos up to watch.
Awesome!
23 17 46 11
Maybe a long sleeve T. It was 16 degrees at 6 am in Flint, Mi., (the most missmanaged city in the US were everything is someone elses fault). But there are still trains to watch.
It's fun to catch the ISS, not often in Michigan with the clouds.
Bob
edblysard Tee shirt weather, outside at 5:40am with a cup of coffee and a smoke, watching the ISS glide by overhead. Tomorrow it will show up at 6:22 going SW to NE, visible for 4 minutes, might get all the kiddos up to watch. Awesome!
A reminder of years gone by. Dad would take my brother and me out at sunset to look for Sputnik 3. Also remember how everybody got out to look for the Echo satellite, which was a 100-foot diameter aluminum foil balloon designed to reflect radio signals as a communications relay.
I remember looking for "Echo."
Any time spent looking at the night sky any more will usually yield a satellite or two.
I haven't gotten into it yet, but as a amateur radio operator, I can even communicate with the ISS, as well as other satellites there specifically for use by hams.
Ice this morning about 3 AM, followed by an inch or two of snow. Schools around here are on a delay. Many schools north and east of here closed entirely.
I remember how violated I felt when the "Sputnik" I watched in the sky as a third- or fourth-grader was revealed to be a stage of the ship that put it into orbit, and not the actual satellite (which would have been 'way too small to reflect enough light back). The "blinking" was this cylindrical object tumbling through space.And the pride at Echo, which, IIRC, was the brainchild of Ma Bell (AT&T back then), my dad's employer.
[quote user="CShaveRR"]
My college's physics department set a station up for observing Sputnik as it passed overhead, using pipes set in the ground that had short crossarms at the top--and telescopes set on small tables beneath the crossarms. My contribution to the effort was to get the pipes down to the observatory, using the college's pickup. I was more or less invited to take part in the effort that took place in the early morning for several days--I did not join; I thought of reminding the physics professor how a Danish astronomer came to an early death--getting up early, early, in the winter to look at stars at the request of the Queen of Denmark and coming down with pneumonia or something like that--but I did not remind him. The physics professor and the students who did risk their lives survived.
Johnny
Deggesty I was more or less invited to take part in the effort that took place in the early morning for several days--I did not join; I thought of reminding the physics professor how a Danish astronomer came to an early death--getting up early, early, in the winter to look at stars at the request of the Queen of Denmark and coming down with pneumonia or something like that--but I did not remind him. The physics professor and the students who did risk their lives survived.
I was more or less invited to take part in the effort that took place in the early morning for several days--I did not join; I thought of reminding the physics professor how a Danish astronomer came to an early death--getting up early, early, in the winter to look at stars at the request of the Queen of Denmark and coming down with pneumonia or something like that--but I did not remind him. The physics professor and the students who did risk their lives survived.
So - at that age you weren't a 'Morning Person'?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Deggesty I was more or less invited to take part in the effort that took place in the early morning for several days--I did not join; I thought of reminding the physics professor how a Danish astronomer came to an early death--getting up early, early, in the winter to look at stars at the request of the Queen of Denmark and coming down with pneumonia or something like that--but I did not remind him. The physics professor and the students who did risk their lives survived. So - at that age you weren't a 'Morning Person'?
Edited for clarity.
Deggesty Indeed, for the last year or so, a girl, another boy, and I were among the first to go in; she sat at the end of a table, he sat on one side and I sat on the other; he would hold her chair for one morning and the next morning I would hold her chair. (There was no romantic interest involved.)
The good ol' days. I get the impression that many young people today see courtesy as a sign of weakness.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
a Norx coal train is in the siding at work.Looks like Ns took the power away for now.Ice has melted somewhat.Growing up you would "mind your manners" or you would find it hard to sit down.Time to get cleaned up.Tonight is lenten service and meet the confirmands night at church.
Paul of CovingtonThe good ol' days. I get the impression that many young people today see courtesy as a sign of weakness.
'Tis far better to be a "macho man..." Not.
Well this poster has a better appreciation of crews involved in various collisions. At 1805 EST today decided to drive out to get some fast food for both of us. Heard a CSX freight northbound as getting into auto. Started out thinking would get a good look as street only about 50 feet from closest rail. At about 800 feet from home spied lady and two small children about to cross the tracks at a dirt location. Rushed car to location and shouted " don't cross the tracks ". Meanwhile crossing gates close by started blinking. The smaller child who was one step from going down a hill to ballast fortunately stopped with other just behind. They stopped and about 5 - 7 seconds later a manifest CSX freight with 3 units passed.
After getting home 15 minutes later blood pressure and pulse still very high and now have a headache.
If I forgot to open the door for my mother or my sisters, they would just stand there, waiting for me to wake up...same with seating a lady...they just stood there, making me look really rude.
And when a woman excused themselves, all the men better stand up when she did, and remain standing until she left the room.
I think my mom would rise up out of the grave and smack me silly if I failed to do any if these.
I have taught my daughters to do the same, if the man they are with fails to show these simple manners, just stand there until he gets it.
My middle daughter has her boyfriend trained quite well in fact!
I was at a meeting at our local library this morning and noted a sign that said that March is National Quilting Month.
I'm sure Pat will be busy celebrating!
Cold this AM in the north country. Participants in the "Rooster Roster" noted temps on both sides of zero...
Snow here in Nw Ohio.Ns coal train is gone.Local was uptown when I left work.Tomorrow is Friday. We were shipping boxes to Lincoln NE today but none had a cat address.
JoeKohWe were shipping boxes to Lincoln NE today but none had a cat address.
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
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