It never rains in California - but it did today and made the national news! No rain since May! I love rain, so don't think I will move there....
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Mookie It never rains in California - but it did today and made the national news! No rain since May! I love rain, so don't think I will move there....
Talk about padding--we left Roseville 40 minutes late and arrived in Sacramento 17 minutes early.
Johnny
New problems with the site. Some threads cannot get first post if the thread has more than one page of posts. Tried to swith from order assending to descending but no change. Help you smart geeks
Sorry Blue - Geekette has no clue.
Johnny - You are traveling again! What fun! Visiting people for Halloween? Too early for other holidays!
Mookie Sorry Blue - Geekette has no clue. Johnny - You are traveling again! What fun! Visiting people for Halloween? Too early for other holidays!
Deggesty Mookie Sorry Blue - Geekette has no clue. Johnny - You are traveling again! What fun! Visiting people for Halloween? Too early for other holidays! No, I have just my usual face (it is scary enough). I hope to see some of the people I grew up with.
No, I have just my usual face (it is scary enough). I hope to see some of the people I grew up with.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
The people south of Mooks need to turn the vacuum off now. West of Pueblo is getting scorched with the wind (30+ MPH) acting as a bellows. Copcar probably dealing with nasty smoke problems. (Sun vanished in the smaze?)
Sir C - that's a nasty fire. Checked the map and found a lot of places you go to work. Maybe stay in coop for a few days?
Murphy Siding Deggesty Mookie Sorry Blue - Geekette has no clue. Johnny - You are traveling again! What fun! Visiting people for Halloween? Too early for other holidays! No, I have just my usual face (it is scary enough). I hope to see some of the people I grew up with. When visiting folks for Halloween shouldn't the transportation of choice be a broom?
When visiting folks for Halloween shouldn't the transportation of choice be a broom?
It seems to me that a broom would be only a little more comfortable than a rail (of the tar and feathers sort).
Mookie...that's a nasty fire...
15,751 acres as of this morning. That's almost 25 square miles for those keeping score at home.
And it is zero percent contained...
Unusually warm here - +75F before noon. That's good - I have outside stuff to do.
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...
evening
Some rain here in Nw Ohio.More on the way.Saw a private car on the Capitol limited before work this morning going west.Ns was clear when I left work.Chores to do.
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").
Temps down here, as well. This morning dawned sunny, but foggy. With the colors - pretty much in full bloom here now - it was very nice.
afternoon
NS was clear when I left work.Former neighbor didn't want us to come mow this week.Guessers say rain then back to fall temps.Chores to do.
I've been busy compiling data, responding to e-mails, and letter-writing for much of the past two days, and just realized I didn't report on my train-watching trip of Monday yet. I went to what is (surprisingly) my favorite city in Indiana these days: Gary. The first stop was for lunch at our usual meal stop, the Great Lakes Cafe.
From lunch I headed further east. It was the first time I'd been in the vicinity of Ogden Dunes since Norfolk Southern completed its stretch of third track in that area. This track is supposed to help alleviate delays to all of the Amtrak trains that use this line (I think it's seven round trips at this point), and perhaps permit more trips to be added...I can think of two trips into Michigan I'd like to see!
Near Ogden Dunes, I met a SouthShore freight train powered by one of its two SD38-2s (unusual for them--these are six-axle engines, while everything else has four axles). There were a few cars on that train with a new reporting mark for me: TRVX. These cars, which looked like repainted coal gondolas, were a bit more than I'd bargained for--they indeed began life as coal gons, but had been rebuilt as trash cars, with covers and fire-suppression apparatus, and stretched to give them six feet additional length. And now they were on their third owner (I didn't see the fire-suppression apparatus, which consisted of piping to which hoses could be connected--if I had, I might have known where they'd come from). Anyway, that westbound SouthShore freight was at the west end of the double-track stretch there, waiting on a signal--it turned out that this was for a westbound NICTD train (made up of four bilevel electric cars) to get ahead of him.
On to Porter and Chesterton, where I went to check out gas prices. At about 25c/gallon less than I pay around home, it was worth getting only five gallons' worth. I found a rib place in Porter that I'd like to check out some evening. And as I was leaving the town, a train headed east over the bridge, prompting an abrupt change in plans. All Norfolk Southern covered hoppers, but a good chance to confirm (and, as it turned out, add to) build dates for one series built starting about a year ago.
So the second time I left Porter, I went back through Gary to my favorite haunt: Pine Junction. I drove up Clark Road. The road is not the most fun to drive a car over...but the north end of the road (or at least the end of the part above water) is the reward--the parallel main lines of the two busiest railroads coming into Chicago from the east, along with a couple of connecting tracks, a small yard, and yard leads from the third major eastern railroad that take its trains south to its main line. It's all there, and it gave me a good 17 moves in the two-hours-plus that I was there (five per hour, roughly). I was kept plenty busy, just sitting in the car, with trains in front of me, trains behind me, and trucks giving me the willies as they took the road at at least twice the speed that I dared to! There was plenty of stuff that was new to me, but I considered this to be a slow day. Later in the week would probably have given me more trains, and a different time of day would have added Amtrak to the mix.
One thing I noticed was that they had revamped the grade-crossing signals in the area. The two main lines and a connecting track cross the road closely enough together that their gates have to be coordinated. What happens when a train comes is that the gate against traffic at the furthest crossing away goes down first (if it's the line in the middle, then the gates at the edges both go down). The line on which the train is coming is the last one to lower its gates--both of them. There was one time when a train was crossing, and another gate dropped...that meant a train was coming on that line. Perhaps complicated, but probably the most efficient way of letting the trucks get across safely and efficiently. Of course, there was always the one truck driver for whom all of this sophistication was not good enough--he nearly got clipped. (I was far enough away so I wouldn't have been caught in the wreckage.)
I decided to leave Pine Junction at abut 3:15, so I could deal with rush-hour traffic and still get home before dark. My next encounter with a train was at Dolton Junction, where a westbound train of auto racks was headed into the Indiana Harbor Belt's Yard. My route took me next to CSX's Barr Yard, where I saw some interesting-looking ballast cars that appeared to have been rebuilt from aggregate hopper cars (solar panels had been added to permit remote radio operation of the ballast gates--much safer that way!).Also seen there was a westbound train of ethanol tank cars--it was one of the trains I'd seen at Pine Junction, but I was happy to see it again and get some of the information I'd missed. I couldn't stop there, but knew I could see it at Blue Island. I was first out at the grade crossing on Broadway at Blue Island, which was perfect for data-grabbing.
That was it for me, except for a stop at the store before getting home, to buy an essential ingredient for supper. Then (after said supper) began the research, during which I found out that I'd had a pretty good haul, after all! Documentation continues to this hour (and beyond), as I plan on getting a report out to my fellow freight-car freaks tonight.
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)
Nice to see that you had a good day. Blue Island is my default spot if I don't have another spot under consideration when my beloved tells me that I can get out for the day.
Your outing sounds similar to one that my son and I took back in May. We drove out to Michigan City scouting out spots along US 12, took a good collection of pictures of the South Shore on 10th Street and at the shops, and worked our way back home, using up a lot of film (me) and pixels (son).
rain here in Nw Ohio.Ns ran a westbound when I got off of work.Need to do some chores.
Rain? We got rain! About nine tenths of an inch so far, with much more forecast. Might make for a wet pumpkin patch. Then again, they're also forecasting snow in the upper elevations (guess where the pumpkin patch is....)
Had an excellent drill for area fire departments tonight. Learning how to move large amounts of water. The rain that fell all through the evening was just an added attraction... We need to be able to make large amounts of water available on a moment's notice - and fire hydrants don't grow well here outside the villages and city...
Time to finish getting things lined up so I can load and go in the morning.
Edit - an hour and a half later and we're up to 1.15" of rain. It's a-comin' down!
Cleared off here in Nw Ohio.Ns ran a sand train westbound when I left work.Time to do some chores.Going to get frosty tonight.
Rain ? What is rain ? 7 weeks here and only 3/10 inch last SATURDAY and none in the 10 day forecast. Exceptional dry here SW of Atlanta and other parts of state.
Nice day here in Nw Ohio.Got out and saw the fall colors.Tomorrow our church is doing a trunk or treat for the kids.Matt's little cousins are going to be there.Going to be fun.Brother and wife are coming up from Florida too.Hope they brought their longjohns.
Can I just put in a small word here:Woo-hoo, CUBS!
Thank you.
What Carl said!!!
As to the Cubs (GO TEAM!) a couple boarded the Texas Eagle in St. Louis yesterday morning to go to Chicago to cheer the Cubs on. We went up on the former C&EI route--with many delays--and arrived in Chicago a little over two hours late. We had arrived in St. Louis about two hours early, and sat until time to go. (No, Mookie, I'm not mad at you, I wanted to ride the new way from Ft. Worth to Dallas--only one possible wait at Tower 55 now--and was able to add the C&EI route, which I had not planned to add.)
I'm in Washington (D.C.) right now, catching up on my e-mail (no contact since Wednesday evening, in Los Angeles). I'll be back through Lincoln next Friday night.
I understand, Johnny. You have lots of fans all over the US, so I don't mind sharing! But next Fri nite, I will be doing my "nails". Halloween, don'cha know....
Rain? Heck, no. Up at the Pumpkin Patch, we were dealing with 2-4" of wet, heavy SNOW! Made for a very damp day.
CShaveRR Can I just put in a small word here:Woo-hoo, CUBS! Thank you.
Saturday nights halloween party will feature game 4 on the big screen!!!
What a great weather weekend in Elkhart / South Bend. Actually got all most everything prepped for the 'next' season.
NS local was uptown when I left work.Came home and took care of chores.Tomorrow is another day.
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