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Will seas rise enough to affect ports and intermodal? DOD and CSX planning for the future

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Posted by erikem on Saturday, December 24, 2016 10:48 PM

I'm not sure what wraithe is talking about, I do recall seeing the tidal gauge record for the Battery in NYC showing a fairly consistent rise in relative sea level for the last 140 or so years (about 2mm/year). Some tidal gauges show more of a relative rise and a few actually show a drop in relative sea level.

My understanding is that a sate of the art tidal gauge has both a high accuracy GPS receiver and a gravimeter to eliminate local geological effects. The GPS receiver is to check for radial motion with respect to the earth's center and the gravimeter is to check for changes in gravity that will affect where the actual geoid is with respect to the WGS84 model used by GPS. The local gravity can be affected by the amount of groundwater beneath the site.

Keep in mind that "sea level" is a surface of constant gravitational potential, not a specific radius from the earth's center.

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Posted by schlimm on Saturday, December 24, 2016 10:18 PM

wraithe
The scientist that predicted high sea levels, redacted his statement earlier this year and stated approximate increase if all melting etc happened would be in the order of a few inches as temperatures would cause more atmospheric moisture... Interesting since the sea levels where 31 cm higher in the 1800's and dropped over the last 150 years...

Two contentions, the latter at variance with tidal records.  Any citations?

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Posted by wraithe on Thursday, December 22, 2016 8:52 AM

erikem

Balt, Congrats from me as well!

As for the original qestion, the data I've seen is global sea levels rising by 6 to 12" per century. Local sea level rise also depends of the local rise and fall land due to various geologic (tectonic) forces - Mudchicken could give a much more knowledge description of those processes than I could.

 

The scientist that predicted high sea levels, redacted his statement earlier this year and stated approximate increase if all melting etc happened would be in the order of a few inches as temperatures would cause more atmospheric moisture...

Interesting since the sea levels where 31 cm higher in the 1800's and dropped over the last 150 years...

But to be honest, all this Man made climate change has more holes in it than a sieve...

on a better note, congratulations Balt... I have been forced into retirement early and can say, I had more time when I worked... Enjoy yourself and happy days ahead...

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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 2:46 PM

tree68

 

 
edblysard
Good deal...hope you have something to keep busy with..I am going nuts.

 

You're doing it wrong.  I have to keep a calendar....

 

One of you lives rural, which makes going out a little easier.  The other one should get a bigger lock for the door!  Lincoln traffic scares me to death - I can't imagine going out in Houston....Bang Head

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Posted by CandOforprogress2 on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 2:45 PM

The CSX Jax dispatch center was moved inland after the 2008 Hurricane Season which included Hurricane Ike and had been under consideration since Katrina in 2006. Selkirk was out of service and downgraded but reopened see-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Atlantic_hurricane_season

Gennesee and Wyoming runs its national dispatch center out of the 160 year old Central Vermont Station and headquarters in St. Albans Vermont. and also contract dispatches for 20 other shortlines as well. Not much excitement weatherwise or other in Saint Albans Vermont. see-

http://www.vermontguides.com/2006/07-jul/ardc.html

American Rail Dispatching Center (ARDC)
2 Federal Street
St. Albans, VT 05478

Phone: 802-527-3536
Fax: 802-527-3526
Email: thomas.murphy@ardcinc.com
Web site: www.gwrr.com

Contacts

 

The ARDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. ARDC is the leading provider of rail traffic control (dispatching) services in the short line and regional railroad industry.

E-Marketplace Products and Services: Rail Traffic Control Services (Dispatching)

 

 

 

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 2:42 PM

edblysard
Good deal...hope you have something to keep busy with..I am going nuts.

You're doing it wrong.  I have to keep a calendar....

LarryWhistling
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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 4:43 PM

schlimm
greyhounds
BaltACD

Good for you Balt!  Please let us know how it goes.

Me, I've got nine days until my own "R Date".

Ken: Between you and Balt, that is many years of wisdom.  Hard to replace.

May be hard to replace, but current management's will easily forget.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by schlimm on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 4:38 PM

greyhounds

 

 
BaltACD
Signed - a Dispatcher that retired TODAY with 51.5 years with CSX and its predecessors.

 

Good for you Balt!  Please let us know how it goes.

Me, I've got nine days until my own "R Date".

 

Ken: Between you and Balt, that is many years of wisdom.  Hard to replace.

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Posted by greyhounds on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 2:50 PM

BaltACD
Signed - a Dispatcher that retired TODAY with 51.5 years with CSX and its predecessors.

Good for you Balt!  Please let us know how it goes.

Me, I've got nine days until my own "R Date".

"By many measures, the U.S. freight rail system is the safest, most efficient and cost effective in the world." - Federal Railroad Administration, October, 2009. I'm just your average, everyday, uncivilized howling "anti-government" critic of mass government expenditures for "High Speed Rail" in the US. And I'm gosh darn proud of that.
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Posted by erikem on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 1:00 AM

Balt, Congrats from me as well!

As for the original qestion, the data I've seen is global sea levels rising by 6 to 12" per century. Local sea level rise also depends of the local rise and fall land due to various geologic (tectonic) forces - Mudchicken could give a much more knowledge description of those processes than I could.

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Monday, December 19, 2016 11:31 PM

CShaveRR

As for the sea level rising, it might make unnecessary the dredging out of some harbors...  (And it may come sooner rather than later--from pictures seen recently, a large section of an ice shelf in Antarctica is about to break off from the mainland, producing an iceberg about the size of the state of Delaware!)

And if that shelf was floating, not sitting on dry land, the melting ice won't raise the general sea level a millimeter.

Maybe the water-starved Californians should send a fleet of tugboats down to drag it up to La-La Land before it has a chance to melt.

In order to make dredging unnecessary, sea level would have to rise on the order of twenty feet - and after a while the channel would still silt up.

Chuck (fifteen years retired and loving it)

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Posted by schlimm on Monday, December 19, 2016 9:38 PM

BaltACD
Signed - a Dispatcher that retired TODAY with 51.5 years with CSX and its predecessors.

Congrats!  51.5 years with one company is a rarity.  Best of luck with the transition.

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, December 19, 2016 9:19 PM

Murphy Siding
How long before we see you going pro on the circuit?Stick out tongue

No Pro.  Club racing - bragging rights and $10 trophies - and a whole lot of commradery.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by edblysard on Monday, December 19, 2016 9:10 PM

Oh yeah, that looks real safe!Stick out tongue

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, December 19, 2016 8:38 PM

How long before we see you going pro on the circuit?Stick out tongue

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by CShaveRR on Monday, December 19, 2016 8:22 PM

First of all, from another railroad retiree, congratulations, Balt!  Have a long, healthy, and happy retirement, free from worries.

As for the sea level rising, it might make unnecessary the dredging out of some harbors...  (And it may come sooner rather than later--from pictures seen recently, a large section of an ice shelf in Antarctica is about to break off from the mainland, producing an iceberg about the size of the state of Delaware!)

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)

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Posted by Mookie on Monday, December 19, 2016 8:18 PM

I leave the forum for just a little while and you go and retire!  That was very sneaky!

I do hope you will keep your finger on the pulse here, since I always have questions and need the nice people on here who always give me answers.  

Congrats and after the dust settles, you will really enjoy retirement!  Retirees make their own fun!  

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, December 19, 2016 7:58 PM

Congratulations, Balt! Keep busy--and don't forget us who have appreciated your posts for many years.

Be careful going down to Miami, especially if the weather continues to be bothersome.

Johnny

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, December 19, 2016 6:50 PM

Murphy Siding
edblysard
BaltACD

CSX decentralized its Dispatching Center in Jacksonville in 2008.  Jacksonville Division disptaching is still done from the K C Dufford Dispatch Center in Jacksonville.  CSX Dispatching officers are in Jacksonville, Atlanta, Florence, Baltimore, Selkirk, Indianapolis, Nashville, Cincinnati and Chicago.

Climate change was not a factor in the decision.

Signed - a Dispatcher that retired TODAY with 51.5 years with CSX and its predecessors.

Good deal...hope you have something to keep busy with..I am going nuts.

Are you retired too, or just going nuts?

Season starts in January 2017 at Homestead-Miamai Speedway.

Save

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, December 19, 2016 6:47 PM

CandOforprogress2
BTW CSX moved its dispatch center inland to Selkirk NY from Jax FL. and NS has moved its dispatch center inland as well. Northern Ports like CN Prince Rupert in Canada could become big metro centers someday. see also-

http://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/612710

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/06/republicans-trying-to-stop-pentagon-climate-plan-000149

NS has never had a Centrailzed Dispatching Center.  Their Dispatching offices are located in a number of locations around their system.

When the split of ConRail occured, the former ConRail office at Mt. Laurel, NJ had the dispatchers for the territory CSX received moved to the Selkirk office.  Where the dispatchers for the territory that went to Shared Assets and/or NS went I don't know.

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Posted by edblysard on Monday, December 19, 2016 6:39 PM

CandOforprogress2

i hear anything from a couple of centimeters to a couple of feet...How will this affect ports like Norfolk VA aka Hamton Roads or the Port of NY/NJ. I beleive that global warming if true would help inland ports like Montreal and the Great Lakes. Its sad to see that Chicago Ship Traffic is a fraction of what it used to be maybe it will come back. BTW CSX moved its dispatch center inland to Selkirk NY from Jax FL. and NS has moved its dispatch center inland as well. Northern Ports like CN Prince Rupert in Canada could become big metro centers someday. see also-

http://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/612710

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/06/republicans-trying-to-stop-pentagon-climate-plan-000149

 

My buddy Chicken Little said the sky was gonna fall soon.

Houston already has plans in place for this, we are going to invade San Antonio...or El Paso.

 

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, December 19, 2016 6:20 PM

B&O and it's successors

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by wanswheel on Monday, December 19, 2016 5:59 PM

BaltACD

51.5 years with

Your carrier!

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Monday, December 19, 2016 5:46 PM

   Congratulations, Balt.   And I'll second Ed's recomendation to stay busy.   I went nuts when I first retired.

_____________ 

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Posted by Ulrich on Monday, December 19, 2016 5:46 PM

Congrats on retiring..51.5 years.. that must have been quite the ride with so many changes along the way. 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, December 19, 2016 5:38 PM

edblysard

 

 
BaltACD

CSX decentralized its Dispatching Center in Jacksonville in 2008.  Jacksonville Division disptaching is still done from the K C Dufford Dispatch Center in Jacksonville.  CSX Dispatching officers are in Jacksonville, Atlanta, Florence, Baltimore, Selkirk, Indianapolis, Nashville, Cincinnati and Chicago.

Climate change was not a factor in the decision.

Signed - a Dispatcher that retired TODAY with 51.5 years with CSX and its predecessors.

 

 

 

Good deal...hope you have something to keep busy with..I am going nuts.

 

 

 

Aren't we all just going nuts?

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, December 19, 2016 5:38 PM

Brian Schmidt

Can you cite a reliable source that CSX has closed its Jacksonville dispatching center?

 

No, because he's just trolling like always. 

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by edblysard on Monday, December 19, 2016 5:37 PM

BaltACD

CSX decentralized its Dispatching Center in Jacksonville in 2008.  Jacksonville Division disptaching is still done from the K C Dufford Dispatch Center in Jacksonville.  CSX Dispatching officers are in Jacksonville, Atlanta, Florence, Baltimore, Selkirk, Indianapolis, Nashville, Cincinnati and Chicago.

Climate change was not a factor in the decision.

Signed - a Dispatcher that retired TODAY with 51.5 years with CSX and its predecessors.

 

Good deal...hope you have something to keep busy with..I am going nuts.

 

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