MC,
Good story about Duncan. In the eighties Vicki and I had a German Shepherd/Norwegian Elkhound mix that couldn't jump the fence. OTOH, he was an ace at digging under it. I thought if I could have kept him going in a straight line I could have made a fortune trenching. Have you considered using him to dig tornado shelters?
Norm
The roto-tiller here got a workout yesterday and today - May not get another chance to turn over & till dry dirt for a while in advance of planting.
(The terrier in Duncan is saying "who needs a roto-tiller?" ....now if only he had a plan on where he's digging and putting the dirt - makes some interesting moonscapes)...still farming in a brickyard here. Gonna go to Iowa and steal some real topsoil.
Joe - cold coming your way. Snow north of us. Looks like Murphy might be digging? Still no moisture here. Ceiling fan on since humidity high; furnace running periodically. Blah....
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
afternoon
Westbound stack train and the local was uptown on NS when I left work.Getting warmer.Guessers say plenty of April showers on the way.Oldest brother comes for a visit this week.Chores to get done.
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").
evening
work busy.Ns was clear when I left.Looked like they took the Tonka toys too.Chores to do.Speaking of railcars I do have pictures to send you Carl.It's an old soo line flat car.Chores to do.
First time on a 'ZERO' turn mower!!! Went from 1/2 acre to 3 1/2 acres and figured the old 36" tractor was going to die trying to keep up. SO, brand new Simplicity Citation XT 27/61" monster will now take over. Practice, practice, practice and more practice!!, which I of course did NOT bother with, who reads the instructions anyway. How tough can it be to sit and GO. HA-HA-HA-HA-HA, After mowing a 'straight' line that looked more like one of those, well I'm not sure what you would call it but IT WAS NOT STRAIGHT. I got the idea and did ok until I got near the guy wire for the power pole, where the TRACTOR fit just fine, and decided to do a 2 foot high wheel stand before I got the idea to STOP and back up. That area will be the old tractors area of duty. I be much smarter now that I went back andd READ THE DUMB INSTRUCTIONS. FYI - 1.7 hours instead of 3.9 hours, a slight improvement.
Interesting that you ran into a three-letter reporting mark. It seems that almost all new reporting marks since 1976 have had four letters. I would opine that your other new reporting mark may be Dow's car-leasing subsidiary, presumably for tax purposes.
It was nice here today, too. I was supposed to go railfanning with a little guy and his mother today, but she had to have her harp repaired (I have none but the classiest of friends...this one was a friend of Linda's in high school and before). Pat and I dined out along the Racetrack in LaGrange, then (after a nap) I made the first pass of the year on the back lawn. Tomorrow it's back to the dentist for a small repair uncovered by last week's exam. I'll leave early and stay late, since I can watch trains and the day's going to be just as nice as today. Friday, on our return from Michigan, I saw two reporting marks that were new to me: ABS (Alabama Southern Railroad) and OCAX (Blue Cube Operations, L.L.C.). The latter is probably a spinoff of the Dow Chemical Company, as most of its tank cars are ex DOWX, same numbers, and the company is headquartered in Midland, Michigan. The former has a series of 80 bulkhead flat cars. Thanks to some smart guidance from Pat (after I'd given up myself), I was able to get an original number off the center sill of this flat car. I found out, once I got home and could check, that there were two intervening operators. More fun work for my files.
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)
Beautiful day here. Spent the morning in class. Headed for night 2 PBS auction tonight.
Wheee!
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...
Frosty this morning.Went to Deshler and put up a new railfan message board.Had one Ns unit and plenty of power from UP.They even sent a couple"Cotton Belt" hopper cars.Came home and mowed the swamp.Back to work tomorrow.
joe
Lincoln rocks right now - saw over 50 motors - all on trains. A couple I could not see because they were behind another train - but around 6-8 NS. All in about 3 hours. Lots of coal and some x-freight - including the Hunt train. Even UP brought in a pretty good load of local freight headed to the sorting yard. They have gone from 2 motors and about 6 freight cars to a respectable train and 2 motors.
Joe,
I wish I could venture down in to your neck-of-the-woods more often but it isn't in the cards lately. I miss the days I could drive down there and watch the action on the Chicago line. The Adrian and Blissfield was not something I wanted to watch because their equipment was mostly parked when I was there. I did, though, go to Butler, IN to watch the action. Usually started at Swanson and worked my way west, sometimes as far as Goshen, IN and at other times down to the diamond at St. Joe. Fond memories of all those trips.
As an aside, I remember the times my dad was teaching me to drive. I'm surprised he didn't tear his hair out . HOPE YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT. LOL.
Good day today as we went to TSUN(otherwise know as Michigan).
Our friends model club had an open house in Blissfield.On the way we saw the switcher working the steel plant in Delta.On the way home saw a pair of GP 60's bring an NS frieght westbound in Swanton.They have a nice mom and pop place right by the tracks too.Chores to do here.
Ns had a westbound stack train when I left work.They left some tonka toys in the siding by the warehouse and cars need to be shuffled uptown.Cool-er weekend but dry.Off to work on chores.
tree68 BOB WITHORN Some years ago I was attending our local community college, mostly at night. One evening, before class, I was watching as a rain shower came through. One parking lot was empty, and there was a fine line between what got wet and what didn't. Still, forecasting has gotten better, in no small part because of computers - supercomputers, actually, which can crunch and impressive amount of data to provide forecast tools. Radar has made a huge difference, as well (and is part of the data the computers can crunch). And you can't forget the thousands of personal weather stations. Not that the supercomputers use the information from our fire department's weather station, but you can certainly get a level of granularity not possible if all you use are airports.
BOB WITHORN
Some years ago I was attending our local community college, mostly at night. One evening, before class, I was watching as a rain shower came through. One parking lot was empty, and there was a fine line between what got wet and what didn't.
Still, forecasting has gotten better, in no small part because of computers - supercomputers, actually, which can crunch and impressive amount of data to provide forecast tools.
Radar has made a huge difference, as well (and is part of the data the computers can crunch).
And you can't forget the thousands of personal weather stations. Not that the supercomputers use the information from our fire department's weather station, but you can certainly get a level of granularity not possible if all you use are airports.
There is a big difference between forecasts in the North and in Florida.
In the North if the forecast is for 30% chance of rain - it means that it will rain all over the forecast area 30% of the time.
In Florida if the forecast is for 30% chance of rain - it means that 30% of the forecast area will see 'some' rain.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BOB WITHORNMC, One of my employees sister ? is in the "Weatherliar" dept at a local TV station, said that all they need to do to keep their jobs is be right 12 - 15% of the time
To be fair, meteorology is not an exact science. Even somebody as well qualified as Tom Skilling will state that accuracy goes down as you go further into the future.
Bob, my new avatar is for the 367th Bomb Squadron, the "Clay Pigeons", part of the 306th BG. This was Dad's B-17 unit during WW2.
(two of the top five counties in the US for tornadoes are in CO and you were close to the number 1 county (Weld))
I bet those thunderstorms you see in Colorado are nothing compared to those in Kansas. About fifteen years ago friends and I were in Independence, KS waiting to depart in a private plane when the mother of all storms moved through. We had to wait three hours before we could depart the Cessna factory and then had to fly a hundred miles due north before turning on course for Michigan. OTOH, your lines run through Kansas so I'd bet you've seen a few of those monsters.
If the fiber-optic cable was railplowed-in, the T-Cubed tribe is probably red-faced about now.
Dark clouds coming over the hill now.
Ns stack train westbound when I left work.Seems the Mow crews cut a fiberoptic cable as they were working last week.Thunderboomers this morning and more on the way for this afternoon.Extra water in the swamp.
Weatherliars are predicting t-storms after dark - rare for around here. Tonight might be interesting for the critters.
Joe - I have had a few bad connections, but never under a house....
Tree - we seem to be trying out a new sport - how many different ways can you burn your house down. We had 3 going the other day, along with a hazmat - LFR was stretched pretty thin. Of course, the house fires were on the north side and also the south side. But the fires are becoming as many as the almost daily "oops, we dug up the gas line again"
We had a drive-by spitting. Threats galore on tv, but no rain for us.
It'll be interesting regardless. That country has had a few too many setbacks and we get to see what they did to get back to where they are now.
mudchicken Something tells me that when Tin Shoes chases the special move I'm on, it will be nasty/stormy/rainy.
Something tells me that when Tin Shoes chases the special move I'm on, it will be nasty/stormy/rainy.
Nah, think positive. We've been getting more delightfully sunny days here than stormy days (tonight could be real interesting, though).
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Had a bad connection under the house.Came and got fixed today.Ns had a rail train in the siding yesterday.The tie crews were working in the siding today.Took Matt uptown to mow.Csx had a grain train at the elevator and 2 stack trains passed as we went home.Mamma says supper is ready.
I'm not ready to welcome summer just yet. Today Chicagoland was treated to falling temperatures during the day, and they're due to rise substantially tonight. To me, that says "winter system". Meanwhile, lilacs are blooming in Lombard, perhaps a little early for the Lilac Festival in a few weeks. Not too far south of us (the Joliet area), they're pretty profuse already. I think that the different varieties in Lombard will keep the bloomin' blooming going for as long as needed for the festivities.We, however, are over on the other side of the puddle where the temperatures aren't quite as wonky. Tomorrow's my mom's birthday (93!), so we're joining my sisters in helping her celebrate. I sent out an 18-page report about freight-car sightings and research yesterday; that one took a while. It consisted of information gathered over the month up until now. I hope it leads to more information on certain groups of cars that have been bugging me for decades.
Linda's filming for Jeopardy! took only one day. That means anywhere from one to four episodes, airing beginning on September 12. She looked great, and was doing well, despite being nervous (this according to her husband). That's all anyone will get to know before the epoisode(s) air. Her cancer still seems to be responding to treatment, and she remains upbeat, though tired.Guess I'll have to welcome some aspects of summer, after all: brother-in-law has fired up the grill for burgers tonight.
Wet here today - not a bad thing. Some folks still haven't gotten the memo about the burn ban.
I remember clipping the cocker spaniel. The body wasn't bad, but the ears and feet were a real challenge...
Just verified my trip to Tin Shoe's backyard, I'll bring a bucket full of water along with me. (Something tells me that when Tin Shoes chases the special move I'm on, it will be nasty/stormy/rainy.) Hopefully the FROD Exploder doesn't die coming or going.
One week and counting until the scottie gets clipped and we find out how much dog is under all that fur. Groomer will have 911 on speed-dial.
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