Spent Saturday doing what little cleanup we had to do at the house, mainly cleaning out our fridge and freezer and restocking. All we lost was a fridge and freezer full of food, parents lost two freezers, some power tools and possibly the furnace (have to finish pumping out the basement to find that one out).......
Back to work.......
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
Memo to Randy: Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. We were out for a week, early fall snowstorm pretty much took out whole city.
Also - we saw the Marx train loaded and heading your way - 6 locomotives - 2 head, 2 middle (facing each other) and 2 DPU - you could just see they were going to drop off the 2nd train - it was shorter than the first and I think Jeff told me the smaller plant would be the first drop?
Rinse and repeat....
Jen
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Thought. redacted
afternoon
Well Csx had this and that today.Sent a crew to pick up rail in Sherwood.Some trains have different numbers and new routes too.Matt is due in from his trip at midnight.Will call when they get into Ohio.
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").
BaltACDBad marks for 1st responders for not notifying UP when they got on scene; well before the train started to move.
Too much reliance on their own dispatchers "calling the railroad"? And hoping they called the correct railroad with the correct location.
Also wonder why more officers don't carry a real window punching tool, instead of trying to use their batons all the time.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Man I'm hoping I heard right before the cop got out of the car to see if anyone was in the car. All I can access now is the shorter version of the video after he's beside the car. If he didn't talk to DS and request the railroad stop movement, oh boy. The implication was the train was waiting to enter the interlocking, UP crossing UP and never knew the car blew past the flashers and gates and under the stopped tank car. The Interlocking is Texas City Terminal (TCT) where BNSF (1 line) and UP(2 lines, 1 truncated) can access both it or go into Galveston Harbor terminal over the new draw bridge. (I think NWP/ SMART wound up with the older one)
Ed B may know more from putting together local media reports.
zugmannToo much reliance on their own dispatchers "calling the railroad"? And hoping they called the correct railroad with the correct location.
One of the railroad landmarks I have to know is "Stonehouse." It's one of two crossings of the same road - the other of which is known by the name of the road. The railroad name comes from a stone house - which is no longer there.
Law enforcement (or fire) is going to report the location by its road name - not the railroad name. Unless they take the time to pull the crossing number off the sign on the crossbucks (or what's stencilled on the equipment shack), they be reporting a location a couple of miles away from the actual location. The dispatcher (who will get the call, not RRPD) may pick up on that, or not.
We joke that every hood in NYC has one in his pocket....
Those automatic punches will soon be useless - I understand that the car manufacturers are going back to using laminated glass in side and rear windows. Fire is already stocking up on the necessary tools to remove that glass.
But - on tempered glass - it's amazing that a fire axe or "Halligan Tool" will bounce right off the glass (as many a firefighter has discovered), but a radio antenna, properly applied, will break it...
Or your neighbor kid's BB gun...
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...
Matt is back home.Went trainwatching today.Csx had plenty of emd varieties and UP power too.J 715 went back to Garrett long hood foward.No big shipment for the ND&W yet.Q 393 also had a report of something leaking out of a hopper car.Don't know if they set that car out or not.Back to or regular program tomorrow.
tree68 But - on tempered glass - it's amazing that a fire axe or "Halligan Tool" will bounce right off the glass (as many a firefighter has discovered), but a radio antenna, properly applied, will break it... Or your neighbor kid's BB gun...
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
21 1/2 tons of Ft. Collins Bud products never made it to Durango - whooops ... I guess CDOT's investment on the runaway ramps on Wolf Creek Pass (US-160) has justified itself again after no brakes on a 6+% grade saw the truck leave the highway at 65+ MPH
Sorry to hear about your headache Randy...Still begging for water here.
Murphy SidingBy the way it's heat treated, tempered glass is actually very brittle. You could probably break it easily using the claw end of a standard hammer. It's extreme pressure put at a single, small point that does in tempered glass- like a rock from the lawn mower. That will take out a patio door every time.
Trust me, I've seen the pick head of a fireman's axe and the pike on a Halligan tool, well swung by a firefighter, bounce off a tempered glass car window. Many times. Never tried a claw hammer, but based on the above, I wouldn't count on it working.
Break out the automatic center punch and the very same window crumbles.
Halligan tool (forged steel):
When it rains, it pours...........
Pulled into our terminal in West Memphis, AR for a break, halfway through, an emissions code trips, and it's not one that a simple tap on the dash will fix. To top it off, truck just came out of the shop at home for it's preventive maintenance. Shop can't get to it until Wednesday, so I'm in a hotel for a couple days.
Hope this is the last problem for a while........
I'll never forget a demonstration of technical wonders when I was in grade school (mid fifties). He used a tempered glass flask as a hammer to drive a nail into a piece of wood. Then he held the flask up and dropped a grain of sand into it, and it shattered.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Warm here in NW Ohio.Ns has an eastbound coal train in the siding.Looked like a couple cars for uptown too.Meeting tonight in Deshler.Going to be a warm one.
Another warm day in Nw Ohio.Ns had a CN/Up combo sand train go east out of the siding just as I left work.They also sent a westbound frieght.The local was also uptown doing it's work too.Boss said when he went uptown Ns was looking at the crossing.Lady had a clipboard and the other people were following here around.They do have the replacement signals ready to be installed.Have chores to do.
joe
evening
Not quite as muggy today as yesterday.Mother Nature looked like she wanted to rain on us.Yardwork got done.Ns was clear when I got off work.Errands to do in town.
The day started off summer-like, but cooled with the passing of a storm (that really didn't live up to the name) shortly after a group of us finished lunch on the shores of the St. Lawrence River.
Now it's back to warm and muggy...
Larry,
A bit warm in Milford and Waterford today but we can lve with that.Temperature is OK but humidity sucks. Air conditioner is on only long enough to deal with the latter.
Rember the fifties or sixties when a cooled house was not an option and we slept at the mercy of the weather?
Norm
Norm48327Remember the fifties or sixties when a cooled house was not an option and we slept at the mercy of the weather?
Oh, yeah. Actually, it's not an option for me now - I don't have an air conditioner. Usually, though, it gets cool enough at night to be livable. A fan can make a big difference, although I'm not real fond of the sound.
My grandmother used to open her house up first thing in the morning, when things were cool. By 10 AM, more or less, though, the house was closed up tight as a drum.
Norm48327Rember the fifties or sixties when a cooled house was not an option and we slept at the mercy of the weather?
Back in the fifties in New Orleans, most of us lived without air conditioning. We took it for granted that we would wake up on soaking wet bed sheets.
We had one summer like that in upcountry South Carolina. We had an exhaust fan in one window, but it did not help much that summer.
The two summers in the early fifties that I visited my brother in Baton Rouge were not that bad; he had an exhaust fan in the attic.
Johnny
Ah, yes. The window fan or the attic fan made life bearable when you were up, but when you went to bed, there was no circulation between your body and the bed. A possible argument for a hammock?
Which reminds me of a pet peeve. Cars. They used to have ventilation from side vents that could be set up to scoop in or exhaust air, and there were vents that brought in fresh air from under the dash, seats were of fabric on kapok (sp?) filling which allowed for air circulation on your behind. Much of the time you didn't really need air conditioning. Today, you are forced to use air conditioners because there is only feeble circulation from the fan (no "ramjet" effect), and seats, even if they have fabric upholstery, are on foam cushions which block circulation. Enough ranting.
Ns had a westbound go by just as I clocked out.Then another westbound was right behind him.Did someone forget to put that train in the siding?He was stopped on the road 22 overpass as I left.Going to get stormy overnight tonight??? guessers say the cool off will be next week.Chores to do.
Well for low humidity locations there is always the swamp cooler ? Found they worked fairly well.
We have our bedroom cooling off with a/c this evening, or at least dehumidifying. If the a/c didn't work I'd be wishing for terrycloth sheets!I'm hoping that the lightning and thunder, which seem to be getting closer for the past hour or so, are productive in slicing through the humidity tonight. Tomorrow continues the annual Civil War reenactment in Lombard, and I have nothing but sympathy for the soldiers and sailors on both sides who have nice, scratchy woolen uniforms to work in. I'll be volunteering on behalf of the Lombard Historical Society, but I can get by with short sleeves, shorts, and Crocs (as long as I don't step where the horses go!).
It's been an interesting week...
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday included train-watching at Elmhurst; Tuesday and Thursday included train-watching while at the Peck House (not that I didn't do--or attempt to do--other things at both venues!)
I haven't done any yard work at home this week yet--the heat and humidity have Pat very concerned if I venture outside. I was successful in installing our mailbox and some new hooks for rakes and brooms in the garage. And yesterday I purchased the third in this year's triumvirate of desired yard tools--a pole pruner to get at some of the branches that are too high to reach from the ground or a ladder (assuming I can ground it properly).
Oh...speaking of ladders, I did spend one day at home going up and down ours, and cleaning the soil, sticks, and other gardens out of our gutters. I guess that counts.
All three days at the depot platform in Elmhurst were fruitful to some degree. All three days I was able to steer passengers toward the proper side of the tracks to board their inbound scoots (we're nearly ten months after the changeover, and people still don't get it...I wish the railroad could be more consistent, but it IS about keeping everything moving as much as possible. Today I helped a blind person across the tracks (again) and onto his train.
Also today, I was finally able to meet an old friend's train-loving son (and a couple of his cousins). Pat was with me as we tried the new restaurant in Elmhurst (Beerhead). After lunch (excellent sandwiches...avoid the desserts!), Pat went home, while Julie and family stayed with me to watch a huge manifest enter the yard. Not sure of its identity...arrived early in the afternoon with a DP unit in the middle. That train had more "pay dirt" for me than any single train so far this month...unusual secondhand cars, a couple of new series, and a new builder of freight cars that I hadn't seen before (the car was built over a year ago, though).
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)
CShaveRROh...speaking of ladders, I did spend one day at home going up and down ours, and cleaning the soil, sticks, and other gardens out of our gutters. I guess that counts.
I call that "laddercise" and submit that it is quite a good cardio workout if you do enough "reps" to make a difference.
Joanie and I are on the road today- will be passing through certain kitty territory later. Hopefully unscathed, however, I left my tin shoes at home...
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
blhanelI left my tin shoes at home
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Great Asparagus Barrier, it RAINED!
Get to help some of the younger field pups play with the nuclear gopher holes next week (a railroad runs by it)
WOOHOO!
mudchickenGet to help some of the younger field pups play with the nuclear gopher holes next week (a railroad runs by it)
Make sure they don't play Whack-a-Mole!
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