Well tomorrow is Friday and the first day of "Fall"....
Could someone send Mother Nature the memo???
Ns was clear when I left work.Matt and I went into town to do yardwork.CSX was dropping ties on track 2.The flagman was born here in town.Old house in the neighborhood is getting new siding and a front porch.Need to run errands tomorrow.Going to be an early start to Fostoria Saturday morning.
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").
If I did send the memo, it would say "knock it off!". Do you have an e-mail address for Mother Nature by chance?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Yeah -We're looking at another week or so of summer weather around here. Not necessarily complaining, but it would have been nice to have during the actual summer season...
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...
Saw some decent fog while driving this morning, a few miles worth of thought yielded the following:
'Twas forty and foggy
Near Warden so boggy
At sunrise this first day of Fall
Though just three weeks prior
'Twas fifty degrees higher,
Now it is not like that at all.
(Warden, Washington)
We're having a quite unseasonable hot spell (90's) through until around Tuesday. After that, it will be merely unseasonably warm (upper 70's) for a few more days.
evening
Chores and errands done.Just need to load up and go in the morning.Ns local was uptown when I left work.Friend told me that CSX is planning on putting new switches in this Sunday at west Defiance and the yard lead.Could make some interesting watching.
Putting the chatter in Chatterbox (lifted from my Facebook post):
I went from ho-hum to "Oh, Wow!" yesterday evening, then to "Ooof!" this morning.
We had driven to Cedarburg, Wisconsin, so we could see the exhibits currently running at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. They were good, but didn't take too long to look at. So we were back to Kenosha for lunch, facing the hottest part of a day that broke records here.
The car was as good a place as any to stay cool, so we took Wisconsin 83 to Illinois 83, with the plan of taking that highway all the way home...almost.
We missed a CN train going the opposite direction near Antioch. A trip toward the tracks in Grayslake revealed an active Dog 'n' Suds drive-in that we hadn't known about. And at an industrial area near there, were a bunch of SSAM (Sault Sainte Marie Bridge Company) ore hoppers that I made a note on for checking when I got home.
Close to home, where Route 83 turns off Elmhurst Road, I stayed on it, because there be tracks a couple of miles ahead. And sure enough, there was a northbound Canadian Pacific train waiting at Bryn Mawr. I saw that he had some interesting cars on him, so I made one of my classic U-turns-over-four-lanes-of-rush-hour-traffic moves, and we headed back along the train, in the closest lane.
By then, the train had started to move, so I stepped on it a little and got back to the turnoff spot at Bryn Mawr before the engines did. (Bryn Mawr is the railroad name for the junction west of O'Hare, in either Bensenville or Elk Grove Village.)
So we got there, and I was pretty busy taking several pages' worth of notes on the cars I was seeing. When he cleared the junction, we saw a northbound freight waiting on the Union Pacific line, but decided not to wait for it, as it was too hot to stand still while he waited to get his signal. As it was, I probably would have been frustrated by him, as the information I wanted couldn't be accurately picked up when the cars were in motion.
So we filled the tank and went home. That's the ho-hum part.
When I got to my laptop and my files, I started to see how lucky I'd gotten. There were build dates and order numbers galore among my notes, a reporting mark for which I had no file (no problem to make one...details abounded). One car I saw, though it was in a common series for me, just happened to be one that I'd never seen before. And another car surprised me by being from the "wrong" builder, prompting a major update of that particular file. Yet another car was from a series of South Shore coil cars I'd never seen before, in spite of the fact that we're along the South Shore nearly every time we go through Indiana...you'd think I'd have seen at least one of those 90 cars before. Still another car was obviously secondhand, but came from a group of several hundred that I hadn't yet documented.
So, that was the "Oh, wow!" part. Before I went to bed, I sent a pair of emails to an "inside" friend, in hopes that he could get me former numbers for some of the mystery cars. Well, he did...big "Ooof!"
I usually determine the series limits for the cars I'm interested in, and ask for a sampling of former numbers. Much of the time, the cars were renumbered in order, and it's easy enough to figure out the intervening cars, even if there are gaps.
Not this time...those SSAM ore cars came from two different companies, and in no order. The South Shore coil cars were in no order, and they didn't all come from the same place, either. So there's more digging to be done before I finish with these, and I'm ill-equipped to come up with the data I need, at least quickly.
And already today, with the passage of another good freight train here in Elmhurst, the cycle might be starting again. I'm already at the hopeful stage for some of what I just saw.
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)
That sounds similar to my situation after our circle trips on Amtrak last summer and this summer. I spotted and also photographed a fair amount of industrial and shortline locomotives that had me digging up their histories when we got home. The same applied to some Class I power that I saw in storage or at division points.
If I had known, I would have gotten the car numbers which handled the 737 fuselages I photographed at King Street Station.
I had a good trip up to NYC this morning, enjoying the business class car (nice upholstery on the seat, one free beverage from the counter, friendly crew, Wi-fi on board, good red cap service. From NYC to Utica, I also had a business class seat. The lunch offering is mediocre (in my opnion), but, otherwise the service is good. The red cap who took me and my baggage into the station in NYC put me on the train to Utica. We were delayed at Scenectady, and lost about an hour, but we did arrive in Utica at last.
I called Larry, and he took me to dinner, and it was a good meeting. I will see him again in the morning, and we wll go to Thendara and back, seeing the fall foliage.
Johnny
Had a nice supper visit with John. He had a local favorite - chicken riggies, although his appetite wasn't up to the large serving provided.
He arrived just as our train returning from Thendara was pulling in.
Tomorrow is our "quick turn," complete with fall colors.
From my phone.
I take it your colors are worth seeing, Larry...I remember the trip I took out that way a few years back, and all of northern New York was spectacular!
I'm worried about ours this year. The Morton Arboretum had an ad touting the colors, and we took a ride around it this afternoon. There were lots of colors, if one cares for green, yellow, and brown. We just might be too dry.
good morning
Dry here in Nw Ohio.Fostoria was a good train show.Csx still had trains parked waiting to make turns in Fostoria and Deshler.Going to be warm again today as well.Gussers say about Wed. mother nature will send a front to cool us off.
CShaveRRI take it your colors are worth seeing, Larry...
Debatable. Quite dull this year. It's been an odd summer, and fall has kicked off with temperatures in the 80's...
Johnny rode our "short turn" trip to Thendara with me today, and said he enjoyed the trip. We followed that up with dinner, again, then I dropped him at his hotel. He'll continue his trip tomorrow.
Picking him up at the hotel before the trip this morning turned into a challenge - the main street in Utica (Genesee) was closed for a foot race. I ended up having to go through the parking garage to get to the front door of the hotel to meet him.
It was a busy weekend - four days, half a dozen tests of engineers and conductors, and a stint as conductor one day when I had to fill in for our mechanical department guy, who was running as the conductor that day and had a hot project come up. Whew.
Monday, it's back to work installing radials (in the ground) for my "new" vertical HF antenna.
As Larry said, I enjoyed the trip even though not many leaves had lost their chlorophyll.
We had some good conversation along the way and back Now, I have enjoyed meeting three posters in the flesh--Carl, KCSFan (who is now deceased); he contibuted mainly to the Classic Trains forum, and now, Larry.
Thursday evening, when I got into my email, I learned that my college history professor will soon tunr 90 years old, and the celebration will be in Bristol 16 October. Katie said I should go to it. I made my Amtrak reservation Thursday, and I made my hotel reservations a few minutes ago. I'll pass through Lincoln eastbound the morning of Friday the 13th, be in Chicago on the way back Thursday the 19th, and (I hope) pass through Lincoln early on Friday the 20th.
I still need to get with the Dog for getting between Charlottesville and Bristol. Maybe tomorrow morning.
CShaveRR We just might be too dry.
We just might be too dry.
CSSHEGEWISCH CShaveRR We just might be too dry. That would be putting it mildly. Tom Skilling mentioned that we've been way below average for September and my weed patch is showing it.
Murphy Siding If I did send the memo, it would say "knock it off!". Do you have an e-mail address for Mother Nature by chance?
Send it to: "MOOKIE" at www.mothernature @Linclon.org.
samfp1943 Murphy Siding If I did send the memo, it would say "knock it off!". Do you have an e-mail address for Mother Nature by chance? Send it to: "MOOKIE" at www.mothernature @Linclon.org.
Murphy SidingOh, don't do that! She might just freeze the rains and send them back in a month. We had 11" of snow on Halloween one year. That's not how you want to kick off winter.
I've had to clean snow off the "Pumpkin Patch" in the Adirondacks several times - mid- to late-October...
I love memos! I read them in the powder room!
My thinking is someone is going to get a whole lot of snow - for halloween, turkey eating, Santa Claus time, right thru May Day... just a feeling...
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
afternoon
Another day of warmth today.Ns local was uptown when we left work.Chores to do here at home.
Joe
If Willy were still poking around here (folks weren't very nice to him and meteorologists in general), I'd ask whether there is a record for number of consecutive days in which records were broken in a given location.We're going for Number Six in a row, with record highs. If it exceeds 90, we've done it. It's already 91 here, but this isn't the observation location.
Mookie I love memos! I read them in the powder room! My thinking is someone is going to get a whole lot of snow - for halloween, turkey eating, Santa Claus time, right thru May Day... just a feeling...
CShaveRR If Willy were still poking around here (folks weren't very nice to him and meteorologists in general), I'd ask whether there is a record for number of consecutive days in which records were broken in a given location.We're going for Number Six in a row, with record highs. If it exceeds 90, we've done it. It's already 91 here, but this isn't the observation location.
Murphy SidingI was at our lake cabin an hour north of home yesterday and it was 56 degrees. Some friends were at a ball game 200 miles east and it was almost 90.
Currently +85F here, and the high yesterday was +90F, with similar temps for the past week or so.
While riding the train with Johnny (Deggesty) on Sunday, I stepped out of the air conditioned car we were riding to check on our arrival in Utica. Thought I stepped into an oven...
At least the weather is fair - I have things to do outside.
Ns was clear when I left work.Matt got his school pictures back today.Wasn't sure if the neighbor lady was having a birthday tomorrow or not.I dropped off some baked goodies and said thanks for the tomatoes.Chores to do.
Update
765 was going home today.Matt got his homework done so we waited.After she passed we were coming home and a sperry doddlebug was going east on CSX.Time to wash off the cinders.
Almost funny--if you don't happen to be one of those caught in it. Buckets of nails fell off a truck onto the interstate highway.
nails
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
I'm glad you could keep cool, Johnny! I had to venture out a couple of times today at the museum (I found something pressing to do across the street when a log manifest came past!), and pretty well baked.Today was the seventh day of record-breaking--got up to 92 here, when the old record was 90. Tomorrow promises to be closer to the normal highs in the lower 70s.Johnny, what have you been avoiding on these routes that make you late? I know we can do it on the regular routes, but we usually don't get advance notice like that!
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