We're enduring that part of winter where it's -20 at night and we question our sanity about why we live here. Our only consolation is knowing that the other, Northern Dakota is probably 20 degrees colder. Brrrr. But we know, in no time at all it will be +90 degrees and 90% humidity and we'll be questioning our sanity about why we live here. Out of curiosity, I checked the weather in the area where I was born, Chugiak, Alaska. It's currently about 45 degrees warmer there. I wish Canada would just send us cold, Canadian beer and not cold, Canadian air.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
All of -7.8F here at the homestead right now, which is an improvement over last night. It's supposed to be a little milder coming up, but we may see some weather from that system coming up the coast.
Oswego County is currently getting lake effect, upwards of a foot so far. Just a little light "dust" here right now.
We'll see what the winds do later this week. Could be interesting.
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...
-11 in Peru, Indiana, right now, have been fiddling with my heater controls in the semi for the last four hours to get it comfortable in here. Forecast is -19 for the low, the run to Lafayette tomorrow morning should be interesting........
Stay warm, my friends..........
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
(duplicate reply deleted...sorry!)
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)
Thank you for that information about the merger, Bruce! I usually see covered hoppers from one company or the other when I'm watching trains on either CN or CP, but rarely anywhere else. I'm not familiar with any cars that Agrium owns, just leased cars (but lots of them!). Conversely, it's been a long time since I've seen any Potash Corporation leased cars. Something's going to change with this merger, I expect--and this will help me make sense of what I see.
Went to work this morning at Fremont. Temperature was -18 on the outskirts to -12 closer to downtown, according to bank displays. One manifest train, 12000 ft long, had air problems on the DP, enough that the first crew didn't leave North Platte. Instead of replacing the DP or shortening up the train, they let it out after (I guess) "fixing" it. The DP was a SD70ACe, their air compressors have a hard time keeping up in good weather, I can't imagine in sub zero weather. More problems enroute, so I heard. Second crew didn't look like it was going to make it in, so a third (dog catch) crew was called. The train ahead of it, a Z train, also had engine problems. Enough that it wasn't going to make it's scheduled long pool crew change and was going to the short pool instead. Another intermodal train sounded like it was having DP air problems too, but would make it without a dog catch. I was lucky, I got a coal train that went around all that mess and didn't have problems. Main cab heater even worked, sort of.
On the way, I saw a couple of places where new rail had been spliced in. In another place I saw a pull-apart waiting for attention. My neighbor is a signal maintainer and I heard his name mentioned, that he was coming out about 50 miles off his normal territory to help out. He got home just after I did and he said on his way out they had him stop at almost every control point to get switches to work right. He said today there were 7 broken rails between Missouri Valley and Nevada, IA. (The two repaired locations that I saw were west of Missouri Valley and aren't part of the 7. The pull-apart would be.) Yes sir, 2018 is off to a great start.
Jeff
Happy New Year to everyone and their families.
It has warmed up to positive temperature values here for the first time in over a week at 8ºF. The windchill is still -4º though.
I have had real trouble with the site in the last couple of days. I am now going to pass on a bit of information to freight car watchers like Carl that I tried to post when I saw it on the news last week.
The long process of merging the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium Inc. will be effective Jan. 2. The new company will be called Nutrien. I have no information on the new logo or any changes in reporting marks. This won't affect any of the Canpotex hoppers.
Once again, Happy New Year everyone, if this post works.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
afternoon
Got stuff put away today.Watching some football.Back to work tomorrow.We'll see about Matt and school.Guessers say more snow and warmer for next Sun/Monday.
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").
I'm thinking about pulling out our space heater for this corner of our great room. The wiring should be good, we built the room four yrars ago. In the long run, we should probably have a storm door on the entrance which just happens to be right behind me here.Our local low this morning was -9. (Chicago, being closer to the Lake, won't show as being that cold.)Keeping me inside today will be a monumental documentation project, a bunch of hopper cars that are still around for their seventh operator. They began life in 1975 and 1976 on the Southern (900 cars), then went to the Tradewater Railway (430 cars). Some of those went to the Wheeling and Lake Erie (about 160 cars), and these and more TWRY cars went back to the Norfolk Southern, which had them rebuilt into high-side coke hoppers (200 cars total). From NS, all 200 of the cars went to The CIT Group (TCMX). A bunch of these went back to the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and now I'm looking at a griup of 84 cars that went to another TCMX series! I saw one of those cars on Christmas Day, and it's definitely playing the part of the Ghost of Christmas Past for me.
The icebox continues. -34F this morning at dawn.
But life goes on.
Posted a warning about using portable heaters on the fire department's FB page. We've had two calls for overheated outlets in the past few days. People don't realize how much electricity those things draw and in an older house, the wiring may not be up to it.
I was surprised when fire department in Florida shared it. It's a little nippy down there, too, although I'm not sure they'd survive our current temps. It'd be serious for them, for sure.
A whopping -22F this morning.
It occurs to me that this is the type of weather we usually see in February... Clear and frigid.
Good morning
2 degrees to start this last day of 2017.One more win and the old big 10 conference is perfect in it's bowl games.Don't know if church is cancelled yet or not.Wishing everyone the best and more trains in 2018.
Joe
It finally looks alot more like winter around here- picked up several inches of the white stuff yesterday. Had to get the snowblower out of the shed for the first time. Can't wait for the January thaw...
Took my grandson down by the UP transcon for about an hour yesterday during the storm, and caught one each EB and WB- or should I say they caught us (by surprise!), as they snuck up behind us while we were driving next to the tracks.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
47 degrees here this morning--and not enough snow. I hope we will be able to take showers this coming summer.
Johnny
mudchickenThe mountains are starting to see snow, but they are way behind for the season.
Maybe Redfield can send some over...
All the way up to +4F this morning, we might even see +20F. A little light snow here, but more lake effect is expected, mostly to the south of me.
60 degrees yesterday and no snow in the flat half of Colorado. The mountains are starting to see snow, but they are way behind for the season. Ski resorts in serious trouble.
Morning
Cleared off what mother nature sent us last night.Have chores to do here at home.Wind is going to pick up and blow this powder stuff around.As for winter it's a typical NW Ohio winter I grew up with.We have been spoiled for too long.
Most locals around Georgia are not prepared for the temps into the teens that are coming for next 5 .- 7 days. Going to be a lot of frozen pipes calls the next few days as temps go just above freezing each day. Completed winter preps today but this appears to be coldest in several years.
Re: the special visitors I mentioned yesterday.This noon Pat and I had lunch with Chris ("CopCarSS") and his fiancee, Amanda, in Elmhurst. Then, while Pat and Amanda went to visit the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art, Chris and I were kept busy by a steady stream of trains, both freight and commuter. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the pictures Chris comes up with; he seemed happy with what he was getting. Just as Pat and Amanda were returning from the museum, we were treated to a three-way: Outbound manifest on 2, outbound stack train on 3, and an inbound WPSX coal train on 1. We also had the excitement of a grade-crossing malfunction west of the station. I called it in to the railroad, and the next train through sounded his horn for the crossing.Amanda may not have known what she was getting into with train nuts (I'm sure Pat had some reassuring words for her). I think they enjoyed their visit here today.
Cleared off the snow this morning.Csx was moving.They had a set out of containers west of town.Train had a hot box last night.ND&W was busy moving cars too.Going to stay inside and keep warm.We have a crockpot of chili warming nicely.
We're having a bit of a warmup, double digits on the positive side for daytime highs. Got about a half-inch of snow last night, more is predicted for this afternoon. The ride to and from work has been on time despite the weather.
While it will sound like a heat wave to Tree - its 12 here in MD and I am about to make like M.A.S.H. and bug out - Snowbirding to Florida, race car in tow!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BOB WITHORNTree, I don't feel as cold now. We're at -15, a heat wave compared to you.
We peeked briefly at above zero temperatures today, but Watertown set a new record for itself last night at -32F.
Right now (9:30PM) I'm looking at -18F on the home weather station. Fortunately, there is no wind. We're supposed to be in the icebox for several days.
Took the grand-dog back to her owners today. Started out in bright sun with clear, dry roads. Soon enough, the lake effect was showing it's face, albeit not as hard as the last few days. Still, it was enough that I saw three traffic incidents, all in the same general area and all in the southbound lanes, one while southbound, and two on my way home. One was a Mustang whose driver probably discovered his horsepower was no match for his lack of traction...
The snowbanks throught the snowbelt were impressive...
Matt and I went to the Ns side this morning.Heard on scanner that Csx was having signal problems.Saw some fast intermodals,a big frieght and the local going to deliver material for where I work.Forcasting record lows for all weekend.The locals have cancelled a new years eve party due to the predicted chills.Today the ND&W has been in Defiance for 5 years now.Wonder if we should take them some cake?
Are you guys saying that the "Chatterbox" is appropriately named?
For the first time since Christmas afternoon, we have a temperature that requires two digits to convey. Fortunately, it's on the positive side.
We might have some special visitors tomorrow.
-30F at my home weather station (sensor about 20 feet up).
-28F at the fire station (possibly moderated slightly by heat loss from the building).
-25F on a remote thermometer closer to the ground here at the house.
Fortunately, winds are minimal, so wind chill isn't a factor.
Meanwhile, at a paper mill on the other side of the county, the drier section of the paper machine is on fire... That one was just called "under control," but they'll be there for a while yet.
It's not too surprising that the South Pole is currently warmer than Saskatchewan. After all, it's the beginning of summer down there!
Forecast for tonight's low for Encinitas will be +48F on the hilltops (300 to 400' msl) and maybe +40F in the inland valleys.
My furnace required a call from the furnace guy today and my patio door is frozen tight as a bank vault.
It's colder in Saskatoon than at the poles and we are 10 deg C colder than yet here in town. It's colder in Alberta than it is on Mars.
Saskatoon is colder than both the north and south poles
Since the North Pole is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, it’s a little tricky to get an accurate temperature reading. But the Norwegian Meteorological Institute tries their best, and their estimate for this week was that the top of the world was no colder than -23 C; six degrees warmer than Saskatoon’s Wednesday low of -29 C. Meanwhile, the South Pole — which is consistently the colder of the two poles — is -23 C.
Alberta’s warmest place was almost as cold as Mars
As Alberta was plunged into extreme cold warnings on Boxing Day, it was ironically the mountainous parts of the province that were its warmest. Banff and Jasper both escaped the “extreme cold” label by recording lows of only -19 C. This means that, for a few minutes, all of Alberta was about as cold as Mars’ Gale Crater, the home of the Curiosity rover. Mars is subject to pretty violent temperatures shifts, and Curiosity regularly encounters temperatures below -80 C. But this week, the highest temperature experienced by the rover were -23 C. A Calgary Boxing Day shopper, therefore, might have found themselves getting into a car that was literally colder than a Martian spacecraft.
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