Mookie Sunny, warm and "wow" windy here. Closed a section of I-80 due to dust and no visibility. Or maybe it was just the super-hero MudChicken goin' down the road. Travels at speed limit and uses dust as "invisibility cloak"....???
Sunny, warm and "wow" windy here. Closed a section of I-80 due to dust and no visibility. Or maybe it was just the super-hero MudChicken goin' down the road. Travels at speed limit and uses dust as "invisibility cloak"....???
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy SidingI think we're getting your dust from the south. Was it a dusty, grayish brown and moving horizontally at about 40 mph?
Isn't that special?
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
afternoon
Ns had an eastbound frieght waiting on track 2 when I left work.One of the grain cars was from a co-op in Imperial Nebraska.We have windy dry conditions and people want to burn.Fire departments are handing out citations.Chores to do.
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").
JoeKohImperial Nebraska
It's also about as far from Mooks as you can get in Nebrasky. (CB&Q/BN/BNSF/NKCR) about 20 miles from the world famous asparagus barrier.
Warmer here today.Mother Nature might send some rain our way too.Ns was clear when I left work.Mow was working on the track into one of the buildings.Errands to run.
Joe
Update
Csx q 015(intermodal) is derailed near Nappanee in Elkhart county Indiana.Might see some reroutes on Ns today at break times.Time to go to work.
I was joining in on the chat on the Deshler rail cam yesterday and found that there were four amateur radio operators on just at that time. Got the frequencies for the local ham repeaters, so may be able to chat a bit on the air while I'm there this summer. And maybe meet at least one of them.
The world just keeps getting smaller.
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...
tree68The world just keeps getting smaller.
Csx detoured some trains on Ns today.I saw 3 trains on ns after work.The 2nd eastbound had a csx/CN/ns power combo.Friend told me that csx has 2 westbounds parked just west of Defiance.Some reports say the derailment for csx was weather related.On the way home plenty of places had waterfront property.Chores to do.Need to send Matt to work.Glad tomorrow is Friday.
Mookie Ran into my boss in Seaport Village parking lot...
For many years, my kids were convinced that I knew people everywhere...
Somehow, our daughter Ellen had everyone convinced that people everywhere knew her! A friend of hers was traveling to Alaska with her mother, and they encountered a baggage handler who knew Ellen (encountered at a hockey camp held at the UofI at the same tme as Ellen's band camp). That band camp also accounted for an encounter I had with some kids in Berkeley, who brought the subject around to percussion. I said that my daughter was a percussionist, who just came home from ISYM (that UofI band camp). "What's her name?" "Ellen." "Is she the kind of girl who would make a copy of her face in the Xerox machine?" "I wouldn't put it past her." They came up with "Shaver" for the last name, so yup, that's Ellen. So we just had to be content with being the parents of a celebrity.
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)
(duplicate deleted)
What we were up to on April 30. Definitely a good trip!
I had a lot of sightings Monday, and that’s after finishing a 22-page report late the previous evening.
But my partner in crime wants me to tell about all of our adventures today first.
The story begins last winter, when Pat saw a show on our PBS station about the South Shore line—its history and current operations, including pictures of a trip from Chicago to South Bend.
At the end of the program, Pat said, “I’d like to ride the South Shore from one end to the other sometime.” After I picked myself up off the floor, I said, “I’m going to hold you to that.”
Today, the nicest day of the year so far, was the day we picked. We got up and caffeinated early, and caught a rush-hour scoot downtown.
Leaving the train, we had an encounter with a woman who was trying to escape an abusive relationship. We let her use my phone to call the Salvation Army, but they couldn’t help her. But while she was trying to get some help, we were thinking about what our pastor had said Sunday about calls to service coming at inopportune times. This took any time cushion away from us. Then we found that the bus I’d planned on taking across the Loop didn’t run that early in the day. So we set off walking to Millennium Station.
We arrived at the station about ten minutes ahead of the train’s departure. The ticket line for the one South Shore agent was long and moving slowly, so we just went to the train, resigning ourselves to paying the penalty for not having a ticket. We had given up completely on getting breakfast before catching the train.
On the train, the conductor sold my “daughter” and me our tickets. Both senior fares, though. I was able to look out the front of the train when it was useful, and showed Pat when we left the Metra corridor at Kensington. We crossed the new bridge by the Ford plant and dropped into Hegewisch. While near the Hegewisch station, I saw a couple of the legendary but obscure new bilevel auto rack cars of the equally legendary Utah Central Railway!
From Hegewisch to Michigan City, Pat’s pretty familiar with the South Shore’s route, from our having driven along much of it nearly every time we come home from Michigan. We did see the station in Hammond that we never drive right by, and I think we connected a few dots on the route.
Then came an announcement: because of track and catenary work along the line east of Michigan City, our train would terminate at the Carroll Avenue Shops, and buses used for the rest of the trip to South Bend. We made a mutual decision to grab some breakfast in Michigan City, and not to ride no stinkin’ bus!
So instead, after buying our return tickets at the office there, we walked a few blocks to a Mickey D’s I remembered, encountering a Lustron house on the way there. Sadly, the house was vacant. After a leisurely lunch and walk back, we had an hour to kill before our train departed for Chicago. Pat got sunburned sitting outside the shelter there (couldn’t blame her—that shelter was stuffy!). I, meanwhile, walked a couple of tracks’ worth of freight cars, getting some raw data about serial numbers, former identities, and lessees...pretty good stuff, if I need it!
Our train left on time, and trundled through the streets of Michigan City again. That’s right—down the middle of the street! The presence of a train clears the traffic lights, and the cars stayed out of our way.
There's a place just west of Michigan City, apparently owned by a private collector, that has two of the old South Shore coaches, a steeple-cab electric locomotive (possibly not South Shore), and a pile of the catenary poles from what they used to call the "ideal section" of the South Shore, on the eastern edge of Gary. For operational purposes, the Ideal Section is now pretty much systemwide, with constant-tension wiring, and plans for potentially two-tracking everything west of Michigan City, not to mention getting out of the street there. Even the "Glory Days" weren't like this!
Did I mention the amazing weather Monday? It got up to 80 in the city. Being without the time constraints, we walked across the Loop again, stopping for some liquid refreshment on the way back to our station. We still had plenty of time before our scoot left.
On the train heading out, we played a game of tag with a slow-moving westbound freight. We were faster than he was most of the time, but we had to make the station stops at Oak Park, River Forest, Maywood, and Melrose Park before we finally got ahead of him. It worked like a charm—I was able to see what I needed to (sometimes twice!), and that has already provided some good stuff for my next report.
We got home and pretty much collapsed. And no wonder—my phone pedometer says I had walked seven miles!
What puzzled me, though, is how many times were were told that we made a "cute couple!" Pat says that's a heavy burden to bear, but we'll just have to do our best.
Next time—and there will be a next time, because we didn’t see the open country east of Michigan City—we’ll be a little better prepared for the contingencies we had to handle this time. We saw some neat stuff, and learned a few things about the countryside we crossed. We’ll recover tonight and tomorrow morning, perhaps--maybe even to the point of being cute again!
Right now we're up in Michigan again, saying goodbye to Pat's mother. She's on hospice care now, and we don't know how long she has. We'll head back home sometime in the weekend, prepared to come back up whenever we need to. We also have work to do on the family cottage, replacing ceilings, walls, and insulation. The new stuff will be a lot more rodent-proof--we're taking care of a good 60 years' worth of activity on their part.
Carl, glad to see that you enjoyed the South Shore as much as I did (and still do). In my high school days, I was a daily rider from 115th Street to Hegewisch from school (Mendel HS) to home.
Carl, I am sorry to hear about Pat's mother. Indeed, leaving one's home for a care facility is not the easiest thing to do, even when children are close by.
My South Shore adventure came in April of 1971, after I returned to Chicago from my first trip out West (planned to cover lines that would not have passenger service after the end of the month); this was an extra on that trip. I rode all the way out in the then current equipment, enjoying the view ahead, and enjoying the view ahead on the way back in, also. At some point, several bundles of newspapers were put on board, as I remember. I stopped off on the way in to visit the Museum of Science and Industry--and enjoyed seeing what I could that day (I have been back several times since, one time with Ricki and the children and one time with just Ricki),
Johnny
DeggestyMy South Shore adventure came in April of 1971,
I had a similar experience in about 1972. My brother came in from California and wanted to ride the South Shore. So he and my daughter (7 years old) and I took the C&NW scoot (we lived near Pleasant Lane School) to Chicago. walked to the IC Station and caught the SS train to South Bend. Riding in the orange 1926 cars and rocking and rolling down the IC electric jointed rail. Got to Kensington and NO more rocking, just smooth rolling. The conductor came up to our seats, looked at my daughter, didn't say a word to us, and asked her to come with him. She did, and we followed them up through the baggage compartment to the front vestibule where we joined the motorman for an extended period. The only clue I could determine that the conductor acted upon was my camera hanging on me. Great trip to the AMshack on the outskirts of South Bend. This was before SS opened its airport station.
Ns had the CNJ unit leading a stack train in archbold when I got off work.Mother nature is sending the wind the guessers promised this morning.chores to do.
Hey, Joe - we found your wind. Had a gust of 47 at the fire station, and the fire dispatchers were doing two and three dispatches at once. It was crazy for a while.
Cut the grass yesterday, off to Michigan today (LSRC AREMA mtg.)
mudchicken Cut the grass yesterday, off to Michigan today (LSRC AREMA mtg.)
Neighbor cut his today. Guess I'll have to do so tomorrow. Got a birthday party to attend this afternoon.
Interesting fire call this morning. A primary line, which probably came loose during our wind event, managed to contact the carrier (steel) cable which was carrying a 96 fiber FO line. The steel cable turned into a big heater and fried the FO line for several hundred feet. The owners of the line will have their hands full this afternoon.
MC - say hi to MI for me - I'll be there in a couple of months.
MC are you driving or taking the silver bird??
Mowed thew swamp yesterday.Mother nature sent us some more rain.Matt will be mowing uptown again this year.Former neighbor had a bad waterline repaired.Now she needs the dirt leveled and grass seed put in.Today Csx had a bit of everything.Bnsf,Cn,CP,Ferromex and Up.Was waiting to see a former CNW unit but it hasn't left Chicago yet.Annual Chicken BBQ in Deshler is on May 26th.Matt switched days around so he could go.Back to work tomorrow.
We were in Michigan two weekends ago for my mother's birthday, this past week to say goodbye to Pat's mother, and will be up again this coming week for a cottage work day. Pat's mom died today, and the funeral will be either this coming week or early the following week. The trips to Michigan put on the miles, but I wouldn't forego any of them.
Carl, I am sorry to hear of Pat's mother going Home. May you and all of her family find comfort at this time.
Sincerely, Johnny
Carl - I'll echo Johnny's sentiment.
Evening
Carl and Pat sorry for your loss..
Ns had a westbound empty coal train when I left work tonight.Work busy.Chores to do.
JoeKohCarl and Pat sorry for your loss..
Agreed. My condolences.
Local was uptown when I left work.Need to go vote.Chores to do.
A country resident decided to burn a small pile of whatever, but didn't watch it. Spent three hours (with help from seven other fire departments) dealing with it.
And there's even a ban on outdoor fires right now.
They're friends of mine, but I kinda hope the Environmental Conservation Police write them up.
Of course, the fields aren't dried out, and two brush trucks required a tow from a dozer to get out...
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