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Chatterbox Winter 2018-2019

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Posted by JoeKoh on Friday, January 4, 2019 2:24 PM

afternoon

Sunshine here in Nw Ohio and 50!! Ns had the local uptown.Need to go to the hardware store and get new faucet handles.Going to see what we can see tomorrow with brother.

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").

 

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Posted by mudchicken on Friday, January 4, 2019 12:20 PM

Paul of Covington

   Sunshine?   They're promising us that we'll see some this weekend.  It'll be the first time in at least a couple of weeks, and before that we've had a very wet season.  The ground on the side of the house is a flat expanse of bare mud with a few weeds in it.   I think the grass just drowned.   I have some plants in a greenhouse that I haven't had to water in two weeks.  The relative humidity has been within a couple of points of 100% the whole time so the water is not evaporating.  Oddly, except for one day, we haven't had a lot of rain, just mostly an on and off misty drizzle.   My mushrooms have mildew.

 

Quit hoarding the agua! The east half of Colorado needs it pretty bad. (don't light a match around here, the range fire will be off heading towards Kansas in a heartbeat.)

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Paul of Covington on Thursday, January 3, 2019 9:33 PM

   Sunshine?   They're promising us that we'll see some this weekend.  It'll be the first time in at least a couple of weeks, and before that we've had a very wet season.  The ground on the side of the house is a flat expanse of bare mud with a few weeds in it.   I think the grass just drowned.   I have some plants in a greenhouse that I haven't had to water in two weeks.  The relative humidity has been within a couple of points of 100% the whole time so the water is not evaporating.  Oddly, except for one day, we haven't had a lot of rain, just mostly an on and off misty drizzle.   My mushrooms have mildew.

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by JoeKoh on Thursday, January 3, 2019 2:24 PM

afternoon

Sunshine here in NW Ohio.Ns had some empty cars uptown.Chores to do here.

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").

 

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, January 3, 2019 1:35 PM

Mother Nature and Old Man Winter can't seem to make up their minds here.  Green lawns yesterday, several inches of snow overnight.

And now, this afternoon, we're back up to the freezing mark. 

I like the meme aimed at Michigan folks (but could be true here, too)->  Mother Nature:  You can't have all four seasons in one week.  Michigan:  Hold my Faygo...

LarryWhistling
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...

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, January 3, 2019 7:00 AM

It's been a fairly mild winter here so far.  Mid to upper 30's expected today with mid-40's over the weekend, plus sun.  Only problem is that the ground is pretty soggy in places due to earlier rain and snow flurries.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by JoeKoh on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 4:08 PM

Good evening

Back to work today.Ns had an eastbound autorack train in the siding.A westbound stack train went by after work as well.Had to go around a big accident south of work on the way home.Matt is working on the layout.Need to do chores.

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").

 

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 2:49 PM

mudchicken
I feel a road trip coming on.



Me, too.  I've not really had that much action (or productive action, anyway, if you count the post from 12/31).  Friday it's supposed to get into the 40s and be sunny here; that should be a good day for the walk/scoot/lunch/scoot/walk trip to Elmhurst and/or Oak Park.  I've gotten over the disappointment of my favorite Five Guys restaurant being closed in Oak Park, as there's also a good barbecue place there.  And Elmhurst has many good lunch spots, all with the advantage of a view of the tracks.  

Saturday's supposed to be even better, as far as weather goes (upper 40s, maybe increasing clouds).  I might use that for a foray into northwestern Indiana.  Pat has not expressed an interest in this one, either, so I'll probably go solo.  

Today we both went shopping.  I wan't required at the places we visited, but Pat plied me with a trackside restaurant in LaGrange.  And though nothing went by while we were at the restaurant, we caught a couple of good freights at Downers Grove and Western Springs, on our way there.  How good they were, I'm about to find out.

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)

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 12:31 PM

mudchicken
Company truck still comes equipped with a sixteen pound circuit breaker.  I feel a road trip coming on.

I have a nice large capacitor bank in storage that will help finish the job.  Send me time and location for the meet-up and I'll see you there...

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 11:00 AM

Salt Lake City--+15 and sunny.

Johnny

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Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 8:33 PM

OverMod: cookies have been swept twice. What's odd is that it does not matter on which machine I use. Same outcome.

Company truck still comes equipped with a sixteen pound circuit breaker. I feel a road trip coming on. (Or I can walk in their building with all the tin-foil protection removed Surprise)

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 5:32 PM

mudchicken
(still issues logging-in. Still bugz in da software up in cheezelandia?)



Suspect the software now points somewhere in Texas.

Have you tried clearing the Kalmbach cookies out of your browser?  (If you haven't done that in a while, you should probably go through when you have an idle half an hour and get rid of all the trackers and such anyway)

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Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 5:28 PM

A balmy 11 degrees all afternoon in Denver with two inches of powder from yesterday. Our brief taste of winter will be gone tomorrow. (The scottie snow snark will be so disappointed. At three degrees he is a furry black bundle of energy on a leash.)

(still issues logging-in. Still bugz in da software up in cheezelandia?)

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 5:20 PM

Chicago, 19 with flurries expected. Enjoy the Florida weather Balt.

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 4:59 PM

North Florida - 81 and sunny

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by CShaveRR on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 2:46 PM

Today is just cold and gloomy.  At least we didn't get the icy weather that had been promised us yesterday. 

I was able to end the year on a high note yesterday.  We had errands at the post office (north of the tracks) and the med-group pharmacy (south of the tracks).  Which means, of course, an intervening railroad crossing.  We chose Finley Road, and arrived just as the gates were going down.  It was an eastbound coal train on Track 2, headed by UP 1996, the Southern Pacific heritage unit.  The train was moving very slowly (perhaps starting from a stop).  

Soon after the coal train started across a westbound stacker came through on Track 1, rapidly overhauling the coal train.  It had only a single unit, but was moving pretty well...perhaps the ArroWedge box on the first car really did help it along.  It was fairly short, and cleared the crossing before the coal train had gotten much of a roll on.


With the stacker gone, I could concentrate on the coal train, which had cars mostly from Wells Fargo Rail, in an assortment of FURX, WFRX, and BBLX reporting marks (with a few CRIX cars in as well).  The rotary-coupler ends on these cars were red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green.  Looked like I was going to have a fine time researching them, but when I did, I found that I'd seen all of the groups represented.  It was a grim reminder of the decline of coal business at some Midwest Power companies, such as Wisconsin Electric, NIPSCO, Detroit Edison, and Consumers Energy.

The train was rolling faster when the hind end (with one DPU) came by.  The gates started up, but only got about 30 degrees up before dropping again!  This time it was a westbound manifest freight on Track 3, and he seemed to be moving faster than either of the other two had been (though empty center-beam flats should be limiting his speed to 40).  Again, I had several notes on interesting and potentially-useful sightings from this train, but only one useful one...a box car from a group of four operated by the Camp Chase Railway, L.L.C.--in the CAMY 66100 series.  These cars were actually on about their sixth operator after having been Hecho in Mexico for the Columbus & Greenville Railway.  Lets see...they'd gone to WLO, JEFW, NOKL, and GNWR before coming to CAMY.
 
So that was the end of last year.  Our travelers had departed on Sunday, and Amtrak, from all indications, gave them a good ride from Chicago to Fullerton (they arrived only an hour or so late).  I'm anxious to hear my son-in-law's thoughts on the experience...this was his first long-distance train trip, and he's 45.  My daughter enjoyed the train...not so much the experience with the grandson whose autistic acting out ruined certain aspects of it for all concerned (and probably a few not concrned).  

But they toasted the new year somewhere around Kingman, and we toasted it a few hours earlier before retiring early.  I'm hoping for a 2019 that brings new experiences, repeats of the good old ones, and better times for all.  Peace!

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)

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 1:57 AM

They told us it would get windy around 2 AM and it did.  

Decided to go out and lower the lights on the "Christmas tree" in the front yard before it blew over...  One stake had already pulled out of the ground.  More were sure to follow.

LarryWhistling
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...

  • Member since
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  • From: Defiance Ohio
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Posted by JoeKoh on Monday, December 31, 2018 5:44 PM

Good Evening

Rain all day today.Under a flood advisory and a high wind watch as well.Going to stay in and watch the ball drop from here at home.Matt is busy in the train room working on the wiring system.2018 wasn't the best for friends and family.Let's hope 2019 is much better.Happy New Year.

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").

 

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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, December 30, 2018 6:08 AM

Good morning

Heard some csx trains coming through town this morning.We have church and then need to give hugs this afternoon.Grandma's snowman kit is going to be put up for awhlie.Guessers calling for rain to move in tomorrow.Wishing Houston Ed a happy birthday tomorrow as well.Off to get cleaned up.

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").

 

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, December 28, 2018 8:32 PM

Was Southbound and down - left Central Maryland just before midnight in the rain and had rain all the way to about Mile 40 in South Carolina.  Hit Jacksonville at Noon.  Saw regular gas prices as cheap as $1.859.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by JoeKoh on Friday, December 28, 2018 5:59 PM

Evening

Took Stacey's car for service today.Also used gift cards for lunch and supper too.Ns looked like they were busy digging around the fuel pad area in the New Haven Yard.Traffic came in on the NKP and Wabash while we were there.The high hoods were still being used for yard power.Wasn't much in Garrett on the way home but Csx ran a few westbounds.Need to take Stacey's car to the wash tomorrow.Didn't go on any Indiana backroads but we still brought home some Indiana with us.

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").

 

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Posted by JoeKoh on Thursday, December 27, 2018 2:12 PM

afternoon

Rain has arrived in Nw Ohio.Was able to go use one of our gift cards for luch.The Amtrak Lake(Late) Shore was about 2 hours late as it came west in Delta.Looked around the csx yards on the east side of Toledo as well. Tomorrow we get the oil changed in Stacey's vehicle.Get to use another gift card for lunch.

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").

 

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 9:17 PM

We have plenty of cookies left here, and came home with more different ones besides. 

We left for Michigan on Christmas Eve and came home today.  Not a single worthwhile train sighting the whole time, and none in the days before our trip as I was concentrating on getting a report out.  I'm well overdue!  

Linda, Chris, and Linus arrived here Sunday morning, and came up to Michigan with us. It was great having our entire family together on Christmas Eve.  We'll have another gathering with just daughters, spouses, and grandchildren Friday.  Meanwhile, we'll put Linda and family on a dinky to Chicago tomorrow afternoon to spend some time with friends who will be taking Amtrak down from Milwaukee.  Linda currently has some mobility issues, so we're using BNSF instead of UP, to put them in the same station.  It's nice to be able to do that.  


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)

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 4:10 PM

Quoting Brian "I haven't had any problems since I "ate" all my cookies. Wink"

I didn't eat mine; I threw them  out because they apparently were rotten.Smile

Johnny

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Posted by blhanel on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 3:45 PM

mudchicken

 

BrianH: Don't think the issues with Trains website are quite over with. The "bug" seems to be affecting all three CPU's I work with differently and it's a new fix applied every day. Hope the programmer/code junkie got a big bag of coal yesterday - deserves a unit train's worth.

 

I haven't had any problems since I "ate" all my cookies. Wink

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 1:52 PM

I gave my wife a lump of coal for Christmas, it looks great on her finger.  Of course, it was under extreme pressure for a very long time before it was mined.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by JoeKoh on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 12:46 PM

afternoon

Went out and saw what CSX had to offer.A unit grain train is filling up west of town.Problem is the engine will be facing the wrong way when it comes out.An ethanol train came by with CP,Bnsf and a Up unit.Ran errands as well.

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").

 

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Posted by mudchicken on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 12:19 PM

I guess it's going to be Monday all week. Been trying to retrace a Union Pacific line change from 1907 north of Denver when the yellow peril built a new bridge over the South Platte River. Just cannot find enough detail on what they did. (Some draftsman from long ago erased the relationship between the new and old allignments?) So far, not enough pieces and parts to figure out the puzzle, even with Uncle Pete's help back in Omaha.

The brain damage (and dumpster diving in Uncle Pete's attic) continues.

BrianH: Don't think the issues with Trains website are quite over with. The "bug" seems to be affecting all three CPU's I work with differently and it's a new fix applied every day. Hope the programmer/code junkie got a big bag of coal yesterday - deserves a unit train's worth.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 7:53 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH

I'm not absolutely sure about this, but I once read that Boxing Day got its name for the Christmas boxes you gave to people like your mail carrier, paper boy, etc. on the day after Christmas.

 

That's more like what I had understood--the day that you remember those who have given you service through the year.

The weather here was a little damp--their was a light snow which did not stay in the morning, and a somewhat heavier snow in the late evening and night which is still visible. From the forecasts, I had thoughts of such heavy snows as we had two years ago and five years ago (five years ago, my daughter cleared the snow in the morning, and I cleared it in the afternoon.

Larry, I beat you are family gatherings--Monday night with one daughter and some of her family )including her daughter who lives in Brooklyn) and last night with the other daughter and her family.

A merry second day of Christmas to all!

Johnny

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 7:24 AM

I'm not absolutely sure about this, but I once read that Boxing Day got its name for the Christmas boxes you gave to people like your mail carrier, paper boy, etc. on the day after Christmas.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul

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