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.
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...
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)
North Florida - 81 and sunny
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Chicago, 19 with flurries expected. Enjoy the Florida weather Balt.
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(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)
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 )
Salt Lake City--+15 and sunny.
Johnny
mudchickenCompany 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...
mudchicken I feel a road trip coming on.
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").
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.
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...
afternoon
Sunshine here in NW Ohio.Ns had some empty cars uptown.Chores to do here.
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
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.
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.
Bee-yoo-tiful day here! We were promised mid-40s; the official temperature is currently 51. Tomorrow was supposed to be better; I'll settle for a match (no, MC, not that kind!).The trip to Elmhurst and Oak Park went smoothly, though I was cheated out of almost a mile of walking (Pat dropped me off at the library). I went to Elmhurst, stayed for an hour, then went east to Oak Park for lunch. They have deck all the way across the Des Plaines River (not quite solid) for the new third track there.Dined at Q (my favorite Five Guys closed up), and I gladly left most of my fries behind in order to catch the next returning scoot to Elmhurst. Had I not, I would have missed a fantastic eastbound manifest freight that went through slowly, even stopping a couple of times. The time seemed to fly by (truth be told, the scoot I was on was having some PTC issues, and made a few extra stops of its own, not to mention arriving at Oak Park late...how many times does that happen?). So, after less than an hour in Elmhurst, I caught the next westbound scoot (not late) toward home. There was a lunar light at the Park control point, and I hoped I wasn't missing another good freight. It turns out that it was a grain train, but it didn't go through until I could get off the scoot and watch it in Lombard.While I was calling Pat to see if she needed any errands run, the home signal at Grace lined up for an eastbound on Track 2. I held back a little until that train (intermodal, with lots of repo empties on the hind end) blew through. I have pages and pages of notes; I'll get to them once I get caught up on other computer stuff here.
CShaveRR While I was calling Pat to see if she needed any errands run, the home signal at Grace lined up for an eastbound on Track 2. I held back a little until that train (intermodal, with lots of repo empties on the hind end) blew through.
While I was calling Pat to see if she needed any errands run, the home signal at Grace lined up for an eastbound on Track 2. I held back a little until that train (intermodal, with lots of repo empties on the hind end) blew through.
Sounds like the same train I watched leave Global 3 on the webcam earlier (around 2-ish?).
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Well, whatever work the web lackeys did, they must have wrapped up, because I can log in and reply again. Customer service said something about hardware and software upgrades........
Saw the Burlington Job today as I was coming home from work, wonder when they started using two engines on it. Spent the afternoon reading MR, Trains and the new Micro-Mark catalog..........
Load for the Spartanburg, SC area is ready to go when I get to De Pere Sunday, haven't looked at my return load yet, probably a Darlington load to Chicago..........
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
mudchicken 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.)
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.)
MC --- we have been hoarding the rain as well. Neighbor claims 12.35 inches last 4 weeks. Every one in town gets stuck in mud if they even think about getting off the pavement ! Now supposed to have 6 - 8 days dry ( I hope ). Wind is blowing every thing around with many trees coming down. Have 2 trees am worried about.
Back home.Was able to take brother to St.Joe where the NS( former wabash) crosses CSX(B&O). Ns had to wait while a Csx intermodal went west.L 96 on NS was having engine problems before he got up to SDI.On the way home I stopped in Bryan.Ns sent an eastbound with a mid train DPU.Matt has been working on the layout.He will go let the dogs out before going to work.Chores to do here.
Jan. 5th and bright sunshine and 53 degrees. Not what we normaly see this time of year. Took the outside Christmas lights off the bushes.
Cooler but the sunshine is nice.Csx ran some interesting trains by today.The local even went further east to a local elevator.Saw someone was a bad neighbor by dumping trash in a farmers field.People just don't care anymore I guess.Back to work tomorrow.
At 6:45 this morning, it was +38: I did not look out the window to see if there was precipitation. At 8;40, it was raining, and there was black ice in spots. It was snowing after church--that has stopped, but the temperature is now (1:55) 34.
Tree,
We peretty much had a multi season last week in Michigan, go figure. Faygo Red or Orange? Maybe Grape?
Ns had plenty of cars to shuffle uptown.Rain here in Nw Ohio.Going to cool off but no real snow threat here.Chores to do here at home.
BOB WITHORN Tree, We peretty much had a multi season last week in Michigan, go figure. Faygo Red or Orange? Maybe Grape?
Figured it would probably be a Red Pop...
Rockin' Rye (error intentional)!
Utah had the fans on high, Kansas & Nebrasky had the vacuum clears on as high as they go. 61 degrees and 50+ MPH winds. The mountains are dealing with blizzard conditions, while the the plains have seen not a flake. Hanging light fixtures on the 11th floor offices were swinging several inches. Nobody light a match!
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