afternoon
Still damp and foggy outside.Some schools got an extra day off.Ns still has a boxcar in our warehouse and a hopper car uptown.Need to run eraands in town.Guessers say windy and maybe thunderstorms.
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").
Snow finally* appeared in Denver and the rest of the Colorado front range yesterday. Wasn't much, only an inch or two, but the red flag warnings should go away for a while (the mountains got buried). On the other hand, the snow and cold/ice starts the annual sorting out of knuckleheads who don't maintain their vehicles (bald tires and no antifreeze**) along with those who don't know how to drive in winter weather or are too stoned to care going to the ski areas. (Joe sent all the people with their ditchfinders-on here ?)
(*) longest period between measureable snowfalls since 1887 and latest first snowfall ever. Ski resorts are in a world of hurt.
(**) Multiple car-b-ques reported yesterday and at least one flipped fuel truck.
Had some branches down here at our house.They are not threatning the house or vehicles so we can wait for mother nature to settle down.The swamp out back got a refill as well from the rain.Csx had high wind advisories today.Ns also put a coal train on the sandusky bay bridge to hold it down.Matt came home and he helped with a new ceiling fan in the living room.He is also able to walk with no crutches.Haven't had too much snow here MC but the people with the ditchfinders are having no problem.Time for supper.
Wind Storm with at best mist (my rain gauge is not registering accumulation) and temps in the 60's. Supposed to turn colder tonight. A number of branches from my neighbor's tree made it to my driveway - returned them to them.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
The wind has arrived here and the scanner shows it. Near constant dispatches for trees/wires down all over the county. My department just cleared a tree down call. I'm stuck at my house - can't be hobbling around scenes with this ankle.
My weather station is now showing sustained winds around 20 MPH, with the highest gust so far at 31 MPH. I live in a small valley, so I imagine the winds "up on the flats" are that much more brutal.
At this time of year, at least the leaves are off the trees, or it would be that much worse.
The tornados in the mid-south were clearly devastating. The candle factory took a particularly hard hit. One image showed to simultaneous twisters a short distance apart.
EDIT - Just had a 40 MPH gust, and shortly thereafter, my FD was called out, again. The scanner hasn't settled down one bit. Gonna be a long evening.
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...
Watched the Deshler cam today.166 had a special CP dpu that was orange.Reports are that 566 has the 3194 as a dpu as well.Will be dark when it gets here.Heard csx running as I was working outside.The yardwork is done for the season.I took care of the storm damage branches and such that I could.The area where they want the branches is a mudhole right now.Matt joined his former Sunday school advisor and went caroling for shut ins this afternoon.He will be back home Thursday or Friday. Time to get cleaned up.Oh yeah back to work tomorrow.
evening
Ns had an empty coal train westbound with Bnsf power after work.They also had a few cars uptown as well.Finshed up picking up other branches in the yard.Yard still swampy.Going to do some chores.
Western Michigan (where we were on Friday night) and Northern Indiana/Illinois (Saturday) were at the northern end of this system...a lot of hot air (turning quickly colder), and a little precipitation of undetermined charactistics...mostly wet when it hit the roads. No severe storms up this way, but when's the last time you've heard "gale warnings" in the official terminology (Chicago--Friday)? We took the time to go close to the shore line of Lake Michigan several times on our way down. Choppy, and I'm sure that people concerned about their land had other names for it. Riders on Amtrak's Pere Marquette Saturday morning would have had a great view of the waves (just out of splash range in places), and the Wolverine Severice trains would have gotten a dose in northwestern Indiana as well (not to mention the Lakeshore and Capitol Limited trains).A CSX freght train in a rare (for me) spot, as well as a couple of CN trains in western Gary (I still think of them as interlopers) made my day for me. All I wish is that my recovery from various ailments would make the processing of my notes easer for me.
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)
Got back from second cataract surgery, all seems fine but still have a right 'cat eye' (dilated). With my left eye I can read the words in those disclaimers at the bottom of commercial screens on TV.
Plenty of rain and snow precip in Norcal yesterday and today, have not checked totals yet but a good day Not to travel in the mountains.
Checked the Tehachapi cams and and I'm seeing a rare event - snow! Light intermittent snow is coming down and looks very scenic if you don't have to be out in it ; temp is about 30 degrees. About six inches has fallen with a little build up at the Depot grade crossing. Chat indicates that traffic is halted until they can unfreeze turnouts at CP Tehachapi (MOW guy on screen) and Cameron.
Links to my Google Maps ---> Sunset Route overview, SoCal metro, Yuma sub, Gila sub, SR east of Tucson, BNSF Northern Transcon and Southern Transcon *** Why you should support Ukraine! ***
Ns had a westbound grain train in the siding after work today.Ran errands in town.Checked on the ND&W as well.The tracks are less wavey west of town.The contractors want to make Antwerp before the Christmas break.Was happy to give a chuckle to MC.Went to a local Christmas concert as well.Time to get stuff ready for tomorrow.
Ns had a Carl special waiting to go east after work.Came home and saw a gathering of turkeys across the creek.Too wet to work outside now.Will work on chores inside.
Got a real mobility enhancer today - a knee scooter. Much better than a walker, for sure.
Got some friends who are going to install a railing next to my main access door to help me get in and out.
The downside of all this is that in a couple of months, I won't need any of it (I certainly hope).
Off to the ortho tomorrow, hopefully for a renewed cast/dressing. Something a little less bulky would be nice...
Larry, my oncologist said to me, "Getting old is not for sissies!" I don't want to be called a sissie so I plan to keep getting old. I would however wish that some of the issues we face when getting old were less problematic. Also, I don't like the alternative.
Iowa Railroads group on FB reports that there was a 20-car derailment tonight one mile east of Jefferson, IA due to weather. Hopefully not Jeff's train?
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Ns was clear after work.Swamp is still wet.Matt is back home and has the laundry to prove it.He and Mamma went into town to run errands.Going to do chores here.Glad tomorrow is Friday.
CSX still has one of their ballast trains parked here for a week now but at least not blocking any grade crossings. 2 Locos left train when it was parked The cars are all CSX solar cars. CSX also has a ballast train parked in LaGrange, Ga.
Ns was clear after work today.Matt and I did errands today.Ran out of daylight but started to make progress on a brush pile.Mother nature wants to send us more rain tomorrow.Guess I can do so shopping for santa. Csx likes to find places to park work trains at times.Defiance yard doesn't have that many tracks left to park stuff.
JoeKohMother nature wants to send us more rain tomorrow.
That's better than the up to 4" of white stuff we may see tomorrow...
Of course, for our neighbors on the other side of the river, that's 10 cm...
CSX picked up the Ballast train in LaGrange's old ACL yard came here. Came here combined with the ballast train set here and then proceeded south to somewhere,
This week CSX has started running their long freights as either 2x2x0 or 1x2x0. several mid train DPUs were nose to nose. The mid train DPUs are now more often at the 2/3rds point instead of 20-25 car near front of train.
Could that have been for experience operating DPUs?
tree68That's better than the up to 4" of white stuff we may see tomorrow...
At least our 80" or so of Sierra cement landed in the mountains earlier this week where it will contribute to next years water supply - yay. The down side for me is several days of lows into the 30s here - brrr. We're due for more of the same next week.
Last night the westbound SW Chief showed up in La Plata around midnight-ish PST. After that the usual CHI-KC flood of (mostly WB) short, fast IM trains started; looks like a few were following closely within the same CB. Thursday night I saw a WB with dog kennel cars - WTH?
Didn't see anything running in the rain today while doing errands.Matt was busy sorting out things in the train room.Our containers are set for Christmas.Going to go up to Edgerton tomorrow and check on my brother.Will see if we can find some trains on Ns.Swamp needs to dry out before we can go back out.
The snow arrived here around 11AM, and is still falling. A township plow just went by the house. I'd guess we've seen 3" so far. Made getting home from the memorial service a bit dicey - my knee scooter is made for bare pavement, not several inches of snow, some of it packed. And that was just to get out of the banquet hall and into a vehicle for the ride to the house.
The snow made the seven mile procession from the funeral home to our banquet hall an experience, as well. There are some hills, and some trucks had a little trouble with the as-yet unplowed roads. It was quite a sight - some 20 fire trucks, lights flashing, escorting our engine, which carried the urn and some family members.
Most of the vehicles we met on the trip pulled off to the side and stopped. One young lady got a little too far over, and surely panicking, slide off into the grass with her brakes locked. Hopefully she got back on her way in short order. I just happened to see it happen as we passed.
It was a nice service, conducted by one of our county fire chaplains.
Not sure who's going to eat all of the leftover food. There was a lot donated.
As for me, I'm beat - that's the most activity I've had since I broke the ankle before Thanksgiving.
Morning
Got repoorts that Ns derailed a couple cars while going into the siding at MP 327.That is right near my work parking lot.Going to check on Brother in Edgerton.Might be something we look at.Have chili in the crockpot for later.Swamp is still drying out.
This may irritate a few people, but our temperature is in the mid 30's. with a bright sun as I write this.
Well Ns got the problem fixed before we could get there.Plenty of MOW guys and welders looking at the switch.Did create a backlog of trains.Saw 2 Carl specials go west as well.One had side dump ballast cars on it.The other had trash containers from the east coast.Going to have some chili and warm up.
CSSHEGEWISCH This may irritate a few people, but our temperature is in the mid 30's. with a bright sun as I write this.
We have the same thing, with the addition of several inches of snow that fell yesterday.
I have steel roofing. One of my "Blink" cameras triggered on snow sliding off the roof.
Kind of a sad event this AM. As I was preparing breakfast, a nuthatch paid a visit to one of my bird feeders. Since getting out to fill them right now would be problematic, they remain empty. I'm guessing this poor fellow was a visitor last year and is wondering where the feast went...
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