I don’t feed the birds in the summertime. I figure they will do fine by themselves.
Have seen several families of turkeys on the railroad- the young ones can fly now.
And the loon (or a relative) is back on one of the ponds we pass. Pretty cool.
Long day and a half. Two hour drive to attend a hearing on the trail issue, followed by a two hour drive to the railroad so I could work as conductor today.
Tomorrow is preparations for the “French Festival” near here on Saturday. Gotta get the bike (and some other stuff) ready. Hopefully everyone remains healthy and accident free all day…
Just back yesterday from a few days in Michigan. As usual, not much in the way of trains though I did see a series of secondhand covered hoppers that I had fun sleuthing out (they originated on BN, but you’d never know it!) and a new reporting mark to me…third or fourth one for the cars I saw.
On the way home, I saw what appeared to be a freshly-graded base for a new third track on the NS main line near Ogden Dunes, Indiana. This is basically for improving passenger service between Chicago and Michigan, though I’m sure NS will benefit as well. It won’t be three tracks for the whole distance from Porter (at least not yet), but every little bit will help.
NS also disrupted our trip home by blocking the crossing on Burnham Avenue, so I had to detour around Dolton and Blue Island. However, they’ve finished the grade separation of the NS (ex-NKP) main line at 130th and Torrance. The streets now go under the NS, with the huge truss bridge of NICTD/SouthShore flying over the whole thing. We wouldn’t have seen this had we not had to take the route through Hegewisch.
went to Deshler yesterday.Trains,friends and the Deshler Legion put on a fireworks show.The crews waiting in the wyes got a good show.Carl we sent a big q 393 full of goodies.Had 2 KRL heavy load cars looking for loads.Going to relax today.Mother nature has sent us more rain.
On Friday, I saw one of the oddest Cascades consists I have ever seen. A Midwest NPCU led Dash 8-32BWH 510, which was followed by one of the original Talgo sets and another Midwest NPCU. Couldn’t get a picture, unfortunately, as I was travelling the other way on the highway.
Maybe Amtrak needs to look elsewhere to reduce their expensive tunnels. If a $1.0+ Billionaire drug lord can get a concret lined , 60 foot deep, 1 mile + escape tunnel built then something may be wrong ?
Time to buy a lottery ticket (or maybe it’s too late…)
Notified this morning that my “vanity” ham call sign has been approved.
Got a call this afternoon that the hamfest (amateur radio flea market) I stopped in to briefly on the way to daughter’s Sunday drew my name for first prize - so I have another radio (which I do want…)
Ns had a frieght in the siding when I left work.Work still busy.Chores to do today and tomorrow.Thinking of following the wabash line from Ft.Wayne to watch the 765 put on a show this weekend.Depends what else is going on.Guessers say the triple h’s are coming this weekend too.We will see.
Ns had an eastbound waiting when I got to work.It had a csx,bnsf,ns combo for power.Went into town.CSX had a grain train and a stack tarin go west.The stack train had orange bnsf power.Rain tomorrow.Chores to do.
Been working hard to get that trailer kit I bought all assembled. Need it next week, but I’m on the railroad this weekend, so that’s cutting into the assembly time. Not that I mind being on the railroad.
Gotta hit the road early in the AM, so time for bed!
Hitting the road shortly, headed away from civilization once more. I’m hoping that we’ll find some neat stuff on the fringes before we plunge into oblivion for a while.
It will be hot and sticky here in Chicagoland through the weekend; at least ten degrees cooler where we’re headed. Walks on the beach would be nice, but Lake Michigan has swallowed up the beach this summer. I’m bringing my bike this time; Pat will rent one up there if we take the trail.
Tree, has the man been found that fell into the manhole yet?? I guess Cameron Il. took a hard hit from a tornado. All we get here in the mtns. is just the summer sunshine.
Brother and I got early start and went to Ft.Wayne.We watched the 765 get underway on it’s trip on the Wabash.The wabash heritage unit was also in the yard but it was back in the fueling rack.Mother nature sent us a monsoon and we are under a tornado watch now.We stopped at Garrett and saw a k 630 go east.They shut down the 2nd engine because no one at Garrett could fill it with water.Going to relax.