First day of summer.Guessers are saying chances of rain.We need it.Went over to Deshler and chat with Larry(Tree) for awhile.Csx started slow but then the trains kept moving.On the way north the L 318 moved a bad order car so the crews could work on it.Then on the way back south a rail train crew parked their train in a siding in Ottawa.The crew van brought them back up to Deshler.They took over for the L 318 crew and picked up the fixed car and the train and took it back to Lima.We also had a meeting as well.Will be helping out Saturday as our curator needs to help with other projects.Time for bed.
Did errands after I woke up.Checked the NDW yard.They are prepping a former NS switcher for shipment.The owner from Napoleon has sold it.Not sure if it is going to NS or CSX.Tomorrow going to check on brother and help him call Sis to wish her Happy Birthday.Balt we could use some rain as well.
Summer started earlier than the calendar in Northern Illinois and we’re going through a bit of a dry spell complete with brown lawns. We might some rain early next week.
Checked on brother.He got to wish Sis a happy birthday.Went over to Indiana.Ns was hit and miss.We ventured to Elkhart and saw an Ns crew working on swapping power around.Then in the traffic jam coming home saw 3 Ns westbounds coming for the yard in Goshen.Came home and took care of the yardwork.Tomorrow it;s chores here at home and errands.Saturday it’s Deshler.
Tornado Lite was mostly heavy rain (2.5 inches in 30 minutes) and heavy wind (80-100 mph) with pea and marble sized hail…nobody around here saw a funnel even though the path was within a quarter mile of the house. Worst damage here was a couple of damaged rose bushes. Gratefull this wasn’t an eastern Colorado/Kansas/Nebraska/Iowa type twister. [flying monkeys absent]
Will be cleaning up and bagging leaves when they dry out. (and falling off the new siding - house has pseudo green polka dots right now)
Took lunch into town.Saw I 010 on Csx.The Ns switcher is going to Connelsville Indiana when Csx can pick it up.Also the NDW sent the Sante Fe 2026 and 3 boxcars west to Woodburn for Ns.The rain line was coming eastbound but fell short of here at home.Guessers say lookout Sunday night.Going to finish up chores here.
Got home from my whirlwind “vacation.” Saw lots of trains in Deshler, had a great reunion (it’s for those who have celebrated their 50th reunion). Just missed a big laker at Port Huron (got in a wrong lane and had to endure a lengthy detour), and anyone who’s driven through Toronto knows how that goes.
Had to fix a brake - found one wheel with the metal pad backing up against the rotor. No serious damage, and I had a spare pad on the shelf, so we’re back on the road again.
This weekend is the Amateur Radio “Field Day,” where we set up a “bare base” operation, running on alternative power, and see how many contact we can make from around the country and around the world.
It’s surprising how many railfans are hams. Spoke to several at Deshler. One arranged for me to contact a ham in VA (or was is SC? His records show VA). And he’ll be looking for our operation (call sign K2I) while he’s operating.
Maned the museum yesterday.Had some visitors.Csx ran some trains here and there.People were out enjoying the day.Guessers say rain and storms.Going to see if we can catch the local picking up the switcher at Fc.Tomorrow it’s back to work.
Back to work.Ns has cars across the street and uptown.Mother nature sending showers.Yesterday had some funnel clouds spotted north of us.Need to do some chores.
We ended up with around 515 contacts during Field Day - likely a new high for us. It’s by no means a record - I’m sure that similar operations to ours may have acquired totals of 1,000 or more.
One station in the Maryland area was running 12 transmitters, all on different modes and frequencies. We had four.
Ns came and picked up the cars across the street today.Still have cars parked uptown.College boy got a package in the mail.Will take care of yardwork tomorrow after work.
Looks like we’re finally going to get some summer weather here. Thursday temps are projected to hit 84F and 92F on Saturday. After that we’ll see… No RR heat restrictions known for this area.
As opposed to CN in Quebec where the RR is optimized for, say, 0C. They impose 20MPH if above 70F (!! 20C/68F?) and currently 10MPH (!!!) if above 30C/86F. Amtrak has suspended service north of Albany. Due to climate change perhaps CN should plan ahead for the upcoming east Canada desert …
Due to the Yellowstone River bridge collapse the ex-GN part of the BNSF northern transcon will be a real mess for a few months. Maybe they should rethink their slow upgrade path between Sandpoint ID and Whitefish MT - some longer sidings and 2MT would be helpful now.
something different on our local CSX siding. Around 1300 Tuesday afteernoon CSX loco 908 arrived being sandwiched on south by loaded Herzog ballast cars. North of loco was about 5-6 B&O marked loaded side dump rip cars with various sizes of rip rap. around 1800 siding rip rap cars picked up. Intermodal trains were running at least as far as LaGrange with a couple also BNSF’s to BHM. LaGrange has intermodals go 3 diffeent routes. Ballast cars still hee at 0030 with 908 still running.
About an hour 1400 another south bound rip rap train passed by long end first. Wondered how a loco only in middle of a train operates PTC?
Nice to see those side dump hoppers once in awhile.Waiting to see when the B&O caboose is going to come back this way.They did send the chessie heritage unit on M 353 today.The Ns local was across the street shuffling cars after work today.Had some more of the wildfire smoke today.Once the sun came out it got warm in a hurry.Yardwork is done.Going to have leftovers for supper tonight.