PDN - The movie was a little dark, but so well acted. 2 of my all-time favorites!
Ouch. I know I can knock out a trip to the ol’ hometown (500 miles) in about 8 hours (that includes passing through the Toronto metro area at Mach 3), but to go there and turn right around would, indeed, be taxing.
A fellow on a local forum I frequent is “rumored” to make shine… Although I doubt it.
Happy New Year, Trains forum friends. I will now resume my role as Chief Lurker.
My first post of 2015.
We have had a pretty decent winter by Canadian standards. Right now it is 30º F. and has been like that, or just a bit cooler, for quite some time now. There has been a bit of snow once in a while but nothing significant in the last few months. Being at or near freezing has made driving difficult for some people though, they think they are driving on a dry road and then hit an icy patch and kill themselves or someone else.
Happy Birthday Ed B. I was thinking of you and Tree during a brief incident up at my brother’s place on Christmas Day. While making dinner someone put a pot on the counter, not noticing that there was a small piece of plastic from a package that stuck to the bottom of the pot. It was at most about an inch square, but after the pot was put back on the burner after a time all of a sudden smoke was coming out from the top of the stove that looked like one of those oil refinery fires you see on the news from Houston. It only lasted for 5-10 seconds but it was enough to get the smoke alarms going. Once windows were opened, everything proceeded apace. All in all I had a very enjoyable Christmas season.
I hope everyone has a Happy and Joyous New Year.
Bruce
Our last fire call (and the last one in the county) for the year was… a smoke alarm, at a local hotel.
Glad that’s all it was. This is a big season for big fires. Did whatever was in the pot get a “smoked” flavor?
Still snowing, but not really heavy. Areas to the south have seen two feet, we’re on the order of seven inches here at the house. The band did slide north, over us, last night for a while. Decided to be lazy and blow the snow out of the driveway. With the wind and its eddies around the house, though, some immediately made its way back on the driveway…
Hopefully no one is nursing the results of overindulgence today as they peruse the forum.
Happy New Year everyone.
2014 almost went out with a bang, but it turned out to be a whimper. Last night our third engine caught on fire. Had the Jefferson IA FD meet us, but it turned out we didn’t need them. Engine had developed a fuel leak and the fuel was burning at the point of the leak. It would flare up or die down with throttle position. Looked impressive. Luckily, fuel and oil in the bottom of the car body didn’t start burning. Otherwise it would’ve been much worse. Had a mechanic come out to make sure the leak had stopped once we had shut the engine down. and make sure it wouldn’t leak any unburned leaked fuel onto the ground. After about an hour, we were given the OK, and off we went.
Brought in the New Year on the change-out pad at Fremont, waiting for the outbound to come relieve us.
Jeff
Jeff - you may have told us before, but I don’t remember - is Fremont NE or IA?
To answer Tree’s question, fortunately the pot was covered, that kind of smoke likely woudn’t have been good for us.
One thing I forgot to do in my last post was to make a book recommendation. I received what might be the nicest book I have gotten in a long time. It is “Rocky Mountain Sunrise” by Nils Huxtable, 2009. It is an “art” book that happens to include all Canadian railway scenes, as opposed to a railfan book with some “artsy” photos. It has the kind and quality of pictures I wish we could see in the “Trackside with Trains” contests. I would compare it to O.W. Link’s “Steam, Steel and Stars”, except Mr. Link’s book is all night photos and there are only a handful of night shots in Mr. Huxtable’s book. A very fine book, indeed.
Once again wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
Bruce
SJ, Fremont (at least in TMW terms) is in Nebraska, just to the north of you by perhaps 50 miles. Take U.S. 77 through Wahoo to go there. And it’s definitely worth the visit.
I had to add the “TMW” restriction, because I also know of Fremonts in Michigan (home of Gerber baby foods), Ohio, and California.
Over New Year’s one of the two remaining CNW engines escaped the confines of the Chicago area. It went west on a NS run thru manifest (MELNP) and I think it was added at Proviso. They usually don’t add power and the second engine was a UP engine that should’ve had cab signals, so I’m guessing it had some kind of failure and they had to grap something fast. It was tied down over the holiday at California Jct (Iowa, just west of Missouri Valley) in the siding.
Hopefully, it will make it back to Chicago as a CNW unit. It should, there is a note in it’s computer status not to paint or renumber it.
Jeff
With all the up stuff ns is buying, it may return in black paint.
Hmmmm. Better take the Christmas decorations down Saturday, before we get the freezing rain they’re suggesting. Hard to take the lights off the trees when they’re frozen in place…
morning
Haven’t looked outside yet.Mother nature is going to get nasty today and colder next week.Wemt over and looked at NS and CSX too.Both yards were active.Csx was working on switches at west garrett.Then everyone started to come for the crew changes.
stay safe
joe
Please take back your weather. Wedensday night forecast for Atlanta is 15. here in the outskirts will be 12. Thanks mookie.
If misery loves company - our high Wed is 5 above.
Doesn’t this cold just stink! Since we got some snow, I will send that along, too! I think it is a dry snow, which won’t do us much good other than being a pain.
Thing quit freezing on around midnight. But it’s been pretty much raining ever since, to the tune of 3/4" so far. Of course, that would translate into 7 or 8" of snow.
The problem is that now well-soaked inch and a half of snow on my driveway. If I don’t get it off I’ll have a frozen mess when temperatures do drop. The snowblower is useless with this heavy stuff, so it’ll be push, lift little bits, toss, repeat.
Of course, there’s that wind they’re promising us, too…
[:)] Morning Joe; read your latest post and wondered if there is any trains running through Dayton Ohio still. The Big four used to run through Dayton to all points north and east. That was a long time ago.
Respectfully, Cannonball
15 above zero? Consider yourself lucky.
The bottom of the thermometer is going to fall out here tonight.
Maybe we could take “some” of the old forum posts, put them in a pile, light it and gather around it for warmth?
[:-,]