Everyone should do that at one time or another…I’ve had my turn!
Jeff, are you and Becky headed further east?
Sorry we missed seeing you.
Looks like our sticky is dying
Just logged in (after a long absence) and caught a trio of what looked like antique ('70s era?) locos pulling a short manifest freight westbound on the UP. Anybody else see that train? /Mr Lynn
I like you words.
I use them myself when I see that trio. They come east most days with what looks like a local with cars picked up along the sub as opposed to the short intermodals you sometimes see coming out of the Global yard.
They come east about 4 local time but I never knew when they went back.
Bruce
The UP Heritage unit “Southern Pacific” was the second of two on a EB intermodal train that just cleared the diamonds at 1541 CDT.
I’ve got to say I’m not sure I am a fan of that particular paint job. It seems like there is too much white striping for my taste. That is one unit I would like to see in person. Actually, I would like to see all of them.
Bruce
Looks like the used car lot has been replaced with a drive in movie screen 
Did we loose the “zoom” function for the screen?
Sure seems like it… don’t work for me at this time.
Second of three WB by at 1540 CDT
Bruce
Just saw a UP Eastbound on the near track. Sounds like there is a suspect rail joint East of the crossing. Could hear it clearly after the rear of the train cleared the crossing but had yet to clear the field of vision.
I’ve noticed that myself.
I think it started after a crew was working on that insulated joint just west of the old signal tower foundation.
Bruce
That bad joint has been there for quite a while; it’s probably more noticeable since the new diamonds are much quieter than the old ones. I’ve long wondered why this hasn’t been addressed.
While watching the cam and listening to the scanner feed today I heard a UP manager on the radio contact a train and praise them for operating correctly, something I’ve heard before from this particular manager. After stepping away from the computer for a while I returned to observe a dark pickup parked directly facing #1 track, just at the same time an eastbound train was entering the crossing on #2 track. Just as the the train came even to the pickup the voice of this manager came over the scanner feed I dentifying this train (by lead engine number) and again announced passing whatever test he was doing but qualified his passing score by noting the conductor could at least fake looking at his train by extending the side mirror. The conductor mumbled some sort of brief acknowlegement and the conversation concluded with the manager babeling some sort of safety message (like drink cool water or the like)
As a side note don’t other trains hear the manager and know he’s likely out on the prowl? As I finish this post he’s still sitting at the diamonds.
Only those in the immediate area - 3 to 5 miles in any direction from the managers radio transmitting position and monitoring the channel the transmission takes place on. Railroad radios are not ‘high power’. 5 watts or less.
Excellent management technique. You catch many more flies with honey than vinegar.
Back in the day when programs were coded on paper forms and key punch operators converted them to 80-column cards, I always counted errors in each program I wrote. If the accuracy was very good, I made a point of writing a note to the key punch supervisor thanking the operator for the good service. Guess whose key punch jobs got handled first.
Back in the days of keypunch operators, we had to check all of the in-and-out transactions for movement of items in the stockroom–each morning, we compared the written tickets with the keypuch transactions, and made necessary corrections, using the code “KPE” (key punch error).
You would think ensuring the safe operation of your own train would be considered different from an inspection.
Bruce
Trains, is there a way to check with “EarthCam” to find out the reason that we can not “zoom” or “pan, left & right” on the screen anymore. Thanks