Here we go…happy anniversary today to Joe and Stacey Kohnen!
Busy week or more ahead…
On the home front, five lines in an old sightings pad have added about 1000 words to my Soo Line file, will add several hundred to the CEFX file, and untold numbers will be added the KCS, LDCX, PVGX, ATSF, certain NAHX, and perhaps other files. Hundreds of prior identities, sometimes two for the same car, are falling into place.
Off shortly for a trip to see the fall colors (and the grandchildren!) at the local arboretum. Tomorrow is the best weather-day of the week and Pat will be occupied in the morning, so guess who’s going to ride his you-know-what to you-know-where!
Dan - I’ve got ATCS - I use it any time I visit Deshler (if nobody else has it running). Nobody here uses ATCS (CSX St Lawrence sub is dark, I think the Chicago line is all “wired”) so the app would have little value for me most of the time. Good stuff to know, though! Thanks!
Neat pictures Adrian, thanks for sharing. The views you get must be nice at times!
Larry,
My area was all dark until this spring. Since then, ATCS feeds have popped up around WI & MN. Each host site is around $500 for equipment alone - plus the data connection. I have successfully timed trips of around 2 hours for a “surgical strike” at a train - arriving within 10 minutes before said train arrives at my intended spot. That sure beats sitting hours on end with nothing in sight!
Currently I’m watching:
-CN from the WI/IL state line up to Stevens Point (including Fox River Sub up to Appleton)
-CP’s C&M Sub (N of Chicago), Watertown Sub & Tomah Sub (to Twin Cities)
Uncle Pete sent a coal train to Green Bay last nignt and was kind enough to include a patched SP AC44, however it came through after midnight. Maybe I can catch empties in a couple days.
I’ll be trackside in Elmhurst in an hour or so; anyone who wishes can drop by the platform.
Thanks for sharing those pictures, Adrian! I’ll be thinking about your high-tech conveyance as I hop onto my bicycle soon. (I agree with Dan on the fantastic views you must get.)
Big week for the Forum Auxiliary coming up, starting today. Happy birthday to Pat, a.k.a. Boss Hen!
Today’s birthdays include my wife Pat (that’s two Pats in two days!), and Forum Meteorologist Willy2 (or Willy 22, today). Happy birthday, folks…guess which one gets the birthday hugs!
I believe that later today I’ll be taking my Birthday Girl on an apple run out west, and maybe, just maybe, home via Rochelle.
Willy’s back to normal, and was given a clean bill of health after a subsequent examination. Haven’t heard too much from him lately (we’re on opposing sides of the political spectrum), but he’s doing okay.
Yes, Jim…you got it. [;)] Let’s just say he believes the lies.
We stopped out at Rochelle this afternoon, but didn’t see much while we were there. The same westbound manifest that had blocked our crossing earlier in the morning at Lombard was waiting for us there (only we came the long way after we had lunch in Marengo and visited the apple orchard in Poplar Grove).
The city-owned railroad in Rochelle is in the process of expanding. The small yard near the north end of their track (for interchange with UP?) is having all of its tracks nearly doubled in length–right now they’re packing the subgrade. Further south, in the vicinity of I-88, a second track has been added to their “main line”. While we were checking these out, a westbound BNSF stack train–complete with Warbonnet on the point–came through.
All those westbound trains we didn’t see at the park were showing up on our way home. The parade started with a train of Com Ed empties. As we went over the tracks east of town, I looked east and could see two headlights. One was a stack train; the other was something short—maybe even light power for Global 3. We then caught an empty WEPX train, another stack train, what appeared to be an ethanol train, and yet another stack train, all before we got to DeKalb (that’s only 17 miles east of Rochelle).
We missed another westbound going through DeKalb, but caught another stack train headed west at Maple Park. An eastbound intermodal (possibly one we’d seen at Rochelle) was standing west of Elburn. From there we lost sigh
As it turns out, I finished yesterday with more than 3000 words added to the Soo Line file (that’s a good 20-percent increase from what I had in the computer; I have plenty to add from old information), over a thousand to the CEFX file, and–besides all of the other files I mentioned above–I had to add to the RUSX, FURX, NS, TNM, TILX, certain GACX, and D&RGW files. The CEFX file (one of the five biggest files I have) grew by well over 1000 cars…so far! I just have another 100 or so cars to work on there, and that whole mess is done.
I’m also trying to keep up to date on recent sightings. A trip out yesterday gave us three freight trains (and a neat local deli/restaurant from which to watch them at lunchtime); nothing new was seen on those trains, though. One of the tank cars I saw on our stop at Rochelle two days ago was able to be traced back (along with everything else in its series) through three previous owners!
In the fairly recent past, we’ve had discussions about hay moving by rail and ash. Today coming home on the UP-CSX run thru (not the salad shooter, the other one that predates that) we had 3 box cars of hay and a car load (I think an open hopper type) of ash.
Ash–fly ash?–is usually carried in covered hoppers.
Hay was often carried in old woodchip gons, or in 86-foot hi-cube box cars. I think some company got a bunch of old hi-cubes specifically for hay transport, but I can’t find that in my records now. (I seem to remember them as former MILW cars.)
It’s now QNPCXP. They changed the symbol around the first of the year. It still retains the “perishable” designation, but many times there are only a hand full of loads fitting that description.
The car type code for the car carrying the ash is H3C. (Appears as LH3C on the list, but I know the L means load. EH3C would be an empty car.) It’s the code the company uses and may not be the same as the AAR mechanical designations. I never saw the car up close (train was only 49 cars long) but wondered if it wasn’t tarped somehow.
The box cars were all D6C designations. The hay cars were all together close to the head end. Looked like newer cars. I know there is a guide to the freight car designations but I’ve never had a copy. About all I can tell from it on a list is the basic car type and whether it’s loaded or empty.
Jeff
PS. That sound you may here is my hand hitting my forehead. I just remembered our lists now carry a freight car type summary and it shows one open hopper in the train. All other types listed have multiple numbers of cars, so the ash was in an open type hopper.
I was wrong about the hay cars, too. You had 60-foot boxes, because the 86-footers have a “7” instead of a “6” in that spot. I should have a copy of those things gathering something-or-other somewhere.
Chris May have a happy birthday today–let’s hope so! Enjoy your day, “CopCarSS”!
Would you want to work with a “fresh-off-the-street” trainmaster?
A trip into Chicago this afternoon showed that most of the work at Park (the west end of the three-tracking project around Proviso) has been done. There had seemed to be a few extra switches being built around there; these have turned out to be derails to keep things from rolling out of the yard on their own. I saw one of these for sure at the west end; there could be as many as four, if all yard tracks are covered. I also saw one at the east end of the yard.
The new track is connected at the west end, but still out of service beyond the “Illinois Outbound.” It’s fully ballasted and tamped all the way to the Mannheim bridge…where it abruptly ends! I’m not sure what is supposed to happen east of there, as nothing seems to line up with it yet. East of Bellwood there are also new tracks all dressed up and nowhere to go. The main lines still have to be shifted between Bellwood and 25th Avenue. Or should I be saying 19th Avenue now?
Nonetheless, it was neat to be at the front of the train as we were moving right along on the center track between Berkeley and Bellwood. It looked convincing, anyway.
