Oh! Excuse me - I didn’t know you were looking! [;)] Too much Thanksgiving pumpkin pie!
Well, now that I have you on here - didn’t find the chocolate cake, had great chicken and watched trains for 4 days - rested on Sunday!
This is what I managed to scribble down - (remember this is all BNSF) - SD9-3, 6 engines that included 2 SD40’s, one SW15, 2 Dash 8’s and one B23-7. (mean anything to anyone)
Saw a Dash 9 with GP60-B calf.
AND - the cutest red and black caboose you have ever seen. It was just darling!
It had DMHX and was at the tailend of a southbound freight train! Had a cute little porch light on it and looked like it should go under, er, next to my Xmas Tree! It was a private one, but is that SOP to move them around on freight? I guess I can answer my own question - if it has to go to a particular place, you take it there the best way possible?
And a question - does Amtrak have a special whistle for the depots?
Saw lots of “normal” trains - nose to tail running all 4 days!
Perfect holiday time off - now I have 5 days of mail waiting for me to process!
And since our AD saw fit to fire our head football coach, lots of hate phone calls! Job diversity, you know! Ah - Go Huskers!
OK, you got my attention. I’m glad you were able to see at least some trains over the holiday [:)]. I only saw 1 [V]. All Thanksgiving day I don’t think I heard more than 1 train on a double track mainline at a major junction. This is one of the most heavily saturated lines in the country. Talking with with my folks we decided there couldn’t have been a wreck somewhere because we would have heard about it on the news. Oh, well, the trains were rolling through like thunder come Saturday. Sunday while out on a run I saw an all well-car train with no containers on them. Looks weird when you’re used to seeing all those containers.
They better get those trains moving! Only 24 more days til Christmas! [:D]
I didn’t work Thanksgiving Day, after all…my shift was the only one to get the day off either Thursday or Friday. I knew about this Tuesday night (I made a special trip out to the yard to check on it), but others didn’t find out until Thursday morning!
Things were pretty heavy over the holiday and into Saturday, but Sunday was light, and I hope today will be, too…our yard needs to be a bit emptier than it is to make things fluid again.
By now we should have shipped the Christmas goodies to the retailers, so that rush should be winding down. I don’t know how much UPS will be shipping to gift recipients by rail, but that could keep December interesting.
I hope you saved me some of that pumpkin pie, Sis! We didn’t get any this year, thanks to missing our annual Thanksgiving routine. (Offers of good old-fashioned mincemeat pie also will be cosidered!)
Had Thanksgiving off saw a total of 4 trains going to my sisters on Saturday.Also saw some who thought they were mr invinceable with a 4x4 on black ice bad move dude.went by as the emergency crews were cleaning up.Ups in our warehouse is getting slammed right now as we speak.busy busy busy.
stay safe
joe
I saw an NS train pulled by four geeps still in conrail paint. Thought it was pretty cool. Of course i didn’t have the camera.
I can’t stand people that by suv’s with four wheel and think that nuttin’ can stop them. I treat my rig with respect and haven’t had a problem in my two years of driving.
When I lived in Vermont, we used to say that while you could get stuck with a two wheel drive, the only way to get REALLY stuck was with four wheel drive[:D]. And it’s so true! I love to watch the flatlanders mishandle their SUVs[:p]. I’ve had the same Chevy 4x4 truck for 10 years; only had to winch myself out once (my own dang fault, too – side hill, mud, load of wood, got wedged[:(]).
That sounds like fun – I barely saw a train all weekend! We were at my parents’ on Thursday and Friday, and busy moving the remainder of our stuff and getting settled in on Saturday and Sunday.
I would like to know what the difference is between a B23-7 and a B23-7R – the latter is what Jay and I got to ride in weekend before last (it was fun but a teeny bit scary, I didn’t think it would rock side to side as much as it did).
Please take the foul mince pie that is sitting in our fridge! I’m definitely not going to eat it – I don’t like any fruit pie, but I have a special hatred reserved for mince pies!
B23-7R is a (R)ebuilt locomotive…wasn’t the former ATSF 7200 was it (doesn’t look like anything else after it got hot-rodded & kit bashed)???
Mookie: end cab switchers on class 1’s are getting rare, save the memory. If it’s an end cab switcher on BNSF, it’s of BN heritage…you must have some ugly sharp curves in backtracks somewhere for that thing to still be there as well as at Sioux Falls, IA
All the containers are setting in the parking lot of my Wal-Mart. They have more containers there now than available parking spaces. (Just a joke) [:(] The container build up started over a month ago. They were putting out Christmas stuff just after the back to school sale stopped. Some of the containers contain merchandise that is summer/spring related and will return to the shelves early next year. Many of these containers contain Christmas merchandise to restock the shelves quickly and make more $ $ $ for Wallyworld.
Train movement through here is still slow and today they (“they” as in “whoever it was”) were installing a sidewalk at a busy grade level crossing today. They had left some prefab concrete walks at the crossing back in June and then those disappeared. The slabs reappeared a couple weeks ago, were installed, and today they’re laying concrete. I’m surprised to see they’re putting sidewalks on both sides of the rode because the sidewalk is only on one side. It’s quite an improvement from the wooden planks and dirt road it used to be.
As for the B23-7:
In my encyclopedia there’s a picture of it. It’s says it was a rebuilt U23 and they named it the Super 7. The picture I have is in GE grayscale paint, #2001.
jhhtrainsplanes,
You got your four gold stars!!! You’re now in the ranks of Mookie and JoeKoh (sorry if I forgot anyone). Congratulations!!!
Oh, sorry. Please forgive this lowly one-star mortal for posting in your presence.
They may be adding a second side walk on the other side for future expansion. I doubt it, though… Perhaps it’s just something to keep up with some ordinance
Hi Mookie,
The caboose travels with the flat cars when they are loaded, Davenport specializes in generators, mobil power plants, steam turbines, mostly over sized high wide loads. The caboose houses the set up crew, they really live in it for up to three weeks at a time.
We had a crew trapped here at the port for four days, UP refused the load they were with, and BNSF was trying to find a route it could safely travel.
Poor guys rans out of water, couldnt flu***he toilet, nothing to drink, ran out of food.
They have to stay with the caboose and load, because they didnt know when it was going to be picked up.
We ended up running a water hose from the rip track to them, so they could at least drink and wash up some, and the MOW guys relocated a porta potty next to them.
Our cab took one of them to the store for food.
Felt bad going home at night, knowing they were stuck there, bored out of their minds…
Stay Frosty,
Ed
I saw an old Cn locomtive, Defenately an old EMD GP… With only four box cars attached to it… Does that signify anyhtign to anyone That means nothing to me!! Oh and the EMD GP lcomotive looks like it has jsut escaped a scrap yeard or somehting, it looked terrible! And yes this was on the main line, far away from, well, anything.
