http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/166037/1885302.aspx#1885302
A link to the 1Q Edition.
First chance to sleep in was today…someone forgot to remind Aedan! I was in Neenah last night and almost did a big no-no. While chatting with a fellow railfan I set my camera on my bumper. Tail of train we were watching/discussing passed and we got set to leave. I was about to shift to ‘drive’ when my brain said “Hey, where’s the camera?” YIKES!
Thanks, Dan, for setting us up.
No news yet, except that I got a Facebook message saying that 25 tracks in our yard were out of service yesterday. It was probably an FRA inspection–those rarely go well (I’ve not had any problems, though, when they’ve checked in on me). I suspect that most of the repairs will be made quickly, but there will still be quite a few tracks out when I get to work in less than an hour.
Lunch with the grandkids yesterday was good. I got to see firsthand how my grandson reacts when a train appears. Half of me hopes he calms down a little…
Hmmm…first day of Sarcastics Awareness Month. I’d better get ready.
No train watching to report. I haven’t been near the tracks in almost two weeks.
I sure did enjoy that video on the 30th Anniversary of the demise of the Rock Island that was posted yesterday.
Bruce
Presumably our ABC outlet was the only one of our five major channels to commemorate the RI’s demise. Sad, especially because I’m sure our PBS station would have done a good job if they’d tackled the assignment.
I remember that for a good week or so after the shutdown we (CNW) were flooded with nearly-new ROCK box cars. We also got lots of other freight equipment from them, notably covered hoppers, but they must have been shipped elsewhere for assimilation.
UP also got a lot of ex-RI cars–notably the stuff they financed for the company back in the 1960s and early 1970s. I think they turned a bit of it loose pretty quickly.
The news was good at work today–relatively few tracks were out of service, and those were usually not the result of the FRA inspection. We’re still a bit plugged in the bowl, though.
As for Sarcastics Awareness Month, I mentioned at work today that both of my granddaughters have already earned their Black Belts in sarcasm. A week ago Katelyn got me with a putdown that few adults would have been able to pull off as well as she did (syrupy-sweet smile and all!), and Emily’s response to one of my bad puns was as pointed a “Ha, Ha, Ha!” as I’ve ever heard from a person younger than middle school. She’s three, by the way. (Can you tell how proud I am of both of them?)
Carl - Before I forget this or get distracted by other matters: When I read the following article in the Wall Street Journal the other day, it causedf me to think of you - and Pat:
Idle Pastime: In Off Hours, Truckers Pick Up Stitching
By JENNIFER LEVITZ - PAGE ONE - MARCH 29, 2010 - at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704896104575139990857438962.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Do you suppose Randy and edbenton might be taking any of that up in the near future as well ? [:-,]
Thanks for passing that along, Paul! Pat “Oohed” when she saw the picture, and “Ahhed” when she read the article.
Sad news–the wife of my long-ago friend passed away after the ordeal with their car in the retention pond in Westmont. The reason the car went into the pond still hasn’t been made public, if it’s known. Roy, on the other hand, was released from the hospital yesterday.
Unless, of course, she reads the Forum over your shoulder (something I don’t discourage)!
May everyone’s celebration of Holy Week be meaningful and ultimately joyous!
How can it miss? I’m spending Saturday working our “Easter Bunny Trains” and Sunday with my daughter’s family (including the grandson!). I’ll have to share the grandson with his other grandparents, though. Hopefully he won’t be overwhelmed.
…And I had commented on this just a day or two ago…of something surely needs to be done to stop such incidents from happening…Now, Again…! Yesterday…another one in the Indianapolis area, and a fatility…! A car down into a retention pond.
Hmmm…a cover-up!
UP gondola car 30517 is now showing an ETA in Creston, Illinois, of 1749 on April 5, a full 24 hours behind its “original” ETA. Nothing much wrong with that–those things happen.
But that “original ETA” was recently changed–from sometime last September!
This car is loaded with concrete grade-crossing slabs, and is supposed to be set out for unloading by MofW forces at Creston. But for some reason, they can’t figure out where to send it so a crew can deliver it. The spur is designated as being in the same zone as West Chicago, but West Chicago has no crews going out that far (eleven miles beyond DeKalb). Rochelle’s yard crews (only eight miles west of Creston) seem to be exclusively for Global 3. Rochelle’s other UP industries are served by crews from Sterling (about 35 miles away), but Creston seems to be outside their limits as well.
So this car seems to run back and forth between Proviso and Council Bluffs. Every time we sent it to West Chicago or Sterling, it would come back to us. It also seems to have made at least one detour to Yard Center, one to North Platte, and was short-stopped once at Boone and taken to Beverly in a local freight before being brought back to Proviso (could they have been thinking that it was for Creston, Iowa?). If the car’s history is accurate, it has now visited us 23 times with the same load! (I guess it says something about our car handling that the load hasn’t shifted any of those times!) It was bad-ordered on two occasions for light repairs.
The car’s weight shows as 70 tons. If it went to Council Bluffs and back 22 times (that’s about a 1000-mile round trip), you’ve got 1,540,000 ton-miles. If a railroad can move a ton of freight about 500 miles on a single gallon of fuel (that’s better mileage than CSX advertises), we’ve still used over 3000 gallons of fuel just ferrying that car back and forth. That’s the better portion of a modern locomotive’s fuel capacity.
So here’s the challenge–give somebody spec
Actually, Paul, I usually take some model railroad things with me to do when I have downtime and can’t sleep…
Seriously, we have been pretty busy lately, though our company going to paperless logs may change that (can’t cheat anymore). At home for the weekend now, will work on the layout some more, gonna try to get some track laid this weekend, in between Easter and trying to get a DOT physical done (called the person who sets these up, but she must have not been in today)
Got stopped twice at Winchester Rd in Neenah yesterday by CN, general freight going south, and a stack train going north. Did not mind, has been beautiful the last two days, if a bit windy.
Randy, I have to ask: do you carry some of those “shake-the-box” rolling-stock kits with you for travel over the rougher roads (hey, it might work!).
Our beautiful weather is set to end late tonight, with a band of showers passing through (more severe to our south). Tomorrow’s highs are supposed to be “only” around 60–that’s still a bit above average. Easter will be pleasant (near 70), and partly cloudy. My “sunrise service” will be held at work–the sun goes on duty a couple of minutes before I do. I might get to celebrate by pulling down the new shades installed in the tower yesterday (translucent, so I can still see most of what I need to).
Carl, if that worked, I would probably have about 30-40 trains worth of cars built by now, The country’s roads are definitely in poor shape…
Carl, that story about UP gon 30517 is one of those ‘too true to be funny’ types. Kind of reminds me of the song about that guy who’ll never return, 'cause he’s riding forever beneath the streets of Boston, or whatever it was, or something like that. There has to be material there for a ‘‘Who’s on First?’’ routine or a Gilbert and Sullivan song. Let’s just hope that some anti-UP type or the competition doesn’t get wise to it. ‘‘Yes, this car’s on time for the ETA - but this is last year’s car’’ (with apologies to the Forum member here who uses that similar line in his signature). Restores your faith in bureaucracies and people who will follow procuedures to a fare-thee-well, even if they lead to such illogical results . . . [:-^] . . . can’t get there from here, eh ?
I’m sure every major railroad has had (or is having!) an embarrassing story like this, Paul. I’m hoping that the right person might be able to do something about it. There’s a spur in Creston just waiting for it (I think)–I checked it out on the way home from Rochelle last week.
That’s just the UP’s way of increasing it’s stock value by bumping up it’s ton-mile counts.
If Carl all of the sudden disappears, we will know that it was indeed a cover-up for the conspiracy.
LOL!
I know CN did send a section of switch mounted in a Gon back and forth between Shops and Neenah a few years ago. I noticed that I was seeing an awful lot of switches in trains and started writing down reporting marks. I think I only saw it 8 or 10 times and the distance is smaller…but close enough!
FRED question for those that know. Let’s say train ABC123 goes to a large yard in, let’s say Milwaukee or Chi-town. This train has a FRED on the last car. When the train is broken apart does the FRED somehow find it’s way back to the “home” road that brought it there or would/could/can/does it go to “the next train”? I ask because I’ve noticed some FREDs of differing colors on the back of CN trains. Thanks in advance.
We’re making an effort here to return EOTs to the railroads to whom they belong, and there’s been a bulletin put out that UP trains will have UP EOTs on them. CN could have different colors on railroads they’ve absorbed recently. If you get a close enough look at these things, you’ll be able to determine their ownership.
Yes, James, I may not have this cushy job in a few months!
Carl, you can’t leave before that car gets to Creston.[:O] Otherwise conspiracy theorists will be discussing Zardoz’s theory for decades to come![(-D]
Bruce
Good Morning and Happy Easter!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get out to chase 844 from Cheyenne to North Platte as planned. I was offered the opportunity to work a 40 hour week this week. Since that hasn’t happened since last August, there was no way I could turn it down – even for 844 in snowy conditions.
I did manage to make it out to CRRM for the ‘Bunny Express.’ Those results are posted in a seperate thread. It was windy (gusts to 45 mph or so), but still a nice day.
Meanwhile, MC, I Google mapped the route you suggested for North Platte. I do believe I’ll have to take that one of these days. That’s the UP Julesburg Sub, right? What kind of traffic does the line see?
I hope you all have a happy, joyous Easter!
CC:
UP Julesburg Sub goes Sterling to Julesburg along US-138, maybe two trains a week above the BNSF/BN connection to Alliance where all the coal trains go off towards Peetz and Sidney. The line has changed little since 1980 and is 133# jointed rail largely on cinders. It is about all thats left in NE Colorado east of LaSalle of what had been the Omaha-Denver passenger main line. (Union to Fort Morgan to Kersey is gone and BNSF took over below Sterling down to Union(Brush).
The route you followed on Google is the ex-BN/CB&Q Cheyenne line (Holyoke Sub) that is now home to NKCR. After getting out the sandhills east of Sterling, you follow the railroad from Fleming to the east. The main engine facility for NKCR is at Grant. They only run 1-2 trains a day through there along with BNSF coal trains going to Wallace, NE and back, but you see more railroad there than going by I-76, I-80 without much difference in time. Do not be surprised to find Detroit Edison SD40’s, LTE SD-45’s NKCR GP-30 and GP-35’s roaming around out there plus whatever else OmniTrax banishes to there. There also is a lost looking BRC Jordan Spreader that usually calls Grant home (north side of the 2 bay shop building).