It’s that time again…so here’s a link to the last one:
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/176176/1976730.aspx#1976730
I’ll start things off by saying that I hope none of the CN crews involved in the head-on up on the former DMIR get any worse than they are. Prayers to those involved and families!
Spend most of the afternoon at Medina Jct today, got some nice videos. It’s amazing how much more exciting it feels to see trains at 60 mph instead of 35!
Good morning, and happy Fourth Quarter to you, too, Dan!
I heard about that wreck this morning–it will be interesting to know what’s behind it. I’ve always thought of the DM&IR as a scary piece of railroad since the runaway and wreck just shy of the dock perhaps 40 years ago.
Going back to the old lounge briefly, I agree, Quentin–it might be fun to get on the Cardinal trail now, especially since Pat’s building up her biking capability. For someone who used to do several 50-mile-plus trips each year, though, I still have a long way to recover. The 23 miles nearly did me in (but there was an embarrassing reason for that, entirely preventable).
I also forgot to mention the one good train I saw in the yard yesterday–near the head end were a bunch of IFRX covered hopper cars. These had previously been operated by the Riverport Railroad, of Savanna, Illinois, and prior to that had a wide variety of reporting marks–NAHX, TRNX, PLMX, FLIX, and a lot of orange cars with D&RGW origins. I was able to get the original numbers off a lot of the D&RGW cars, and a few of the others.
Carl, speaking of freight cars, I was near Iron Mountain, Missouri, and saw green hopper cars full of rock. The cars had UP shields and SI reporting marks. I am thinking they are MOW ballast cars. There was a blue and white loco with NCCX on it (if I remember correctly), also. There was quite a long line of cars, all loaded
The town I live in is a railroad desert, so, just seeing these helps me cope. [swg]
First of all, a happy birthday to Dan Braun, a.k.a. “CNW6000”, the guy who dutifully resurrects the Trackside Lounge every quarter. Hope it’s a great day, Buddy, and a good year for you. You’ll need it, when Aedan hits the Terrible Twos!
Now to the SI cars: this seems to be a reporting mark that UP has resurrected for use on non-revenue cars. Ballast cars are all I’ve seen with the relettering so far, but I’ve found no rhyme or reason to tell me which cars get relettered and which ones don’t. SI used to be the reporting mark for the Spokane International Railroad, which UP took over in about 1958. (I only remember ever seeing one “original” SI car, a small flat car, in all of the years I’ve been looking at cars.)
I also can sympathize with your “railroad desert” sentiments–in a little while we’re headed to my favorite railroad desert, western Michigan, once again. I don’t hold out much hope for seeing trains along CSX on the way there. I wish we had time to head east to Owosso, where the NKP 765 is running these days, but our time up there is pretty tightly scheduled. I think we’ll take the “scenic route” out of Chicago, though.
Last night, Pat and I crawled from pub to pub here in Lombard. No, this isn’t the new post-retire
Hi! It’s hard to come up with anything exciting in the “railroad desert”. Yesterday, on the way to the “Quilts on the Grand” quilt show, we happened upon a couple of strings of covered hopper cars with interesting pedigrees. I have about a page worth of notes to work on when the right files get moved to this computer (had they been moved already, I could have had it done by now).
Today Pat and I visited the “ArtPrize” exhibit that has taken over much of the central area of Grand Rapids (we saw something about it on the Today Show this morning, just as we were getting ready to go to it). Grand Rapids is one rust-belt city that seems to have endured, and even prospered, in spite of hard times and the decline in furniture and automotive industries that once supported the town. Of course the downtown would be busy during an exhibit like this, but any city that has this many restaurants, offices, and shops has to hold up well in less-hectic times, too.
There were a couple of railroad-related art objects worth mentioning. One was a three-dimensional photograph of Hughart Yard (now operated by the Grand Elk Railroad, but Pennsy in ancestry). It had to have been taken recently (or else years ago), because the circus train could be seen occupying a couple of tracks toward the west side of the yard.
Where’s everyone else?
Anyway, bright and early this morning I revolted and bolted–left the “railroad desert” of western Michigan by train, riding the Pere Marquette from Grand Rapids to Chicago (I guess if you can do that, it’s not really a desert, after all). Pat can handle the remaining chores dealing with her quilt exhibit without me–let’s hope she stays awake while driving home (she never does when I’m driving!).
Here’s a comparison to show why I think western Michigan is a “desert”, at least relatively speaking: while riding down on Amtrak (CSX’s track), we met one train–a Consumers Energy coal train with BNSF power, sitting in Wells siding, with the train cut to clear the grade crossing…not going anywhere for a while! West of Porter, NS did better, with three or four trains for us to meet, and at one time CSX’s parallel main line (through Gary) had trains in both directions being passed by us.
But, when I got back on Metra:
–ZDLSK5 met us at River Forest.
–A north Platte manifest with a DPU was heading into the yard just past Park.
–The eastbound scoot met us just east of Villa Park (he was a little late).
–A stack train went east through Lombard just before we got to the platform.
–I was less than five minutes off the platform when another eastbound stacker went through–this one had a DPU.
That was five trains in 15 minutes. Had I been watching them from a stationary spot, it would have taken a half-hour, maybe a little more
I was thinking much the same this morning, Carl. Not near as much interesting stuff to post, I guess . . . [sigh] That’s the equivalent of a good week’s worth of train-watching for me.
Were all your observations from a regular coach seat ? I can see maybe so - or did you pull your Railroader Emeritus rank to obtain some unofficial help from the train crew ? [swg] Such as ID’g the ZDSLK5 ? For me, passing trains are such as surprise that about all I get is a blur* . . .
Is there anything still running up towards Traverse City and Petoskey ? From time to time a few years ago, there was a tourist operation of some kind . . .
Interesting comparison about the ROW vegetation conditions. A few years ago there were a lot of storm/ hurricane outages on both roads - but especially CSX - in the Washington, D.C. area and to the southeast. That might explain a good portion of it
No help, Paul–it was just me in the coach seats–a Superliner coach (!–number 34002) on the Pere Marquette, and an ordinary 6000-series Metra gallery car. Of course, seeing as how I was tromping four miles across Grand Rapids to the depot before getting on the train, starting at 4:30 Eastern Time this morning, I may have dozed and missed a few on either venue…but somehow I doubt it–they tend to wake one up.
The ZDLSK5 was easy–all ARMN reefers. The North Platte manifest was also easy, due both to the types of cars seen and the presence of a DPU on the hind end. You’ll notice I didn’t attempt to guess the identity of the stackers.
I believe the ex-C&O line between Traverse City and Petoskey is still intact, and operated by the Great Lakes Central. I’m sure that nothing touristy is running the entire distance, but with GLC, the same folks who allow the Pere Marquette 1225–and NKP 765, this year–to run over their ex-Ann Arbor line, never say “never”. GLC reaches Traverse City over former PRR/PC trackage from Cadillac; the old C&O line south of Traverse City to Manistee (cobbled from segments of Pere Marquette and the Manistee & Northeastern) is gone.
Not too many pole lines left to get knocked down by trees (possibly the rationale for cu
Been busy. We are so short-handed it isn’t funny anymore. Working pretty much every day with an oddball day off here and there. Haven’t even the smallest desire to see, photograph, or write about trains. This week should have been a little slower, but they decided to rush people through rules class, creating tons of vacancies. What’s funny is that I went in January - where they said they were giopng to get poeple in the classes early, so they wouldn’t have the typical end-of-year rush. Of course they had classes for a few weeks, then nothing until now - when they started freaking out again. And on top of that, I guess they are going to start up the safety classes for this year (when they already don’t have enough people to cover regular vacancies and extra work).
And our weather went from 90 and sunny to 45 and raining overnight it seems.
Back to the robotic locomotive-powered salt mines. Ugh.
PS. And of course this forum software makes it a pain in the balls to post anything anymore.
Zug, I hear the same from this end of the Commonwealth on NS. Compared to how things are in my company and line of work - lots of people laid off or only on half-time, etc. - I tell that to people about railroads in general (only broadly - not identifying locations or even screen names), and their jaws bounce off the floor. And there’s been a work train distributing new ties along the southern/ normally EB track of the Reading Line from Allentown towards Reading this week, so aside from that crew, there’s an omen that there’s going to be more disruption and crews being used up there in the near future . . .
[:-,] Maybe what you need to do is the Huck Finn thing about whitewashing the picket fence - make it sound like so much fun that someone with more seniority will bid it away from you. Or auction it off to the railfan who’ll pay the highest about to play with some real trains . . . [swg]
Paul, according to my copy of Tom Sawyer, it was Tom who deceived his friends into whitewashing the fence. I doubt that Huck’s father ever had a fence to be whitewashed. [:)]
Yeah - thanks for the correction, Johnny. And ‘‘Tom’’ is way more appropriate in this instance, for a reason that you might surmise . . . [swg]
I went down to Lethbridge, AB yesterday for the first time since late in the Twentieth Century. Saw several photo worthy railfan items, but was unable to take any pictures from a moving vehicle.
On the way there we passed the Claresholm, AB CP station. This was built reusing materials from a former Calgary station disassembled here in 1910. Then, a few kilometres east of Fort Macleod we met a WB Potash train with 2 GE’s on the point, one in the middle and one on the end. The terrain is hilly there, and the train was on a curve, so you could see almost its’ entire length. It would have made for a spectacular photo. And finally we saw a train heading out on to the Lethbridge Viaduct. At just over a mile long and 315 feet high locomotives and cars look amazingly small on it. That structure is so big I have never seen a photo of it that I really like. CP has several similar, smaller structures that I like pictures of much better.
That Potash train was on its’ way from the mines in Saskatchewan to Portland, OR. It would have picked up a new crew in Lethbridge who would take to Crowsnest, AB. Another crew would take it to Kingsgate, BC, where it would clear US Customs. Does anyone know how long it takes to clear a bulk commodity train like that through customs? Then it goes down the former Spokane International, mentioned earlier this month on this thread, to Spokane, WA. From there however, I am unclear how it makes its’ way to Portland.
The Claresholm station has an interesting connection to our family. In August of 1953 there was some sort of serious incident involving t
Great to hear about your trip experiences, Bruce, and the interesting story of your parents’ marriage! I don’t know what’s involved in clearing customs with that or any other train, though I’m sure some sort of inspection by government officials is involved (on a unit potash train, I suspect the empties would be a little more closely inspected than loads).
My railfanning escapade today involved a 15-mile round trip to Wheaton and beyond, in which time I saw four scoots, two manifests, an auto train, and an intermodal. One of the three tracks was out of service, and there was a work train (one GP15-1, four flat cars, and an ex-MP platform caboose) moving along that track. The new second-train (or “ghost train”, as some employees have termed it) signals are being installed in Glen Ellyn; the ones in Wheaton aren’t cut in yet (I would have had two occasions to check them out on this trip, had they been functioning!). I did get west of Wheaton to check out some of the new block signals and see them work. Using the Lori Most Bridge to cross the tracks by the DuPage County Fairgrounds, I noticed that the signals to the west were all showing clear indications westbound. Guess that means nothing was on the tracks between there and Turner.
Somewhere in the Forum, the old CA&E bridge over the tracks at Wheaton was mentioned (in connection with double-stack clearances), and I noted that it was currently closed. It’s a clearance problem again–but not for the tracks thi
I tried offering my job to the forum - got no takers. I’m on the list, which is usually the place of last resort. Although the list isn’t bad. You get called for easy jobs every so often, and with the small terminal I work in, I usually know when I’m going out long before the call. Only thing missing are days off, though I usually have most of the weekend off. It has been busy though - I just got done working my 6th timecard since Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, only 5 days. If I go out tonight (doubtful) I’d get the super awesome 48 hour FRA rest.
We had to drop off two gondolas for the track supervisor at a small MOW yard. Both filled with metal ties. First time I’ve seen them in person. Plus there’s some brand new signals sitting there. I fear the old PRR position lights we have in town are on their final countdown.
Now the cool part, is the town that has this MOW yard is where I grew up watching trains ever since I was a little tyke. So growing up, it was always cool to see a train doing some work in the old yard that sat empty most of the time. Now I get to go into that yard every once in a while. Something cool about that - I don’t know why.
We have some steel ties at Proviso–I can’t remember whether CNW or UP installed them. They haven’t been replaced, as far as I know, but they haven’t been added to, either. Back to wood for the most recent installations.
As for signals, I neglected to mention that the searchlight signals on the CSX line I traveled over seem to be on their way out as well–lots of hooded tri-lights up, some even in service.
That is cool! The yards (if you can call them that) where I grew up stood empty most of the time I was growing up (unless cars were stored there), and the local trains (daily in each direction on C&O, three times a week on GTW) provided the action. The two railroads between themselves brought in a good variety of freight equipment, though I didn’t realize it at the time. But nobody works there now–there’s just a runaround track by the old C&O depot, and everything in the GTW yard
It is something about boys and their toys. Bigger boys have bigger toys. I forget the exact quote. And I wouldn’t deny you your enjoyment for a moment.
I wanted to comment a day or so ago about Paul’s comment about Tom Sawyer’s whitewashing the fence trick. If you remember the thread about sharpshooting from a couple of months ago, the whitewashing trick is a part of the sharpshooters arsenal. Trick someone with more seniority than you to bid on your job that you don’t like, so you can bid on the job they just vacated. A time honored and proven technique.
Conversely, men on the bottom of the list shouldn’t go bragging about their jobs too much. Gems can be found in strange places sometimes. They could get bumped.
Bruce
From conversations I see on here, the former PRR position signal lights are a priority for new owners to have them replaced. Didn’t they serve the PRR well, and if so why are they being replaced.
Has technology passed them by, and or the parts unavailablity to service them part of the problem…?
That probably has a lot to do with it, Quentin–but I think that they want to eliminate confusion or complication in having people learn more than one set of signal aspects. This would hold true especially on lines west of Pittsburgh, where so little of the PRR is left standing.
The position lights on the old PRR main line into Chicago, at least next to the Skyway, don’t seem to be going anywhere just yet (I know that could change in a week, but I’m still willing to grasp that straw).
Solid state vs. moving parts…