Thanks to you all, as always! I’ve been pulled off in another direction right now on a non-RR related project, so not sure when I’ll be able to get back at it, but at least I’m ready now when my time opens up!
Hi!
Haven’t had any railroady stuff to post lately (still winding down from our vacation, which has to rank as about the best ever). When I get through all of my sightings I might have some statistics to post about what I’ve seen. I can say with conviction that I saw equipment from only one “new” railroad, the Hainesport Industrial Railroad (I know nothing about them, except that they own a bunch of secondhand woodchip gondolas), which is apparently somewhere near Philadelphia, in Hainesport, New Jersey. I probably got about a dozen new private-company reporting marks.
Nance, glad you got the answers you needed. I always figured that anything behind the coupler was the drawbar (drawhead), and the part of the car that held it and cushioned it was the draft gear. No gears involved.
Our rain managed to hold off over the Easter weekend, but is now supposed to continue fairly steadily throughout the week. We appear to be on the way to avoiding most of the violent stuff here (and I hope those aren’t “famous last words”!).
Feeling kind of smug: so far, we haven’t had to buy any four-dollar gas. Our last fill-up was a week ago, in Indiana, at $3.98.9. In fact, we haven’t even used the car since Good Friday…don’t think we’ll need it today, either. I suspect, though, that the next time we travel any distance in the car we’ll be needing more gas, and will be hit with a severe case of pump shock (Chicago has some of the highest gas prices in the country, and the
Carl, glad you enjoyed your vacation so much. I/ we did too - vicariously - via your more-or-less ‘real-time’ trip reports on where you where and what you were seeing.
I had not heard of the Hainesport Industrial Railroad, LLC - reporting marks HIRR - before, either. See http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=HIRR for some photos of its cars - apparently all high-side gons, as you say. A little Internet research discloses that it filed with the STB to go into operation in 2005, apparently by obtaining rights to about a mile of industrial track - no more than 3 or 4 longish spurs in a fan-shaped configuration - in the Hainesport Industrial Park, which is about 15 miles east of Philly, about 6 - 7 miles SE of the Delaware River and NorthEast Phila., a mile or so SW of Mount Holly, NJ, and accessed via Exit 43 off I-295, and New Jersey Turnpike Exit 5 (which can be sufficient unto itself for a location . . . [swg] ). Its motive power is apparently just a Track-Mobile, and interchanges with a ConRail Shared Assets Operation (CSAO) branch line, which is served 3 - 4 times weekly. Although it was represented to the Hainesport Township Joint Land Use Board in 2005 that it was going to be a lumber transload operation, it now appears to handle dirt, sludge, bulk wastes such as “Construction & Demolition” (“C&D”) waste, a/k/a “clean fill” - but no haz-mats. From aerial photos available on the Internet, the gons and 20-ft. long trash containers and the like are about all that’s visible - nothing that looks like a flat, center-beam, boxcar, or any other lumber-carrying car.
No violent weather here, fortunately - but a lot of rain. Lately I’d say 5 days out of 7 have been cloudy and/ or wet. We’re now at about 17" of precipitation Year-To-Date since Jan. 1st, as compared to about 12’ for a ‘normal’ year, so it’s not just opi
I’m pretty sure we’ll never buy a 100-percent gas-powered vehicle again. Since we’ve been married, we’ve always monitored the efficiency of our cars, and have steered (pun!) our purchases in the economical direction. We’d need one car that would be good for anything from cross-town to cross-country, though. The price we saw today was $4.259 at the only downtown station.
But, we did all of our errands–Historical Society, library, train-watching, lunch out, and groceries–without using our car, so the streak goes on. We’ll probably have to break down (please, no pun!) and use the car tomorrow for a visit to some further-out specialty shops, and maybe daughter and grandkids.
We were lucky to run our errands between the drops…it had rained while we were at the historical museum, and we saw it coming down pretty good when we were having lunch, but we never got much on ourselves while we were walking (over two miles total). And while Pat was looking things up at the library, I was trackside, with no rain falling…unfortunately not much in the way of trains, either, except for a WEPX coal train overtaking a manifest–fairly spectaculer, and a nice surprise.
The HIRR gondolas are ex-GFSX, same numbers (they own 50 of them, out of the 150 originally in the GFSX series); I’m pretty sure they originated as woodchip cars on one of the western, or maybe southeastern, railroads. Something to look for this evening…
I’d be tempted toward a hybrid - and fortunately, they’re getting up into sizes my 6’5" frame will fit in. Still, I tend to carry a fair amount of “junk” with me (my truck has been referred to as a rolling “Home Depot”), so until I can match that in a hybrid, I’ll have to stay conventional.
And, as Carl notes, there’s the cross-country aspect to consider as well. One kid lives 85 miles away. The other is 500 miles.
That said, I tend to walk to the post office and local convenience store whenever possible. The mountain bike will be coming off it’s hook in the garage soon, too. The nearest ‘real’ grocery store is 15 miles, so walking/biking is out of the question there.
Maybe I could borrow a horse and buggy from the Amish up the road…
I’m just wondering if it would be worth it to buy a hybrid vs. a small econobox (focus, cruze, hyundai or kia micros) and use the money saved toward gas?
I hear rumors of a diesel chevy cruze in 2013 - now that would be cool!
zug - who still has two V8 trucks. [X-)]
I’m sure we’d look into the economy of a new purchase (cost vs. fuel) when the time comes. I’d be concerned about the mileage we sometimes put on, and how nice the ride would be. We would not be interested in having one car for the city and another for vacations.
Z-mann…still headed his way next month?
There is that one car company with the 10 yr/ 100,000 mi. warranty.
I haven’t made any plans at all. Been a weird month.
Well, I have not owned a vehicle with spark plugs since 2001, when I bought a Ram 2500 Diesel. Average fuel economy is about 20-22 MPG, not bad for a 7,000lb truck. Next vehicle will probably be a diesel offering from Volkswagen, the ride will be much better in that…
Have been meaning to tell you this, Carl, but when I was down in Columbia, SC, saw some six-axle flatcars on a siding, could not get numbers or marks (was rolling down the interstate), looked to be privately owned, ex-BN and TTX colors.
Green or yellow six-axle flat cars would probably be DODX–Department of Defense. They aren’t secondhand; the yellow is newer paint than the green.
Them things end up in my neck of the woods at Oshkosh Corp fairly often. I’ve gotten so used to seeing them that I don’t even really notice them. Another interesting tidbit on those cars - some have stenciling for the different branches of the military (US Air Force, United States Marines, United States Army). I’ll see if I can dig up a pic or two of them.
A year or so ago someone from that area posted a photo or two that he snapped from his office in a business park of a CSX high-wide movement with such cars and a rider caboose going by nearby. A little research found that they were likely owned by a major electrical equipment manufacturer, such as ABB, Alsthom, Siemens, GE, etc. I’ll see if I can find that thread again . . .
- Paul North.
EDIT: Here’s the link to it: http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/171368/1881151.aspx#1881151
From looking at some of the links there - and the 2 sets of flat car photos in the one below - GE appears to have flatcars in both BN green and TTX yellow colors . . .
Paul, I’ve got to admit that they’re yellow and green (and wouldn’t have occurred to me, since I have never seen a GEGX car). But Randy said six axles, and these had a few more than that.
Daughter was letting the grandkids burn off energy by splashing in the puddles after lunch (the rain had let up). They had some good-sized boots on, but would have needed waders to keep from getting their clothes soaked. Nico was probably asleep before they got home.
This guy was described as a “Midwestern Icon”…I suspect Mookie would be surprised at how far the Midwest stretches when/if we get reaction to this:
I know I was seeing those commercials everywhere we went on our trip!
Happy birthday today to Don Oltmann (“Oltmannd” on the Forum)! Hope his Atlanta neighborhood has survived the onslaught of bad weather to hit the Southeast (surprisingly deadly tornadoes hit Alabama yesterday evening).
Happy Birthday, Don.
Death toll, last I heard, has now risen to 213 just from the storms these last two days, not counting the death toll from a few days ago. So very sad. Thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected.
EDIT: (about 3pm ET) CNN is now reporting at least 250 have perished and nearly 1,000 treated at hospitals. So very, very sad.
Midwest apparently includes the Rockies (Denver) and the Molehills (Zinzinnati) to that outfit.
My day:
Trainmaster had a fit because I put cars where the yardmaster wanted them.
Some severe wx in the area (but nothing compared to down south). We lucked out… just got soaked to the bone. Great RRing weather.
Looks like Sperry lost a track test vehicle:
That’s from this site.
Just got a call from a fellow RR volunteer reporting that a dam in the eastern Adirondacks is under significant stress and it is feared it may fail. The outflow empties into the upper Hudson River about 15 miles downstream from the dam. While most of that area is woods, there are some settlements and highways that could be impacted.
Many rivers and reservoirs in this area are at or above capacity/flood stage, and are as high as some folks can remember them ever being.
Doesn’t match the devestation down south, but when your house is floating down a river, that doesn’t make much difference.
An “armored delivery vehicle”, huh? I guess they defend themselves by zapping attackers with ultrasound!
Some of those pictures are spectacular! LaPorte, Indiana, isn’t all that far from here (it’s on the ex-NYC main line from Elkhart to Chicago).
We’ve had weather here, but nothing as severe as most of the rest of the eastern half of the country. The major rivers around here (Fox, Des Plaines) are at or near flood stage, and last week I had to detour around a flooded portion of the bike trail along Salt Creek.
Today is a day of clear skies here (for a change), and temperatures are supposed to be more normal for the season…they have a bit of climbing to do through the morning, though! I think we’ll be doing our errands via bicycle today.