I hope 10pm isn't too late for you to be up. #6 should be going through Mendota right about now.

Nope rarely before midnight.

6 currently says "Naperville 3:34PM CT Chicago 4:17PM"

It looks like it had to wait a few minutes at Somonauk for #5 to go by. (Something parked on Main 2 east of Sandwich.) So, if I hurry up and get out of here right at 3:30, I think I can get over to the station. Won't have time to go home for my camera, but I can use my phone.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

More or less when expected the 6 arrived with 119 and 7 on point and a very naked looking 642.



Bit of a close up.



A just for comparison this was 640 earlier this month



I wonder what they are going to do with it and why 642?

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"TRAIN LEAVING ON TRACK FIVE for Anaheim, Azusa, and 'Coo-ca-mun-ga'"
Mel Blanc, RIP.

I found this Here of course, yes I couldn't resist.. This was heard on the old 'Jack Benny Show', there was an mp3 that played Mel's Voice, but that is gone, I tried the link there, 7 years out of date... And yeah I know the details of all 3 destinations..

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

High winds tossed rail cars from the Huey P. Long Bridge

Eleven rail cars were tossed from the bridge on the east bank approach as severe weather rolled through the New Orleans area on Monday morning.

Chris Roberts, Council Chairman at Jefferson Parish Council, says that the cars fell from the bridge on Monday morning, posting several photos of the smashed cars to social media.

Parish officials said the train was not carrying hazardous materials.

No injuries have been reported at this time. Crews on the scene started to remove the rail cars after the rain stopped.

Several businesses in the area closed, as Entergy worked to restore power in the area.

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"TRAIN LEAVING ON TRACK FIVE for Anaheim, Azusa, and 'Coo-ca-mun-ga'"
Mel Blanc, RIP.

I found this Here of course, yes I couldn't resist.. This was heard on the old 'Jack Benny Show', there was an mp3 that played Mel's Voice, but that is gone, I tried the link there, 7 years out of date... And yeah I know the details of all 3 destinations..

You Tube Video 33 Seconds long: Daffy Duck "doing the call" while Porky Pig boards the "train"... Train Leaving..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVFbz6AsnE

Edit.. pm me if you would like a mp3 sound file of the You Tube video

---

"TRAIN LEAVING ON TRACK FIVE for Anaheim, Azusa, and 'Coo-ca-mun-ga'"
Mel Blanc, RIP.

I found this Here of course, yes I couldn't resist.. This was heard on the old 'Jack Benny Show', there was an mp3 that played Mel's Voice, but that is gone, I tried the link there, 7 years out of date... And yeah I know the details of all 3 destinations..

You Tube Video 33 Seconds long: Daffy Duck "doing the call" while Porky Pig boards the "train"... Train Leaving..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVFbz6AsnE

Thanks Dr Who Fan, I'd forgotten all about that one..

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Main article: Why a speed-loving techie loves slow-moving train travel
Commentary: A slow rail journey from Albuquerque to New York City gives (VNet) Crave writer Amanda Kooser plenty of time to contemplate how trains fit into a world where so many people prize velocity.

Accompanying Photo Gallery (12 slides): Mesmerizing views from a rolling Amtrak train

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As hoped, I got over to the station in time (with some to spare, but going home for my DSLR would have been cutting it close) to see #6 arrive.

Since I had to wait a few minutes, I took my first good look at a monument that was installed two years ago, in memory of a train wreck that occurred here 69 years ago last Saturday. These pictures are unedited from my phone, so I'm giving links instead of embedding them. They range from 3.5 to 8.3 MB in size.

Overall shot
Explanatory placque (which I carefully didn't include in the overall shot; it's just to the left)
Closeup of the top part -- can you find the typo?
Just the people -- can you tell what they're made of?
Closeup of one person -- yep, almost entirely railroad spikes

Train 6 arriving -- you can see the monument to the left
642
The first thing Beech Grove will have to do is give it a bath
Going away with 456 axles' worth of empty oil train approaching on Main 2 (and my car parked on the far right edge of the picture)

(456 axles -12 for the two locomotives =444/4=111-2 buffer cars =109 empty tank cars headed for North Dakota.)

[edited to fix bad link]

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

As hoped, I got over to the station in time (with some to spare, but going home for my DSLR would have been cutting it close) to see #6 arrive.

Since I had to wait a few minutes, I took my first good look at a monument that was installed two years ago, in memory of a train wreck that occurred here 69 years ago last Saturday. These pictures are unedited from my phone, so I'm giving links instead of embedding them. They range from 3.5 to 8.3 MB in size.

Overall shot
Explanatory placque (which I carefully didn't include in the overall shot; it's just to the left)
Closeup of the top part -- can you find the typo?
Just the people -- can you tell what they're made of?
Closeup of one person -- yep, almost entirely railroad spikes

Train 6 arriving -- you can see the monument to the left
642
The first thing Beech Grove will have to do is give it a bath
Going away with 456 axles' worth of empty oil train approaching on Main 2 (and my car parked on the far right edge of the picture)

(456 axles -12 for the two locomotives =444/4=111-2 buffer cars =109 empty tank cars headed for North Dakota.)

Nice pics David, it's too bad Amtrak can't put up more Catenary above the rails..

Edit: David, the last 2 links are the same..

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Scaling down to 1/87, since it was raining on Saturday, I got someone to take me to Prairie Scale Model Railroad in Lombard, Ill., so I could run my HO California Zephyr. The last time I took it there, it had several problems (mainly the engines not responding to the DCC throttle), so I wanted to see if everything was better. (Much improved, but not yet flawless.) Also, I didn't have my extra cars.

These are videos and are 76MB and 57MB in size. They are also shaky, due to being shot with a hand held cell phone. My engines do not have sound.

It's summer 1954 and the CZ has swollen to a total of 15 cars, with sleepers leased from Chesapeake & Ohio and Illinois Central. We also find that the through sleeper to New York yesterday was bad ordered there and the New York Central RR had to substitute one of its own cars. All of the foreign cars are placed immediately in front of the dome/observation car so as to minimize the disruption to the train's public address system.

And now the Silver Lady has been magically transported to Australia. (I really thought that by now, Androids would be smart enough to record right-side-up no matter which way you hold them.)

I got a really good price for the stainless steel ABA set of F3s, but they limit me to running the train no later than 1955, which was when they were regeared and reassigned to freight service. On the other hand, I don't have all the right cars to do the train as delivered in 1949 (none of my dome coaches is one that had the short-lived women and children section in the front end, and my 16-section sleeper is one of the extras that were built in 1952 along with the 6-5 sleepers). If I had some Burlington E7/8/9 units or some Western Pacific Fs, I could do the train later and have a greater variety of foreign cars. I could also put the 16-section at the front end; those cars were all reconfigured as flat-top coaches in 1962 (although the model has a sleeper interior in it). I am actively seeking a Pennsylvania RR Rapids series sleeper, but the correct model was a limited run and the only one I can find on line is priced at almost twice list price; I don't want it *that* much. There are a few other foreign cars I could use too, but not belonging to a club and not having a layout at home where I can run it, this is enough for now.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

As hoped, I got over to the station in time (with some to spare, but going home for my DSLR would have been cutting it close) to see #6 arrive.

Since I had to wait a few minutes, I took my first good look at a monument that was installed two years ago, in memory of a train wreck that occurred here 69 years ago last Saturday. These pictures are unedited from my phone, so I'm giving links instead of embedding them. They range from 3.5 to 8.3 MB in size.

Overall shot
Explanatory placque (which I carefully didn't include in the overall shot; it's just to the left)
Closeup of the top part -- can you find the typo?
Just the people -- can you tell what they're made of?
Closeup of one person -- yep, almost entirely railroad spikes

Train 6 arriving -- you can see the monument to the left
642
The first thing Beech Grove will have to do is give it a bath
Going away with 456 axles' worth of empty oil train approaching on Main 2 (and my car parked on the far right edge of the picture)

(456 axles -12 for the two locomotives =444/4=111-2 buffer cars =109 empty tank cars headed for North Dakota.)

Nice pics David, it's too bad Amtrak can't put up more Catenary above the rails..

Edit: David, the last 2 links are the same..

Thanks, link fixed in the original post.

Catenary wouldn't be economical outside of the high-density Northeast Corridor. The California HSR is supposed to have it, though, and Caltrain (or is it Caltrans?) is electrifying the San Francisco-San Jose commute line (which HSR will use for that leg).

Back in the 1970s, Burlington Northern studied electrifying its Wyoming coal fields, but decided against it. Wouldn't have helped Amtrak; it doesn't run on those lines.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

David

Thanks for those pictures, you tend to forget just how big those Genesis units are when viewing from a web cam!!

Which reminded me of my only encounter with one back in September 2013.

I was touring New England and had stopped off in New London CT, one to take pictures of the town and two to take pictures of the Amtrak trains (NE Regional and Acela). While I was there this appeared.



Emblazoned with.



Which seemed reasonable as I was in Connecticut!

However this was bringing up the rear and of course propelling the train.



As I only traveled the North East Corridor I had not seen a Genesis unit and was totally unaware that it was in fact a P40 and that it and was on lease to Connecticut DOT, so I was a little confused!!

However it stayed at the New London Platform for about half an hour so I was able to get a few close ups.




I was also able to get a video of it departing (didn't realise it would stop right next to me)

842 Departs

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David

Thanks for those pictures, you tend to forget just how big those Genesis units are when viewing from a web cam!!

Which reminded me of my only encounter with one back in September 2013.

I was touring New England and had stopped off in New London CT, one to take pictures of the town and two to take pictures of the Amtrak trains (NE Regional and Acela). While I was there this appeared.

Tch tch. A burned-out headlight.

Emblazoned with.



Which seemed reasonable as I was in Connecticut!

However this was bringing up the rear and of course propelling the train.



As I only traveled the North East Corridor I had not seen a Genesis unit and was totally unaware that it was in fact a P40 and that it and was on lease to Connecticut DOT, so I was a little confused!!

However it stayed at the New London Platform for about half an hour so I was able to get a few close ups.




I was also able to get a video of it departing (didn't realise it would stop right next to me)

842 Departs

The P40s were in storage for a while, but most of them have now been upgraded to be equal to the P42s in all respects except for a minor detail in the braking system.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Whilst Amtrak is apparently hard up again and will not be repainting anymore of the P40's or P42's and not repairing any damaged in accidents I suspect that this is one of the last "repainted" P42's we will see.

Number 90 was involved in a crossing accident in December 2013. Today it was brought up from Beech Grove IN (Amtraks repair facility outside of Indianapolis), on the Hoosier State train 851.




I suspect it won't look as clean next time I see it :-)

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Whilst Amtrak is apparently hard up again and will not be repainting anymore of the P40's or P42's and not repairing any damaged in accidents I suspect that this is one of the last "repainted" P42's we will see.

Number 90 was involved in a crossing accident in December 2013. Today it was brought up from Beech Grove IN (Amtraks repair facility outside of Indianapolis), on the Hoosier State train 851.




I suspect it won't look as clean next time I see it :-)

It will probably work for a few days on one of the corridor trains out of Chicago to make sure everything is okay, so you might see it again soon.

Who says they're not doing repairs anymore?

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Who says they're not doing repairs anymore?

Well I saw it HERE on the news and views page. I assumed he knew what he was talking about but perhaps not.

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Who says they're not doing repairs anymore?

Well I saw it HERE on the news and views page. I assumed he knew what he was talking about but perhaps not.

Hmm. I was not aware of that page. He seems to mostly know what he's talking about, although I picked out some gaps and inaccuracies. I think some of what is on that page is just gleaned from fan observations. However, he gives the impression that he has a source inside Beech Grove.

I guess I would rate it as "reliable unless proven otherwise."

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Why do couplings on trains have to be so damn complicated?

The physical coupler?

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

These days they do a lot, and have a lot of regulations to comply with (at least in Europe & the UK)

setting aside the "good old hook and chain", and its variations.
You have the actual bits that do the coupling, the bits that hold the coupling halves locked together, the bits that force it to couple, and the heaters, the circuits to prove it is securely coupled, the alignment mechanism that makes sure it all goes in the right direction. Then there's the electrical coupler, which has however many pins and sockets, the air motor to retract it out of the way as it uncouples, the bits that open and close the lid on the electrical coupler all the proving stuff on the electrical coupler - and I'm sure I've left something out!!!!
(and that's only the stuff sticking out in front of the train!)

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

These days they do a lot, and have a lot of regulations to comply with (at least in Europe & the UK)

setting aside the "good old hook and chain", and its variations.
You have the actual bits that do the coupling, the bits that hold the coupling halves locked together, the bits that force it to couple, and the heaters, the circuits to prove it is securely coupled, the alignment mechanism that makes sure it all goes in the right direction. Then there's the electrical coupler, which has however many pins and sockets, the air motor to retract it out of the way as it uncouples, the bits that open and close the lid on the electrical coupler all the proving stuff on the electrical coupler - and I'm sure I've left something out!!!!
(and that's only the stuff sticking out in front of the train!)

Ah. Sounds like you're talking about diesel or electric MU passenger cars. Does seem like a lot. Isn't most of it automatic, so all they have to do is check an indicator panel and then troubleshoot if it shows a problem?

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.