I am beginning to realise that the PV (Private Varnish or privately owned railcars) is a lot bigger than I realised.

Obviously during the winter they are not used so much but recently I seem to see a new one every few days, and today was no exception, arriving on the Texas Eagle



The imposing pair of "Patrick Henry Creative Promotions" railcars.

These even had a spot on the "Travel Channel" check the website.

The PHCP Train

Just $9750 per day charted trips!

I've been through those cars at Train Day a couple years ago. Nice. A bit too nice for a slob like me, actually.

Speaking of Train Day, have I mentioned that this Friday, I'm taking a personal day at work to go to the tours of the dispatching center and the lower levels of Union Station? Expensive, but should be very interesting. No photos allowed in the dispatching center. Giving us hard hats for the downstairs tour.

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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.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/heimdal-north-dakota-evacuated-after-fiery-oil-train-crash-n354686

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http://mynewsla.com/crime/2015/05/06/breaking-pedestrian-struck-by-train-in-north-hollywood/

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Just a reminder: This Saturday on the Chicago camera, besides multiple runs of the yard tour train (probably with at least one heritage unit on it), #5 will have two (or is it three?) IPH cars on the rear, including the unpainted full dome Sky View.

I will have other stuff to alert you to watch for next week, but I can't say right now.

FWIW, I will be on the eastbound Metra that goes by the camera sometime around 9:45 Friday morning (8:20 departure from Aurora, I think I'll get it at Belmont to be closer to where I want to go that evening), but you won't be able to see me.

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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.

Just a reminder: This Saturday on the Chicago camera, besides multiple runs of the yard tour train (probably with at least one heritage unit on it), #5 will have two (or is it three?) IPH cars on the rear, including the unpainted full dome Sky View.

I will have other stuff to alert you to watch for next week, but I can't say right now.

FWIW, I will be on the eastbound Metra that goes by the camera sometime around 9:45 Friday morning (8:20 departure from Aurora, I think I'll get it at Belmont to be closer to where I want to go that evening), but you won't be able to see me.

I will be watching for any unusual activity, hopefully the camera will be working, there have been issues with the sitse ISP that caused problems yesterday. Seems better today.

Well today has been an eye opener as to things that worry me slightly about safety and the general standard of equipment on the US rails!!

Firstly there has been work on the tracks at Chesterton.

Today this comes past.



Stops just past the crossing lowers a plough into the ballast and sets off at walking pace. Note the crossing gates are down. They stay down for a while as it takes time for the ballast machine to get to the point where they open.

Then about 5 minutes later this appears.



Note the departing end of a very long freight that has just cleared the crossing.

The machine stops and this time the lowering has to be done from the outside, so the guy gets out and fiddles around for several minutes, the gates are still down because there is still something on the track. After a while longer this happens.



Note the gates are still down and the operator is still fiddling with the machine.

The car driver was wrong but you could see why he did it. The machine then moved off and the gates finally went up, then went down again a minute later then up, then down again then up again without a train passing, I could hear the machines still working and I assume they were causing this to happen. With all the grade crossing accidents that happen in the US shouldn't someone somewhere be aware that this is happening, you need people to trust the barriers and lights so when they are active it means danger.

I am a subscriber to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch reports and I know that work like this could not have taken place in the UK without the crossings being put into manual mode and operated on site. If this can't be done and this happens often in the US I can start to see why people don't believe the gates and lights

On a slightly different note I have long thought that the poor state of some of the freight loco's reflects badly on the company, I have noticed that UP and BNSF are the worst offenders with CSX better but NS stands out as the best looking fleet. Whilst I realise "paint doesn't move freight" Bad on the outside may well mean bad on the inside.

So it is refreshing to see that Southern er Union Pacific keeps the environmental PR alive with 6365.



In case you thought that was just as it pulled away, nope it carried on.



Iv'e seen steam trains generate less

(Rant off)

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For real clag....

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

For real clag....

Wow, that makes SP UP 6365 look clean by comparison or maybe that makes the UK locomotive look like it's on fire somehow.. Cough, choke, cough..

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

Well today has been an eye opener as to things that worry me slightly about safety and the general standard of equipment on the US rails!!

Firstly there has been work on the tracks at Chesterton.

Today this comes past.

[img]

Stops just past the crossing lowers a plough into the ballast and sets off at walking pace. Note the crossing gates are down. They stay down for a while as it takes time for the ballast machine to get to the point where they open.

Then about 5 minutes later this appears.

[img]

Note the departing end of a very long freight that has just cleared the crossing.

The machine stops and this time the lowering has to be done from the outside, so the guy gets out and fiddles around for several minutes, the gates are still down because there is still something on the track. After a while longer this happens.

[img]

Note the gates are still down and the operator is still fiddling with the machine.

The car driver was wrong but you could see why he did it. The machine then moved off and the gates finally went up, then went down again a minute later then up, then down again then up again without a train passing, I could hear the machines still working and I assume they were causing this to happen. With all the grade crossing accidents that happen in the US shouldn't someone somewhere be aware that this is happening, you need people to trust the barriers and lights so when they are active it means danger.

I am a subscriber to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch reports and I know that work like this could not have taken place in the UK without the crossings being put into manual mode and operated on site. If this can't be done and this happens often in the US I can start to see why people don't believe the gates and lights

I agree with you that that would have the proper thing to do. However, I don't know if there's any requirement to do it that way.

On a slightly different note I have long thought that the poor state of some of the freight loco's reflects badly on the company, I have noticed that UP and BNSF are the worst offenders with CSX better but NS stands out as the best looking fleet. Whilst I realise "paint doesn't move freight" Bad on the outside may well mean bad on the inside.

So it is refreshing to see that Southern er Union Pacific keeps the environmental PR alive with 6365.



In case you thought that was just as it pulled away, nope it carried on.



Iv'e seen steam trains generate less

(Rant off)

Older GEs are well known for this (as were Alcos before they quit the business). If someone saw this in California, they could report it to the state and the railroad would get a fine. (Steam engines are exempt from that.) That said, we fans over here would rather not see it get fixed, because when it gets fixed it will most likely get repainted as well, and we all like to see older paint (rarity increases desire). The guys that run them don't care what they look like either. They just care how well they pull and how comfortable the cab is (and I'm not sure which of those is more important).

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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.

For real clag....

I wonder if this was the same trip?



"Having toiled along laying down a smokescreen for miles and miles, a rather troubled 37409 staggers into Fort William with the afternoon freight on 2nd August 1996."

Class 37 were good smokers when their turbos failed....

Two different locos - first is in EWS livery, the second is in one of the grey liveries

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

are you sure that the grey isn't the soot deposits??? :-)

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Happy Crunching,

Graham

The soot isn't grey, take it from me.....

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

If I'm remembering my training correctly, ideally diesel exhaust should be almost invisible - water vapor. From a pollution standpoint, grey smoke is less damaging than black smoke, since black smoke is mostly unburned fuel.

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

Just saw this on the local news here...
Flooding causes train derailment



VALLEY VIEW, Texas (About 50 miles North of Fort Worth TX)-

The National Weather Service says flash flooding in the Cooke County town of Valley View caused a train derailment.

At least three people were hurt in the accident involving a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train.

There's no word on how long the cleanup with take.

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If I'm remembering my training correctly, ideally diesel exhaust should be almost invisible - water vapor. From a pollution standpoint, grey smoke is less damaging than black smoke, since black smoke is mostly unburned fuel.

Diesel exhaust, by its nature, is chocked full of carbon particles of various sizes - that is the grey smoke. If the particles are small enough they are barely visible, but they are still slowly killing you. The particles are still there in black smoke as well. They got away with this for decades because pollution regulations initially focused on COx and NOx, the carbon particles were ignored. This was partly due to the fact that the health effects of the soot were not fully understood, and partly because technology wasn't available to measure and categorize the soot. The Chinese government today still claims their urban air is fairly clean, because they don't bother to measure carbon particles of all sizes. Any westerner who has been to Beijing in the last few years would dispute this claim.



This has shifted in the last 20 years, and big bucks are now being spent to reduce the production of these particles, and capture the rest before it goes out the tail pipe.

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Air quality in Beijing China, makes Los Angeles air quality on its worst day look good..

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

Green Bay and Western aka Green Bay Route

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Green Bay and Western aka Green Bay Route

With an Alco RSD15 and what looks like a failed turbo.

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

Green Bay and Western aka Green Bay Route

With an Alco RSD15 and what looks like a failed turbo.

GBW was all Alco up until they got absorbed by Wisconsin Central in 1993

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Well it was "Amtrak Train Day" at Chicago Union Station, where I know David was going.

Not much to see here except:

From The Train Day webpage

Want to experience traveling on Amtrak? Take a 45 minute excursion train ride and sit in comfortable seats and recline as you imagine traveling to one of over 500 destinations that Amtrak serves.

Your trip will take you from Chicago Union Station to the Chicago Yards and back. Chicago has one of the largest yards in the Amtrak system, and many types of equipment go through the yards each day.

And as luck would have it after the yards it came down the mainline

Heritage paint job loco 145 leading



Hauling a rather strange consist; coach, lounge, strange car that came from SF this week, lounge and coach.



With another heritage paint loco 66 on the other end.



It in fact turned on the wye so next time it came round 66 was in the lead.
Unfortunately the camera decided to go into buffering mode and I did not get very good shots.

Speaking of the camera, a spider took up residence on top, with web streamers that you could only see in sunlight, however I did get this video, while watching a quartet of UP locos I saw
Spider Attack

Of course people complained and yesterday saw(this is for David)

The Coming of The Great White Handkerchief

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