I am wondering if this was on "display" at the "Train Day"

UPY 722(Y strands for yard I understand) pulled it down the wye this morning



UP 2002, one of the two UP SD70M's painted for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

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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

This photo was taken at our museum (notice the trolley wire above it). I have similar photos of my own. If the pollution truly worries you, I'll say this thing only runs once or maybe twice a year.

Alcos were known for their turbo lag, where as the throttle was opened a lot of unburned fuel would go out the stack, until the turbocharger got up to speed. Also, a lot of carbon builds up in the turbo when they sit idling for a long time. Early GE were known for it too, and controlling it has been one of the main things they focus on in their R&D. The main way the found to control it is to have the computer control the acceleration instead of it responding directly to the engineer opening the throttle. Slower computer-controlled acceleration means less unburned fuel from turbo lag. Also makes the crews complain about them compared to older ones. Once they get up to speed, though, they're great pullers.

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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.

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

Actually, I was there Friday for the tours of the dispatching center and non-public parts of Union Station. I would have done it Saturday, but the hard hat tour was already sold out when I learned about it.

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.

Typical for the yard tour excursion. The middle car is just a coach/baggage with a wrap on it.

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.

It turned on every trip. If it was the same as the last time I ride it, they boarded on track 2 (farthest west track on the south side of the station; odd numbers are on the north side) and came down the BNSF main around the curve. Then they would switch control to the crew in the other engine and go south around the wye. Change control again and pull north through the yard (maybe through one of the shop buildings) and all the way through the station on one of the few tracks that go through. Out the north side, change ends again, come back through the station and past the throat, change ends once more and back into track 2 where they started.

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

The Great Green Arkleseizure!

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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.

I am wondering if this was on "display" at the "Train Day"

UPY 722(Y strands for yard I understand) pulled it down the wye this morning



UP 2002, one of the two UP SD70M's painted for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

2002's arrival into Chicago and departure the next day (today? I'm not sure) were noted by the diligent railfans in a Facebook group that keeps track of anything interesting railwise in this area.

I understand that Train Day had only passenger displays this year, no freight.

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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.

Yesterday the CZ 6 had a couple of extras in the consist



74 and 169 bringing up ACS 64 number 643 from Florin CA



Then bringing up the rear was this rather nice looking PV


The Patron Tequila Express which appartently is owned by billionaire John Paul DeJoria founder of the The Patrón Spirits Company.

It is also pretty unique inside I'm not going to cross post pictures from other websites but just type "The Patron Tequila Express " into Google images a see what comes up!!

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Yesterday the CZ 6 had a couple of extras in the consist



74 and 169 bringing up ACS 64 number 643 from Florin CA



Then bringing up the rear was this rather nice looking PV


The Patron Tequila Express which appartently is owned by billionaire John Paul DeJoria founder of the The Patrón Spirits Company.

It is also pretty unique inside I'm not going to cross post pictures from other websites but just type "The Patron Tequila Express " into Google images a see what comes up!!

Someone posted about these in a Yahoo group yesterday, but I didn't see the email until this morning, so I couldn't give you advance notice. Glad you got them.

Dan Aykroyd is the exclusive US (or is it Canadian?) distributor of Patron and makes frequent use of that car. Back when it was possible, he would sometimes have it parked under the House of Blues in downtown Chicago, which he is also part owner of.

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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.

I am wondering if this was on "display" at the "Train Day"

UPY 722(Y strands for yard I understand) pulled it down the wye this morning

[img]

UP 2002, one of the two UP SD70M's painted for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

2002's arrival into Chicago and departure the next day (today? I'm not sure) were noted by the diligent railfans in a Facebook group that keeps track of anything interesting railwise in this area.

I understand that Train Day had only passenger displays this year, no freight.

I hear that 2002 has been ordered to remain fairly close to Chicago until it is displayed at Rochelle Railroad Days next month. (Makes me wonder if it will be used on the UP employees' special to the museum, but that might be the same day.)

Speaking of the museum, if you had been watching our webcams on Sunday, you would have seen me working the diesel coach train. We had BN 5383, C&NW 7700, and RI 2571 and 2582. We had to open up the combine for a wheelchair passenger on the first trip, but other than that we kept all the passengers in the rear car. I got in two trips on the tailhose, making four stops fairly decently and without putting it in emergency at all. 5383 can really pump the air, so you have to release a lot of it from the tailhose to make it stop.

This coming Sunday, I'll be on the streetcar again, so you won't see me much or at all on the cams.

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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.

Is it a reasonable question to ask, that why do the American railways have to shunt so many of their locomotives all over the place all the time. Is it just to keep the train spotters happy, or are they just incompetent?

Locos get moved to and from factories, overhaul facilities, and various end user facilities. It is a big continent, so these places can be quite far apart. There are also seasonal needs (like getting all the grain off the Canadian prairies each fall) that see locos leased and rented in a bewildering mix. Once you have paid for the right of way, and are running a train anyway, the incremental cost of dead heading a loco is pretty small.

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Is it a reasonable question to ask, that why do the American railways have to shunt so many of their locomotives all over the place all the time. Is it just to keep the train spotters happy, or are they just incompetent?

If you are referring to the ACS-64 number 643, it is a brand new electric loco for the Northeast corridor - Boston - New York - Washington.

It is built in Florin CA and the quickest and obviously cheapest way for Amtrak to get it delivered is to hook it onto the next passing California Zephyr, that gets it to Chicago and then it goes on the Capitol Ltd to Washington, where it can finally be powered up. The Northeast corridor is all overhead power.

Others that you see are either being brought to Chicago, where there is a large service facility, or they may be on route to Beach Grove Indiana the main Amtrak depot where much larger scale repairs and maintenance are done.

All the freight locos you might see here from my camera shots are working hauling freight, you cannot move 70-100 cars with one loco. So two and three are usual. Any of the "Heritage" units I have featured are just ordinary locos with a custom paint job, they have to earn their keep like any other.


PS to my knowledge, there is still a shortage of available freight locos so some you see may look old and tatty but if they run, they will be used, doesn't really matter about the cab if it is a trailing unit.

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I will make a separate post for this as it is a different subject

One of the other members of the Railstream website has just posted these pics.






He has posted no info so I have no idea what this is and how I missed it!!

It looks like a pair of E or F units with matching PV.

Hopefully David will know what is going on and if it is returning!!

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PS to my knowledge, there is still a shortage of available freight locos so some you see may look old and tatty but if they run, they will be used, doesn't really matter about the cab if it is a trailing unit.

According to recent quarterly statements from both CN and CP, their growth at present is limited by how fast they can acquire new engines and rolling stock. So, yes, a lot of beat up old stuff seen on the rails these days.

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Old business first.

I will make a separate post for this as it is a different subject

One of the other members of the Railstream website has just posted these pics.






He has posted no info so I have no idea what this is and how I missed it!!

It looks like a pair of E or F units with matching PV.

Hopefully David will know what is going on and if it is returning!!

Iowa Pacific provided the equipment for the Chicago Railroad Superintendent's Association special. The lead engine is SLRG 515, former CNW 515. The second is SLRG 100, previously IC 100, BN 9901, BN 9938, CB&Q 9938A. It is quite accustomed to running past this location (but not on the Air Line), although it hasn't done so in many years. It was just painted orange and brown last month.

What you see here is a positioning move. The train was assembled at Metra's Western Ave. coach yard, then ran through Union Station, over the Air Line, and down to Metra's 47th St. yard. Later in the day, it backed to La Salle St. Station, where the passengers boarded for their trip Wednesday morning. It ran down Metra's Rock Island District to Joliet, then CSX's New Rock Subdivision to Utica, beyond which the route is controlled by Iowa Interstate (no relation to Iowa Pacific). Not much farther than Utica, it turned on the wye at Bureau and returned to Chicago the same way, arriving earlier this evening. I don't know exactly when the train will come back over the Air Line, but I suspect most or all of it will return to the Chicago Terminal RR (an IPH property) in Bensenville, so they don't have to pay storage fees to Amtrak.

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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.

As the same discussions and the exact same posts are now being made in two threads I will move the Amtrak crash posts to the Transportation Safety thread.

Please continue the discussion there

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Found this interactive map of crude oil distribution routes kind of interesting:

http://priceofoil.org/rail-map/

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I was amazed at the specs for the wheels of these new Acela 64 locos. Do they wear in use by 3" or is that after skimming in the factory refurb?

1,117 mm (43.98 in) (new)
1,041 mm (40.98 in) (worn)

ACS-64

It is a combination of wear and re-skimming. Mis-use of brakes can lead to flat spots, impact with objects on the rail can cause nicks and dents, all these are removed by skimming. My understanding is that the "worn" dimension is the allowable minimum after skimming. Below this, the wheel must be replaced.

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& there is nothing more irritating than driving on "flats". We used to have many a laugh reading the Defect Report cards in the cabs...

...my favourite but highly annoying ones were...

..."Flats getting worse", with the depot engineers reply - "not bad enough yet".

Doing the longest runs on the Central Line - West Ruislip/Epping a few times with flats...

Motormen?

Good grief, obviously a slow news day.

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Steam is has not been often mentioned recently in this thread.

Especially American steam.

Well I understand that NW J class 611 has finished its overhaul at The North Carolina Transportation Museum and is now being tested. It last ran under it's own power in 1994

"Trains" magazine will hopefully have a web cam there tomorrow and Thursday and I will hope to see a few pictures.

You can read about the J class and 611 HERE

It looks like an impressive loco



Today the Trains magazine web cam was just outside Spencer NC to wait for the arrival of the water and tool cars for 611 along with a period coach.



NS 4717 pulling the train, it is a "green" conversion of an older loco (GP50) and is called a GP33ECO.

Here is a closer look at the water and tool car.



It would be nice to see 611 at the head of that train.

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I have ridden behind 611 several times, including from Orland Park to Decatur, Ill., probably the train ride I enjoyed the most in my life.

The former Wabash now belongs to Metra from Chicago to Manhattan, with NS still having freight rights. NS negotiated trackage rights over Illinois Central's Springfield branch from Chicago to Gibson City, where they return to the Wabash route to Decatur.

North of Gibson City, the Wabash is now owned by the Bloomer Line as far as Risk, where they connect to a portion of IC's former Bloomington branch which they also now own. Bloomer is known for locomotives painted similarly to CB&Q's red and gray scheme, but not for its high standards of track maintenance. It's torn up from Manhattan to Risk (with little likelihood of them getting approval to rebuild it, much as NS would now like to).

I also rode behind 611 multiple times on the former Nickel Plate line to Ft. Wayne, IN. I hope to have a chance to ride there again in the next few years.

Speaking of steam engines in Ft. Wayne, I ordered a ticket to ride behind NKP 765 from there to Lafayette and back in July. Did that within an hour of when they went on sale. Missed the chance when it ran 2-3 years ago.

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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.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-train-derails-on-metra-electric-line-in-the-loop-20150520-story.html

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