Most of the time you don't actually need to see the front of the loco, its only during coupling moves that anyone needs to see the very front, and in most cases you have someone in place who can see the actually coupling. In the UK this person is normally standing to one side who communicates with the driver, in the US he may be standing to one side, or on the footplate, again communicating with the drive. In both cases the communication may be by hand signals or radio, or both.

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

Grade crossings. Cuts down on the shrapnel. :(

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Hi All,

I said I was going to post some pics.


Well, FWIW I hope here is a link to them

http://s827.photobucket.com/user/grahamwmiddleton/library/Bluebell%20Rlwy%202015%2006%2014

I have a few of videos as well, but they're big, if anyone wants them, PM me.

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Happy Crunching,

Graham

OK, so how do I get it back without having to log onto another ISP?

Annoyances aside, here is a an SD40-2 from a company I have never heard of before.



Trans Global Solutions, seems that they do everything "railway related" including locomotive leasing, which I suspect this is.

Still nice to see something different.

I've never seen or heard of that either. Nice catch.

I also had trouble with the Amtrak tracker, Monday night when I really wanted to know where train 4 was. I don't know what the problem is.

The reason the cab is not right at the front is crew safety in a collision. It's a crumple zone, especially in newer designs. In the early days of diesel road switchers (GP7s and RS3s, and the next few models following them), many railroads actually designated the long hood to be the front. Norfolk Southern was the last road to order new engines set up that way, continuing to do it right up until EMD told them the low nose was now the standard, not the optional version, and it would cost more to get high noses on its SD60s.

Footplates were outlawed for safety reasons, however. If a crew member has to ride on the end, he is either on the step or all the way up on the platform. Freight roads that have bought used F40PHs from Amtrak have cut the nose back so there will be a place to ride for that purpose. Study this one:

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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.

Four old Metra Electric cars were seen on the UP train to Belvidere this morning. There is little doubt that a local job will deliver them to IRM soon, probably as soon as someone moves the line of junk that's parked in Schmidt Siding so they can be pulled off the interchange.

Also, Wisconsin & Southern's E8s were reported on a CP train from Kansas City to Chicago, likely to be set out at Davis Jct. and moved north to interchange with WSOR at Beloit. It's said they've been sold, so maybe the sale includes repainting them at WSOR's Horicon shop. They had been on a sister Watco railroad in Oklahoma, I believe.

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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.

Bernie, if you're up and paying attention right now, turn on the Chicago camera. 6 has the display train on it, and the veteran's unit.

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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 going to post this here, whilst it is a technical issue it is directly related to trains and my enjoyment of them and not really a subject for number crunching!!

I make a lot of use of the "Track a Train" on The Amtrak home page

Most of the time it works fine, the suddenly for no reason it will just load a blank white box, It will affect all of my machines. However any machine that has the page already open and tracking a train will continue to work, if I refresh it then blank page. This can go on for hours or sometimes a couple of days.

Then a couple of days ago when all machines had the problem, I tethered my laptop to my mobile phone and bingo, worked first time, if I kept the tracker open and tracking a train and went back to my broadband, it carries on working.

So it is obviously something to do either my router (BT Home Hub 5) or my ISP as my phone is with a different company.

I had the problem today on my main machine, which has a wireless card installed I never use. I disabled my NIC, enabled the wireless card, tethered it to my phone and it worked. Disabled wireless re-enabled the NIC and map stays up

Anyone any ideas as to what could possibly cause this?

PS I have changed my DNS server a couple of times to no effect.

Oh yes and rebooted my Home Hub, no difference

Are you familiar with http://dixielandsoftware.net? Its server queries amtrak.com and displays the status of all Amtrak trains in a fairly friendly format. I just learned that if you scroll down the home page, there's a link called the Hitchhiker's Guide to Amtrak, which has a number of other useful features. One of them is a different version of the tracking map on amtrak.com.

---

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

Bernie, if you're up and paying attention right now, turn on the Chicago camera. 6 has the display train on it, and the veteran's unit.

The display train is scheduled to appear at Galesburg Railroad Days next weekend.

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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.

edit.

sorry.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Bernie, if you're up and paying attention right now, turn on the Chicago camera. 6 has the display train on it, and the veteran's unit.

No sorry at 3:01 am I am in bed, interesting train or not!

Are you familiar with http://dixielandsoftware.net? Its server queries amtrak.com and displays the status of all Amtrak trains in a fairly friendly format. I just learned that if you scroll down the home page, there's a link called the Hitchhiker's Guide to Amtrak, which has a number of other useful features. One of them is a different version of the tracking map on amtrak.com.

Yes use the map and the ASM alerts to find out how late the trains I watch are!!

I have the "Solari" station board for Chicago on a screen most of the time, whist not 100% accurate it does remind me which train is due.

I have realised that I now have videos and still pictures of all the 29 and 49's since the 15th December, and most of the 3,4,5 and 6 since 1st of Jan, of course if they arrive at 3am I just might give them a miss!!

Also I have seen every "trackworthy" P42 except 150 and 196.

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Graham - The Bluebell Line is a great railway, I must get back down there one day to see how it has developed in the years since I was last there (maybe twenty years)

---

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

At the Bluebell Railway, they're part way through building a new Loco as well as several rebuilds. That's all at Sheffield Park, there are other rebuilds of rolling stock at the other locations.

The new build has the chassis built and some of the firebox and cab, but I couldn't take good photos as there was a fund-raising book and memorabilia sale and auction on. There were no clear shots of anything below shoulder height, unfortunately.

Lots going on there, the museum is well worth a visit, and they are now running meal trains with UK Pullman carriages, and a full menu (at a price!).

My wife and I both enjoyed the day out, as most of the staff semed to like chatting with the passengers.


As for the Watercress line, we've been there and had a short trip along the track once last year. The Romney Hythe & Dymchurch railway I haven't been on since I was about 10 or 11 (early 1960's), so I don't know what it's like now.

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Happy Crunching,

Graham

Bernie, if you're up and paying attention right now, turn on the Chicago camera. 6 has the display train on it, and the veteran's unit.

No sorry at 3:01 am I am in bed, interesting train or not!

If I hear when it's heading out for Galesburg, I'll try to give you a bit more advance notice. Or you might catch it on your own when I'm otherwise occupied.

Are you familiar with http://dixielandsoftware.net? Its server queries amtrak.com and displays the status of all Amtrak trains in a fairly friendly format. I just learned that if you scroll down the home page, there's a link called the Hitchhiker's Guide to Amtrak, which has a number of other useful features. One of them is a different version of the tracking map on amtrak.com.

Yes use the map and the ASM alerts to find out how late the trains I watch are!!

I have the "Solari" station board for Chicago on a screen most of the time, whist not 100% accurate it does remind me which train is due.

I have realised that I now have videos and still pictures of all the 29 and 49's since the 15th December, and most of the 3,4,5 and 6 since 1st of Jan, of course if they arrive at 3am I just might give them a miss!!

Also I have seen every "trackworthy" P42 except 150 and 196.

That's some impressive dedication to your effort.

---

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

Why do the States insist upon have the front of an Engine about 20ft from the driver, it's not a container ship :-))

Oops, just saw that David beat me to it. That's what I get for not reading this every day.

EMD used to call them "safety cabs", today we would call the nose extension a crumple zone. It keeps the crew away from the nasties, like cars parked on level crossings.

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Here is something a little different.

I was just looking around to see if there are any other interesting web cams and I found this



Now notice something unusual, yes actual passengers!! This is one of the two cameras at Galesburg IL, situated on the Galesburg Railroad Museum

It is not a streaming cam but refreshes every 30 seconds. The train approaching is the 380 all points Quincy IL to Chicago. It is 7:38am on a Sunday morning and there are about 50 people waiting to board!! It would be considered a "local train" only 4 cars and it takes about 4½ hours Quincy IL to Chicago

Being a 30sec cam the next shot would be boring except the other camera faces north.



P42 65 waiting to depart for Chicago.

The interesting thing is that both the California Zephyr and Southwest Chief also stop here.

For those who like me were never very good on geography here is a map courtesy of http://www.asm.transitdocs.com/



The numbered squares are the Amtrak services, green means on time yellow up to half an hour late and red more than half and hour late.

Quincy is bottom left and the 380 has just left Galesburg.

Chicago is on the bottom left of the blue bit which of course is Lake Michigan. I have also put a pointer in for the Chesterton crossing camera, which the two red squares, 29 and 49 are both currently approaching.

Also you will note the "return service" Chicago to Quincy 381 has just left Chicago.



With 100 in the lead.

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Can I be a cheeky monkey :-)

I'm on 100mb yet every time I view this thread, it tends to lag a bit before getting to the latest post. Due to all the photos maybe?

How about refreshing & starting anew?

I've set My settings to 25 posts a page, My download speed is about 15-22M, No lag seen by Me, if any lag happens here it's most likely on My end.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

Can I be a cheeky monkey :-)

I'm on 100mb yet every time I view this thread, it tends to lag a bit before getting to the latest post. Due to all the photos maybe?

How about refreshing & starting anew?

Sadly, that is unlikely to solve your problem. Until recently, I was on about 5 mb connection, and it loaded quickly enough.

Perhaps try reducing the number of 'messages per page' (community preferences) - that will reduce the number of photos you have to load. I use 25 messages/page, which I find is enough for most threads.

Thanks guys, I'll do that.

Edit. Thanks again. that did the trick. Had it set to 500.

Another help would be not quoting pictures....

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