Those Canadian trains are pretty spiffy. Much nicer looking than the graffiti laden freight trains that pass through Louisville.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Those Canadian trains are pretty spiffy. Much nicer looking than the graffiti laden freight trains that pass through Louisville.

Canadian car decorated by a Canadian artist.



Another, not quite suitable for posting here. There is another I've seen, but I didn't find it in a quick search.

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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.

The Italians take a lot of beating in the "Grime Graffiti Stakes". Consider this local service in not too far from Florence





The "artists" know better than to tag the cab windows as doing so would mean the train would be pulled from service and all their "hard work" work be obliterated.

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

Then there are these examples, some are quite good too.


A simple coverup in progress...

This one asked to be ERASEd, but why? It's FREE paint to the railroad...

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

This time of year sees a few "steam specials" that pass through South Croydon

Yesterday it was "BR Britannia Class 7MT 4-6-0 no 70013 Oliver Cromwell with The Christmas Sussex Belle

Here just passed under the road bridge south of East Croydon.



It was slowing down as it was going to be held at the signal. So got a shot just before it went into the shadow of the footbridge.



It was held on platform 4 at South Croydon for about 5 minutes as two suburban trains passed it.

This was just as it pulled away.



I quite like that image, and it also shows that even on a line with 60 triasns an hour there is still room for occasional steam.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42358075

France Millas train crash: Children killed as bus cut in two

A train and a school bus have collided near Perpignan in southern France, leaving at least four children dead and many other people injured.

Twenty people were injured and 11 of them were in a critical condition, after the crash on a level crossing between Millas and Saint-Féliu-d'Amont.

The bus had picked up pupils, aged between 13 and 17, from a nearby secondary school before it was hit.

Pictures from the scene showed the bus split in two by the force of the crash.

Nice pics, Bernie.

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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.

oops
http://abc7.com/freight-train-derails-hits-building-in-vernon/2820732/

Monday, December 25, 2017 12:43AM
VERNON, Calif. (KABC) --
A freight train derailed and crashed into a building in Vernon Sunday, according to police.

The building, located at 3650 E. 26th St., was damaged. There were no immediate reports of injures.

Vernon police tweeted a photo of the train laying on its side, blocking the roadway on 26th Street between Sierra Pine and Indiana.

According to police, the road will be shut down "for quite some time."

Metrolink trains were also delayed due to the derailment.

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Surprised no one posted anything here about the Amtrak Cascades mess up in Washington State. Haven't heard anything more about why that train was running 80mph in a 30mph zone or why emergency braking was not applied.

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http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=78677&postid=1907881

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Surprised no one posted anything here about the Amtrak Cascades mess up in Washington State. Haven't heard anything more about why that train was running 80mph in a 30mph zone or why emergency braking was not applied.

From what I've read, emergency braking was applied, it would have taken about 1/2 a mile to stop the train, the EB did slow the train down to 78mph, but that's it, the curve in the original plans was supposed to be replaced, but the people in charge only got $800 Million in ARRA Stimulus funds, the ARRA Stimulus funds totaled $8 Billion, and the railroad still wants to replace that curve, but doing so is not going to be cheap, $800 Million was just not enough money, so some things got cut, which I suspect included the PTC being active or even there. Beyond that I have no knowledge, for the moment at least. In My mind there was too little money, chasing too many projects, it would be nice if Congress would fix that with a proper amount of money, but We'll see what happens in that department in the next few months in 2018.

Also the conductor was in the engine with the engineer, doing what I don't know, possibly being a distraction, something PTC would have fixed.

---

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

Yesterday I got to wondering just how many places in the USA would have a white Christmas. So using the railcams I had a look.

Here is the "mini-cam" view of 15 of Railstreams cams



This shows that just Shenandoah Junction West Virginia was snow less! (Cresson is offline but apparently snowy)

This view does not have all the cams, notably the one across the border Belleville Ontario.

This has had snow for several days, in fact yesterday I spotted the first train heading west, notice the rail is still snow covered in front of 6406



That was the 41 heading to Toronto. A while later the 6415 did the same for the rails on the other side.



The "carol singers" are an added extra, placed there by the camera host!!

Back in the USA it was quite difficult to find any trains that wern't Amtrak, in the end Berea Ohio came up trumps



A snowy CSX 508 with a stack train. It was quite obvious that there was very little freight about.

However the "windy city" still had its daily rota of Amtrak.



A charger powered 391 leaving, while the City of New Orleans waits on the airline.

Of course no "snowy Christmas Day" on the railcams would be complete without the camera that started me on this, good old Chesterton West, first watched on the 14th December 2014

Here is the 29 yesterday



With the "Veterans" unit no 42.

And here from the archives is 25th December 2014



No snow that year!!

There is new camera that was not on the "mini cams" Durand Michigan, this sees the Amtrak "Blue Water" 364/365, Chicago to Port Huron, yesterday I totally forgot to record it, however it had lots of snow

Today I remembered. Here a rather icy looking 31 leads.



Finally a Christmas wave from the Amtrak agent (and friend) in La Plata Missouri as they wait for the Chicago bound Southwest Chief yesterday.

Also the conductor was in the engine with the engineer, doing what I don't know, possibly being a distraction, something PTC would have fixed.

The conductor was in the passenger cars doing what he was supposed to be doing. There was a trainee in the engine with the engineer.

Also the conductor was in the engine with the engineer, doing what I don't know, possibly being a distraction, something PTC would have fixed.

The conductor was in the passenger cars doing what he was supposed to be doing. There was a trainee in the engine with the engineer.

Well that was what I read, sorry about that, maybe the trainee should not have been there right then. I hope they can learn from this.

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

Also the conductor was in the engine with the engineer, doing what I don't know, possibly being a distraction, something PTC would have fixed.

The conductor was in the passenger cars doing what he was supposed to be doing. There was a trainee in the engine with the engineer.

Well that was what I read, sorry about that, maybe the trainee should not have been there right then. I hope they can learn from this.

The trainee was learning the track route and all the things like speed limits, signals. He had to be in the engine looking out the cab to learn it.

Obviously situational awareness was lost. If this is because the training took too much away from the operation, the investigation will uncover it and many recommendations will be issued. In an airplane CRM is well studied. Some may be very applicable here.
<ed>the real issue is that trains run one man so much of the time that two man operation is not the norm and there may not be enough done to ensure safety at those times. The safety requirement to be familiar with a route may be putting safety of the training runs at jeopardy.

Just a couple more pics to show how bad the snow is in some parts of the US..

Areas around the great lakes have had the worst snow, a few miles north of the town of Erie PA is a place called North East home to the Lake shore Railway musem.

Virtual Railfan has two cameras here, this is the east facing cam early morning on the 1st of December



Notice the fence. Here the same camera yesterday morning.



I would have liked to show the view for the west cam unfortunately it was completely covered with snow.

So how do the trains cope.



They just speed on though, adding a bit more snow to the fence!! That was the 48 today

Finally a snowy Horseshoe Curve near Altoona PA with train 42 The Pennsylvanian on route to New York

This cold weather is starting to take it's toll on the rolling stock, quite a few of the long distance trains out of Chicago leaving hours late.

However this was a first, normally you see broken done or units having problems towed in by a freight loco, first time I have see one towed out!!



"Executive" paintwork BNSF 9766 hauls an hour late California Zephyr out of Chicago whilst an on time Southwest Chief rushes past.

Catching up: the freight railroads pretty much shut down for most of Christmas day, running only the very highest priority trains. Late evening Christmas Eve, Mike picked up a crew off a train at an odd location just a few miles out from Aurora. About 48 hours later, I took crews out to the same train and the one parked a few miles in front of it. The kicker is that neither crew knew exactly where their train was, but I knew exactly where the odd location one was because Mike had told me about it.

The snow and cold definitely have effects on rail equipment. Cold air takes longer to propagate through a train. Cold air hoses and their couplings are more likely to leak or break. Cold couplers are also more likely to break. Switches freeze or get clogged with ice and snow. And, it turns out, even the electronics in the signal systems fail in sub-zero (F) temperatures.

By chance, Aldi recently featured 12V electric blankets and I bought one. It warms me up much faster than the van's heat on those -18F nights. The older I get, the less I can tolerate winter. Now I know why the elderly move to Florida.

A lot of us were surprised when the BNSF unit led 5 out of Chicago. It should be noted that the same unit led 8 into town (many hours late) a day or two earlier. I'm not hearing any stories about Chargers failing due to the weather, and I probably would be if they were at even a fraction of the rate at which the GEs do.

My friend who works for Siemens got a call about 15 minutes after the Cascades wreck and quickly flew up there to be the manufacturer's rep for the initial phase of the investigation. Naturally, he didn't want to comment publicly, but he did more or less confirm my observation that (as ugly as some American railfans think they are) the cab did its job of keeping its occupants alive. (Did I tell you this before?)

One evening recently, I was called to pick up two crews deadheading on Amtrak 382 (ordered to be there an hour before the train's scheduled time, who knows why) at La Grange Road and take them a few miles to the hotel. Then I was informed that I had to take them to Eola to get right onto trains. Apparently, they took it upon themselves to call the hotel to send the courtesy van and when they arrived they all started to pile into that instead. I had to tell them about the change -- no one bothered to call them.

Another evening, I took a crew from Eola to Cicero. Not five minutes after dropping them off, I was called to make a pickup in Rochelle in 45 minutes. I checked the time by GPS, then added an extra hour (not enough) for A: a bathroom stop at White Castle, and B: going slow due to the snow. After just a few miles, I ran out of washer fluid. Then, about five miles from the exit, my phone rang. They've been cracking down on us for talking on the phone while driving, so I didn't answer. When I got off, I stopped and called back, only to be told that the crew I was picking up was now at Eola. I said okay, another hour to get back there. Just as I was going up the exit ramp for Eola, the phone rang again. The crew has been taken by another van, but get to LPC in 45 minutes. Nope, add half an hour to that. Go into the closest gas station for another bathroom break and a bottle of washer fluid. As I'm putting that in, another dispatcher calls and says no, the crew is still at Eola, go get them and skip LPC. Then she puts me on hold. While I'm still holding, the previous dispatcher calls again and says no, go to LPC. By now I've been holding so long I tell him to add another half hour. I get there at about that time and still have to wait a while for the crew.

---

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

After being awake for 30+ hours, I take my Ambien, get in my recliner, and put the phone on silent, confident that the company will not call me with only 1h38m of on duty time remaining and that Mike will pick up the van and knock me off the board before I refresh. Then I happen to notice the phone lighting up with an incoming call. Sure enough, they want me to do a hotel trip. I listen to the whole automated spiel, then respond "not enough hours." The computer has glitched and is letting me see the trip details even though I haven't accepted it, so I see that it gets assigned to the next driver on the board, and when I wake up I can see the entire history of the trip. He waited for 5.5 hours, while the train was sitting about 15 miles away because the yard was too congested.

The board has not moved in the five hours I've been awake now.

---

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

A couple of pictures not directly featuring trains but from a train cam

This was West Newton PA and 9.30 ET last night



Then just a few hours later.



Just a little snow, and if you look closely in the bottom left you can just see a chilly bunny, that hopped across the rails.

Also both of the rail-cam sites I subscribe to are adding more cameras, Virtual Railfan added Flagstaff AZ a couple of days ago.



This is from both cameras together. The Southwest Chief 3 and 4 both stop here. This is the 4 from a couple of days ago, not sure health and safety would like the guy standing by the open door in the baggage car. :-)

These two cams allow you to see almost the full train at once.



Unfortunately both trains are stopping in the dark at the moment, the 3 around 9:50 pm and the 4 around 5.30 am.

This site aims to add another 20+ cameras this year, it is already getting difficult to decide which one to watch!!