Thursday Proto Photo, Sep 24/09

[Lenny53]

[Philip H]

Mid South and KCs Geeps tied up in Gulfport, MS after Katrina, 2005.

[wm3798]

So anyway, yesterday the phone rings and it's my wife, bubbling over with excitement.  She's taking classes at Salisbury U, and the parking garage is near the railroad tracks through town, and she was walking toward class when the gates went down.  She pulled out the camera phone, and shot this for your inspection...


She said it was a fairly long train pulled by 2, maybe 3 diesels, and made up of what she thought might have been empty coal hoppers.

Judging by the aerial maps below Salisbury, the hoppers may have been used to haul stone to a couple of depots around Pocomoke City.

Lee

[DKS]

Running without lights??



No. Just being dragged along. Here's the other end:



30 May 2006, ~2:30 PM, West Trenton, NJ

[Philip H]

So anyway, yesterday the phone rings and it's my wife, bubbling over with excitement.  She's taking classes at Salisbury U, and the parking garage is near the railroad tracks through town, and she was walking toward class when the gates went down.  She pulled out the camera phone, and shot this for your inspection...


She said it was a fairly long train pulled by 2, maybe 3 diesels, and made up of what she thought might have been empty coal hoppers.

Judging by the aerial maps below Salisbury, the hoppers may have been used to haul stone to a couple of depots around Pocomoke City.

Lee

Can we get your to talk to mine?  The Red Head is still "amused" by my "doll houses for men" hobby, though her parents keep buying me stuff for Christmas and Birthdays.

[wm3798]

Maybe they want to keep you happy so she doesn't move back in! ;D
You know how those red heads can be!!


Lee

[asciibaron]

Lee - they were probably covered hoppers going to the big elevator just south of Princess Anne.

[wm3798]

Safe bet.  Tis the season to move corn!  She said the cars were mostly "maroon", but couldn't really pin down what they were...  An untrained eye, to say the least!  I'll have work on that with her!

Lee

[The Donkey]

Lee, tell her to keep a notepad & pen w/her, so she can jot down the reporting marks possibly, &
then check for similar online on one of the archive sites.

When I got my better half into railfanning, that's what she did when she didn't have her cam with
her. We actually found a couple cars online we saw on a train at night once a few years ago.

Some cars she knows by sight instantly & reporting marks-CSX,WE,GATX & RBOX, but also knows
several others-mainly SOO, (& old Chessie cars ;D)

[Caleb Austin]

[asciibaron]

RUN!  

please tell me the train was stopped

Ashland?

[Bob Bufkin]

Couple more shots from Riverdale yesterday:





Hadn't been to St Denis for over a month so went there last Saturday.  Caught a light loco movement:



Anyone know what this platform was on the rear?

[John]

Yea .. thats a shoving platform .. has horn, lights, etc .. the conductor rides on it ..


http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter1828/2988999703/

[Caleb Austin]

RUN! 

please tell me the train was stopped

Ashland?

Yup, Ashland.

And I'm afraid the train was not stopping and was going the max track speed. Some people are a bit to comfortable with trains in that town.

[cdnshortliner]

Something a little different from me this week:  Scale test cars and the CANAC carrying car.

Rail scales must be certified every year.  In Canada, CANAC performs the majority of this work.  They have just 2 guys who cover all of Canada (That is 300 rail scales at this point, they are busy guys!)

Scale Test Cars come in a couple of different sizes, and the problem with the small 2 axle cars is that due to their short wheelbase and lack of air brakes, they must be hauled at the end of the train, limiting train speed to a maximum of 30MPH.  This is OK for short moves, but for anything longer, the scale cars are put on a scale test car carrying car, in this case CANX 61300. CANX 61300 is constructed from a modified bulkhead flatcar and has capacity for 2 small scale cars.   The device at the one end is a ramp that unfolds to allow the cars to be moved on and off by means of a winch and block and tackle. The car contains it's own generator and hydraulic system to power this ramp and the winch. Somewhere I have a picture of it fully extended during scale testing.  These shots were taken in 2005.








And finally, a load "you can model":  KRL 127003 carrying a 400,000lb boiler pressure vessel. Manufactured by Trenergy in St. Catharines, ON. (OK, you will have to model the car as well, KRL only has 5 of the prototype cars!). This vessel is welded directly to the deck of the car.: