It is a siding now. It ties back into the mainline at the signal bridge to the south of Belmont. That siding is the old mainline before they double tracked the hill and re-aligned much of the upper half of the hill. It still has the old concrete mileposts along the tracks. There is a back track off of the siding at Belmont. It is used to park maintenance equipment, bad order cars, and small work trains. That siding is used quite frequently. You just can't readily see anything parked in there because of the terrain. On the South Belmont Road, you can see a maintenance-of-way storage yard near one of the corners in the road. The siding can be seen there. It is also the location for one of the concrete mileposts still along the tracks.
Unless I climb on top of a grain elevator or shoot off a bridge, altitude shots don't happen here in GA......sigh..... Great shots, Hemi!!
What's infamous about the grassy knoll in the picture? Does that grassy knoll have something to do with the assassination of President Kennedy? I must sound ignorant, but I am too young to remember the event, and I've never been to any part of Texas, much less Dallas. Nevertheless, I'm curious about what makes that spot infamous.
Yes, as Russell affirmed, that is the area where the conspiracy theorists suggest another gunman was stationed during the JFK assassination. I certainly don't remember the event...it happened nearly 10 years before I was born! But my mom does and she kept all the newspapers from then, and has a copy of the Warren report, and can tell you where she was "when it happened". The Sixth Floor museum is also a pretty famous tourist spot and I've been there a couple of times. That is why, to this day whenever I tell someone I'm from Dallas they always assume I'm carrying a gun. Seriously.
Thank you for telling me. Now, though, I'm curious: Why should people assume that because you are from Dallas, you carry a gun?
I love how you annotate your postings. I'm curious. I how do you know it is "heavy"? I'm guessing you know from the direction it is going and time of year that it is loaded and perhaps the loco / car ratio? Can you tell from the sound as well?
It is very interesting human psychology. If you say you went to Ohio State people who were alive at the time will react with a moments hesitation remembering the students killed by national guardsmen. It's an emotional reaction. There is nothing rational about it.
You know by sounds and sights. The sound of a heavy train on its knees on a heavy grade is pretty distinctive. That means the prime movers are wound-out, the sanders are going for all they're worth, the dust thereof swirls around the tracks, the ground shakes, the air is thick with heat & exhaust, and an unmistakable thunder emanates from the train that you only hear from a train on its knees. Short, fast or well-powered trains scoot right along at a good clip, and add a whole lot less drama to the scene. The sight also means the springs in the trucks on each car are usually fully compressed. A train acending a grade usually brings more drama to the party than a train descending. But not always, if they are heavy-powered. The horsepower-per-ton ratio usually will determine which trains are priority, and which ones grind every foot of the way up the grade. On this part of the railroad, grain loads head west, and empties head east. Knowing your route will determine what goes where. On the Moffat east of Bond, coal loads head east, and empties head west. Out towards Grand Junction, and into Utah, coal loads head west and east.... :tb-cool:
Exhaust is another indicator--rising straight up means slow train speed, and in large columns, means high throttle position, usually notch 8. You should have heard the thunder from this eastbound, at Java East on Marias: Back on topic, shere's a WB stack coming downgrade at Shed 10.7 on marias:
Heim - Thanks! for the description. I wonder what a recording of that on a CD playing at just the right time on your pike. A remote control on the stereo to adjust the volume. A couple of large Bass speakers? The "clawing" grain train now decorates my desktop.