Vancouver Island was hit last nite and I was wondering how the CPR is doing. The ENR is running as usual, a single RDC left Victoria today, a loco will probably meet the train in Nanaimo and take it north. They are adding a fourth unit to the Port Turn to get it into Port Alberni through blizzard conditions.
We didn't get any snow in Vancouver, but I know just North of Nanaimo is in snow belt. I think thermal effects from city, prevented it. But I know there is snow on the mountains.. so skiers are walking around with a smile on their face.
<font color="336633">If we get more than 10mm of snow we get probs on the rails here, best excuse i ever heard why trains wasnt able to run was "its the wrong kind of snow" </font>
Here is what it looks like out on the plains of western Kansas when they pushed the snow plows at about 60 miles an hour heading toward Colorado. The snow is being thrown about 100 feet to either side! Down here in Ft. Worth, Texas we got 1/8" of ice on the bridges and they are closing some businesses and schools tomorrow! Today a semi hauling 12 tons of fresh eggs slid, rear ended a car and flipped on its side spilling 24.000 crates breaking eggs all over four lanes of North Central Expressway in Dallas! Peewew! (The EPA is screaming that it will contaminate the water shed into the River and affect the fish!) The drivers were not hurt. There is, however, much weeping and wailing at the old hen house tonight for all their wasted work! Shall we have a moment of silence in sympathy for those poor worn out hens? Thanks!
I just hope that all our trainboarders in range of all this bad weather is ok! Russ Hoffman Valley RR
I have already broken out the rotary snow plows and am getting up steam in them! Its going to be a double header up in the high pass area tonight! The plan is to use two 2-8-8-2's to push, and Ole' Watash will (of course) operate the plow, while I whistle off to the engine crews behind! We hope to have the pass cleared all the way to the town of Tense by daylight so the "Salad Bowl Express" can make it on the advertized. Then we'll back 'em down to hot cakes, eggs and some big slabs of ham about breakfast time, if all goes well. Get the shovels out, guys, its a blowin' fierce out there!
There is nuthing more beautiful than coming off of the mountain with a fresh layer of snow covering the rails. It get a little un nerving if a possible broken rail comes into your mind. Watash. This is the most outstanding snow removal pix I have ever seen. Arthur. [ 21 December 2001: Message edited by: BC Rail King ]
Arthur, Those Russel type snow plows were indeed impressive to watch racing west out on the Kansas plains, sometimes hitting 60 miles an hour! The ones we got used to were so fast, they were here and gone in a few minutes, but the ones that really got my dad's attention were the big black Rotaries up in the mountains! He and I would go up and watch them across the canyon throwing the snow way out over the cliff side then cascading down into the valley floor below! That was impressive! Sometimes you could hear them toot signals on those Wild Cat Mountain steam whistles too. They would get bogged down, stop, back up a ways, clear the blades, them whistle off and the two emgines behind would answer then start foreward again pushing the Rotary into the snow pack again. You could hear the engine in the steam snow plow really lug down when it hit the snow bank! Then he would give a long toot, and they would back up again to do it all over. We watched for over an hour with out having to move farther down the canyon. I don't have any camera shots of it, but dad did take some movies one year. He sent them in to one of the people who made a VHS tape that included a few feet of it. You would have had to be up on the Raton Pass in Colorado around 1936 to see some of that action while we were there. The (old) hiway was just two lanes back then, and was right across the canyon from the tracks. We had to keep a close watch for traffic coming down grade, because sometimes those long wheel based P.I.E. semi's would jacknife and slide right off into the canyon below! They would take cars, busses and another truck (once), with them! (P.I.E. was the Pacific Interstate Express trucks.) The trailers were maybe 36 to 38 feet, but the tractor's frame was nearly 40 feet, so was funny to see the cab way out in front of the trailer. The extra length added control to recover from a jack knife slip. I have a pair of the brass trumpets and horns from one of them that I put on my pickup when I lived out in west Texas. They were legal out there. In town, forget it, they are louder than the diesel trains! The trumpets are 30" long and 7" in diameter! I think they are Leslie or Hamilton, I don't remember now, but I blew them over in the tool room one night on a 180psi air line, and woke up half the town! Boy did I get a chewing for that! At night going down the hiway, I could give a toot toot and the cars ahead suddenly went rabbit hunting thinking a BIG semi was right on top of them! People sorta expected strange things from me back then, afterall I was young, about 19.
