"High Ball" Signal This is the last operating ball signal in the US, located in Whitefield, NH. The signal was still used in 1981 to protect the B&M/MEC diamond. The photo was taken on June 19, 2009. This link has more information. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=288071&nseq=14
==================================================================== My engineer mentor's favorite saying wuz "Aint no flat track on the C & I". And there ain't!! If a local road near Oregon IL named "Devil's Backbone Rd". doesn't give you a hint about what the terrain is like, maybe the town named "Oregon" IL should! As I have mentioned before, the undulating profile of the C & I was used as a model for the locomotive simulator programs. Oregon hill is a pretty good sized hill and does require a modicum of train handling skills. It's not like mountain railroading though! That requires special training and qualifying! The Oregon Siding is 11,000 ft long and it's that long for a reason. The dspr can put a couple of slow moving H or M priority(the lowest)trains in there to clear the Q and Z hotshot intermodals. Those H & M trains usually take the C & I a bit slower with the undulations of the track and the distribution of the weight, they can break apart easier if mis-handled. Once you're through Oregon, if you have "high green" all the way, your trip is pretty much over unless you get caught by the "dinky parade"(commuter train rush). If the "parade" catches you, plan on "croaking" at Big Rock or Sugar Grove unless you have enough time to wait out the parade and croak at Eola. A Q or Z train with "green" all the way, can make it to La Crosse in 6 1/2 hours. Eastbound you can do it in 7 -8 hrs. Just remember "Ain't no flat track on the C & I."! Charlie
It was a warm June afternoon. I was working 2nd shift East Yard, on duty 15:00(3PM)as helper. A typical midwest summer thunderstorm was brewing and as I drove west to Eola, I could see the storm getting ever closer. I pulled into the parking lot and made it into the building just as the heavens opened. I changed into my "bibs" and made my way to the yardmasters desk. He didn't have our switch lists ready yet so he told us to go have a cuppa Joe. Well by this time the rain was coming down in heavy sheets and the lightning dancing all around. The YM called out to us in the lunchroom(only a few feet from his desk)for someone to go move a couple of locomotives so that the West Yard crew could move their engines and get started with their work.(dont ask me why they couldn't move the power other than they didn't want to get wet) So the hogger & I donned our 2 piece rain suits and headed out into Chaos. Now these rain suits normally keep one fairly dry but this rain was so heavy and the winds so strong, the rain found every possible entry point. Within the 15-20 minutes it took us to make this move, I was thoroughly soaked to the skin on ever square inch of my "more to love" body! Of course me being the helper I was the one on the outside the hogger was fairly dry and the foreman was still nursing his coffee in the lunchroom. I never did dry out that night, I "squished" every time I took a step. I had to bring a dry set of "bibs" to work the next day and wear an old set of boots since my regular pair was still waterlogged. It did stop raining,but it remained a warm,humid night and storms kicked up later that night after I had left for home. Not one of my better nights, but that's railroading! Charlie
Hi charlie,Just slipping into your thread!Only had time to read afew pages,great reading(nothing like real life eh.)H & M trains?Q & Z trains?Or have i missed something simple!!cheers stu:tb-cool:
==================================================================== Those are letters used to denote what sort of train is being operated. H and/or M trains are generally manifest trains ie, H CHCGBG 1 12 A Q and/or Z are hotshot intermodal trains, could be piggyback, could be containers.These are the highest priority trains ie Z CHCSSE 1 12 A. Some other trains are... U = Unit train G = Grain train B = Bare table train C = coal train Charlie
Charlie I am loving the stories!One point is before I finally said " To heck with this Chicago crap" and quit running the 11 and 10 board out of the Burg,Cicero had a new area for us trainmen! The bathrooms were like home! Clean and well kept! Granted you now had to walk what felt like a mile to the power! Corwith was fun for "green" guys.Id always tell newbies to go in and ask for a delay report.For those that dont know the Santa Fe doesnt believe in delay reports.So they would get a look and some snotty comment lol. Maybe you can help me Charlie. What was the Irish Mail?We always wondered what it was in Galesburg( you guys had cool names for your jobs lol)
The "Irish Mail" is the job that works the West Chicago Branch(the ORIGINAL line that became the C.B.&Q)on 3rd Shift. In "Ye Olde Days" there were 3 I.M. jobs, one on each shift. There are a lot of industries still on that branch. There used to be more. Several plastics factories. Candle Corp of America(yes they make candles!)mostly parrafin wax. Olympic Stains, a General Mills cereal plant, a big beer distributor(Millard's). I cant remember them all. I have no idea why it is called the "Irish Mail" nor did any of the old heads know why. The beer distributor sometimes got 2 switches a day, the one on midnights and then a day switch. Pull empties and spot loads both times. The YM would send a day switch engine to do that one. The one that had most of his buddies working on it!!!! If you want colorful names for jobs, the BRC (Belt Railway Co.of Chicago)takes the prize. They have one called the "nose picker"(dont ask, I dont know!). The "Cookie job",switches the Nabisco cookie bakery on 72nd & Kedzie. They would refer to locomotives by nicknames,ie. the #125 was the "buck & a quarter". They had some others,but I CRS! BTW on your post on the BN board, sorry, I still dont remember what line it was,except for the fact that the train was high on a bluff and on a curve. I only did that one dogcatch there. I worked a job from the Burg to W.Quincy a couple of times. Worked both times with an old head hogger who,it turns out, had worked in Chicago for a number of years and was good buds with one of my hogger buddies in Chicago. That was an easy "step-on,step-off" job. Just hold my pocket open and let them pour the gold in!!!! The hogger was a hoot. He had a relationship with a YM in W.Quincy that was one of those where they did nothing but insult each other! If they weren't ragging on each other,then you knew something was wrong!! Charlie
6325 and a '68 GS400...sigh. I rode behind 6325 in Ohio 8 years (holy smokes...that long ago!!) when she was running excursions. It was so funny as she moved down the curving line from Coshocton, OH..barely cracking more than 25 mph. I watched the connecting rod lazily moving back and forth from the vestibule of the foamer car. Cinders in my hair...coal smoke...the autumn leaves....on sunny, cold afternoon/evening in October. We came back behind a GP9 that grumbled, rumbled and sparked all the way back. I went with a friend who was in the opening phases of prostrate cancer that finally wasted him in July. Alas. What color was the GS...HO 400 or stock? -Mark Owner of a '69 Bel Air..the back up car/wood hauler.
LOL Charlie I know that guy!! Yeah if they didnt speak it was bad, I about died when they would light into one another. If you were up on the bluff youd have been on the Ottumwa sub. Thats our "old head line" step on step off no work.Well except for that one junker we would get out of denver and I swear they would line it up so the extra board guy would catch it out of creston lol. I at first was like "Hey I was supposed to get the Z!!" Well kid you get what your ordered for. No one seems to know why it was called the IM. Sad when we lose the real reason it was called what it was. Burg had a "New pocket" Problem is it was next to a pocket track that was newer lol. tat was called Robbies Pocket.Whos Robbie? Who knows! One of my favorites was a Jct we called Jackass Junction "Why do you call it that?" Cause the tower operator is a Jackass! B&OCT by Barr yard got that moniker.
==================================================================== OMG!!!!! How long ago was this?? I might have known that tower operator. I know he worked for the B & OCT and I knew he worked(at least for a while)at the McCook tower.I am guessing that he worked Barr Yard too at some point in his career. The guy's first name was John. He was a big time boozer!!!! AND on the job too!! His biggest "joke"(to him at least), was dropping the board in the hoggers face!!! And he did it repeatedly!!!! He'd get fired, dry out,get his job back and eventually wind up doing the same thing again. This was in the days before "zero tolerance". He seemed to enjoy this habit of "throwing the board in the hogger's face" a lot! All I know is if I ever had that done to me repeatedly, I would take some time off and go have a "tete-a-tete" with that person! This guy was so bad with his bottle habit,that he mentioned to a mutual buddy(who was a yard conductor with the E/L)that he wanted to buy a motorcycle. My pal(the E/L guy)told him, in all seriousness, that he would buy the boozer the motorcycle he wanted, if he(John) would name my buddy the benefactor of his insurance policy!!!! I am not kidding!!!!! Dunno if he is still living. His wife was really nice and his kids were all really good kids! What a shame! Geez... the world gets smaller! Charlie
LOL never knoew the guys name. Our hero of the story would sit there and not answer the radio.Till we would threaten to die on his lineThen we would move a little farther.Barr wouldnt answer so we would slow to a stop on the Diamonds. Dear lord the yelling on the radio " Keep em coming BN KEEP EM COMING!!!" Ahhh fun times! I miss going to Chicago, by car anyway lol. I am debating getting qualified from Savanna to Chicago.I am not sure if we go anywhere but B ville so who knows. I did like telling new gus to check out the Harbors power.Why do they have all that heavy metal window screening? Well we go through some bad "hoods"so we have that. One of our "Santa Fe "conductors had a student and was just passing Union Station. She was riding in the brakies seat and slid the window shut so she could hear the radio better when a bullet smacked the glass.The new guy was like WHAT WAS THAT?? Her response was,huh havent been shot at since a month ago. LOL ol boy was white as a sheet.
It was "Ivory Gold Mist" a metallic dusty gold color. Solid color. Stock color ! 400 cu.in. engine, 4bbl carb, 4-on-the-floor,dual exhaust pipes(only 1 muffler w/crossover pipe). I had a Hurst shifter with that tranny. 1 finger shifting, like a hot knife thru soft butter!!!. Bench seats, 2DR. I was in college at the time, after I got out of the Army. I started night School in Fall semester of '69, just after the incident I told you about.. I was the "chosen driver" when we went on field trips cuz I had the "hottest" car. I miss that car! Charlie
Sounds like the bozo that worked the tower at the east end of the BRC at the CSX crossing. The is a tiny little "ramp" there, CRS the name (Park view,Forest view whatever!) We had to pick up 2 locos and a 5pak there once when I wuz a student. I was working a day shift switch engine, we had already tied up our locos and the YM sent us in a cab to this ramp to bring in the power & the 5 pak. It would have taken us all of 1 or two minutes to get us across that diamond and out of the ramp. There was no traffic on the CSX(former B & O) and mebbe one or two short movements on the BRC. Well sir we must have set there a good 2 or 3 hours. The crew I was with wasnt especially eager to get overtime that night, it was a Saturday and they all had something else to do. We kept calling the tower operator letting him know we were ready to go. After the first couple of times,he just totally ignored us. I asked the conductor if I could walk over to the tower and "reason"with the operator. He said no, but I dunno if the fact that I had a brake hose wrench in my hand had anything to do with his decision. LOL! Dunno what this clown's problem wuz except some scuttlebutt the crew had heard about this guy liking to take a nap during known slow periods and only respond to the BRC guys if they needed to make a move. All I know is that there was absolutely NO traffic from either railroad that we would have interfered with. We were able to raise our DS on our radio and ask him to call our YM and have our YM contact the CSX tower to find out what the problem was. Whether that had any effect I dont know. All I remember is we got back to Cicero,tied up and went home. Charlie
Bench seats...yep....I didn't need a Motel 6 with those back seats! 4 speed Saginaw...I started my wrenching career on those. Ah..the smell of 90W in the morning... "Ivory Gold Mist" Ha! The Bel Air is two tone...Burnished Brown with a Champagne roof...well it was...it's mostly ferrous oxide at this point. 327 with a PowerGlide. I had the heads redone for unleaded and put a 650 Edelbrock on it along with a HEI coil. The stock 2BBL and points just fell apart above 3000 RPM'S. Dual exhaust straight back. New front end, brake system and gas lines. It's repaired based upon me following the Mellenium Falcon Theorum: "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts" -Han Solo Sits for a year. I go in, crank it for 30 seconds until the oil light goes out (I use synthetic). Hit the accelerator twice, crank it and BOOOOM-lights up every time. I will never tire of the soothing sounds of 567's, Small block Chevy's and 2 cylinder John Deere's.
Questions from the class? Just keeping my thread current. Any questions about railroading, anyone? CT
Hello C I was north of Savanna to day and I noticed the lights on the double track. One set was looking both North and South then on the other main it seem to be only one direction (can't remember if it was N or S. Are they going to run blind on one track or did I miss something.:tb-wacky:
it's not unusual for multiple tracks to be signalled differently. One track may be signalled for an approach to a crossover in one direction, but it wouldn't be needed on the other track. In ABS territory, it would indeed be like "running blind" if a train is authorized to run against the current of traffic, the signals are not necessarily facing the train on the track it is authorized to run on. There are also speed restrictions for doing that as well. CT
