[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Cobrabill

Looks like no room-right?Look at either side of the bridge.You'll see what looks like a cement curb.If you were on a bridge ands couldn't get off in time,all you'd have to do would be to lay down with your shoulder as close as possible to the "curb".There is plenty of room and the train wouldn't even come close.







Yesterday going to Yuma.Speed:65MPH.Made for an interesting ride.

GR8 Pics Bill. Thanks for sharing your "from the drivers' (conductors') seat" pics. Image not uncommon to "run across" a few deer, cows, et al in 'da fog!?

[Cobrabill]

Not in this part of the desert.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Cobrabill

Not in this part of the desert.

Ahh, yes. More like tumbleweeds and jackrabbits?

[71 T/A]

The deceptive thing about trains is judging their speed. From afar, they can look like they're not moving too quickly. Then people try to outrun them and it's too late.

[1967Clone]

Originally Posted by Cobrabill

Google "Acela"-it's not your average "beer can".ANd there are no gade crossings.

Not sure what a gade crossing is, but our shop has the NE Acela line behind it, I go back there by the fence and watch, man they are cooking. It's wild watching them after a big snowfall!

[Cobrabill]

Dumber than a box of rocks.

[Greg Reid]

Two more teen statistics in Georgia-
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/22818832/detail.html

[mike nixon]

Originally Posted by Cobrabill

Dumber than a box of rocks.

Just a few feet short of natural selection at work there Bill.

[Cobrabill]

I don't mind natural selection-just leave me out of the equation.

[mike nixon]

But your buggy does such a good job of subtracting them from the equation!

[Cobrabill]

True-but the toll on us is really not good.

[Cobrabill]

Oooops---dumb sh!t.

http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=12195582

[mike nixon]

That was on the news the other night.

The cop got the **** outta there, firetruck must've thought they had the right of way.

[Big Mike]

All this train talk..... Does anyone know where I could find some hi-definition pics that I could use as desktop photos? Maybe even some steam locomotive ones too.

[Cobrabill]

Double track runs thru downtown Tucson.Gates were down and a train passed on 2 rail.A bicyclist decided to not wait for the gates to go up.He got plowed by a train coming the other direction on 1 Rail.

They had to use DNA to I.D. him.

[mechanickeith]

Gates are there for a reason!! Have no sympathy for the ones that go around. Feel bad for the family's though.

[OHC6-Man]

Originally Posted by Cobrabill

Looks like no room-right?Look at either side of the bridge.You'll see what looks like a cement curb.If you were on a bridge ands couldn't get off in time,all you'd have to do would be to lay down with your shoulder as close as possible to the "curb".There is plenty of room and the train wouldn't even come close.

That bridge is what, a good ~20ft high or so? Even if I didn't think to lay down, I'd rather test my luck jumping off the bridge than trying to outrun a train.

[Cobrabill]

Less than 20ft.I'd guess 15.This was just an example.ALL bridges are the same width.

[stimpy]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

Since this has become the railroad thread, a couple of questions.

I noticed more pushers at the back end of trains lately. Trains here are typically 110 -145 cars (7 year olds love to count the cars). Usually one or two engines pushing. Never saw that before in the flatlands around here, but the line runs north into Canada. Must be the weather, eh?

How do they coordinate the power between the front of the train and the back?

if they are the UP/ Bnsf coal drags they are going to Waukegan ( com ed) or Pleasant Prarie WI ( Wisc elec) and they don't have unloading loops they pull push them into the rotating unloader and when they are done they use the tail end engine as a head end unit to drag them back , also they need the power to get up the turnout at Aurora to get on the CN tracks ( the old Ej&E) as its a tight uphill turnout but this will be ending soon as they are almost finished with the modifcations in West Chicago , down here on the south end of the "J" I see alot of them drags full of wyoming coal going to the mills or the power plants out east ( detroit edison /nipsco mostly ) its nice to see and hear the old tracks runnig again like it did when I was a kid . but it P.O.s the idiots who moved out here from the city and bought property next to the tracks . my other house is next to the OLd Rock Island tracks ans IAIS is doing a good job keeping that moving ( except when one of there old geeps blows up climing the minooka grade ...

[fiedlerh]

Thanks that explains a lot. No pushers lately now that the weather is nice. They are mostly hauling lumber, grain, and petroleum south. Coal, chemicals for the paper mills, and some pickup trucks north. This is the CN line that runs thru central Lake County.

The EJ&E that runs the outer loop around Chicago used to be a busy line in the 70's. Now they want to revive it to relieve train traffic jams thru Chicago. The local bed-wetter media has been whipping citizens up in a frenzy about "super trains" of -- oh my God -- 120 cars using the tracks. As i posted prviously, we have 110-145 cars going on the CN track about every 45 minutes. It's no problem at all. A train of this size usually takes less than 3 minutes to pass. More trains mean more commerce.