Robert Pence

Operating rules are operating rules, and the crew-hours rule is for safety. Make an exception, and you create a precedent that will come back to bite you in the butt. If the CSX management refused to permit local law enforcement officials onto the property to render humanitarian assistance to stranded passengers, though, they should be prosecuted, and being convicted would likely cost them their jobs if not their careers. Even being charged would hinder their career advancement with CSX. Best case, they'd end up sweeping snow out of switches on a short line for non-union wages. It would be interesting to hear any radio communications between crew and dispatchers as the crew neared its time limit. Most likely that stuff is recorded nowadays, and there's probably at least one railfan in the area who was listening with a scanner; the railroads communicate in the public service band, and railfans and news media listen selectively to various channels. They used to switch over to another channel that wasn't supposed to be common knowledge, but with a decent scanner you could always find it if there was something going on. I haven't listened for few years, but things were getting to where, when they didn't want news media and railfans poking around, the dispatcher would just instruct a conductor or other crew member to call him with his cell phone. One night when I was driving home from out of town I had my scanner on (mobile scanning public service bands is illegal, I know) and picked up a conversation about a crew member's car being broken into in the parking lot at the yards. Among other things his radio was stolen. A few minutes later the thief came on the air with the radio, babbling trucker CB jargon and trying to see who he could raise. A Conrail detective chased everybody else over to a different channel and engaged the guy in negotiations to buy the radio from him, and arranged to meet him at a notorious thugs-'n-drugs gathering spot not far from the yards. That was before the police went to the 800mhz channel-switching stuff, and I got to listen to the whole bust going down. Funny as hell. Stupid thief.

and I was griping about an hour delay outside Union Station on Monday morning. This sounds like a situation that calls for somebody being fired and CSX getting some heavy fines. According to the article, CSX refused to let local officials help the passengers. Whoever runs the crews had to have realized that crew would outlaw before they got far, and sat back and let it happen. It would have been better to hold the train at Holland and waited for a relief crew to have been brought there. Or annulled the train at Holland and either put passengers in a motel/hotel/shelter or brought buses to take them to their destinations. This crap sounds intentional on the part of someone at CSX.

Good vantage point; Tennessee is so beautiful! That may have been an excursion run by Tennessee Valley Railway Museum, at Chattanooga. I'm not familiar with all their collection, but from what I can make out, that might be former Southern Railway locomotive 4501. Before NS cancelled their steam program, it came through Fort Wayne a couple of times.

I'm quite familiar with that flap; I've read about it on some railfan blogs. I was surprised how freely I was able to photograph in Chicago's Union Station on this trip. The last time I came through there (three years ago), I grabbed a couple of shots walking up the platform and was intercepted by security before I got through the gate from the platform into the concourse. One guy headed me off, and another came up from behind, and they told me that taking photos of trains was illegal. This time I wandered all over the place taking photos both upon arrival and before departure, in plain view of station and railroad personnel, and nobody challenged me. At one point two uniformed Amtrak cops walked by. I smiled and nodded, and one of them said, "How ya' doin'?" as they passed.

Summer.

You shoot some interesting stuff in interesting places. Just keep practicing, and study other people's work that you like. The principles will rub off on you, and you'll develop your own distinctive style as you go along. Another thing - and I think a lot of forumers are already doing it, and it makes me happy - pay attention to the everyday, commonplace stuff because, before you know it, twenty years will have passed and people will look at your photos and say, "Wow, look at that!" or, "Hey! I rode that train line to work every day. The cars sure have changed." Time flies. Don't let it get away from you. Edit: right after the photo of the people lined up in the departure concourse, I added a 1950s photo of the original 1913 concourse that was demolished in 1969.

Interesting place; I'd like to make it up there sometime - in summer! There's so much history, and there seems to be a lot more formal European style than what you'd find in the more western provinces.

Although it appears to be about half a carlength and not too hard to hit, it looks like they overshot it by a few feet. My impression is that to back up, even a few feet is a big PITA; probably they'd have to have a trainman at the rear end of the rear coach, and in this case the rear coach was Amtrak 10001. It might have been politically inexpedient. Besides, backing up pushes in the slack, and that can give a rough start, especially by the time it gets to that last coach. I hadn't been to Waterloo in a few years, but it seems to me that eastbound trains used to cross over to the westbound track to use the full-length platform. I suppose NS put an end to that when they took over the line. I will be on and off line over the next few days. The effects of the ice storm linger, and my power is off and on; I was down for two hours this afternoon, and the temps are low, keeping the ice on the trees. The forecast high winds tonight and tomorrow probably will take down more lines. I haven't checked the count lately, but yesterday there were more than 80,000 power outages in metro Fort Wayne. I've brought my heaters up from the basement, prepared my lamps, and stocked up on kerosene. I'm not one of those foolish virgins. Indiana Michigan Power says they hope to have everyone's power back on by Christmas Eve. I still have a big limb on my back porch roof, and a downed line yesterday shorted a transformer and shot 220 volts through the 110-volt circuits in my vacant rental next door, starting a fire that fortunately lost interest after the wires melted through, and before it could gain a foothold. Good thing it's a brick house; a fire in that location in a frame house would have gone into the walls and taken the whole thing before anybody saw it. </babble-babble-babble> Edited out some, but not all, of the babbling 6:30 p.m. Enjoy your trip. I've used Hiawatha Service, and it's quite satisfactory; nothing fancy, but comfortable and reliable, all anyone really needs for a trip of that distance. More speed on all trains would be nice, but for now it will do. Does Badger Bus still operate between Milwaukee and Madison? They used to have a very good reputation as a quality operation. I'm thinking about a trip to Madison in the spring, just fo the heck of it, and was considering South Shore to Chicago, Hiawatha Service to Milwaukee, and bus to Madison. Oh. And I added a 1950s photo of the original councourse that was torn down in 1969.

Pere Marquette 1225 puts on a spectacular show passing through Henderson, Michigan with the North Pole Express under clear skies in 12-degree Fahrenheit temperature on December 20, 2008. Photo by Timothy Lab, used with the photographer's permission: Edit: Beautiful video clip from the same photographer. It comes on loud, so turn your audio down before playing: http://gallery.me.com/timlab/100000

Thanks. I still have some mental images of my first visit to Chicago, with my dad when I was five years old and in kindergarten at Lincoln School in Decatur, Indiana. There was a war on, but Dad didn't get drafted because he didn't pass the physical. He had a defense-industry job in management at the General Electric plant in Decatur and had to go to Chicago for a day to meet with someone. He got me out of school for the day so he could take me along. It was the first time I remember being up before daylight. We walked from our tiny rented house to the station and boarded a train to Chicago on the Erie Railroad. I remember varnished wood on the trim in the coach, and going to the observation car at the rear of the train and watching the tracks run away behind us. Because of the war, there wasn't much in the way of extras or fancy stuff. My breakfast in the dining car was gray, congealed oatmeal with skim milk - I called it "blue milk," and that description stuck in our family for as long as Dad lived. The oatmeal sure was't like what Mom made; she always sprinkled cinnamon on top and added a pat of butter, and we had whole milk at home. We lived with rationing and managed to still eat well enough because Mom was a frugal but good cook who had grown up in the Great Depression, and my parents raised a vegetable garden every year. We arrived at Dearborn Station. It was winter and as we walked up the platform past the steam engine, the air pumps were panting and the steam was swirling up around the front of the engine. I remember a cab ride, and a visit to the Field Museum after Dad finished his business. I don't remember the trip home; I probably slept the whole way. Over all the years, all my trips into downtown Chicago except one, in 1968 with friends who drove, have been by train. You're absolutely right; arriving by train is an essential part of the real Chicago experience.

Some observations and photos from my trip between Waterloo, Indiana and Chicago on Amtrak earlier this week are here

Don't worry about me. If you like, you may pray for the soul of the slumlord who owns the tree that caused the problem with my rental property. :angel: I've been trying for years to get him to have that broken-down, half-dead old snag taken down, even offered to pay half, but he thinks it's pretty. Maybe this time around I can get the power company to take it down because it interferes with their lines. If they decide it needs to go, there's nothing he can do about it.

When weather like this affects someone else, it's an ice storm. When it affects me, it's a load of cr@p! All morning and into the afternoon I'd been listening to booms and crunches as trees along the river and street and in the park broke down under the load of ice and fell or sent limbs crashing to the ground. Some of them were close enough and big enough to cause my house to vibrate. Through it all, I'd been patting myself on the back about having regular maintenance done on my trees so that I wouldn't have a problem. At one time I went outside to try to de-ice my sidewalk, but there was so much stuff falling off the city's street trees that I decided it was too dangerous to be out there. About 2:00 p.m. I felt a thump that made my house shudder. I got up to see what had happened, and saw a large limb from the huge old hackberry tree outside my back door. It was lying across my back steps and extending onto my back porch roof, with a crushed rain gutter beneath it. Part of it was resting on my power line, which miraculously has remained intact and functioning. A little later I smelled something electrical burning, just about the time the fire trucks arrived. They had been called for a shorted transformer that was popping and sparking in the alley, caused by a limb falling on another power line. The firefighters saw the limb on my power line and reported it to the power company, which was a good thing, because it was impossible for me to get through to them. I expect they'll be around sometime in the next week or so to take care of it. Turns out the downed power line that shorted the transformer is the line to my rental property, currently vacant. I went over to check it out, and when I walked inside I smelled burnt insulation. I flipped a light switch and the bulb popped like a flashbulb. Apparently the shorted transformer sent 220 volts into the house on at least one of the 110-volt legs, and it's a fair bet that any 110-volt appliances like the refrigerator, clock/timer on the range, furnace and heat pump controls, and furnace blower, that were plugged in/turned on at the time are toast. I pulled both mains on the electrical service, and set about draining all the water lines, removing drain traps, and turning off the gas to the furnace and water heater. That's about all I can do until all this blows over. I won't know until the power is fixed, just how much stuff I have to replace in that house. Just what I need. It's hard enough to fill a whole-house vacancy in the dead of winter, and now I'll probably get to dump a couple of grand into repairs. I hope I can recover something from insurance or from the power company.

Thanks for those. The homes and streetscape are beautiful!

The snow was the best part of the visit. Chicago in winter without snow is just bitter-cold, windy, damp and depressing gray. The flying snow transforms it. For me, walking at night in Millennium Park and then on Michigan Avenue and along Adams over to Union Station with the snow flying and the wind blowing was positively exhilarating. I suspect that my train to Chicago on Monday may have been delayed by problems related to the ice storm in the Northeast. That sort of thing can take down signal lines and cause all kinds of delays. It's not unusual for westbound trains to be running late by the time they reach Indiana, because of freight train congestion or mechanical problems. The power for lights and heat on the cars comes from a generator on the locomotive, and they were having trouble getting that to work on Tuesday night. That's why the train was dark and cold when we boarded, and that slowed the boarding process, delaying our departure.

All Photos Copyright© 2008 by Robert E Pence Fort Wayne, population just over 200K, has had no Amtrak service since 1990. The nearest stop is about 30 miles north at Waterloo, Indiana, population about 2,200 and served by the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited, connecting Chicago with New York/Boston and Washington, D.C., respectively. On Monday morning, Amtrak's web site showed the Lake Shore Limited running a little more than an hour and a half late. I allowed some extra time to look around and take some photos at Waterloo. I got shots of a couple of fomerly railroad-related buildings, but the temperature was 24 degrees fahrenheit with winds gusting to 35 mph. I sought the warmth of the cozy depot ... ... cheerfully decorated for the holiday season. I decided to wait in my car. Amtrak 49, the westbound Lakeshore Limited, arrived a few minutes after 9:15, and departed at 9:21, one hour and forty-eight minutes late. Amfleet coaches, introduced with Amtrak's first order for new coaches in the mid-1970s, ride quite nicely on well-groomed track. Well-groomed track isn't an everyday occurrence on the long-distance routes in the Midwest. The ride on typical freight-railroad track is somewhat noisy and shaky. Legroom is abundant and the seats recline nicely, but the seat construction is unyielding for anyone who hasn't grown their own padding. The old-time Heritage Fleet cars gave a smoother, quieter ride and their original seats were built like good furniture, with tied coil springs and padding covered by durable upholstery fabric. Amfleet coaches' electric baseboard heating works well to keep them cozy in winter, and the air conditioning is effective in summer. A few photos from the coach windows on the way into Chicago. We arrived in place to back into Union Station about 11:00 a.m., pretty good running, and then sat for twenty minutes. Then, we backed around the wye and I thought we'd be at the platform at any minute. Instead, we stopped just outside the station and sat again. We didn't come up to the platform for detraining until 11:58 a.m., two hours and thirteen minutes late. I had plenty of time to take train photos through the window as Metra crews switched equipment. Putting dinner in the diner; another train being prepared for boarding. Chicago Union Station's design was initiated by Daniel Hudson Burnham, but Burnham died before the project was completed; the project was finished by successor firm Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White. Temps were around ten degrees Fahrenheit in Chicago, with fierce winds. Rather than do any sightseeing and photography, I took care of an appointment and then holed up in my hotel until morning. On Tuesday morning the temperature was seven degrees. Instead of walking to the Green Line, I just sprung for an 18-dollar cab ride to Hyde Park. Good cabbie, good conversation, and I got to see some sights that I don't see from the Green Line. University of Chicago Medical Center, from the second floor of the Center for Advanced Medicine at 58th Street and Cottage Grove. Construction on this campus is a continuous process. Looking south from the sixth floor. The arched roof on the left is the armory on Cottage Grove. This photo was taken about noon, just as snow was starting; in clear weather, you can see the Sears Tower and other tall Loop buildings beyond the Armory. My Chicago photographer friend, Chris, and I made plans to meet up downtown. For a warm, sheltered place, we chose Randolph Street / Millennium Park Station. South Shore and Metra Electric commuter trains terminate here. The station is beneath the street at Randolph and Michigan. We took of to walk around for a couple of hours. Snow was getting started in earnest by the time we set out. Chris enjoying winter in the Loop. If you're looking for a top-notch pro photographer to shoot your wedding or other event, activity, or business venture, this is your guy. He's chris at ockenphotography dot com . Vietnam Memorial Chris had an appointment to keep, so we adjourned at the Thompson Center. From here, I took off solo to hoof it around until 5:30, when I headed back to Union Station. Back to Randolph Street Station to try to get some feeling back in my fingers. I watched a few South Shore trains board and depart for Indiana. Back out into the snow for a last-minute stroll around Millennium Park. This is the first time I've been there, that there wasn't a crowd around the Bean. The obligatory reflection self-portrait. The much-loved Bean is properly known as Cloud Gate. It was created by Anish Kapoor, and is polished stainless steel. Pritzker Pavilion, designed by Frank Gehry. To restore one's Christmas Spirit, there's nothing like a stroll along Michigan Avenue in gently-falling snow. Union Station is such a grand, monumental piece of architecture. I think it may be the city's finest treasure. One corner of Amtrak's corral - er - gate area at Union Stockyards - er - Station. Despite the standee crowd, folks were mostly in a good mood. Here's the original passenger councourse that they tore down in 1969 and replaced with the claustrophobia-inducing squalid mess they have now. The above photo was taken by my aunt, Dr. Jeraldine Baumgartner, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the 1950s. The jpg is a scan from a 14x17 gelatin-silver print. Amtrak business car 10001 was on the rear end of Train 30, the Capitol Limited. On the next track, a Hiawatha Service (Chicago-Milwaukee) trainset. This locomotive has had its engine, generator, and traction motors removed and functions as a baggage car and a cab car, for bidirectional operation that eliminates the need to turn the train around. Cab car + baggage car = Cabbage car. Seriously. That's what they call them. Amtrak provides pre-boarding for handicapped, seniors, and people with small children. It's a nice amenity, but on this occasion there was a glitch; they were having problems bringing the power on line from the locomotive, and there were no lights in the cars. Employees were ushering passengers to their seats on the darkened train, one at a time, using flashlights. The accumulated snow and ice atop the cars cascaded down from time to time. The crew member ahead on the left had just gotten hit with a heavy, wet mess that might have been enough to knock down a frail elderly or handicapped person. I've taken a few long-distance winter rides on Superliners, including two round trips between Chicago and Oakland, California, and I've never gotten comfortably warm on them. Apparently they have circulating air HVAC systems instead of electric baseboards like the Amfleet cars, and the air is never really warm and my feet are always cold. On this mercifully short ride, I know it wasn't just me. Two younger, robust men were sitting across from me, and one was wearing gloves the whole time. The other kept rubbing his hands together to warm them. Train #30 left Union Station at 7:32, 27 minutes late, and departed Waterloo at 11:18 p.m., 36 minutes behind schedule. Here, eastbound passengers are boarding at Waterloo. That's all, folks. See you in Fort Wayne, after a 40-mph white-knuckle drive on icy pavement, regularly terrorized by speeding 18-wheelers.

Snowy Randolph Street, Chicago 12/16/2008

That town gives me chills, and not in a good way.

He'll be welcomed with open arms by some town in New Jersey where he can be the thug he always wanted to be.

Beautiful. That's a magical time of day.

Matthew, welcome to Urbanohio.com. It looks like you have good stuff to contribute. Too bad someone couldn't have salvaged the tin ceiling from that hallway. Florida Guy, at first I thought the "For Sale" sign was on the bridge, and I was about to look for my checkbook. :-D

I used to have a neighbor who dressed in drag and picked up straight men. He was damn-fine cute as a boy, blonde, slim, small-statured, and as a girl he was hotter'n hell. He was one of the few I've seen who actually could pass on the street in daylight, among sober people. He had regulars, some real hunks. I don't know how he kept them coming back -- well, I can guess, but anyway, he shared an apartment with two slutty girls. One of them got p!ssed at him over something and outed him to his then-current boyfriend and the guy came back to kill him. From my upstairs window I saw the guy go storming up the porch steps two at a time and start pounding on the door and yelling. Next I saw the kid, who had gone out the back door, running down the alley. I had no idea that little sh!t could have run that fast! By the time "boyfriend" kicked the door in, tranny-lad had reached the next street, rounded the corner, and was out of sight. I think he probably had lots of experience making fast escapes.

Well .... yeah. I mean, that's what some people claim we have, or at least what they claim to want. I was using the term as defined by self-professed "Conservatives." Name-calling would start a political brawl, though, and I don't have time right now to finish it. I'm setting up my shrine to the gods of transportation in hopes that they will let my train run not more than four hours late.

Sometimes I wonder what purpose is served by newspaper sites that enable online comments, except perhaps to spread the word that a person need not possess intelligence or language skills in order to access the internet and vent in online discussions.