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It Does Snow in Nebraska After All!!!!! 12-20-2012 Images in Lincoln Journals/Blogs
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Prolific poster 1,154 posts arthurhouston Prolific poster 1,154 posts
arthurhouston

Story and Pictures are by Chris and another great idea to model a snow coach. Happy Holidays to all.

So I opened my mouth in my last e-mail about the lack of snow so far here in Nebraska; and, within 48-hours of hitting the send button, the first winter storm hit dropping 6-12 inches of snow across the region.

While not a crippling mega-storm, it was enough to paint a winter landscape and present some operational challenges for the railroad. Not being assigned to work the Terminal Manager desk the day after the storm, I decided to try again to break in my Carhart’s and spend the day, December 20, 2012, on the railroad to see how she recovered. I was quite pleased with what I saw!

One regret I had from last winter was that I did not get a good action shot of a Snow Coach consist in action. Last winter Lincoln had two BN cabooses equipped with working heaters and suitable for Snow Coach service, the BN 12121 and BN 12552. That number has been reduced to just one as the BN 12552 has since been condemned due to a failed center sill.

The morning conference call revealed that the Ravenna Subdivision was in the worst shape with road closures and a number of trains in Hours-of-Service jeopardy due to snow packed switches and other weather delays. The 0630 Shuttle Crew was in the process of DP-Linking the Snow Coach for westbound movement and four DC WEST dog catch crews were called on duty for 0931-0932-0933-0934 to ride the Snow Coach out onto the Ravenna Subdivision to relieve stranded train crews.

Off to CP 6.1 just west of Hobson Yard on the Ravenna Sub I went – the drive did take a little, OK much, longer than I had anticipated; but, this Cajun driver did just fine. A section crew was on duty and keeping the switches at CP 6.1 dug out for the different routes needed to run trains. The location is where the Ravenna Sub crosses O Street by the Pla Mor Ballroom, a local landmark.

The temperature, about 14 degrees F! The Snow Coach – BN 12121 bracketed by ES44ACs 6144 and 6414:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3309841

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310121

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310127

And, yes trains were running. Seattle, WA (Pier 18) to Logistics Park Chicago train S-SEPLPC1-16 completes its trip across the Ravenna Sub:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310095

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310400

Empty Pryor, OK coal train E-KCCCAM1-34 in a 1x3 DPU configuration heads out onto the Ravenna Sub:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310383

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310392

A Rush Tower, MO empty forges westward:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310337

A Scherer, GA empty passes behind the Ballroom:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310303

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310328

Moving to the Haymarket area – Another Scherer, GA empty passes the new Husker Basketball Arena and Amtrak Station:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3309848

Followed by a Kemper, IA empty:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310131

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310136

Running a bit tardy, Lincoln-Omaha-Lincoln turn M-LINLIN1-22 leaves town with an SD40-2 and a GP60 for power:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310139

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310144

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310154

Galveston, Texas to Eland, North Dakota Crude Oil train U-KCMELU1-19 eases through town:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310220

Bases are loaded on the Five F-Tracks at Hobson Yard as empties are metered onto the Ravenna Subdivision:

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310245

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310238

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310242

http://railbaron.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3310258

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Chris
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Ken Glover kfglover Super User 1,498 posts
Ken Glover kfglover

I told you so!

Wed, 2012-12-19 09:09 —  kfglover

It is about time for it to snow and have it on the ground until late March!

I lived in Lincoln for 2 years a long time ago. I got really tired of dirty snow and streets full of sluch and smow melt.

Ken Glover

 

And the wind!! One of my least fond memories of Lincoln is going to work when it was -33 deg F with a 30 mph wind!!

Ken Glover,

HO, Digitrax, Soundtraxx PTB-100, JMRI (LocoBuffer-USB), ProtoThrottle (WiThrottle server)

View My Blog

20Pic(1).jpg
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dsrc512 New member 3 posts
dsrc512

Icy bridges in 1973 New Orleans

I had just begun to work as a switchman in the TP-MPTRRofNO (Mop) yard in January 1973 when the first significant snowfall in about 12 years caused the two bridges across the Mississippi River to ice up.  The Mop and the SP had parallel yards in Avondale on the west side of the river.  For a day, the two railroads each contributed a pair of cabooses to shuttle employees to and from New Orleans via the Huey P. Long railroad and highway bridge.

Alex Huff, modeling in S scale    
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dsrc512 New member 3 posts
dsrc512

TP-MPTRRofNO means...

Texas Pacific-Missouri Pacific Terminal Railroad of New Orleans.  Back at the dawn of time, Texas Pacific had track to New Orleans via a carferry operation from Algiers.  True story- one of the carferries was built on the hull of an ex-Civil War armored vessel.  Missouri Pacific had trackage rights.  The Terminal Railroad at one time had locomotives in its own name and a logo similar to the T&P diamond that lasted into the early Diesel era.  By the time I worked there, the only car with a logo was a isolated tank car used for fuel storage.  A few years later, the MP swallowed up a number of subsidiary railroads.  The TP-MPT was one that disappeared.

Alex Huff
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