17 Mar 2020.post update
The Zeph, Amtrak #6, was seen pulling a consist and re-arrangement of normal car order. The usual car behind the second engine is the mail car. Today, it was at the end being the 8th car, not the normal 11 in the consist.
So what is so strange about that. Well, First of all it's the Zeph. Secondly, one must remember that the US Mint is in San Francisco. Thirdly, The train also stops in Denver on its way east to Chicago. Guess what? There is also a US Mint in Denver. So, by deduction and past history, The US Mint ships coins from San Francisco and Denver to Chicago. The Zeph ends in Chicago but the Lake Shore Limited starts in Chicago and ends in Boston.Also in Chicago, the Amtrak route can split off the Limited to go southeast, south, and guess what, it has covered all the districts of the Federal Reserve. I love watching trains more than airplanes. The term used when things like this happen is Railroading. The train line is doing a bit of Railroading....that's switching from this track to that track or in layman terms, jockeying around for position to get where it needs to be.
When I was a kid, the little town where I grew up (pop. 1498) had a train station that still carried passengers. I would ride my bike down the hill from where I lived to the station and sit and watch the trains come and go. The first thing that I remember that was the show stopper was seeing a casket taken from the baggage car,placed on one of the old rail carts that were used for luggage, and then, pulled around the train station to a ramp and a waiting hearse of the local funeral director. It was a treasure hunt the rest of the summer and summers that came after that.
There was a nomenclature for that happening that afternoon. It was called the Pullman Express. Funny thing about that was that years later, I was at an airport and watched the ramp rats (not a derogatory term use) bring a casket around and load onto the plane that I would be my flight. It was the second time and second mode of transportation that I had witnessed human remains being shipped elsewhere. Even later, I knew a funeral director that called the meeting of a plane with a human remains the "Tampa Express". It was a term that meant that instead of the family calling the funeral home where they would have the funeral rite and burial to handle the return of the remains, they would called the funeral home where the death occurred and have the loved one shipped in a casket back home, costing the family hundreds of dollars more than needed. It was snowbirds being sent home and the Florida funeral directors were the winners.
That is when it clicked that business commerce was what made the world turn so to speak. It had me in its grips and over the years, it just gets in your blood and you love every minute of it in the long and the short of career terms.
To this day, I still enjoy watching trains come and go and doing their "railroading". So seeing the less than normal consist of cars and the out-of-position of cars, is an eye catching experience, much like photography that trains your eyes to pick up on things that the average Joe misses.
[1]
The American coot (Fulica americana), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae.
Thanks to the Cornell Lab's, All About Birds https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/lifehistory
The Zeph, Amtrak #6, was seen pulling a consist and re-arrangement of normal car order. The usual car behind the second engine is the mail car. Today, it was at the end being the 8th car, not the normal 11 in the consist.
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| American Coot. Best know for the baseball farm team that is known by its name---The Toledo Mud Hens [1] |
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| Two years ago a squirrel jumped from this plant and knocked seed onto the brim of my fedora. That seed, today has come up in one of my flower pots on the porch and is about two feet tall. It's looking good, healthy and I hope that it blooms this fall just like mom! We will see. And my trees in pots are now about 7 feet tall and have never looked so good. I didn't even give them a dose of my Vitamins this year. That shot two falls ago is still showing results. Originally, I had thought that the bottle was Centrum but looking more closely at the front of the bottle rather than the back ingrediant label, I discovered that it was Mature Multi from Member's Mark. That's Sam's Club brand label like Costco's Kirkland brand. All I know is that it worked better on my trees than it did me! Ha! |
So what is so strange about that. Well, First of all it's the Zeph. Secondly, one must remember that the US Mint is in San Francisco. Thirdly, The train also stops in Denver on its way east to Chicago. Guess what? There is also a US Mint in Denver. So, by deduction and past history, The US Mint ships coins from San Francisco and Denver to Chicago. The Zeph ends in Chicago but the Lake Shore Limited starts in Chicago and ends in Boston.Also in Chicago, the Amtrak route can split off the Limited to go southeast, south, and guess what, it has covered all the districts of the Federal Reserve. I love watching trains more than airplanes. The term used when things like this happen is Railroading. The train line is doing a bit of Railroading....that's switching from this track to that track or in layman terms, jockeying around for position to get where it needs to be.
When I was a kid, the little town where I grew up (pop. 1498) had a train station that still carried passengers. I would ride my bike down the hill from where I lived to the station and sit and watch the trains come and go. The first thing that I remember that was the show stopper was seeing a casket taken from the baggage car,placed on one of the old rail carts that were used for luggage, and then, pulled around the train station to a ramp and a waiting hearse of the local funeral director. It was a treasure hunt the rest of the summer and summers that came after that.
There was a nomenclature for that happening that afternoon. It was called the Pullman Express. Funny thing about that was that years later, I was at an airport and watched the ramp rats (not a derogatory term use) bring a casket around and load onto the plane that I would be my flight. It was the second time and second mode of transportation that I had witnessed human remains being shipped elsewhere. Even later, I knew a funeral director that called the meeting of a plane with a human remains the "Tampa Express". It was a term that meant that instead of the family calling the funeral home where they would have the funeral rite and burial to handle the return of the remains, they would called the funeral home where the death occurred and have the loved one shipped in a casket back home, costing the family hundreds of dollars more than needed. It was snowbirds being sent home and the Florida funeral directors were the winners.
That is when it clicked that business commerce was what made the world turn so to speak. It had me in its grips and over the years, it just gets in your blood and you love every minute of it in the long and the short of career terms.
To this day, I still enjoy watching trains come and go and doing their "railroading". So seeing the less than normal consist of cars and the out-of-position of cars, is an eye catching experience, much like photography that trains your eyes to pick up on things that the average Joe misses.
[1]
The American coot (Fulica americana), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae.
Thanks to the Cornell Lab's, All About Birds https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/lifehistory
