DG&NO 146

Short lines have long been the workhorse for Class 1 railroads. Without them, life as we know it on the rail would be one big mess. They are the interurban lines that move by switching out full and empty rail cars to the end user, bringing them to a central yard and separating cars to and from the Class 1 railroads. It's like a big wagon wheel hub with the Class 1 railroads on the outer rim and the short line(s) at the hub. In transportation, the railroads use it. The trucking industry uses it. The airlines use it (both passengers and cargo). Fed Ex and UPS and the USPS and DHL use it. Ocean-going and Great Lakes ships use it. The military use it.

Years ago, one of the large paper companies, as it applies to shipping and routing, would load a rail car on the west coast and simply route it to the east coast with no other destination. Their logic was that one, they didn't have to pay warehouse charges; two, it saved tons of time; three, before the rail car got to the east coast, one of their locations nation wide would need the material on that car. If they did not, then the dispatcher would simply route the car again to west coast. The transportation cost via rail was still lower than paying warehouse charges and in and out fees.  This, of course, fell under the general definition of logistics, or the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet some requirements. The above example is about as classic  of an example as it gets.

 

One of the new generation diesel-electric RP20BD that is being used by Dallas short line DG&NO. It is also being ordered by BNSF, Kansas City Southern Railway and Union Pacific. The engines are controlled by computers and are capable of remote operations. Let's just say it is more environmental friendly and cost efficient.

Dallas' Continental Bridge Pedestrian Park

c.1930 Continental Bridge Converted to Pedestrian Park

On Sunday, June 15,2014, the city of Dallas will open officially a new pedestrian park on what was for some 80-odd years, a vehicle passage into West Dallas. Now, with the Margaret Hunt Hill
Bridge open and successful re-development happening like a patch of Texas wildflowers, from the new bridge all along Singleton Blvd., the success of the park will follow quickly. The new Skyline Trail that is  below the bridges and the pedestrian and bike park running  the full length of the old Continental Bridge, the success of the pedestrian park will be much like the highly successful Klyde Warren Deck Park that was constructed over the Woodall Rodgers Expressway a mile or so east of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

The past few weeks the bike trail has been drawing a large flow of bikers and hikers. Add to that, the new parking area and the draw will be hikers, bikers and runners. Trinity Groves, one block west is a  highly successful transformation of a double-sided truck terminal into many fares of taste-bud favored restaurants with outdoor seating and patios. Three Sundays each month, vendors line up their Easy-Up tents to sell produce, crafts, honey, and other organic items and wares. A micro-brewery has set up across the side street from Trinity Groves.    


 

The Magnificant Young Man and His Flying Machine

N367HP has just crossed the coastline of the south of France with two hours and five minutes to go before his landing in Rome.

Matt, left Biggin Hill Airport in London this morning after a flight plan change because Biggin Hill closes early on Sundays. He had to fly a modified flight plan from the Azores to South London Sunday, then ferry over to Biggin Hill later in the day on Monday. He is, however, back on this planned itinerary and will be in Italy early evening.



 

N367HP Just Landed At Vila do Porto

Matt Guthmiller, the 19-year-old MIT student from Aberdeen, South Dakota, has just set his 6-seat, single engine, Beechcraft Bonanza 36 piston, down on Santa Maria Island, Via do Porto, Azores, after the 8-hour and 14 minute flight from St. John's Newfoundland, Canada, on his 42- day solo flight around the world. His aim is to set a new record for the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe and holds his commercial pilots license.. The current holder was 21 years old when he captured the record.

Matt has his complete itinerary posted on his facebook account. Since I do not do facebook, you can check it out on your own. Most of the circumnavigate routes are pretty much the same and being an avid aviation geek, I don't want to know his route until he flies it. That's half the fun of following his trip.

Frankly, an 8 hour flight over the Atlantic in a Beechcraft Bonanza solo would be enough to get a big "NO" from me. I've flown in such an aircraft. The ceiling for a craft like that is 11,500 feet. Matt was doing most of the flight at 9,000 feet but did hit the max for a couple of hours of the flight. He had a good tail wind and was right on time landing. Flying over great expanses of water is not my thing. I've meet several who have done so and it's not their favorite part of flying either. Never-the-less, Matt made it to the Azores and gets a big congratulations in his early legs of his trip.

Thus far:

El Cajon, Ca to Aberdeen, S.D. [5-31-14]  9hr.8 min
Aberdeen, to Teterboro, NJ   [6-2-14]  6hr.34 min
Teterboro, NJ to St. John's, Newfoundland, CA [6-4-14] 6hr.28 min
St. John's, Newfoundland, CA to Santa Maria Island, Vila do Porto, Azores  [6-6-14] 8hr. 14 min
Credit photo from Matt's FlightAware post on FlightAware.com

Matt Guthmiller  enroute around the world

Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com

New Re-Designed Snoopy One

Seldom do I see any of the Goodyear flock of blimps anymore. They are very much out there. It seems to me that the Met Life fleet is seen more these days. In fact, the last three times that I have seen one, it was the Met Life Snoopy, although I don't recall if it was One, Two, or Three. I just know it was not "J".

The Goodyear flock has undergone several name changes with the latest being done by a vote on the Internet. There is the Spirit of Goodyear based  at the old Wingfoot Lake Hanger in Ohio and outside Akron. The "Spirit of America based" in California. "Spirit of Innovation" based in Pompano Beach, Florida and the "Ling Hang Zhe" in China.

Like Goodyear, Met Life has a blimp in China, too. The info pack makes mention of four (4) but does not give much data on Snoopy Three that flew briefly. It may be the one in China as the "J" is for Japan. That leaves "Snoopy One" and "Snoopy Two" here in the states. Snoopy One winters in Florida, Georgia and Texas, while Snoopy Two winters in California, Nevada and Arizona.

With my Nikon down because of technological problems in its soft wear, I'm shooting with the Olympus and the long lens isn't as long as the Nikon by 50 mm. While shooting a new measuring device used by the USGS (United States Geological Survey)  the  Snoopy One was hanging out over the area of the Dallas Farmers Market, but did make its final pass coming closer to where I was and giving a snap shot as it would rise and descent in fairly strong headwinds from the northeast. At one point it looked to be over the Klyde Warren Park and Uptown but because of the winds, it appeared to be holding still for a very long time. It's just one of those things. You can't be every where at the same time, but you can be somewhere and still get a shot for the fun of it. Outside of my stock images and Fine Print images, that's what I like about photography. It affords me an outlet to keep the old ticker ticking with exercise and fresh air and to me, it's just down right fun when you see something like the blimps in town or Solar Impulse at DFW. The next big event will be the  double shot of A-380s on a daily basis landing at DFW in October and seeing a Virgin America landing daily at Love Field. Blimps are still extremely fun because of the ground crew array of vehicles that travel with the blimps. If you have ever seen the full detail in action, it's semi tractor-trailer and tour buses is it's  traveling pit crew more or less. What a sight. On the Met Life site, there is a picture of Snoopy inside a Southwest hanger with the tour bus and crews. Come to think about it, the ground crew for a blimp is very much like the ground chase crew for hot air ballooning. It's just a  larger envelope and more technological staff (i.e., radio crews, etc.,etc.).

Most likely, the blimp was on it's way to the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee coming up on it's schedule tour booking.

 

Gone Barefoot'n

Some things just lend themselves to a camera's lens.

 The nice thing about White Rock Lake is that there are many docks that give visitors a close-up look at wildlife, especially this time of year when little ducks are being hatched. The birds are also nesting and going out and coming in to feed their hatchlings.

The reeds grow in certain areas and not in others. Where there are reeds, not only are their some water moccasins but also red-wing blackbirds, various species of ducks besides mallards and turtles. In short, there are multiple examples of wildlife compressed into  small areas. Not only do the boardwalks give a clean view of the lake  off-shore, the boardwalks also provide a walk-way to observe nature close-up.

Here are a few shots with a little twist.

Shoes and socks at the edge of the lake. No owners in sight!

One of the boardwalks along a reed patch



A male Red-wing Black Bird in his courtship dance.



30/05/2014 updated

Iron Horse Rumbles

Rumble This On Down the Rails.


Even the run-of-the-mill box car can fool you sometimes. As a teen, I spent an afternoon helping to unload one shipped to AG Warehouse, a co-op owned grocer warehouse. Some will recognize the Shur Fine label. My grandfather had been a member and I remember hearing him talk to his customers about the good purpose AG was founded on. My mother was 3 years old when AG was founded. Today, the group has grown covering the Great Lakes to the Gulf. I will forever remember that rail car.

 Most every one knows what a standard box of Jell-O looks like. It's about 2 ounces in weight,3/4 x 3 x 3 inches in size. When packaged by the manufacturer, there were about 5 rows of single boxes. Each row was 20 boxes wrapped in brown craft paper. Nothing unusual about that. But, in a box car, usually, products are loaded on pallets. These were not on pallets, but had been hand loaded one package at a time and that meant that they had to be unloaded  by hand. At 60-tons, do you know how many of those little boxes it takes to fill a box car? That's why to this day, I do not like the smell of Raspberry Jell-O. That fine powder in the air in close quarters would be considered a health hazard today. Then, it was just an afternoon experience. Whenever I see a box car parked next to a warehouse-type building, I still smell Raspberry and think about that afternoon.