Ya'll Railroader Listen Up Here.

It's a little warmer today in Dallas but the gloom is still hanging a couple hundred feet off the ground. At the 10AM reading, the fog and mist layers were at 400 and at 11AM it was overcast and some broken was reported at 2400. It has been a good morning to get some work done but right around 10:30 I went to the Truckee channel and watched a good 'ole Sierra snowstorm start accumulating quickly. By 11:30AM (9:30) their time, it had pilled up about 4-6 inches with another 3-5 due tonight and 3-5 due tomorrow (at least I don't have to shovel this snow storm.)

 Then, it was a bit of railroading at the crossing at Donner Pass Road and Bridge Street in downtown Truckee,Ca. Wow, with the mountain passes down to one track, the east bounds have to stop and wait for the west bounds to come through, then it's reversed. There has been a Union Pacific pull a consist of near to 100 cars west. Fifteen minutes later, A west bound Union Pacific sat on the east bound track waiting for the BNSF to come east. Both those consist were about 60-70 cars.

Low and behold, there pulled up a beast of a Union Pacific. He had six engine/power units poised like a patient pointer dog. When he got the clearance, he pulled out and made the crossing car after car after car. About three-quarters way down the line of cars he had a boost engine (#7 if you are counting power unites to pull through the passes and the High Sierra). Behind him continued the consist with inter modal units single stacks and double stacks. There were some inter modal frames that were all shinny and yellow fresh out of the factory unloaded and in transit. Most likely, they will carry their first full loads on the return trip from the west coast.  And-- at the end was engine #8, in the number of power units, gave push power from the tail end. All total, eight great and mighty diesel power units to get a 100--maybe 110 cars nearly a quarter mile up the mountains.

All this in a snow storm hitting the bend between the California state line with Nevada. The snow units to clear the tracks and mountain passes sat ready in Truckee. They will be heading out tonight most likely. The snow that those units can move is amazing. Railroading in this part of the world of the United States Rocky Mountains and ranges across Sierra Nevada to the California High Sierra takes a lot of equipment for maintenance, safety, just to bring the ocean cargo across America from China and Korea and Japan. Even Australia and New Zealand  ship their products via ocean containers to the west coast and then the inter modal ride carries them all across America. Seeing inter modals like CSX (the old Seaboard Coast Line) based in the Carolina's and running side by side tracks with the Florida East Coast Railroad is just amazing that commerce is moving from coast to coast and half way round the world as we shelter in place.

Just for reference: Reno is 4,506 feet above sea level. It is 35 miles from Truckee
                              Truckee is 5,817 feet above sea level.
                              Lake Tahoe is 6,224 feet above sea level. It is 14 mi south of Truckee
                              Donner Pass  is 7,239 feet above sea level and is 9 miles west of Truckee.

From Reno to Donner Pass Summit, that's 2,733 feet in elevation in as little as 45 miles.
As you can see... The western approach to Donner Summit and Pass is steep, while the eastern approach if gradual. Between Reno and Donner Pass Summit requires an enormous amount of power to push a massive train up the western approaches. Hence, the 8 engines needed for the Union Pacific with the 100-110 car train I just wrote about. Some of that weight being pushed are loaded and unloaded cars.

Another thing about Truckee that I like is that the Pacific Crest Trail crosses there and some of the most beautiful scenery can be found in this stretch of the Sierra Nevada Ranges. Some of the hikers come into town for supplies, a bath or shower and a good bed for one night over their sleeping bags. They also like a good sit down meal once and awhile on the trail. Needless-to-say, you see a lot of backpacks walking around downtown Truckee.

The Old Big Boys of the Union Pacific are still around in museums and one the UP still runs on tours around the west. These original big wheels were designed especially for this terrain. All steam, too!

A Union Pacific Big Boy...One of the Originals

Being moved from Fair Park to the Railroad Museum in Frisco.

Being pulled out of Fair Park, it's home for 50 plus years by a BNSF on its way to Frisco. Not the Sierra of  Nevada or California but it's seen the scenery many times.

The Minnesota State Bird Has Arrived

Here it is only the first week of April and already I have seen the Minnesota State Bird here in North Texas. It seems like they come earlier and earlier each spring. And---they seem to be staying longer and longer each year. While the folks in the Carrollton area are fighting off the egrets choosing their trees as nesting sights the rush is on to scare them off and get them out of the neighborhood before they build a nest. Once, they do, they are protected as an endangered species. I sure wish they would put that Minnesota State Bird on the extinct list and just bypass the endangered species.

Some of you know what I'm walking about. Are you still thinking or wondering about the Minnesota State Bird? Well, for anyone living up in the Great Lakes as long as I did, you will soon find out that the blasted bird is a mosquito. Why? because Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes and that is home to where a lot of mosquito's grow up. So, when you see one or fell one from its bite, you slap it as hard as you can and then make sure it's dead. The people of Minnesota will thank you. They need all the help that they can get with this pest of an insect that they call the state bird. LOL

()--()--()

Last week I heard someone make a joke on TV about toilet paper. "Toilet paper companies are on a roll as they ramp up production'', they said. Well, little did that person know that after making that remark, a couple of days later, a truck load (45,000 pounds +/-) crashed on I-20 here in Dallas and spilled the entire load across the expressway. People were stopping on the other side of the road and grabbing rolls and rolls of the stuff [tp]. The expressway was a mess in that the load caught fire afterwards and the expressway was shut down for most of the day. Big excavating type front loaders were scooping the stuff up and dumping it in the long bed dump trucks. Lucky, those travelers to the east could hop on LBJ 635 and drive up to I-30 10-miles up the road and come back down on I-35E to I-20 on the west side of the accident. Or, they could elect to just stay on I-30 if they were going through Texas to the west and be just fine, as they both merge in west Texas.

0--()-()-()--0

You know with the shelter-in-place orders across the land, these are the apex days that took wing and were gone after this ordeal is over and you find yourself  pondering, 'where did all the spring and summer days go'? You might want to consider charging it off as a soul massage. 

Another way to look at this experience is that this time we are in now, will forever adorn the hallways of our minds. Or the virus that screwed up our planned annual bacchanal that went on in New Orleans without us. Better yet, I choose to think that this will all be over by autumn and will be a second chance when every leaf is a flower! Hopefully we can go for a drive in the hinterlands and enjoy it as a calm respite for the soul that is as precious as a gem.

In ending, I recall listening to one of the press conferences where the stage was lined with people that just filled in spaces, I think. Some, I'm sure, were security for the President and that is to be expected, but of those that spoke, in one segment each of the speakers were given a chance for them to comment briefly on the corona virus-19 situation. I noted adjectives used by each of the speakers: great;excellent;lovely;fabulous;astonishing;spectacular;beautiful.

 It came to mind afterwards that this is what social media has produced---a new bunch of followers and career personnel that are asleep at the wheel just as the TXDOT chief explained to me during the LBJ remake between the Hi-5 and I-35E when I ask him what is wrong with people today? Now, the next time I see him, I can say, it's not just Dallas where they are asleep at the wheel, it's all across America. When the crown jewel of the city park system has to be shut down with park rangers and code enforcement officers, blocking every entry because people can't use common sense; when they hear government officials making declaration that are punishable by fine and/or jail time or both, reality has mutated in the human gene. One runner " I can't control where people run". Well, sweetie, go home and google where another park might be that isn't on the news like the Katy Trail or the White Rock Trail. I can think of about 8 right now. In fact, White Rock has posted on their information boards at Boy Scout Hill that if you are experiencing problems with other park goes, you might consider going elsewhere where you can continue your training for your sport. Good advise if I might say so, myself. At least, I have read the board posting with the park rules listed.

Then, I see a national news report yesterday where its not just White Rock, its Central Park in the city (NY) the Pacific Crest Tail, The Rocky Mountain Trail or the oldest and premier of all three, the Appalachian Trial. It's society in general. That's what we have become as a Nation. So, in closing, those "woke" people that can't live without their Facebook page are the same ones that gave me this warning. Just remember that summer nights in mid-July is mating season for the Kardashians. (Lord, forgive me for that one!).

Ya'll stay safe, healthy.

Not the front gate!

Not the back gate. My house keeper says that the garage door keeps going up and down!

Sure helps with the blood pressure!

Sad,That It Came To This!

People have always been selfish and self-centered. It's a part of human nature. It doesn't matter if people weigh in for or against. It's already been cut in stone in the history books right down to the bible pointing it out.. Still, it's become part of our culture more than ever with the "me" generation. You know, the one that begins with Mill------. Having pointed that out again, two weeks ago, was the last time that I was at the lake. As far back as last summer, I was telling my self that I can't go to the lake on the weekends. The out-of-control people that make their own rules to suit their selves  became the norm.The Park Administration didn't want to start getting strict with enforcement, but in the end, today,some200 Code Enforcement began the shut down of a crown jewel of the Dallas Park System. And, there is more to come. It has brought about a whole take a second look at just how bad it's gotten.


Don't take this the wrong way, it's not a negative or a positive view. I've been around the lake for a couple of decades on a daily basis, give or take a miss hear or there. Point being, I've seen the popularity of the lake grow which makes me abundantly happy. It's a little Central Park of sorts and to have an area like White Rock in the heart of a city with a couple of million people is something that everyone enjoys. But, with the expanding population at such a rapid rate, Enforcement has begun already.

So, last Sunday, I had an article ready to publish and after reading it through just before hitting the publish button, I saved it to draft. I wanted to give the crew that probably does not even know what "the huddle masses yearning to be free" meant, much less where they could read the inscription where it sits, a second chance in my mind.  With that said, I pushed the delete button instead of the publish one.

In the meanwhile I heard talk of the "curfew nannies" being called up. With that, I knew then, that it was going to happen and happen quickly at that. A bunch of selfish, self-centered jerks--yes, and I don't apologize for the use of the work jerks, either, brought the closing.  They got the entire park shut down to where you need a bike or walk to get in. Still in the recoveryphase and waiting for my second surgery that was scheduled for this past 26th of the month and cancelled by the surgeon, I don't even get a chance to enjoy a walk to a shelter house if I could drive to the park and walk to a picnic table or bench but walking at this point has been limited in distance due to the first surgery that had me in the hospital for 5 and a half weeks over the holidays.

When the call came to shelter in place, I did. And I did it for good of those both sick and those that had to stay home because they didn't want to pick up the virus and spread it to their own family members etc.,etc. But most of all, those that knew what 6-feet away meant. I've made two trips to the grocery store and one to the pharmacy. From here on out, I'll order for delivery both groceries and meds.

Listening to Judge Clay Jenkins state today that if you pass x number of people walking in one direction and x number of people walking the other direction in less than six feet, from their droplets  could land 200,000 virus droplets on yourself. Then, the Director of Health in China said today that Americans were crazy not to be using mask. On top of that, the US could see as many as 100,000 to  200,000 deaths before this is over. Run the numbers matched to the population totals and it doesn't seen that many, but when you stop to visualize 100,000-200,000 of anything, I, for one, am glad that I can read between the lines at first notice of what is coming and choose to say in. And going out is totally out of the question with something this serious.

New York has 45 refrigerated trailers ready to handle the dead. You don't want to see more trailers like New York's rolling into Dallas, or any other city in the US.

Please, Stay Home. Don't get on the Katy or White Rock Trails. If you are dead, all that running,walking and peddling isn't going to help you one bit.

The curfew nannies with a bit more bite!! Thank Goodness! Social Distancing is no joke.

Enforcement to Social Distancing combined with  Code Enforcement and other law enforcement.

Shelter-in-Place. It looks like the kid and parents got the message

This is NOT social distancing.

Jockeying For Position and Doing A Bit of Railroading To Boot

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.

American Coot. Best know for the baseball farm team that is known by its name---The Toledo Mud Hens [1]

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

Messed Up Calendars, For Sure!

Well, there are some pretty messed up calendars, don't you know. Some people rely on their calendars more than their own heart beat. Frankly, nothing in life is more important than having a good 'ole heartbeat. I know, there

A record rain on top of a record rain. This very day this was shot found four tornados in the area. The national weather service surveyed today and said that two were F-0s and two were F-1s. One thing for sure, my trees on the porch are loving it! Come July and August, I'll be porting water to keep them from stressing out. I don't need a calendar to remind me of that. 

 are those that will weigh in on both sides of this argument. Be that as it may, I'm not one that gambles on life. In fact, let me leave you with this hot potato.Herd mentality does not create leaders, put you on equal ground or a two-way street. It is a one-way trip to the cliff.

Finding Humor In All Things

Happy St. Patrick's Day to ya

To concur with the health authorities, it makes sense to limit yourself from crowds. I've been doing that the past 20 years!! So, since the life-saving trip to the hospital and the 5 and 1/2 weeks stay in a Batesville Casket Company's off shoot--a Hill-Rom made for hospital and nursing home bed, I don't get out as much as in the before hospital stays time frame. Needless-to-say, getting out has been more difficult of late with record rains on top of record rains. Dallas is now the all time wettest start to this point with over 14-inches plus of rain since January 1.

Yesterday, the rain let up for the first time in a week lone string of nine rainy days. It was time to hit the road to see my favorite time of the year when the song birds are singing, the hawks are selecting their mates and sitting their prettiest in the top of trees and poles. The buds springing out and flowers beginning to bloom will get an old man like me every time. Plus, as an added bonus, seeing  fishermen in their boats up stream on White Rock Creek brings back a lot of memories of my dad. And, if all that didn't make me happy, the sun tried to reappear a few times along the way. My eyes just could not take the brightness---it had been so long since I had seen the sun. I even began to wonder if I was not in Texas any more.

With Dallas getting near 3-inches of rain (officially Dallas got .98 inches because DFW is the official collection gauge for Dallas) the night before. Love Field got the 3-inches, the former home of the official gauge. The water in the streams, creeks and at the lake were near but had been over the banks. Debris was everywhere and rivers of it were moving across the lake with the flow current.

As I went about the route that makes a full circle of the lake, I was looking for the pelicans that migrate here every Columbus Day. Wondering were they might have moved to when these kinds of conditions happen during their stay here over winter, my concern was growing as I covered all the places where they duck (pardon the pun) into during these unusual rearranging of the lakes silt and where sandbars have shifted where the pelicans like to hang out.

Then, out of the blue, it occured to me that there was more missing to this puzzle. The absents of the cormorants and seagulls were also noted. Then, my brain clicked on like a thermostat control (one of my old friends, a shrink, tells me that is called a Eureka Point) and I realized it was the third week of March--the time the pelicans head North again. These birds are social and they stay together. So where the time went is just mind blowing. The pelicans arrived and six weeks later I'm in the hospital. I get out and six weeks later plus 2-weeks for weather confinement and the pelicans are gone!! This season of migration, for the most part, came as it flew out of here almost without notice. 

After the lake's tour it was on to my little grocery store to  get a couple of fill in items. Once again, what's missing? EVERYTHING! The shelves as the news has been reporting were wiped out.
It was an instant live view of what my little store's customers are buying and not buying. The over all customer base did not buy the things I don't buy and they buy every thing that I do buy!!. It was better than listening to the news. This was first hand and live shopping---very live shopping during an unusual start to this year's first quarter. 

Kestrel Hawk aka Sparrow Hawk

Not Blue Bonnets Yet, but these are blue bells!

If you live above the Mason-Dixon Line remember the annual heavy wet snow that falls two weeks either side of St. Pat's Day. Maybe, you will be the lucky one where it didn't fall, because it's coming. The Upper Level Low sitting off the coast of California tossing moisture at the High Sierra's left Truckee with a  foot and a half of snow over night Sunday. It rained on Monday until the temps began to fall again and they got another dumping of snow. Problem is that with the virus alerts no one seems to be flying into the airport but the Amtrak's Zephyr is still pulling a consist of 11 cars. That's pretty normal for the Zeph! But, the traffic to the slopes is down somewhat. However, the ULL system is now moving east so history will show that someone is going to be getting that St. Pat's snow storm! With Brady leaving the Patriots--look out Boston! Mother Nature does dish out Karma ( you know that when you fail to replace the toilet paper and you are the next to use the toilet!). From the looks of the grocery shelves besides toilet paper, a lot of people have experienced some bad karma.Me included.

Two Perfect Spring Days in Late Winter

It was 66 degrees officially at DFW this afternoon. The humidity was 19% (very dry) while the dew point was at 23 . Yesterday was just a tad warmer hitting the mark beyond the 70 degree mark. The sky was that deep blue color that comes with low humidity reading. Days like this are my favorite and my camera likes them too. It is also one of those days that really show me how off target my camera has become from daily wear and tear.

So, after coming in this afternoon, following dinner, it was time to break down the camera and do a bit of maintenance. Sometimes, I get it totally right on the one try. Other times, I have to break it own again and fix some little adjustment that I missed. Last night, a dear friend called and while talking, I mentioned to her that my images seemed a bit off. She had noticed the less than normal images that I shot.Telling her that my images had just not been where they should be and I didn't know if it was from the 5 and a half weeks in the hospital or something else. I'm thinking that it was both and is were the problem has been. I want to try to get some images from the Greenville Avenue St. Pat's Parade before my final upcoming surgery. So I want to get this mirror thing cleared up.

Today, the single seat tickets went on sale for the Texas Rangers home opener in the new roofed stadium in Arlington between the old Ball Park and AT&T Stadium.  I had wanted to be at the game, but opening day will find me fast asleep in the operating room again. Sometimes, lemons don't smell like lemons, but that's okay for me 'cause I like limes better, anyway.

It is my hope to get through the ordeal and recovery (not near as long as the previous one) and the rest of my year will be back to good 'ole bread and butter kind of days. Meanwhile, these are some of the signs of an early spring. While my trees on the porch are a bit slower showing buds and leaves this year, there are new green leaves showing up.

These images will be from both sides of the lake.

near the filtration building

W. Lawther near Westlake

Top of the hill on Dreyfuss Club on E. Lawther.