I know I'm being pedantic, but...

I heard TV newscasters say this on TV the other night, and again read it online in the New York Times. "Warren Buffett is buying the Burlington Northern."

No, he isn't. That is, unless he invented a time machine, went back to the mid '90s, and bought it before it could merge with the Santa Fe, in which case I would think the development of time travel would be the main focus of the story. Berkshire Hathaway is buying the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation. At least get the railroad's name right.

Resurfacing?

When I was in Cumberland, MD on the Capitol Limited, heading west on our trip to Alaska (so we're talking Monday, August 17 here--I'm writing this on the 18th in Chicago but not posting it immediately), I wanted to access the Internet. There's free WiFi that you can access from the train in Cumberland, so I took advantage of that.

Well, when I completed the now required sign-up page (which seriously limited what I could do online, since that took time and the train's schedule didn't give me much to begin with, and which also made it look like it might not be free next time we pass through, but that's another matter), up popped an ad for "Surface" available on iTunes.

Why on Earth would they advertise a short lived show from so long ago? Was it a new offereing when they WiFi system was set up (they had a copyright date of "2007-2009")? Or has "Surface" developed a cult following that I'm unaware of? Or something else? That one just mystifies me...

Oddball on the tracks...

Every now and then, I'll see something while train watching that will baffle me. Tonight was one such night for me.

Coming home from dinner tonight, we were stopped at the crossing for Greenridge, (I think the exact time was 10:24 PM, but I'm not sure--it was close to that, but I didn't look at the clock at the exact moment the train passed). A CSX engine (a wide cab model, but I don't know the exact type of engine) passed southbound with a single Amtrak Auto Train car carrier. I know it was an Amtrak carrier--I could read that in the streetlight.

My first thought was that something went wrong with the carrier and it was being taken back to Sanford. However, that doesn't seem to make sense to me--it seemed to be running at normal track speed--at least for a freight train. If there were a serious enough problem to require it to be pulled from the consist, wouldn't they need to move it beck to Sanford more slowly, and why not take it to Lorton? On the other hand, I'm hard-pressed to think about where else the carrier might come from. If it were accidentally left off yesterday's train, I'd think it would have simply been put on today's train. If it's returning from maintenance in Beech Grove, I'd think Amtrak trains would take it to the Washington area (perhaps not D.C. per se due to wire clearances, but the Cardinal could take it to Charlottesville or Alexandria, and CSX only handle it to Lorton), or mix it in with freight cars (though all Amtrak cars have "do not hump" written all over them--that seems like it might be problematical)--a special CSX move from Indiana seems wasteful and unlikely.

I've also got to wonder if passengers cars were in the carrier. If so, there will be some seriously ticked-off and upset people in Lorton tomorrow morning.
'

The Great Railroad Tour of Colorado

I was lax blogging from the road this last trip. Mainly, I wanted to recover from the chaos of the flood, and unwind. A big part of the trip was the Mensa AG, but the other half which was just for my father and myself was our great railroad tour of Colorado. We got to six railroad-related landmarks. I enjoyed all six greatly.

The Monday before the AG, I went to the Colorado Railroad Museum. It's a nice museum. One highlight for me was seeing the Galloping Geese--the first time I'd seen one. (They have two: #2 and #6; I have always had an odd fascination for those railcars.) The other highlight was the Santa Fe Super Chief observation car Navajo; I kept going back in my mind to the thought that my mother may have ridden in that car on her west coast trip when she was young. (Perhaps a longshot, I know, but possible.)

The Monday after the AG, I rode the Georgetown Loop Railroad. That was my least favorite of the narrow gauge railroads--mainly because it's shorter than the others and is currently using diesels. However, I feel it's unfair to describe it negatively--it's still pretty good, and well worth the ride. Also, if you're there, take the mine tour.

On Tuesday, I took the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. That was definitely a high-point of the trip! (Sorry--I couldn't resist a pun.) I was pleased that I had few problems at 14,110 feet. (I was a little short of breath for a moment up there--enough to make me glad my dad elected to remain at the hotel.) I lucked out with my ticket--I had a seat right in front of the cab window of the downhill side of the train. I've never summited a mountain even nearly that high before, and that is definitely the easy way to do it.

On Thursday, my dad and I took the Royal Gorge train. That is a beautiful line--and I recommend spending the extra money for the dome car.

On Friday, we took the Cumbres and Toltec. As a libertarian, I hate to admit this--since this is the only government run operation of the five railroads--but this is probably the best of the five railroads. The scenery along the line is great. The only downside if the line is that you need to ride a bus one way to take the whole line in one day.

The final line we took was the Durango and Silverton. Like the Cumbres and Toltec, it is also a very well-run scenic railroad. The scenery is perhaps the most spectacular of the five routes I mentioned--especially along the High Line. They also have a nice museum at the Durango station. The biggest downside is that it was very crowded.

In short, if you're out in that part of the country, all five railroads are well worth taking and the museum is worth a visit, and all six attractions are very enjoyable.

Finding different roots than expected

I've been bad about blogging about my trip. I've been away nearly two weeks on the railroad tour of Colorado/Mensa AG, and this is my first blog.

Today was a sightseeing day in Colorado Springs. This afternoon, I saw the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, Cave of the Winds, and Garden of the Gods. Before dinner this evening, my dad and I tried to find the location of Freedom School, where my parents met in 1962. We took off following the directions in a Gazette article online, and weren't convinced we were on the right track. So, we went back to Palmer Lake, and stopped in the Depot restaurant. They provided directions to a school we passed before. We took another look up (the school was founded in 1927, so if they took over Freedom School's property, they did so late in their history), snapped a picture, and left again.

Since they had been helpful and were convenient (and train themed), we ate at the Depot. In the "too appropriate for words" category, the picture on the wall across from our booth was of the Hopewell station--as in the Hopewell, NJ where we lived in the early '80s. I wouldn't have expected another bit of my past to show up on this side trip!

Random thoughts on the Green Line crashes

Last Wednesday, there was a crash on the el in Chicago, and also a crash on Boston's trolley system. Curiously, both crashes were on their respective cities' Green Line route.

1. I didn't catch any mix-ups where reporters made claims about one city's crash when they meant the other (such as referring to a trolley in Chicago). This is not to say it didn't happen, but I didn't catch it.

2. If you're looking for a real-life example of a true coincidence, this seems to be it: there is no common cause between the two accidents. (Also note: nothing happened on Washington, D.C.'s Green Line.) It is certainly odd that both accidents were on the "Green Line." (I should note that both cities use letter codes to indicate the final destination of the train; I suspect those codes were different, but I'm not 100% sure of that, either way; so, in some sense, it might not have been the same line.)

3. I'd worry if two crashes in one day will discourage mass transit use; in this day of rising gas prices, that would only make things worse.

A train wreck of fact checking

I know I'm nitpicking, but I'm still disappointed--apparently, no one at the Boston Herald knows the difference between a boxcar and a bulkhead flatcar. It wasn't a boxcar that hit the train near Canton Jct., and you can see that clearly in the slideshow with this story. Just get the facts right, please!

They also apparently have a buggy comment program also--I tried to post the above as a comment with the story, but I kept getting an "Invalid security code" error--I'm guessing their webpage doesn't like Firefox.

On the positive side--it seems the engineer of the commuter train in the wreck deserves some kudos.

A train to nowhere for those in wheelchairs.

As long as I'm writing about things that read like bad jokes, how about this?

Not too many stations in the New York Subway have access for the disabled--about 60 out of 400+, and some of those don't have access to all areas of the station. The two busiest stations (according to the 30-year-old stats I have from "Urban Rail in America") in the system are pretty good, however--Times Square, for instance, has access for all trains except the Shuttle, and Grand Central has access for all trains.

The bad joke is something those familiar with the subway may have spotted already: the shuttle only goes to two stations--Grand Central and Times Square. Basically, according to the map, you can get on the shuttle at Grand Central, but if you're in a wheelchair, you can't use it to actually go anywhere. Why they don't say "except the shuttle" for both stations, I don't know. (I thought you had to use stairs to get to the Shuttle platforms at both locations, but I'm far from certain that there isn't a ramp at either station; though the map strongly supports my memory for Times Sq..)

On the bright side, wheelchair-bound riders can at least use the 7 Train between those two stations.

The SLUT gets around...

Some stories get around more than either a streetcar or a promiscuous woman. One is how Seattle's new South Lake Union Streetcar has been unofficially renamed the South Lake Union Trolley. This has been reported near and far.

This isn't the first railroad acronym to inspire snickers. Switzerland's F.A.R.T. has been in business for years. Of course, that's an official name from outside the English-speaking world.

I must admit, there's a contrived feeling to this story. The name is unofficial. Some of the stories mention that "South Lake Union" is an official name for neighborhoods that traditionally used other names--Cascade, etc.. One wonders if dubbing the light rail system the "S.L.U.T." is someone's revenge for that official designation.

Of course, it could be spontaneous. After all, what else might it have been called? S.L.U.S. isn't a word. (It's close to "slush," but no cigar.) "South Lake Union Railway?" Is S.L.U.R. much better?

Regardless, I'm enjoying the corny and predictable jokes about the S.L.U.T. getting around, about riding the S.L.U.T., about how the S.L.U.T. is easy to access. You get the idea. It's not many $51,000,000 transit projects that take on an air of being loose and lascivious.

Head-first at 60 miles per hour?

One small quirk about our recent trip on the Auto Train: the porter made up our beds with the pillows at the forward end. On every train trip I've taken in the past (excluding the ones in coach of course, and in bedrooms with beds across the width of the train), the pillow was at the rear end of the bed. I was under the impression that there were safety reasons for this--basically you wanted your feet forward so if there was an emergency braking or wreck, you'd be less likely to hit your head travelling and sleeping feet-forward.

Has there been a new study suggesting the old way was wrong? Did our porter make a mistake? Is there something else going on here? I'll be interested in seeing if we return to Florida head-first.

Riding the parallel universe's Amtrak?

My dad and I took the Auto Train north for our trip to New York.

That the service was good wasn't too surprising--sometimes, the service is good on Amtrak. That the food in the dining car was good was a bit more surprising, since dining car service on Amtrak has been recently hit with budget cuts--but the salmon was excellent last night. The really astonishing thing was that the Auto Train--an Amtrak train running on CSX rails--got in to Lorton almost an hour early.

I love train travel, however, this train trip was a pleasant surprise, with things going well that recent news and prior train trips would have suggested wouldn't be the case.

Converted lounge cars

Today, on the northbound Silver Star, I saw what I presume was one of Amtrak's lounge cars converted into a diner or diner/lounge. I didn't get that good a look inside, though.

The overall effect was reminiscent of the Metroliners where there were two cafe cars--one with the first class section, and the second actually serving as a lounge.

Yeah, I'm talking about my trip.

The Mensa Annual Gathering--the main point of our Birmingham trip--was fun. If you're in Mensa and haven't gone to an AG, go to one. If you're not, talk a Mensan into taking you to one or join and go on your own. They're addictive.

However, if you're in Birmingham at any time, I have two suggestions for attractions to visit. The first is the Aldrich Coal Mining Museum in Montevallo. The genteman who runs it was kind enough to open for my father and myself on Tuesday--usually, they're closed Tuesdays; though their website does say they'll open by appointment, we didn't give them much lead-time on the appointment, calling about 45 minutes before we arrived. The museum is in an old company store and office/workers' recreation hall/school building--the former housing a collection of town history artifacts and pictures and the latter housing some more of the collection, but being closer to a building restored to its period appearance. It's a small museum, and hard to find, but I think it's worth a look.

The other attraction is the Irondale Café. This restaurant--the inspiration for the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café and the movie based on it--offers some great trainwatching. And the food is good, too.

They fixed the crossing, finally, I hope

Well, after several instances of CSX or the country (I'm not sure who was doing the repairs) "fixing" the Woodland Dr. railroad crossing, only to have the potholes reappear in a matter of weeks--if not days--they started more extensive work on it yesterday. I've been worried about the safety of the crossing (on the theory that if sinkholes kept appearing in the asphalt, the tracks couldn't have been supported well enough either). I'm hoping that the repairs will be more thorough this time.

Travel as a citizen or fly like a turkey.

“You ride a train because you can get on a train as a citizen. You can only get on a plane as a subject of the government.”

Those are the words of Kirk Thompson of Montana, as quoted in an online Missoulan article about activism for a new Montana train route.

It's not completely true--after all, passenger trains are heavily subsidized.

It's also partly true for cars--there's a freedom to driving, but I at least always get a little uneasy when I see a police car on the road--second guessing my driving decisions and actions for the past few blocks when one appears.

All that said, I enjoy flying, but I so hate and fear airport security so much that it's a no brainer for me--if I can, I stay on the ground when I travel.

Coming in pairs...

Last Sunday, there were similar train accidents in Gary, Indiana and here in Jacksonville that each claimed two lives.

In both cases, the drivers apparently went around the properly-functioning crossing gates, apparently thinking the gates were down for a stopped (in Indiana) or slow-moving (Florida) freight, only to be hit by a passenger train on another track at the crossing.

I'd note immediately that it's very dangerous to assume you see "the train" at multi-track crossings. This has been a problem for the railroads for a long time. Folks, if there's more than one track, it usually means the railroad thinks there will sometimes be more than one train.

Beyond that, my only thoughts are on general rail-safety issues.

Locally, some people have demanded extending the gate at the Jacksonville accident site to block both traffic lanes when it's down. This demand always troubles me--what someone making such a demand is really saying is, "people can't be responsible--we need a device to get in the way." The problem is that such gates can conceivably block cars on the tracks, and, if the gate is malfunctioning, it precludes people going around the gates with proper, official direction or in an emergency.

In any case, some general advice bears repeating: if the gates are down, wait for the train to pass. Yes, you may be waiting a few minutes--the gates are designed to go down in time to make sure you're not on the tracks when the train gets there and trains don't always move at top speed on a given stretch of track. It's still best to wait. If there doesn't seem to be a train, turn around and use another crossing. If you really, really must use a given crossing, it's malfunctioning, and there's no official directing traffic--some people (I'd be tempted to join that group) would say not even then, and, then, bear in mind this is both possibly illegal (there may be exceptions for broken gates, but I'm not well enough versed in the laws on that point) with heavy fines (I believe $1500 here in Florida) and at least somewhat dangerous anyway--stop, roll down your window, turn down the radio, and listen and look extremely carefully (if there's a lit signal on the line--whether green, yellow, or red--in many places that alone can mean a train is nearby). In any case, if you see a crossing malfunctioning, call the railroad that owns the crossing and let them know (the number can be found on the crossing gate--this is ten times more important if you should see a crossing gate up when a train is approaching or passing or if you see a gate that's physically broken--it's rare, but I've seen both).

Remember--the weight ratio between a 100-car freight train and your car is roughly the ratio between your car and a soda can. Such a freight train, traveling 60 MPH, can likely stop within its own length (not something your car can do)--but since the train is more than a mile long, chicken games are still ill-advised.

(OK--I'll get off my rail-safety high-horse now.)

RR - Slanted perspective.

In the late '60s and early '70s, San Francisco's BART and the New York City's subway both experimented with cars with slanted fronts. They looked cool, however, the benefits of such streamlining are dubious when you consider the relatively slow speeds and extensive tunnel operation of subway trains, and the loss of passenger space because the full length of the car can't be used. Worse, such a design makes it especially dangerous (as in NY's design) or impossible (as with SF's) to walk from car to car if the cab cars are run mid-train. The problem was bad enough that New York modified the original design to get rid of the slant before they even received all the cars.

Despite these problems, however, Toronto is now--based on the picture in an online CTV article--considering a slanted-front subway car design. Once again, we have an example of Santayana's quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

RR - Kingsley Ave. work done.

I was eating lunch at Grumpy's when I got a clear indication that the trackwork I mentioned last night is complete, or at least not disrupting train service anymore: a long manifest freight passed through.
Now, a new mystery: the first 20-or-so cars (with one exception) were hopper cars painted in what looked like Penn Central green. Whose cars are these? Where are they going? Curious trainwatchers want to know--if I find out, you'll read it here.

RR - Rock train after midnight

The southbound Yelvington Rock train passed through Orange Park about 20 minutes ago. I can't remember seeing it any time other than in the morning--but it may not be a schedule change. The trackwork/crossing repairs going on at Kingsley Ave. looked like they required a service interruption, and that may have messed up the train times.

RR - It always happens

I got back from dinner tonight, and heard a train whistle as soon as I got out of the car. This seems to happen every night. I actually want to have to wait for the train so I can watch it!