A Train Thread

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Hey Rob, that's the Santa Cruz one (not the Santa Claus one--I don't know where that one's from but I do know that Amtrak doesn't run through Santa Cruz) directly above. It doesn't look any different from when the pix were taken in 2001.

Thanks for posting the Seabright/Murray scene.

Ralph
 
Wigwags on YouTube

Ralph,

That second link I sent ... I just went back to it and realized that there was an actual video clip of that wigwag in operation. Also, there seems to be other related videos of wigwags in operation. WOW ... talk about a turn-on!!!!!!!!

I don't know about your area, but in my area, crossing gates are a necessity as the drivers would try to run the train ... I don't want to be the police officer called to the scene of a crash ... Heck, sometimes they drive right through the gates!

Rob.
 
Yes, crossing arms are just about everywhere now but people still try to defeat them. It's a regular thing to have incidents where a vehicle or person was on CalTrain's tracks when they shouldn't have been, with fatal results. Now there are calls to fence off the CalTrain peninsula route like BART fences of their ROW. I am firmly against the idiot-proofing of America and feel that if you don't have the sense to stay off the tracks or heed the crossing arms, maybe you don't belong in the gene pool.

I can only imagine the examples you must see all too often, Rob.
 
Also, forgot to mention the great clip of the wigwag in action. This is the scene twice a day, a train in each direction, going to and coming from the cement plant in Davenport. Usually about 25 cars. I'll bet it's a primo gig for some high-seniority train crews. With great scenes like going over the Capitola trestle with views of the village and beach below.
 
Yes, even the crossing arms don't stop some drivers from trying to cross the tracks with a locomotive bearing down on them. Some of these are suicide attempts, others are just stupidity.

A few blocks from my house is a set of crossing arms just before the elevated BART tracks, and then a stop light/crosswalk for a major intersection. There's just enough room for one car between the crossing arms and the crosswalk. It used to really upset me when someone would follow too closely and then stop on the tracks. Not much I could do to help them if a train came along and I had a red light and cross traffic in front of me. Luckily this set of tracks is rarely used; there's another sent a few blocks further down the street that carries the freight and the speeding CC trains.

I don't know if fencing off the ROW falls under the category of idiot proofing. The railroads were given extraordinary perks and breaks in order to spur development of the rail system in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Nowadays there is no way anyone would let someone put in a heavy or highspeed rail system on surface streets. But due to historical legal allowances and also the huge cost there's little chance the railroads would ever agree to elevating, tunneling, or otherwise withdraw their existing ROW from the same level as the rest of the traffic.

It seemed that a few years ago we were getting at least a death a year on the CC tracks in my town. Haven't heard of any lately; maybe the education program in the nearby schools has worked.
 
Extreme Trains

Caught this show last night. It was aired an hour later than the listings said, but since the program during the prior timeslot was about sex in outer space, I stayed with the History Channel and lo and behold, Extreme Trains aired next. The host is a real hottie, worth watching just for him. And I've gotta say after seeing all the hot masculine men who work for UP in one capacity or another (the engineer was a cool bear, huge furry forearms and big stubby fingers gripping the controls) I wouldn't mind working for the UP myself! Oh, and the train stuff was interesting too.

Meanwhile, the suit filed against Measure B to extend BART was thrown out. And this morning's paper also reports that things are looking good for high speed rail what with all the public works projects Obama is looking at to get people back to work.
 
Good news about Measure B - BART to San Jose. And I saw a similar article in the Daily Review this morning saying that the expected economic stimulus for public works/infrastructure will help the fast rail link between Sac-SF-SJ-LA. Don't know if San Diego is on the route as yet, though. Expected completion date is 2020, which is probably overly optimistic considering all the land deals/ROW issues, but who knows? It could only take an endangered gnat to throw a monkey wrench into a project this size. Not that I'm anti-environment, but I tend to think of insects other than honey bees as not being as important as fixing our transportation system to be more fuel efficient and produce less smog.

It occurs to me, that other than the miniature steam trains in Tilden Park, long ago, that I've never ridden on a full size train pulled by steam.
 
Very entertaining installment last night on "Extreme Trains" doing a round trip from Cheyenne to Denver with the UP 844 pulling 26 vintage coaches. Supposedly some of the oldest rolling stock in the country. It was a beautiful train and a very informative look at what it takes/took to operate these huge steam locomotives. It's easy to see why diesel replaced steam. Still, seeing the 844 come to life was thrilling. Wish I could have been there in person.
 
Another good installment this week on ET with the Empire Builder's run. Makes Donner Pass look like a piece of cake! Looks like a nice trip with a dining car that still has an actual kitchen and serves things up on real plates.
 
"Extreme Trains"

Hi all,

What is this? A television program? Is it on Cable? I ask because we live in a very rural area (14 people square mile -1) and we have no cable service; too far away from the telephone switching station in town to get any sort of high speed Internet connection as well. We could do satellite, but frankly we just don't watch television.

Rob.
 
Rob, yes, ET is broadcast by The History Channel each week. Out here it airs at 11PM on Tuesday night.

We are Netflix subscribers and I found something called "Extreme Trains" in their selections so I've ordered that DVD. I think there may be a set of them. I'll advise if it's a compilation of this same program or not, and if it's worth renting for other Netflix customers here on AW who might be interested.

Ralph
 
OK Rob, I think ET might be a little ways down in our queue so if you order and watch it first, let us know how you liked it.

Ralph
 

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