nighttime operations

[Cway]

Hello all,

I was reading in another post that the Chicago Terminal Railroad did a test run past North Avenue one night...Was this actually during the tail end of rush hour or was it really at night when nobody expects it? Was there any nighttime service when the Proctor and Gamble plant was operating as well as any other industries in the area?

Cway

[cnwnorthline]

Hi,

Well, there was a least one more run last night.  They started their shift around 10 and just worked till there were done.  Because of the amount of things that had to be done they ended up working into the night.  They went onto S. Kingsbury to pull the gondola and between cars blocking the tracks and a derailed gondola things took a while.  My camera was giving me grief for some reason and it didn\'t want to take night shots (which is usually what I use it for)  but I did get some shots and I\'ll try to get them posted.

-Matt

[chuck]

quote:Originally posted by cnwnorthline

...and a derailed gondola things took a while.  

Where did they put a gon on the ground?

Chuck

[cnwnorthline]

Hi,

The gon derailed as they were pulling it out of its resting spot.  I asked if the snow/ice were to blame but they said it just \"wasn\'t tracking\" whatever that means.

-Matt

[chuck]

So is the gon still down there, or were they able to get it \"tracking\"?

Guess I should have stuck around for awhile!!!

-=Chuck=-
Mail: chuckjanda@hotmail.com
Home: http://www.chucksphotospot.com
Chicago Urban Exploring: http://www.futurespeak.net/bb/

[cnwnorthline]

Hi,

Nope, they eventually got it back on by using wood shims.  I\'d never seen that done before.  One guy even commented how a class 1 railroad would never let me that close to a derailment.  Things worked out OK.  One crew member drove, one directed traffic for confused/surprised drivers, another placed shims and I hunted for scraps of wood for them.  I felt like a dog fetching wood for a master but they said it helped.  As I said in an earlier post, they are pretty confident that they will have customers on this line.  So, if they\'re right, you\'ll get your chance for a picture.

-Matt

[TBurke]

Actually it\'s fairly common to use pieces of wood to re-rail cars or locomotives that derail.  You can see evidence of past derailments from the Soo Line and Milwaukee Road eras on the street trackage on Kingsbury Street where grooves were scratched across the concrete by the flanges.  

Look for the out-of-service switches and spurs that head off to nowhere these days for clues.

Usually the derailments were caused by the wheels riding up onto the concrete and out of the flangeways due to an obstruction (like ice)or the switch point moving between the set of wheels.

[tom mann]

I posted some shots that Matt sent me from this night, including one of the derailed gon.

------------
tom mann
http://www.chicagoswitching.com