I took a single vacation day today and my wife and I drove up into the mountains near our house (Sheridan, WY). The only RR connection is that I am a RRer and I met three others today.
Some of us have a life other than driving trains you know.

Railroader's day off.

Wyhog

That is some scenery you have out there! Thanks for sharing the pix.

Andy

And it looks even better in the winter on a sunny day.

I let the Nikons see these, and they are here by the computer with their little tongues hanging from their lenses.

I had to tell them, sadly, that to get to there from here is more than a day trip. Sigh.

A nice piece of photojournalism, Al. The vast beauty that is still the U.S.A. is sometimes forgotten until you see photos like those.

Ed

Beautiful scenery and some very good photography, Wyhogg.

We took a little "mini-vacation" this weekend too: 4 days of touring the Ouachita and Ozark mountains in central/northern Arkansas aboard our Harley. Also met some railroaders on Harley's while filling the tank at Huntsville, AR. All three were hoggers from the BNSF out of Thayer, MO. All of them were old farts, just like me.

Alas, got to head off for work again in a few minutes.

Andre Ming
Eastern OK

Great stuff Wyhog.

Wyoming and Montana are awe inspiring when it comes to scenery. The spring flowers are wonderful.

Thanks for sharing.

Paul

Driving trains??

We flatlanders are jealous, trains or not! The wildflowers are an unusal treat -looks like you caught the right day. My family and I will be in southwest Montana in August, from Bozeman to Big Sky to Gardiner and a little in Yellowstone NP, the Absaroka's, and Beartooth Pass, but the flowers will be long gone by then. It must be something to have all of that beauty at your doorstep every single day.

I think that's where I want to go when I die.



What, me worry?

quote:

Driving trains??

Yes, 'drive'. There haven't been any new 'engineers' who know how to 'run' trains for a couple of decades now. I've had my switch engine for 5 years now and didn't have flatspots on it. I usually leave a long note about how to operate it and to not use over 32 psi on dry rail to prevent flatspots. But I forgot to leave the note on it last Friday for Monday. So I lay off one day and when I first move my engine this morning what do I hear and feel? Whump whump whump whump. The extraboard 'engineer' put some dandy flatspots on her. The ground crew tells me he didn't know how to start it either, they had to show him. They won't teach them anything mechanical/electrical anymore, they are to call Ft Worth Mechanical on the radio and follow their step by step instructions if anything goes wrong. The division Supt was complaining at a safety meeting the other day about the 32 red board violations in the recent past. Someone brought up that maybe they ought to teach all of these 'engineers' who have hired out in the past 20 years how to use the air brakes when their DB goes out or is weak. Almost none of them know how to bring trains down steep grades without DB. The RR won't let us teach them power braking. So between using DB for every stop and not teaching them any mechanical stuff and taking away any decision making authority, I call them drivers because it isn't much different from driving a big truck.

Wyhog (Grumpy old fart with 5 months to go).

PS, I saw something new even for me today. An SD70MAC over the weekend broke an axle bull gear. Now I have seen countless pinion gears broken and I have seen bull gears with a few teeth missing, but this one had two wedge shaped pieces out of it right down to the hub. One missing piece was about 160 arc degrees of the gear and the second, missing from the opposite side of the gear, was about 20 degrees. Needless to say it ground every tooth off of the pinion, smooth as a baby's butt, and absolutely disintegrated the crater pan (gear casing). The big gear chunks went out the back of the loco where they parted the air hoses putting the train into emergency. The gear pieces continued to tumble under the coal cars tearing up brake rigging and other parts on the first 8 coal cars, which had to be set out bad order. I have pictures but I forgot to bring my camera home tonight.

Wyhog, your post prompts a question.

I'm "old school" and when I need to slow or stop a train I reach for the big brake, not the DB. Why do the big railroads now have such a phobia about using air? I don't understand why the air is now considered the "secondary" brake after the "Dymatic" brakes.

As for the difference between an "Engineer" and a "driver" I agree wholeheartedly. There are people running trains today that are fully "qualified" according to the training records, but they are definitely NOT qualified when it comes to thinking on their feet and making good, quick decisions when something goes wrong. An "engineer" who doesn't know how to start an SW1500 has no business running that locomotive. And since she now has flat spots, he demonstrated for all to hear that he had no business running it.

You and me are the "dinosaurs" in the industry now. My GM is also old school and is right there with us both. According to the new guys, everything we know how to do with a locomotive is all wrong now. Yeah...sure.

Today there is no sense of urgency to keep the traffic moving. There is no sense of "customer" either. The mantra seems to be, "Take it easy, be safe, don't take any risks and don't think...just do what we tell you. If we don't get it there today, there's always tomorrow...and tomorrow...and tomorrow." That's why we have customer's cars that take 10 DAYS to move from Chicago to north eastern Ohio. And no one at the big railroad seems to care. There's always tomorrow...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OGR Webmaster,

Great pix Whyhog, the wildflowers are a special treat!

Beautiful pictures! Reminds me of why my favorite vacations have always been out West. That kind of scenery makes the purchase of a good camera seem so sensible.

Art

Those are amazing pictures. Thank you!

Wyhog:

Great pictures of fantastic scenery

quote:

Originally posted by OGR Webmaster:
Wyhog, your post prompts a question.

You and me are the "dinosaurs" in the industry now. My GM is also old school and is right there with us both. According to the new guys, everything we know how to do with a locomotive is all wrong now. Yeah...sure.

Today there is no sense of urgency to keep the traffic moving. There is no sense of "customer" either. The mantra seems to be, "Take it easy, be safe, don't take any risks and don't think...just do what we tell you. If we don't get it there today, there's always tomorrow...and tomorrow...and tomorrow." That's why we have customer's cars that take 10 DAYS to move from Chicago to north eastern Ohio. And no one at the big railroad seems to care. There's always tomorrow...

Sadly Rich, that poor management philosophy extends to other professions as well. Unfortunately, a lot of management doesn't know who we actually work for.

Wyhog & Rich,

I appreciate what you guys are saying about the ranks of railroaders today...very sad but true. However, there are a few of us "young bucks" who do care

Of course, working for a smaller company still allows us the opportunity to use power braking, interact with customers etc. Even "gasp" get on and off moving equipment when safe to do so

But, when we run on our Class I connections, which we have very good relationships with, I can see how it would not be fun to be out there on the big roads 24/7. Guys there always seem to go about their work as if every move is being scrutinized, which sadly, they are.

I try to spend as much time around the vets as I can. As you experienced fellows go into happy retirement, there are less and less good examples for us younger guys to learn from!

Best,

Jack

I really enjoyed the pictures. More so I think because of having been there. In Sept 2000 I was trying to make it from Calgary, Alberta to the Mid-South in three days to meet a deadline, and became stuck in an unusal early season blizzard. They closed the interstate so I got to spend the night in Sheridan. Anyhow, the deadline was met, and I developed a fondness for Sheridan and Western towns in general.

At the time I couldn't see the mountains, it was all just snow coming down. But thanks to those pictures now I know what I missed and what it really looks like. The whole area (the entire Mountain West for that matter) is quite something and I wouldn't mind going back and getting a better look.

Some awesome photos!

When I see pix like this, I think our little "mountains" in the East are really just bumps in the road. Your wildflowers seem a little bit brighter too.

quote:

Wyhog & Rich,

I appreciate what you guys are saying about the ranks of railroaders today...very sad but true. However, there are a few of us "young bucks" who do care Wink

Of course there are a few "young bucks" who do care.
Don't forget us grumpy old guys had really good instructors , Engineers & conductors that ran a tight ship, no nonsense. Lots of work with a full crew. It's has to be tough to- day for a newbie gaining experience.

Those days are gone forever , The railroad I worked for is still functioning fine without me, Go figure.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gregg,

Update today if anybody cares.

Wyhog

I cared...and I enjoyed the pics. You sure do live in a gorgeous part of our country, Wyhog!

I care too. I'm also wondering if all that beautiful openness around Sheridan is mostly public or private land? It has the look maybe of a national forest. And is the place with the moose also grizzly country?

The land is National Forest. You can camp and go where ever you want on foot or horse. Snow machines can go just about everywhere except the Cloud's Peak Wilderness area. Other vehicles are limited to marked roads, some of which are barely passable with a 4 wheel ATV.

There are black bears but no grizzlies in the Bighorn Mountains. About every 5 years someone claims to have seen a griz but the official stance is that there are none. There are grizzlies of course in the Absarokees which are only about 60 miles away across the Bighorn Basin. Linda and I are happy to have them stay over there. We met one on a trail in Yellowstone Park (about 150 miles away) and once is enough.

There are zillions of deer, lots of elk and moose. We have also seen wolverine and mountain lions.

To keep the railroad content alive, we saw an empty coal train changing crews at the depot on #1 track coming home last night. A loaded train was on the main waiting for it and a second empty stopped behind to depart.

And right now I have to go fire up my switch engine.


Wyhog

...and I consider it a treat to take a ride up to the Poconos! - If I'm really feeling adventurous, I head up to the Berkshires, and for extended vacations, I like West Virginia.

But Colorado, Wyoming and Montana make them all look like traffic bumps!

Kent in NJ.

I took the week off and went from the mountains to that "One Particular Harbour". Didn't even see a train the whole time. Didn't bother taking any pictures either. I did see some shrimp boats very close to shore.

Know how to tell when a RRer has had a good vacation?

He can't remember his computer ID and password when he reports.