Ben Taylor's Idea of the Month

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Marge Mcfarlin and USACE Lock Database

I discovered that the US Army Core of Engineers has a web site that displays their lock activity. So purpose of this posting is to record interesting links as well as try to track were Marge goes during her stay in the Chicago area.

I can select which range of locks I on the Illinois Waterway for which I want data. I narrowed it down to Dresden Isand and Brandon Road. Most of the vessels were running light or with a small tow. (Although, the Lemont Trader went downbound through Brandon with 8 barges.) However, Marge Mcfarlin went upbound with 15 barges through Dresden between 03:59 and 06:43 on 2018/11/08. I recognized the name as one of Ingram's pushboats. Like Sam Fleming, it is a line-haul pushboat that has a retractable pilot house.

Marge Mcfarlin, USACE Vessel #0575287

So I started tracking its location in the Chicago area. Around 2pm, it was downstream of Mugz's Hideout. Theoretically, if I headed there, I might be able to get photos of it. But my main movtivation for getting a photo of a tow is to determine its size. But the USACE report includes the number of barges that locked through. It will be interesting if it goes through Brandon or if it stays in the Ingram's Channahon fleeting area. Since the weather has turned cold, I'll spend my time getting location updates rather than grinding out miles on the interstates to Mugz's Hideout. Some of the locks on the Illinois River were closed this summer for repairs. I checked the lock status page to confirm that the closures are done. The other tow through Dresden larger than 8 barges was the upbound Killian L. Huger with 13 barges.

Looking a Starved Rock and Marseilles, I was surprised to see that only two of the tows were larger than 8 --- 13 and 15. And our friend Sam M Fleming had the 15-barge tow. There were two light tows and tows as small as 2 and 3 barges. I expected the tows to be larger as we got into the mainstream of the river. For the two wicker dam locks (Lagrange and Peoria), of the 10 tows listed, only 8, 13, and 15 was larger than 3.

I did a query for all of the locks on the river. It appears to be sorted by vessel number. More accurately, the output is not sorted; it is displayed as it is stored in the database. Of the 35 entries, one was a pleasure craft (#9999999) through the O'Brien lock.
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The large delays for Brandon in this output caught my eye.

Looking at the arrival times vs. the Start of Lock, it appears they made Derek, Aggie and Lemont wait until after Lousiana and Cody locked through together. And Aggie locked through before Derek because they had to lower the water anyhow before Derek could enter. Even Lousiana and Cody had to wait until 1am even though Capt cleared the lock at midnight.

1410:  273.2
1426:  271.2   It went backwards! It must be in some sort of holding pattern waiting for a (big) spot in the fleeting area. Now I'm glad I didn't take off to try to see it. The holding area is around a bend and not visible from Mugz's Hideout.
1445:  271.2   In fact, its 0500 location was 271.2. So it has been waiting a rather long time.
1512:  271.2
1612:  271.6
1715:  271.4
1816:  270.5   Ingram still shows upbound.

USACE shows downbound with arrival at 1415 and departure at 1745. So it is a good thing I never went to Mugz's Hideout because it was downstream of the bend all afternoon.

Query of Dresden Lock delays at 6:26

2019:  262,8   Ingram is still showing upbound. But, obviously, we can wave goodbye to Marge.

I was going through the photos posted for Mugz's Hideout and noticed this one. Unfortunately, I can't find the name on it. You can tell this is around a fleeting area because it is a line-haul pushboat that is running light. The photo also has a nice view of the I-55 bridges.

Michael Pesek

One last check on Marge before I click Publish:
11-10-2018  1440:  170.5   It was at 208.4 at 0500

20180922 Erna E. Honeycutt is headed to Chicagoland

I'm not optimistic about chasing this one in the Chicagoland area because the last time I tracked her, it appeared that she turned and burned at the Channahon terminal.

Today's Google satellite image of the Channahon fleeting area is different. The barges in the upper-right corner look like the pile that was there in the previous image.

Satellite

20180922
1301:  276.3
1638:  278.2
1842:  285, so it is doing some local fleeting operations.
Rats, I got caught up in writing about Calaveras Dam and forgot to check more frequently this evening to see how far upstream she went.
2104:  291, Lockport Lock
20180923
0007:  291.1  Still in the lock
0125:  294.3  I had to first click that I was not a robot
0154:  295.5
0404:  298.8  Lemont Terminal
1035:  283  Would I have time to beat it to Mugz's Hideout?
1207:  278.8  In hindsight, I did have time to see what I could see from Mugz's Hideout.
1354:  278.4
2301:  255.3   There are now nine tows on the Illinois River. The furthest upbound is Dale A Haller at 244.4 (I forgot to get a fresh link for 244.4)

Dale A Haller
20180924
0343:  250.6  It has moved only 6 miles in almost four hours?  Did it serve a dock in the Seneca area?

20180925 
Noonish  277.3   Erna is back in town
1549:  273.5   But it left after a few hours?

Railfanning during the BNSF Main Street Crossing Replacement in Downers Grove, IL

During September 7-15, 2018, BNSF replaced the Main Street crossing in Downers Grove, IL. I spent quite a bit of time trackside taking photos of the construction. While I was there, I took videos of all of the trains that came through. Generally, I did just the locomotives, but if it was a mixed freight, I probably did the whole train.

Downers Grove is a quite zone, so I normally don't hear any horns. But since they were doing construction on the tracks, the trains use a series of two short beeps until they pass the zone. The trains are coming through at a restricted speed because of the construction. Although I have noticed that the rear of some of them seem to be doing at track speed for freights --- 45 mph.

The bad news is that most of these videos were taken from the north platform because that is where I could get the best view of the construction activity. That means I'm on the dark side of the trains. I know enough about railfanning to know that is a big no-no. But the silver lining is that I get the depot in the background of many of the views.

This is currently a work in  progress and will be updated as I get the videos loaded. But I have to publish now to get a URL for the YouTube descriptions. Hopefully, I'll have all of the trains added in a few days.




(new window) "The third unit is a warbonnet, #716. That means it is an older unit and worth looking up. #716 is a Dash 9-44CW / AC44Cm built in the Summer of 1997. The fact this unit is not in storage indicates the economy has picked up. The placard is 1267, so it is carrying crude oil."


(new window) "While I was videoing ComEd do some aerial truck work, an intermodal train rolled pass. That is why I'm out of position to get a trackside view."


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20180912 1125 Eastbound Mixed Freight and 1128 Westbound Commuter

Screenshot

Railfanning is like fishing --- lots of boredom punctuated by the excitement of missing one. As I walked down to the tracks, I heard a train slowly honking its way from the west. So I stopped walking and took a video of the honking until the locomotives crossed Main Street. This screenshot illustrates why I'm not uploading the video --- I was too far away. But I was able to determine the train had three locomotives and started with a long cut of 3-bay covered hoppers (typically grain this time of the year).

It was moving slowly enough because of the construction that I significantly closer when I took a photo to record the end of the cut of hoppers to document that it was a mixed freight.

Then it got skunked by an outbound commuter.

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The lead unit is a typical "orange pumpkin." The second unit is a run-through Norfolk Southern unit. But the third unit is of interest because it has the Santa Fe inspired warbonnet livery. That means it is an older unit and worth looking up. #752 is a Dash 9-44CW / AC44Cm built in the Summer of 1997. The fact this unit is not in storage indicates the economy has picked up. The placard is 1267, so it is carrying crude oil.

BNSF typically used an old beat up covered hopper for its buffer car in oil trains. This buffer car caught my eye because it looks long enough to be a 3-bay hopper, but I can see only two bays. So I caught this view that shows the end. Then I was really surprised because it has the square end of a boxcar instead of the sloped side of a covered hopper. Then I was shocked to see it has a full ladder and a running board. Running boards disappeared in the 1960s. So did they take an old boxcar, add vertical outside bracing and a couple of hoppers and give it a fresh paint job? I assume they added hatches to the roof as well. If they are using sand, a car that long would have quite a bit of air. Has BNSF "kitbashed" a car that would crush easily in an accident?
(Facebooked)
Jim Brewster That is an air slide car
Dennis DeBruler Thanks. I've never noticed one before. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3077946
Dennis DeBruler So the full ladder and running board is to access hatches in the roof.

Screenshot

(new window)  20180913 1432

I normally don't pay attention to commuters arriving at Downers because we have so many of them. But I was at the station taking photos of the replacement of the Main Street crossing so I took some video of an outbound Metra stopping at the station. They stopped the track work before the 4-min announcement on the PA. The train is honking because of the construction work. Downers Grove is a quiet zone, so we normally don't hear a horn. Since I'm learning to edit clips together, I stopped recording while it set in the station. But you will notice three clips after the original arrival clip. That is because, when it was leaving, it stopped twice before it actually got going. I've never seen it stop while leaving before. Each stop was about a minute long.

20180913 1441  Eastbound Mixed Freight

The two locomotives got past me without a video. It turns out this train was rather short. The covered hoppers and tank cars are typical. But this is the first time I have seen a single empty piggyback car and the special built flat car for wheel-axle sets. (Facebooked)

20180913 1529 Outbound Commuter

I didn't take any video since it was just another commuter stopping at the station and I was on the wrong side of Main Street to get a decent view. To cross Main Street, I have to walk back over to Warren Avenue because BNSF has barricaded off Main Street between Warren and the tracks.

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(new window) I normally don't record the cars of an intermodal, especially when the train is on the close track. But when I noticed containers on piggyback cars and then so many "holes" in the load, I decided to let it run. This must have been some sort of clean-the-yard-out train because it is also kinda short. But it still had three locomotives.


(new window)  The second and fourth units are in the Executive Paint Scheme.

20180914 1311  Eastbound Intermodal

There is no video of the locomotives for this train because I missed up hitting the record button and got footage of my feet after I thought I turned recording off. (This is not the first time I screwed up hitting the record button. At least I never screwed up when a daughter blew out candles on a birthday cake.)

On a Facebook group I follow, there was a question of weather or not Estes trucking has started using intermodal services. So I take photos of E trailers to document the usage. This is the most I have seen in one train --- 11. The shipper with the most trailers, as is typical, was UPS. J. B. Hunt uses containers.

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20180918 Sam M Fleming was hidden behind trees

While Sam M Fleming was heading upstream, Roy E Claverie was heading downstream. They met just downstream of the Dresden Lock.

Since Sam was heading upstream. On my way back home, I took US-6 to Bluff Road to drive down the roads to confirm that I could not see the Channahon fleeting area because of trees and No Trespassing signs.

Roy made good progress downstream:
2035: 244,8

The next day, I checked Sam:
1140: 298
It has gone upstream of Channahon, IL!
1144: 298.4
Is it going to stop at the Lemont fleeting area? Actually, since I learned yesterday that the web has a delay, did it stop?
1159: 298.8
I checked a little later, and it was still there, so I grabbed my camera and headed to the Veterans Memorial Trail.

I knew from previous trips that the Des Plaines River Drive has signs that indicate authorized personal only. So there is no trailhead parking for the Veterans Memorial Trail. Fortunately, there is a picnic spot on Bluff Road near the trail so that it is a fairly easy walk down  the Veterans trail to the Centennial Trail that goes along the marine terminals. As one would expect, a chain link fence with barb wire blocks the view of a crane moving the covers from one end of an empty barge back across the top of the barge. I remember when they did not put covers over barges carrying coal, gravel, etc. (Of course, it has been a while since I have seen barges carryhing coal.) I always wondered what happened when it rained. Now they seem to cover empty barges as well.

But I learned there is something far worse than a chain-link fence: nature. Not just trees, but bushes and vinces. Sam Fleming was probably somewhere on the other side of the vegetation on the left. The fence with the yellow top is the Asian Carp Barrier.

The one gap was where a gate used to be. I could see a crane working, but not the barge it was working with.

I bought a video editor that advertised a stabilization option. But the results are not near as good as what YouTube did before they pulled that feature. And the program made my video files disappear from File Explorer and Photo! At least I installed it only on my laptop. File Explorer and Photo still work on my desktop. Since this was the first time I have seen a Link-Belt boom extend, I extracted the boom movement part of a video. If anybody knows of a good stabilization program, please recommend it in a blog comment.

When I got home, I verified Sam was behind those trees. In fact it stayed there for at least a few hours.
1444: 297.7
1458: 297.7
1647: 299.4
1929: 299.4


20180919   0522: 291.1, Lockport Lock. Even if the web did not have a delay, I don't think I could beat it to Joliet. And I determined that the next accessible viewing spot is Morris. By then, it has passed the Channonahon fleeting area and will be pushing a standard 15-barge tow. Plus, it might rain today.

1222: 287.2  Wow, it is still doing its own fleeting operations. It is now in the Joliet fleeting area, which is easy to view from the US-6 bridge. I got more photos of that area just two days ago. At 0500 this morning, it was at 292.

20180917 5808

1754 : 283.9  It has gone through the Brandon Locks because it is now down by Caterpillar.
1858:  279.5  The icon has changed from upbound to downbound. The direction column also has an "In Port" value, but I never saw that on the web page while it was in the area working the industries and its marine terminal.
1913:  278,9  So how long is Sam going to stay at the Channahon fleeting area?
1942:  278.1
2204:  278.1  Looks like Sam is staying here for the night. I wonder if the crew of the boat lives in this area and they have been getting shore leave during the nights it was in the area.
20180920    1626:  249.9  It looks like it has its 15 barges and is gone.
20180921    1419:  213.2
Last night it was on the Mississippi River a little downstream of the Illinois River mouth. It must have swapped tows quickly at a Mississippi facility because it has made good progress back up the Illinois River. In fact, she was at 159.2 at 0500 and is headed back downstream.
20180922    1301:  152.9

Ingram

1907:  The next closest tow is Marge Mcfarlin at the CGB elevator near Utica (229.4). It is like Sam --- a line-haul boat, but with a retractable pilothouse.

1911:  230.3  CGB just happens to be where I caught it. It is now upstream of IL-178.
1942:  230.7  It is now in the Starved Rock Lock. It should be here a while because 15-barge tows have to be split for two lockings.
2204:  230.8
20180920    1626:  268.1
20180920    1419:  it was at 273.2 at 0500 and is now back down to 253   The crew must not be in this area because it turned and burned.

Ralph E. Plagge might also be headed to Chicagoland.

20180920   1626:  237.9
20180921   1419:  271.1  Probably waiting for Dresden Lock
20180922   1301:  259.2  Ralph was at 279.2 at 0500, so she has turned and burned.

Now Erna is the furthest upstream.
20180922   1301:  276.3

Brinda Holloway's Bridges

a map that collects together all the covered bridges in New England, state by state

Some notes I made as I read Brenda Holloway's bridge hunting blog.

• Comstock Covered Bridge; revisited
• falling arch
• double steel arch
• Bear Mountain (suspension)\
• Bulls covered bridge and one of two dams near Kent, CT
• West Cornwall Covered Bridge (double span)
• Cornwell Bridge, open spandrel concrete
• Washington Bridge, open spandrel concrete and trunnion bascule
• Tomilinson Lift Bridge, covered towers

• East Haddam Swing Bridge

• Great River Bridges, truss restoration
• Bulkeley Bridge, longest shaped stone bridge in the world and carries an Interstate highway

• Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge, MA

• Whitestone Bridge, Bronx-Queens, NY

• Talcottville Iron Bridge, Talcottville, CT., contains a link to the history of this mill town; revisited

• Perl Harbor Memorial (Q) Bridge replacement, "extra-dosed" cable design
• most of the bridges over Connecticut River in Connecticut
• 3 bridges of Portsmouth including Sarah Mildred
• George Washington Bridge

• The Last Voyage of the Enterprise (and the Gil Hodges/Marine Parkway Bridge, Brooklyn-Rockaway, NY), interesting lift tower covers

• haunted covered bridge and Cat excavator, a 1974 bridge is in bad shape (hurricane Irene)

• Burkeville Covered Bridge, Conway, MA, traffic is blocked with a millstone

• has link to downloadable Historic Places spreadsheet
• Berlin Iron plus 6 more historic bridges in Hartford 

• Gold Star Memorial Bridge, Thames River, CT plus Amtrak's lift bridge plus Old Town Mill with it vertical water wheel    I was recently informed from a state trooper that the bridge is unsafe. It has become a very unfortunate secret.

• Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, RI, concrete box girder

• Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, Jamestown-Newport, RI, suspension with 400' towers, New England's longest            This was a pioneering bridge: the first use of prefabricated parallel wire strand cables in a suspension bridge, where the strands are bound together at ground level and then unreeled onto the bridge. Prior to that, aerial spinning of wires was the norm. Each main cable is made up of 76 prefabricated strands. The bridge was also controversial because the original paint system failed within a year or two of opening; the contractor was found to be at fault.

• Providence River Bridge, network arch bridge, Fox Point hurricane barrier; at night

• FDR Mid-Hudson Bridge, Poughkeepsie-Highland, NY, suspension

• Now starring in The Dark Knight Rises: The Queensboro Bridge

• Contoocook Railroad Bridge, 1889  "oldest surviving covered railroad bridge in the world"  double Town lattice

• Thompson Covered Bridge, West Swanzey, NH; prettiest

• Braga Bridge, Fall River-Somerset, MA; big cantilevered truss

• Sagamore Bridge, Bourne Bridge and Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge, Cape Cod, MA; steel arch, ornate lift, steel arch

• Mount Hope Bridge, Bristol-Portsmouth, Rhode Island, suspension

20180917 Roy E. Claverie, missed it at Morris, IL; can't see anything at Channahon

I drove to Morris, IL to catch this pushboat going downstream. While I ate lunch, I tracked its progress and when it was getting close to where I wanted to catch it, I was done with lunch anyhow and took off to get it.

Ingram Barge

1237: 265.8
1239: 265.8
1249: 265.1
1243: 265.1
1247: 265.1
1251: 264.5
1253: 264.5
1259: 263.8

I never saw it. I went back to the bar and grill where I ate lunch to access the WiFi again. It showed it was where I just left the river!

When I went to the riverside park, I asked someone who had been setting there if he saw a tow go by. He said: "yes ,two of them." He estimated that they had gone by in the last 20 minutes. So the web site does not show the location in real time. There is evidently a 5-20 minute delay.

I did determine for future trips that this building seems to be an xfinitywifi hot spot. And the parking lot behind it is free.

While I was by the river, I did hear a train (CSX or IAIS) honk its way through Morris. It sounded like it was going westbound.



20180920    1626:  75.7
20180921    1419:  200.7 on Upper Mississippi.  It was 20.5 at 0500. So was it still on the Illinois at 5am?