Several forum members got together last Saturday at Rochelle, IL for their annual Railroad Days. Scot (sp2207) posted some excellent pictures in the last Weekend Photo Fun thread. I didn't take many pictures and I'm not sure why?
Our day started with an excellent meal at a restaurant at the airport called the Flight Deck. It is right beside a Skydiving Club and we got to watch numerous planes landing and taking off as well as the sky divers landing right outside the windows of the restaurant. The food was very good and got our day started off right.
When we got to the Railroad Park people were complaining because there wasn't very many trains running that day so far. They said there were a number in the morning, but then it had been pretty quiet since then. So, we went in the gift shop and looked at the computer screen where they track all the train movements. It shows all the BNSF and Union Pacific train activity in their subs that travel across the double diamonds in Rochelle. Once you learn how to read it, your can see where all the trains are, which way they are headed, and get a good idea when they will be to the diamonds. It is very cool to watch!
After studying the screen, we realized that there wouldn't be any train for another hour so we drove across town to where the UP had an engine on display. It was an SD70M that was painted for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
We saw that a few people had been allowed in the cab so we made a bee line for it. The engineer was allowing a few people at a time in the cab and showing them things, answering questions, and generally being a great host. After we were there a few minutes it became very hot with windows closed so he started the engine. We got to see the real startup procedure...very cool! It's hard to describe the awesome sound and feel when that big engine starts up. He started it and ran at notch 2 and started the air conditioner which quickly cooled off the cab. Then he reved it up to notch 4, then notch 6, and final notch 8! Wow! He then blew the horn and rang the bell. If we weren't already RR fans before, we were after that. It is awesome sitting 10 to 12 feet up in that cab with that massive engine growling and vibrating.
Before we left he showed us the PTC and explained how it worked. They also have UP's version of PTC right beside it. We talked about what he thought of UP's "left-hand running" in former C&NW territory. He felt it was not as safe for the engineer because if something is sticking out on a passing train, it could hit the engineer's side of the cab and injure or kill the engineer. An example would be an empty Intermodal container door that wasn't properly latched and swung open on a curve. Hitting a heavy door like that at 70 MPH would do major damage to the cab. We talked about a lot of other things but it was fantastic and worth the trip by itself.
Here is another picture of the gang:
Scot (sp2207), Art (Chugman), Gary (Ken's brother), Jon (sidewinder), Ken (kjstrains), and Andrew (Gary's son)
We had a great day.
Art
