I Saw A Train Today!
#1
Actually, I see trains almost everyday because I drive past the Mykawa yard on my commute.

Here is an nteresting mix of locos and some interesting and not so interesting cars in the yard today. Of course there were many other ones, tank cars, container cars (what are those actually called?), and autoracks.

On the lead, a silver and red warbonnet! How long before these are painted over and gone forever?

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Second, a BNSF orange and black unit:

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And a KCS loco... rather gaudy in my view!

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Some generic covered hoppers, size LARGE. Lots and lots of these down here due to the petroleum refineries and plastics industry.

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Now here is something I haven't seen... hoppers with solar panels.... are these ballast cars? And what of the photovoltaics?

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A couple of coil cars:

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And an interesting covered hopper, apparently advertising the Canadian census in 2000? Anyone know anything about this one?

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An ex-Wisconsin Central boxcar, now EEC:

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And bringing up the rear, some CSXT covered hoppers, one clean one and two very dirty ones:

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#2
Great pics..!!! Let's see so'more... Thumbsup
Gus (LC&P).
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#3
Those hoppers with the solar panels were ballast hoppers. I'm going to guess that the hopper doors may be electric and the solar panels either supply the power to operate them or charge batteries that operate them. This is just a guess. I can't think of any other reason for solar panels on a ballast hopper.
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#4
Russ Bellinis Wrote:Those hoppers with the solar panels were ballast hoppers. I'm going to guess that the hopper doors may be electric and the solar panels either supply the power to operate them or charge batteries that operate them. This is just a guess. I can't think of any other reason for solar panels on a ballast hopper.

I dunno, Russ, I have a feeling that those are actually giraffe cars, with the solar panels there to power the decoder that controls the pop-up motion. Misngth Misngth

It put me in mind of this letter which my brother forwarded to me a couple of years ago:

Hello:

Have you dug out from the great storm of '08? I hear it was terrible
bad out your way. All the cows suffocated under the snow. They say
only the giraffe farmers didn't lose any livestock. People sure ain't
laughing at the Lumbertuses now. (well, they are, but not on account
of them raising giraffes) Hope CN's still got some of them giraffe
cars. They'll be needing them.

When I was a boy we got terrible storms—worse than this. But in those
days all the kids ate snow. If a bad storm blew in our folks would
make us go outside just to eat the snow, so it didn't get too deep. I
don't know why they don't teach the kids that in school these days.
It's a life skill.

Well, I gotta go oil my pocket watch now. Dang thing seems to be an
hour behind. I got a mind to send it back to Eatons.

bye for now,

Jebadiah Cavers


Wayne
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#5
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing them. Cheers
Matt
I can smell a steam post ten blocks away and when I do clear the tracks because the steam express will be hi ballin through
http://cambriaindiana.weebly.com/
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#6
Always good to have a camera around when your out, cool shots Icon_lol
Tom

Model Conrail

PM me to get a hold of me.
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#7
Quote:Second, a BNSF orange and black unit:
Compare to the KCS unit: this is the still-more-common orange and dark green. Many people confuse the colors, but usually the other way (thinking H3 is still green).
Quote:And a KCS loco... rather gaudy in my view!
No louder than the BNSF scheme, really.
Fan of late and early Conrail... also 40s-50s PRR, 70s ATSF, BN and SP, 70s-80s eastern CN, pre-merger-era UP, heavy electric operations in general, dieselized narrow gauge, era 3/4 DB and DR, EFVM and Brazilian railroads in general... too many to list!
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#8
January 15th train chase on way to work. I was passing it up til I hit the red light.

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#9
Thanks for posting these great shots Gary.Up here in Ontario you would probably get busted by the police for operating your camera while driving Eek
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#10
cn nutbar Wrote:Thanks for posting these great shots Gary.Up here in Ontario you would probably get busted by the police for operating your camera while driving Eek

I frequently have to remind myself to keep my eyes on the road and not the train on the tracks. Icon_lol
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#11
heck, I was not only taking photos, I was also talking on the cell phone. I'm a really good driver. Confusedhock:
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#12
Close-ups of the solar powered ballast car

Battery box? Most likely... the big brown box.

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Dump mechanism... hydraulic? So the solar panel charges the batteries and the battery runs the hydraulic pump? Or do they run off the air from the loco?

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#13
It looks more like hydraulic lines that air lines.
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#14
And there appears to be only the train air running between cars. I'll stick with my original assessment. Wink Goldth

Wayne

EDIT: However, if you want the "official" explanation, here's a LINK - you'll have to scroll down to almost the bottom of the page, under "Here comes the sun.".
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#15
DocWayne, the only giraffe I ever saw in Texas was in the Houston zoo. Not sure how often they take them on train rides. Goldth
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