Two more videos up -


Coming into East Strasburg:

http://www.youtube.com/user/RobDavisUnadorned#p/a/u/1/K78jQKJiCVs

A mix of video "grab" shots with my Flip video camera. I consider the Flip somewhat of a toy, and while the quality doesn't approach the 5DMKII I shot the other videos on, it isn't bad. I just set it up on my sticks while I was shooting stills.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RobDavisUnadorned#p/a/u/0/0zkrNE9Ude0

More video and stills to come...

Rob

locomotive 475 in groundhog cut at noon today, we had snow off and on today and the wind is just whipping across the fields and wreaking havoc on the line.....we are hoping for warmer temps and soon!

at about 5 pm the wind subsided....same shot different time!...tomorrow this storm will be one week old!

seeing these pics really makes me mad . i've always wanted to see 5the plow work and to see a freight run using there vintage cars, i live less then 10 minutes from strasburg and had no idea they were going to do any of this [frown]

February 18, 2010 I missed the plow run, but caught the 475 pulling the plow back into the yard.



Oh, when they were done, 475 handled to cars of vegetable oil for bio-diesel processing and a hopper of organic grain.

.

Hmmmmmm. Time to consider a rotary?

Les

If it weren't so flat it would look like a pleasant spring morning in Silver Plume. Is this unusual in PA?

dave

The trick to it is to get out early so the snow doesn't get a chance to get too deep.

Later!
Mr. Ed

.

“The trick to it is to get out early so the snow doesn't get a chance to get too deep.”

The wind was blowing so hard during the storm, that the cuts were pretty much level when it ended. We had a hard time just getting on the property and getting a spot open for the guys to park their vehicles. Our priority was to get the yard switches opened so we could get to the main. As soon as that was done, we went out with the plow on that Friday morning. Although we ran that weekend, (With some difficulty) we were shut down again on Monday because of heavy drifting. It took until that Wednesday afternoon to get the line was passable again. During that time we had several derailments of the plow and a 3 hour battle to get #475 out of a snow drift in a futile attempt to clear Long Curve on Tuesday afternoon.

Although the pictures look pretty darn cool now, I can assure you that it wasn’t any fun at the time.

Rick

I just thought of this. In all of these posts, I haven't seen one mention of the heritage of Russell plow #66. Can anyone tell us?

Les

Not PA, but the three airports in the DC/Baltimore area, are all more than 1.2 degrees below average this year and more than 400% above average in snow fall after three years of well below average snow fall. Generally, the mid Atlantic gets hammered by cold Nor-easter's once or twice a decade (1996, 2003, 2009/10 are the recent ones). The pattern that causes these storms (a blocking high pressure over Greenland, a feeding cold high over central Canada and a jet across the southern US to pull in the moisture) has been very stubborn this year to say the least.

Bob
(IT guy at the National Weather Service who likes to go to weather briefings)

I will be more than happy to back you up on this one. The crews shoveling out crossings and switches buried under 2ft of snow looked worn out by Friday afternoon---and well beyond that by the time we left on Monday. Being able to re-create the Abingdon Branch for one day on Saturday with the "382" (with thanks to Pete Lerro and his crew) made all the work to clear the line well worth the effort. Both the 475 and the 89 (during its brief appearance on Monday) put in magnificent performances on the plowing operations. For those present, it truly was a time machine into the past.

Many thanks to those who worked to provide all the fun for the rest of us....
Kevin

I think this is a much better picture of 475.