conrail7695 wrote:WHAT WERE THEY DOING AS FOR WORK ALONG THE COACH TRACK? RAILGANG?
I believe so. Orange track vehicles kicking up dust. I did not stop long enough to figure out what they had achieved.
The panels for Track 2 were uninstalled. They were working west of CP 421.
Just walked into my door and I did not miss a thing.. After reading you last post that the tracks were missing I had to run to 421 and see what was going on.. as I suspected the rail gang was changing the last of the two rails.
I also noticed that the two big switches are being raised up and welding together.. I hope to see the install of through two to go in and tie up all traffic!.. I will be down there tommrow and see if there welding the last switch.. I will load photo's of today action as well as a Heritage unit that passed today..
justalurker66 wrote:FYI: If you were not / are not at the Elkhart Amtrak station today you missed something.
conrail7695 wrote:I hope to see the install of through two to go in and tie up all traffic!.. I will be down there tommrow and see if there welding the last switch.. I will load photo's of today action as well as a Heritage unit that passed today..
I was hoping you were there and saw that heritage unit. I caught a glimpse of it on the south side of Elkhart when it was stopped just south of Hively.
It was nice to see the Main St crossing open again. I look forward of seeing your pictures.
I was standing on the Amtrak platform watching the rail gang work when the "8025" heritage unit come by east bound.. BIG SUPRISE TO ME!!! I have this link to my shots of the rail gang working on the coach today.. ENJOY!!! http://railroadfan.com/gallery/thumbnails-1801.html
justalurker66 wrote:
conrail7695 wrote:I hope to see the install of through two to go in and tie up all traffic!.. I will be down there tommrow and see if there welding the last switch.. I will load photo's of today action as well as a Heritage unit that passed today..
I was hoping you were there and saw that heritage unit. I caught a glimpse of it on the south side of Elkhart when it was stopped just south of Hively.
It was nice to see the Main St crossing open again. I look forward of seeing your pictures.
Today was an outstanding day to be in Elkhart CP-421! I saw a Sperry hi-rail truck testing, A M.O.W. Welding crew making thermite welds on the two new panel switches going in next week and A out bound tie train dropping new ties on the north and south in bound tracks to the yard. Yes a good day in deed. The welding crew said the two new switches are going into service next week on the 4-6 of Aug. 2014. They will be put in one at a time wile track two will be out of service until work is complete. I have added todays photos in to this link.. ENJOY!!! http://railroadfan.com/gallery/thumbnails-1801.html
I knew the SD40-2s that run around the yard were remote controlled. When I saw the EP-R4C and its host a GP40-2, I was confused. I thought ELkhart only used remote controlled yard locos. So the unit can be used as remote controlled and ran by a crew.
j_c1987 wrote:I knew the SD40-2s that run around the yard were remote controlled. When I saw the EP-R4C and its host a GP40-2, I was confused. I thought ELkhart only used remote controlled yard locos. So the unit can be used as remote controlled and ran by a crew.
Today 5 Aug. 2015 there was a tie gang working the early bird track from MP-424 to MP-426 west of the yard. CP-421, There was a 5 man crew building on the last switch in the Amtrak parking lot adding two ties for switch points, Switch motor and final detail to be lifted in into it new home. I hope to see the switch work done this week "CP-421" or the tie gang to the east of the yard for photo shots..
No major changes noted ... the two new switches are sitting ready at CP 421. I thought something was happening this morning because NS had trains stacked up on two out of three tracks to the east of CP 421, but it looks like it was just a snafu.
Yes I seen that my self. We should see some action soon of the two switches going in very soon. There is a tie gang in the yard working and set to come along the inbound runners to the yard.. new ties are along the fence to the museum.
justalurker66 wrote:No major changes noted ... the two new switches are sitting ready at CP 421. I thought something was happening this morning because NS had trains stacked up on two out of three tracks to the east of CP 421, but it looks like it was just a snafu.
Slow week but still a couple of changes to report ...
The two crossings at Main St and Prairie St were torn up (and remain that way tonight) for work on Track 3 / Dunlap Siding.
Ties have been placed along the siding all the way down to CP 3 on the Marion Line.
The car detectors east of 414 have been modified. The one on the outside of track 2 has been mounted lower on the ground (similar to the detectors between track 1 and track 2). Brackets are in place for new detectors on track 3.
***EDITED TO CORRECT THE CAR DETECTOR LOCATION AND TIE PLACEMENT***
Note: Saturday a large crane on a truck was out dropping supplies near the 417 signals. There were other trucks there as well with portable lights ... it looks like they were setting up for some overnight work.
Also, two turnouts are next to the track - one at either end of CP 412. The Indiana Avenue crossing is marked up for construction.
The tie gang come there on Wednesday and changed ties on the south freight track. That's why the road is out again and the rail there in the crossing will be changed soon too about 200ft. I am waiting to see the two switches at CP-421 get swapped out with the new one going in.
They managed to get Prairie St repaved and open early Saturday (good for Saturday and Sunday services at St Vincents, which is just south of the tracks).
I also noticed that there is a new switch off to the north side of the tracks just west of Prairie St. It looks like it will be a replacement for the Track 1 switch that leads to track two in the CP 421 interlocking ... which is confusing as the rumor last year was that CP 421 was "going away" yet NS is replacing switches throughout the plant. Which leads me to believe that either NS is wasting money and will pull these switches out later or that there will be no major change at CP 421. (The alternate rumor that I found was that the crossovers between tracks 1 and 2 were going to be moved to the east to tangent track to get them out of the curve.)
The work at CP 417 was still in progress this afternoon. A truck pulling 5 panel track flatcars went by the depot about 3:30 pm. Trains were held out at CP412 and 3 were at the depot while this was going on. Scotty the engineer from Kalamazoo for the NS scared the crap out of me as he needed a potty brake at the depot and I had my back to him. I gave him a story about my boss was on the train and he said that's funny I just left that train. We had a good laugh and caught up on news and people we both knew. Good train count today by the depot despite the work going on. Saw a 7 car stack train which is the shortest one I have seen. They had one engine and must have been some high priority stuff.. Conrail 7965 joined me for some time in the afternoon and we had a good time.
I did a quick survey this afternoon ... there are four turnouts (2 LH, 2 RH) at the signals at 417 (near Concord Mall). Five more turnouts have been dropped at the maintenance siding at 416 (near Ox Bow Park and Meijer). That makes six turnouts standing by at 416 ... enough for a full three track crossover and four turnouts at 417 ... enough for a two track crossover.
No new signal work noted.
There were a lot of parked trains this afternoon. As of 5PM there was two eastbounds at CP 421 (one on the coach track, one on Track 1) and several westbounds stacked up on Track 1 and Track 3 between CP 421 and CP 415. One of the trains stopped short of Sunnyside Rd (4171 W) on Track 1 blocking CR 13 for more than an hour (so far). The end of the train cleared Midway Rd which left the crossing either side of CR 13 open. I saw one WB make it through on Track 2.
I have this link to my shots of the rail gang working on the coach today.. ENJOY!!! 
http://railroadfan.com/gallery/thumbnails-1801.html
