Union Pacific was doing maintenance of way work on the line through Fernley. I happened to be getting ready to go to the grocery store as they were storing their equipment off the main line.

( Specialty Equipment )

On Thursday evening, during the massive wind storm, we had the excessively delayed Amtrak train east of Fernley. We could hear the engineer through the scanner, but not the conductor on his hand-held radio, which was odd because normally we should have been able to hear both of them. Radio traffic during the storm was light, but we thought that was ( Read more... )

This afternoon, Lisa and I took advantage of a break in the weather, surprisingly good lighting (no direct sunlight due to the clouds), and no railroad traffic to go out and shoot material that will probably appear in future episodes of Railway Legends, Myths, and Stories. While doing so, I took this picture of Union Pacific milepost 276, which is ( Read more... )

It took us a fair bit longer to get packed out of the hotel room in Tonopah today, and indeed, we just barely made the 11 AM check-out time. Leaving Tonopah took even longer because the ROL card-lock gas pumps (off the main road) weren't working. That's a shame because they were 20 cents/gallon cheaper than the ones on Main Street ( Read more... )

This month's Railway Legends, Myths, and Stories is another episode that was one of those Lisa envisioned from the beginning. We're talking this month about how you make a train; that is, what it takes to keep the pieces of a train coupled together.

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Getting material for this episode was the main reason we went to the Nevada State Railroad Museum ( Read more... )

This month, Railway Legends, Myths, and Stories talks about the subject that was one of the reasons we started making these videos, that being a discussion of why most railway tracks are 1435 mm apart rather than some other distance.

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And no, it has nothing to do with the width of Roman chariots.

Things are starting to open up in Nevada, but that doesn't mean that Lisa and I feel all that safe. Still, we really wanted to get away from the house for something other than a shopping trip. I suggested we go to Fort Churchill State Park, about 25 mi / 40 km south of us on US-95A. The park preserves an old US army outpost and Pony Express stop. ( Read more... )

This evening, Lisa was puttering around the property and taking trash to the dumpster when she saw and heard sounds coming from the railroad tracks that should not be happening. She came in and told me, "I think there's a truck stuck on the railroad tracks ( Read more... )

Yesterday, Lisa got ambitious, got out a ladder and drill, and hung some things that we displayed at our parties at Westercon 72.

( Stations and Stock Certificates )

We booked two nights at the Super 8 in Cottonwood, Arizona so that we did not have to pack out of the room today. After I logged out of work, we drove the short distance up to Clarkdale for our scheduled ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad.

( To the Trains! )