Wreckage Found Off Coast of Borneo May Be That of Missing Air Asia Flight 8501

Searchers combing the waters between Borneo and Sumatra may have found the wreckage of an Air Asia flight that disappeared off of radar screens abruptly early Sunday morning. Prior to losing contact with Air Traffic Control in Indonesia, Air Asia flight QZ8501 took off from Surabaya on the island of Java enroute to Singapore.

While over the Karimata Strait, the crew requested clearance to change altitude from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid storm clouds. Permission was denied by Indonesian controllers due to already heavy traffic in the area. Less than 45 minutes into its flight, the Airbus A320 disappeared from screens with 162 people on board and no distress signal sent.

Searchers began scouring the area of QZ88501's last known whereabouts with aircraft and sonar within hours of the flight's disappearance. After nearly 48 hours, searchers believed they had spotted debris from the air and bodies were being recovered from the sea by helicopter and warship. Horrified relatives waiting on news regarding their loved ones were reportedly shown images from Indonesian media of a helicopter crew retrieving a dead body floating from the sea.

By early Wednesday, Indonesian officials said that they had obtained what appeared to be sonar images of an airplane upside down on the sea floor. Meanwhile, Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes sent out a tweet that confirmed the debris spotted by Indonesian searchers was in fact the remnants of QZ8501.

My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences ... http://t.co/OJGobL93cR

— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 30, 2014

The A320 used by the Kuala Lumpur-based airline was reportedly purchased new from Airbus in 2008, According to the passenger manifest, all but 7 of QZ8501's passengers and crew were from Indonesia. Other nationalities on board included South Korea, Malaysia, the UK, Singapore and France.

Air Asia was started in 1993 and is widely considered to be southeast Asia's first viable budget airline.

Ten Days Later, Still No Answers on Whereabouts of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

More than ten days after a Malaysian Airlines 777-200 vanished from radar, investigators are no closer to finding the missing airliner than they were the weekend Kuala Lumpur to Beijing Flight MH370 disappeared. Apparently the first three days were spent looking for signs of the downed airliner in the wrong ocean, as both the Malaysian and Thai military radar tracked an unidentified aircraft on a westward trajectory across the Malay peninsula shortly after air traffic controllers in Malaysia and Vietnam had lost track of MH370.

Since the March 8th disappearance, every new development has seemingly been a false lead or raised more questions than answers. Theoretically the aircraft could be on the bottom of the Indian Ocean or at a remote landing strip anywhere between Kazakhstan and the Australian Outback, but there have been no signs of the missing flight since March 8th. My pet theory about the plane being hijacked or intentionally crashed by Islamists working on behalf of Uighurs in western China seems to be not farfetched enough.


However, searchers were erroneously directed to a debris field in the South China Sea after media reports began circulating that a Chinese satellite had snapped images of what appeared to be wreckage and debris on the water- presumably from MH370. Investigators are now convinced that the missing flight banked left and continued westward in an erratic pattern long after the transponder was disabled, heading in the direction of India's remote Nicobar Islands when it was last tracked by radar. According to avionics data that was sent to the engine's manufacturer via satellite, the missing airliner was aloft for at least another four hours. However, the signals sent via satellite could not be used to pinpoint the aircraft's exact location.

Over the weekend, Malaysian officials ruled that Flight MH370's disappearance was due to a deliberate act and was treating the disappearance as a hijacking. Aviation officials believe that the aircraft flew as high as 45,000 feet- beyond the manufacturer's recommended cruising altitude- and at times as low as 4900 feet once it pivoted west.

Villagers along Malaysia's eastern coast reported to local police that they had heard what sounded like a low-flying jet the same night MH370 went missing. Authorities in the Maldives are also investigating a report that fishermen on the southern island of Kuda Huvadhoo saw a white 'jumbo jet' with red stripes flying overhead at a low altitude shortly after dawn- colors consistent with the Malaysia Airlines paint scheme.

Currently, 26 nations- including the USA- are involved in the search for the missing airliner. More than 150 of the 239 passengers and crew on board the vanished airliner were from China and that country has undertaken a search of their western territories in the event that MH370 resumed a northbound trajectory after vanishing.

Investigators are also looking at both the pilot and co-pilot. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had more than 30 years flight experience and had built a home-made flight simulator at his suburban Kuala Lumpur residence. On Monday, police raided Shah's residence and were combing through the flight simulator for any possible clues. Shortly after the plane's disappearance, an Australian TV report claimed that MH370's co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had allowed an Australian woman and her friend into the cockpit during a December 2011 flight from Phuket, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, representing a major security breach.

Conservative Opposition Surges to Landslide Victory in Australian Federal Elections

A coalition of right-of-center parties handed the Labour party their worst defeat since the 1930s in last week's Federal elections in Australia. The defeat came only a few weeks after former PM Kevin Rudd ousted Julia Gillard as head of the Labour party and replaced her as Prime Minister. Gillard had originally called for the elections to take place in mid-September, but the date was moved up by a few weeks once she was ousted.

Tony Abbott of Australian Liberal Party [which would be more along the lines of 'classic liberalism' by US standards- NANESB!] will be sworn in as Australia's newest Prime Minister this week after coalition of Australia's Liberal and National parties had formed a coalition. Abbott campaigned on a number of hot-button issues including repealing the unpopular carbon tax and turning back 'boat people'- asylum seekers and illegal immigrants reaching Australia by boat in the hopes of being granted asylum upon arrival in Australia- at sea and processing them offshore.

Abbott stated this week that his first order of business will be to scrap the carbon tax, although remaining members of Australia's Labour party in parliament have vowed to fight such a move by the new government. The carbon tax was implemented by then PM Julia Gillard last year and faced considerable opposition from Australian mining firms, steelmakers and airlines as well as the public.

A campaign proposal by Abbott to pay Indonesian nationals bounties for information leading to human traffickers was also sharply rebuked by Indonesia's foreign minister this week. The two governments are expected to discuss the boat people issue in-depth during a summit next month.

Iron Horse Roundup For December 2011/Jan 2012

Aftermath of 3-way CSX collision and derailment in Valparaiso, IN on Jan 6th Photo- Jimmy Herrick/Valparaiso Post-Tribune

Two CSX crewmen were treated for injuries and approximately 200 people were evacuated after a collision and derailment involving three trains in northwestern Indiana earlier this month.

The trains crashed about 11 miles northeast of Valparaiso, on the CSX line, according to David James, assistant highway supervisor with the Porter County Highway Department.

James said one train rear-ended another one, causing it to jack-knife, and a third passing train the "got caught in that jack-knife." All the trains derailed

James said there had been a fire concern since one of the trains was carrying ethanol, an alcohol, but the tanks turned out to be empty. Diesel fuel from the engine was burning, but as of 4:50 p.m. local time, "things are starting to quiet down somewhat," James said.

About 100 to 200 residents evacuated from the area north and east of the crash, James said.

The two hospitalized crewmen were released within days of the collision. Immediately after the wreck, the NTSB was conducting interviews, combing through the wreckage and checking the line's signalling- but the agency warned that it could take months before reaching a finding on the cause of the collision.

Workers seen installing a frame with grapefruit-sized concrete balls dangling from a chain in West Java, Indonesia. The balls are high enough for the train to pass through untouched but would knock down anybody riding on the rooftops. This is the latest measure to prevent 'train surfing' in Indonesia. Achmad Ibrahim / AP Photo

Authorities in Indonesia are cracking down on 'train surfers' and people riding the rooftops of trains by installing frames that hang over the tracks with weighted, grapefruit-sized concrete balls dangling down low enough to knock stowaways off the roofs of train cars.

Authorities hope the balls — which could deliver serious blows to the head — will be enough to deter defiant roof riders.

"We've tried just about everything, even putting rolls of barbed wire on the roof, but nothing seems to work," said Mateta Rizahulhaq, a spokesman for the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api. "Maybe this will do it."

Trains that crisscross Indonesia on poorly maintained tracks left behind by Dutch colonizers six decades ago usually are packed with passengers, especially during the rush hour.

Hundreds seeking to escape the overcrowded carriages clamber to the top. Some ride high to avoid paying for a ticket. Others do so because — despite the dangers, with dozens killed or injured every year — "rail surfing" is fun.

The first dozen or so balls were installed Tuesday hundreds of yards (meters) from the entrance of a train station just outside the capital, Jakarta. Painted silver, the balls hung by chains from what looked like the frame of a giant soccer goal.

But there was a glitch: the chains were too short, leaving a gap of about 16 inches (40 cm) between the balls and the roofs of the passing train carriages. Rizahulhaq said adjustments would be made.

If successful, the project will be expanded, with balls also set up near railway crossings.

Asked about worries that the balls could hurt or even kill those who defy the roof-riding ban, he insisted that wasn't really his problem.

"They don't have to sit on top," he said. "And we've already told them, if the train is full, go to the office. We will be happy to reimburse their tickets."

The commuters, known as "Atappers" or "Roofers," meanwhile are hardcore in their determination to stay on top.

"I was really scared when I first heard about these balls," said Mulyanto, a 27-year-old shopkeeper, who rides between his hometown of Bogor and Jakarta almost every day for work. "It sounds like it could be really dangerous."

"But I don't think it'll last long," he said. "They've tried everything to keep us from riding ... in the end we always win."

"We like it up there, it's windy, really nice."

Many of the roof riders — and regular passengers — say the main problem lies with Indonesia's dilapidated railway system. There are not enough trains to meet demand, they say. And there are constant delays in service.

"People have jobs! They can't be late," said Parto, a trader at the Jakarta stock exchange, who can usually be found sitting inside. "If the train is late, they'll do whatever they have to."

Several years ago, paint guns were set up to spray those riding on the top of carriages so authorities could identify and round up the guilty travelers. But roof riders destroyed the equipment soon after. The exhortations of clerics didn't work. Neither did the dogs.

Overcrowding has been an issue with commuter and passenger trains on Java- Indonesia's most populous island. In 2010, Indonesian passenger carrier PT Kereta Api introduced "Women's Only" train carriages in an effort to thwart other passengers who took advantage of the overcrowding to grope and fondle female commuters [similar trains operate in Mumbai and Tokyo- NANESB!].

Secured to a flatcar, Alaska Railroad 2-8-0 #557 passes by the Cook Inlet en route to Anchorage from the lower 48 in December. Photo- David Blazejewski/Columbia Basin Herald

After a nearly 50 year absence, the Alaska Railroad's last steam engine has returned home to Anchorage, AK this month.

The Baldwin 2-8-0 was built for the US Army in 1944 and went into service for the Alaska Railroad after WWII. The locomotive was in regular service for the Alaska until 1957 and was sold for scrap to a dealer in Washington State in 1962. However, instead of getting cut up, a Moses Lake, WA scrap dealer named Monte Holm took a shine to the old steamer and put it on display and would occasionally operate it on a short stretch of track.

Holm passed away in 2006, and a personal friend purchased the #557 from his estate before donating it to the Alaska Railway. Interestingly, the tender for the #557 never left Alaska and served in Maintainence of Way service along with a former US Army Corps of Engineers steam crane until 1974, at which point the railroad donated the tender to the Alaska Museum of Transportation and Industry.

The AKRR plans to fully restore #557 to operating condition and use the steam locomotive for excursions out of Anchorage.

The railroad has eight years to put it in service but Aadnesen is aiming for as early as 2013.

“We have a business case to put it back in a restricted kind of passenger service as a tourist attraction during the summers,” he said.

The project will depend on volunteer and foundation donations — money from the railroad can’t pay for it. It will cost more than $500,000 to refurbish the locomotive and get it back into service, then it will need to pay for itself. All that remains is to finish the regulations of establishing a foundation to receive such funds.

“We have no doubt that it can be done,” Aadnesen said.

Engine No. 557’s needs concern cosmetic issues like cleaning and painting. It will be completely disassembled and put back together to satisfy survey and inspection requirements for federal agencies.

After that, 557 will require annual maintenance plus periodic Federal Railroad Administration recertification, which will also have to be covered in the business case.

Last month, the Alaska Museum of Transportation and Industry in Wasilla, AK donated the 1700 gallon tender for the oil burning #557 back to the Alaska Railroad.

Sister Baldwin 2-8-0 #556, also a former US Army unit, remains on static display at a public park in Anchorage.

A pair of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic B39-8s are seen hauling freight westbound between St Leonard, New Brunswick and Madawaska, ME near Keegan, ME in March 2009. Photo- Kevin Burkholder

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic announced a tenative deal to sell off 25 miles of track between Madawaska, ME and St Leonard, NB. The northernmost portion of the MM&A was left isolated from the rest of the system after the railroad sold the 230 miles of track between Madawaska south to Millinocket, ME that were slated for abandonment to the State of Maine last year.

If the Federal Rail Administration and Maine Department of Transportation approve, J.D. Irving subsidiary Eastern Maine Railway will purchase the Madawaska-Van Buren-St. Leonard railroad line for an undisclosed amount. The governmental agencies have liens on the property. The sale could be completed next month, said Robert C. Grindrod, MM&A’s president and CEO.

“We have an isolated piece of railroad there that doesn’t seem to be generating a lot of traffic,” Grindrod said Tuesday of his reasons for the sale, “and there seemed to be little or no prospect of regaining traffic from Twin Rivers.”

Twin Rivers Paper Co. executives claimed a year ago that the Madawaska mill’s future was threatened by MM&A’s failure to maintain its railroad tracks and by its missed delivery and pickup deadlines — often forcing the coated and uncoated papermaker to hire trucks on the fly to make shipments — because of miscommunication or an insufficient number of railroad runs.

MM&A officials countered that they were trying to meet demand but that the use of trucks and declines in production by Twin Rivers and its predecessor, Fraser Paper, made running more trains uneconomical and helped create the conditions that led to the company’s loss of $4 million to $5 million annually.

Shortly after the sale, the state of Maine subcontracted operations of the line to New Brunswick Southern- a Canadian company owned by J.D. Irving. New Brunsiwck Southern's subsidiary, Eastern Maine Railway, operated the section of the former Canadian Pacific line between the US/Canadian border at Vanceboro, ME to the current MM&A interchange at Brownville Jct, ME. New Brunswick Southern/Eastern Maine also interchanges with Pan-Am Rail at Mattawamkeag, ME.

Birmingham Southern GP38-2 #704 leads a southbound taconite train at Ensley, AL on Dec 30th 2011- Just days before WATCO assumes operation of the Alabama steel hauler. Photo- David Stewart

Within a few weeks of its announcement that it would be a majority shareholder for the regional Wisconsin Southern, Pittsburgh, KS based WATCO announced they would be purchasing Transtar's Birmingham Southern Railroad in Alabama.

Birmingham Terminal Railway has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Birmingham Southern Railway, which operates more than 75 miles of track in the region.

The railroad has access to the area's steel-making and manufacturing operations and connects to several major railroads, including Norfolk Southern [NYSE- NSC], CSX [NYSE- CSX] and Berkshire-Hathaway's [NYSE: BRK-A] BNSF.

Transtar is a holding company for some of the former United States Steel railways such as Pittsburgh's Union Railroad or Detroit's Delray Connecting. Transtar will still handle in-plant switching at US Steel's [NYSE: X] Fairfield, AL works and retains ownership of the Warrior & Gulf Navigation company

A pair of Iowa Northern gensets bracket a GP38 while hauling the IANR's first train on the former Union Pacific Garner sub in Garner, IA in November 2011. Photo- Craig Williams

Beginning in November, the Iowa Northern has taken over operations of the former Union Pacific [NYSE: UNP] Garner subdivision between Forest City and Belmond, IA.

FOREST CITY — The 28 miles of former Union Pacific railroad track from Forest City to Belmond has seen more traffic in the last three weeks than in the past five years, according to new operator Iowa Northern Railway Co. President Dan Sabin.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Gov. Terry Branstad and other local and county officials was held Monday afternoon in Forest City.

Union Pacific intended to abandon the line because it was reluctant to operate trains with fewer than 100 cars, making access to businesses along the 28 miles of track difficult.

The North Central Iowa Rail Corridor LLC purchased the track for $1.5 million and signed a 10-year lease-to-own agreement with Iowa Northern Railway to operate the line.

“Most of us know in this day and age when you lose a railroad you never get it back,” said Dave Kingland, manager of the North Central Iowa Rail Corridor and president of Forest City Economic Development Group.

The 30-mile line is isolated from the rest of the IANR, but Canadian Pacific has granted the regional trackage rights between Nora Springs, west through Mason City and on into Garner.

The first IANR train on the line ran on November 4th with a pair of new gensets bracketing an Iowa Northern GP38-2, with 35 empty grain cars and a single auto-rack for the Winnebago [NYSE: WGO] plant in Forest City. Besides the grain elevators in the communities located along the ex UP line, Iowa Northern is hoping the RV manufacturer will be a regular shipper.

Monkey Business: Taiwanese Student Becomes Internet Sensation After Simian-Induced Wardrobe Malfunction

What she's really thinking: "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"

Wonder if this can be blamed in any way on the ever-mischievous Robomonkey.

A Taiwanese student and model has garnered nearly instant Internet celebrity status after her encounter with some grabby primates while on vacation in Bali.

Charmian Chen, who just happens to be a model, was visiting the Sacred Monkey Forest Ubud in Bali last month when two of the primates decided she was a little overdressed.

The 22-year-old student, from Taiwan, was on holiday on the tropical Indonesian island feeding long-tailed macaques when she was singled out.

The two macaques apparently spotted a piece of corn that had fallen down Ms Chen's top and decided they wanted it back.

Despite her valiant effors to fend it off, one monkey managed to pull down her top leaving the red-faced model to cover herself as best she could, with her hands.

But what should have been an amusing holiday wardrobe malfunction has ended up catapulting Ms Chen to internet superstardom.

Pictures of the incident have made headline news in her native Taiwan, with TV stations asking her to appear and talk about it.

Ms Chen said the macaques, as well as being hungry, were also attracted to bikinis worn by many visitors.

She added: 'I think when they took my top down it was because of the corn but the park staff warn visitors that bright bikinis worn under dresses do attract the monkeys.

'I think it's the bright colours which they think might be fruit, well I don't know about that but it was very strange at the time.'

Now, there seems to be this school of thought that this was somehow staged in an attempt to bolster Chen's modelling career.

Chen shown after disrobing without the aid of macaques

To which my reaction would be "So what?".

Assuming the 'cheeky monkey' encounter caught on camera was 100% staged for the sole purpose of furthering the modelling career of Chen, how exactly would that be any more contrived than the smorgasboard of insipid celebrity-themed reality shows that on any given channel at any given moment?

Hmm....I remember taking a trip to the San Diego Zoo once upon a time. They had this enclosure where you could feed lorikeets. They would fly right up and perch on your shoulder or arm and drink out of this little cup of nectar that somebody from the zoo would give you. Sad to say that even if the lorikeets were interested in disrobing some of the more attractive women in the enclosure, they couldn't do much besides maybe partially pull off a pair of sunglasses.

So staged or not, apparently this all made for a good vacation yarn and she posted some of the pictures on Facebook page after returning to Taiwan. Shortly thereafter, that led to requests for interviews from local newspapers and magazines.

Emulation is the sincerest form of flattery.

And from there, Western tabloids like The UK's Daily Mail picked up on the monkey shines. Chen, for her part, insists that the encounter was not staged.

Staged or not, I figured visitors migh appreciate some other images from her portfolio that are uncluttered with primates.

Ring of Fire Update- Pacific Island Chain of Tonga Rocked by Magnitude 6.1 Quake; Explosion Reported at Japanese Nuclear Plant

The 'Ring of Fire'- the seismic and volcanically active reigon encirling the Pacific Ocean from New Zealand's South Island to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula to Chile's Tierra de Fuego- has been unusually active this month.

TONGA: Not even a day after the massive earthquake in Japan that triggered deadly tsunamis, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck the Pacific archipelego nation of Tonga early Saturday morning.

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit south east of Tonga at 1:19pm local time (2:19 NZT), the US Geological Survey has reported.

The quake was at a depth of 10.9 kilometres, 106 kilometres south east of Hihifo, Tonga, 2528km west of Auckland.

An aftershock of 5.7 magnitude followed two minutes later.

A meteorological officer on Niuatoputapu, one of the northern most islands of Tonga, said he had not felt the earthquake.

No shaking was felt further south by residents in the islands of Vava'u or on Tongatapu, the Matangi Tonga website reported.

The low-lying Tongan island island of Niuatoputapu was hit hard by a tsunami spawned by an undersea magnitude 8.1 earthquake in the Samoan islands back in 2009. That tsunami killed 10 people and destroyed 90% of the structures on the island, although no tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.


JAPAN: As I was updating the news out of Tonga, this story just broke out of Northeastern Japan.

An explosion was reported at the site of the Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Saturday.

An explosion at a nuclear power station tore down the walls of one building Saturday as smoke poured out and Japanese officials said they feared the reactor could melt down following the failure of its cooling system in a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

It was not clear if the damaged building housed the reactor. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant, said four workers were injured but details were not immediately available.

Earlier, Japanese government officials said that radiation levels at that facility were at 1000 times the normal level.

Japan has issued a state of emergency for four other nuclear facilities as well. Shortly after it was learned of the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power co warned that it had lost cooling ability for another reactor at their nearby Fukushima Daini site, prompting the evacuation of nearly 14,000 nearby residents.

3/12 UPDATE: Although the official death toll from Friday's quake tsunami has been tallied at 574, officials expect that number to rise. More 9,500 residents in the remote fishing village of Minamisanriku- to the north of Sendau- are unaccounted for in the aftermath of the disaster according to the Japanese Kyodo news agency. As of 2004, the town's population was an estimated 19,000.

3/12 INDONESIA: The Jakarta Post is reporting that Indonesia's Mount Karengateng on the island of Sulawsei has erupted, spewing lava and sending searing gas clouds down the mountainside. There have been no immediate reports of casualties or property damage there, although four people were killed when the volcano erupted last August. Closer to Indonesia's capital, the Mt. Merapi volcano on the densely populated island of Java unleashed a series of eruptions in October 2010, reportedly killing 122 people. Around the same time, the western coast of the earthquake prone island of Sumatra was rocked by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, triggering a tsunami. It was estimated that 430 people were killed in between the tsunami and actual quake, with a number of people still missing.

Iron Horse Roundup- October/November 2010 Edition

BBC Photo

INDONESIA: At least 36 people were killed in an October 2nd collision between two trains at the Petarukan station on the island of Java.

Officials believe that a signalling error one one of the trains was what led the Jakarta-Surabaya train to collide with the rear cars of the stopped Semarang-bound train.

That same day, another accident in nearby Solo resulted in at least one fatality.

UKRAINE: At least 43 people were killed when a train collided with a bus packed with commuters in the eastern part of the country on October 12.

Officials from Ukraine's interior ministry said eyewitnesses reported that the bus ignored warning lights and bells from the level crossing in the town of Marhanets in the Dnipropetrovsk region that indicated an approaching train.

All of the fatalities were on the bus.

Doyle Massey

UNION PACIFIC: Aside from it's regularly featured stint of hauling visitors between Denver, CO and Cheyenne, WY for Cheyene's annual Frontier Days, Union Pacific's 4-6-6-4 Challenger #3985 also got to stretch its legs hauling the Ringling Bros. Circus train from Cheyenne southbound to Denver at the end of September. The #3985 then continued on with the scheduled Missouri River Eagle excursion to Kansas City and St. Louis after briefly returning to Cheyenne.

Here, the 3985 is seen racing southbound through Platteville, CO with the circus train on its way to Denver on September 28, 2010.

Cody Zamostny

FT. WAYNE RAILROAD HISTORICAL SOCIETY: The gem of the FWRHS's collection, 1944 Lima-built Berkshire Nickel Plate 2-8-4 #765, has been pretty busy since Labor Day. In September, she was deadheaded over the Norfolk Southern and Wheeling & Lake Erie to Akron, OH where she operated a series of excursions over the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

In October, the 765 powered a series of excursions out of Owosso, MI for the Steam Railroading Institute while their own Berkshire- Pere Marquette #1225- is being disassembled for it's 15 year FRA boiler inspection.

Upon completion of her whirlwind tour through the Buckeye and Great Lakes State, the 765 returned to the FWRHS facilities in New Haven, IN where she'll go into storage for the winter.

NORTH CAROLINA: The Aberdeen, Carolina & Western has acquired a pair of former Canadian National, nee Wisconsin Central SD40-3 locomotives for service on it's line between Gulf and Charlotte, NC.

CONNECTICUT: Six cars of an 80 car unit ethanol train derailed in the late night hours of November 9th at the Providence & Worcester yard in Willamantic, CT. The derailment took place within yard limits, which meant that the train was travelling at a slow speed. None of the derailed cars ruptured, and the contents of the tank cars were transloaded from the two that had actually hit the ground. The train had arrived from Rail America-affiliated New England Central and Brattleboro, VT.

There were no injuries and the FRA continues to investigate the cause of the derailment.

NORTH DAKOTA: Officials from the Dakota, Missouri Valley & Western are disputing the FRA's findings regarding a March 2010 derailment in Washburn, ND that killed DMV&W conductor Jeff Heitzmann and injured the train's engineer. The FRA's report stated that an obstructed drainage ditch contributed to that saturation and undermining of the roadbed which in turn sent the lead two locomotives down an embankment.

The DMV&W, however, said that the stretch of track where the derailment took place had been inspected regularly in the weeks prior to the derailment and hasn't been a problem in their nearly 20 years of operating the line between Bismarck and Max, ND. Railroad officials insist that it was an underground spring located some 6 or 7 feel below the roadbed that undermined the track, causing the derailment.

Indonesian Islands Hammered by Quakes, Volcanoes, Tsunamis

Authorities in Indonesia are attempting to cope with no less than two disasters that have struck seperate parts of the country. Television reports from Java indicate that at least 28 people were killed when the 9700 ft Mt. Merapi volcano erupted, unleashing a plume of toxic gases and superheated ash throughout the reigon.

At least 11,000 people scattered thoughout small villages live at the foot of the volcano. Authorities have tried setting up a 4-mile exclusion zone around Merapi, but locals can easily circumvent it with a network of footpaths that lead back to their properties ignoring official warnings to check on their houses and livestock.

Vulcanologists have indicated that pressure is building up under a lava dome inside of Merapi, a likely precursor to a larger and more devestating eruption. The volcano is located in the Yogyakarta province of Indonesia's most populous island.

Meanwhile, about 800 miles to the west, at least 154 people are dead and another 500 missing off of Sumatra's west coast after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake triggered a tsunami on Monday. The quake took place along the same fault line that started the devestating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Rough seas, bad weather and the remote location of some of the stricken areas have hindered relief efforts, leaving survivors to make do with what they could salvage for two days. Fishermen were scouring the waters for survivors while corpses littered beaches and roads in some parts of Sumatra. Cargo planes carrying tents, food, fresh water and medicine were expected to arrive in the area later on today.

President Obama Blows Off State Visit to Australia and Indonesia So He Can Urge Congress To Ram Through Crappy Legislation He Supports

It doesn't matter how much arm-twisting or bribing it takes, how blatant the payoffs are or how unpopular 0bamacare is with the public now; like a spoiled petulant child President Obama has to have things done HIS way or else he won't campaign for the Dems who didn't support 0bamacare or hold his breath or throw a tantrum or something.

And this week, Obama has decided to cancel his State visit to Australia and Indonesia to oversee the Administrations payoffs and browbeating of wavering Senators and Representatives. I really do wish this friggin' clown could address the nearly double-digit unemployment rate or Muslim killers gunning down unarmed GIs on American soil with the same resolute determination he has in trying to implement his pet legislative agenda. But then again, it's taken him nearly a year to get his healthcare proposal this far with a seemingly ironclad Democrat supermajority in both the House and Senate.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd, apparently under the somewhat outdated impression that 0bama is a charismatic and effective leader, seems to have taken the announcement in stride and is hoping the First Family will reschedule their visit for sometime in June instead. Frankly, I think putting off the trip buys into the self-serving and erroneous hype that the current state of our insurance and healthcare system is ZOMG teH biggest crisis EVAR!!!!!11

As somebody famously once said; 'It's the jobs, stupid'.

In the meantime, I wish it would enter our President's head that snubbing two fairly pivotal nations in the Pacific Rim in favor of rushing an unpopular domestic agenda through before it becomes even more unpopular might not make for the best foreign policy. Now granted the only time I feel safe with this current batch of politicians is when Congress is in recess and Obama's out of the country. Still, the Aussies and Indonesians must be thrilled to learn how far down they are on the depth chart of this Administration's priorities.