Today's Train of Thought: A Moment of Refletcion- October 21, 2009

Today's train of thought was captured in the Nutmeg State by railpictures.net contributor Michael Biehn. Here, we're treated to Providence & Worcester local freight NR-2 trundling along the banks of the Thames river at Ledyard CT, powered by B39-8 #3902 and a cabless B30-7A 'B' unit as its reflection shows up on the tranquil surface of the Thames in August 2009.

Look! Up in the Sky!

It's neither a burning bird or plane or man of steel. It's merely space dust and space pebbles getting torched as they plummet through our atmosphere.

Optimum viewing time is around 6 AM eastern, 3 AM Pacific.

Today's Train of Thought- Fall Colors and Fallen Flags in the Upper Peninsula

Today's train of thought is an excellent catch by railpictures.net contributor Dean Sauvola, proving that New England isn't the only place to catch some good autumn foliage.

Here, we see Wisconsin Central GP40# 3024 cross Moore Road in Bessemer, MI at a leisurely 10MPH with the White Pine local on October 11th, 2009. The Wisconsin Central ceased to exist in 2001, taken over by Canadian National. Since then, WC's fleet of older motive power has been systematically sold off or retired and replaced with newer power from Canadian National (or one of the many railways CNR has acquired this past decade like the Illinois Central; Duluth Missabe & Iron Range or British Columbia Rail). But as this shot illustrates, CN hasn't repainted all of the WC power that it retained.

It was also announced that the copper smelter at White Pine, MI which this line services anticipated shutting down in 2010. So like the leaves on the trees themselves, the 3024 and the line through the northern Michigan woods is on borrowed time.

Iron Horse Roundup: Week of October 12-19

(Railpictures.net/Craig Williams)

Hawkeye State shortline Iowa Northern is back in one piece as of the end of September. The railway was effectively bisected after the floods of 2008 washed out the Union Pacific bridge over the Cedar River in downtown Waterloo, IA. Although Union Pacific owned the affected bridge, the 163-mile Iowa Northern was the only railway using it when the 2008 floods struck. The loss of the bridge cut the Iowa Northern in half, requiring lengthy and time-consuming detours over other rail lines. Here, Craig Williams catches the first revenue train over the bridge on October 6th, 2009, led by IANR GP40-2LW #4001.

(Railpictures.net/Kyle Norek)

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is anticiapting that the filming of Tony Scott's Unstoppable in Western Pennsylvania will bring in an estimated $91 million in revenue to the reigon. The Pennsylvania Deparmtent of Community and Economic Development offers a 25-cent credit to film and TV production companies for every qualifying dollar spent within the state. To qualify, at least 60% of a movie, TV show, game show, commercial or pilot episode must be filmed in Pennsylvania. Although most of Unstoppable is slated to be filmed in the Keystone State, Brewster, OH and Olean, NY are listed among the other filming locations for the movie. Here, 'Alleghany & West Virginia' C44-9W #777 (Canadian Pacific #9777 in real life) is seen on Western New York & Pennsylvania trackage at Portville, NY.

Say Hello to Idaho's newest railroad- WATCO's 26-mile Boise Valley Railroad. Pittsburgh, KS-based WATCO entered into an agreement to lease the 11-mile Wilder branch and 25-mile Boise cutoff from Iowa Pacific's Idaho Northern & Pacific in September. Trackage rights over Union Pacific from Nampa to Caldwell, ID are also included in the deal. This is shortline operator WATCO's fourth railway in Idaho.

Speaking of WATCO, might as well say hello to Alabama's newest railroad while we're at it. WATCO started up operations of the Alabama Warrior railroad in mid-August. The Alabama Warrior operates 15 miles of track in the Birmingham, AL area and interchanges with the Norfolk Southern, BNSF and CSX. The railroad was previously operated as the Jefferson Warrior Railroad.

Union Pacific [NYSE: UNP] announced that they are testing Progress Rail's PR30C Gensets in intermediate line-haul service in Calfornia, Texas and the midwest. If successful, the UP will likely assign the cleaner locomotives to service in California due to the state's increasingly stringent emissions standards.

Rail America [NYSE: RA] made it's IPO debut on the New York Stock Exchange, starting at $13.75 a share on it's first day of trading (RA closed at $14.32 a share on Tuesday afternoon). Fortress Investment Group [NYSE: FIG], which acquired Rail America and the Florida East Coast seperately in 2007, is expected to be a 55% shareholder in RA.

Extrmemly Rare Cobalt Blue Lobster Caught Off New Hampshire Coast

(Foster's Daily Democrat)

New England Aquarium Research Director Mike Tlusty said that the blue shell is a result of the lobster being able to process a red-hued antioxidant known as astaxanthin more efficiently, which in turn bonds with proteins in the lobster's exoskeleton- giving it the bluish pigment.

Tlusty said the odds of this happening were 1 in 5 Million, and that it was still very tasty when served with warm butter.

Today's Train of Thought- What's Blue and White and Running All Over the Place? Oct 19

Today's train of thought comes to us from the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River Basin courtesey of railpictures.net contributor Richard Sugg.

The lead unit shown here- Oakway Leasing SD60#9077- is painted in a scheme reminiscent of EMD Demonstrator locomotives in the 1980s. As the Oakway Photo site explains:

In an industry first, Burlington Northern began purchasing "power by the hour" from a group of 100 SD60s owned by EMD and leased to Oakway, Inc., a subsidiary of Cornnell Rice & Sugar, a New Jersey coporation. Instead of leasing locomotives from a bank or equipment leasing company, BN purchases only the electrical energy exerted by the locomotive.

The Oakway SD60s were built in late 1986 and immediately put into service on the Burlington Northern Railroad. They initially displaced older General Electric locomotives in Powder Basin Coal service but soon found their way onto intermodal and general merchandise freights. However, with the arrival of newer SD70MACs or GE ES44AC GEVOs as well as the general downturn in traffic due to the state of the economy, the Oakways themselves have mostly been sidelined.

But getting back to Oakway 9077, Richard Sugg has caught it here running along the Columbia River Basin at Lyle, WA on a sunny June 2007 day with a general merchandise freight. The trailing SD40-2s are painted for BNSF and Burlington Northern.

Sports Chowdah Recap for Oct 19th- 11th Heaven, Halos Get Past Yanks in Extras; Broncos Special Teams a Royal Pain for Chargers; Phillies J-Rolling

AP
Eddie Royal had a 71-yard punt return and a 93 yard kickoff return in Monday Night's game against San Diego. Darren Sproles had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown for the Chargers. Same story as last week with the Broncos, right down the the old AFL uniforms and striped socks- Denver trailed at the half then held the opposition to 3 points or less while their offense finally got going (the first offensive TD for Denver came late in the 3rd quarter). The Broncos remain undefeated at 6-0 while the Chargers are 2-3.

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

Today's games in both the ALCS and NLCS came down to the final at-bat. After getting out to a quick 2-0 lead, the Phillies found themselves trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th with two out. Jonathan Broxton walked pinch hitter Matt Stairs before getting pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs to line out to 3rd and then hitting Carlos Ruiz with a pitch. Jimmy Rollins then proceeded to hit a deep liner that rolled all the way to the wall in center-field, driving home Stairs and Ruiz and putting Philly up 3-1 in the NLCS [and himself under a pile of enthusiastic teammates].

(Harry How/Getty Images)

Earlier in the afternoon and across the country, Angels backup catcher Jeff Mathis, who had been batting .211 all year came through in a big way at the best possible time for the Angels. After squandering a bases-loaded nobody-out opportunity in the bottom of the 10th, Ervin Santana pitched a hitless top half of the 11th inning for the halos. Alfredo Acevedes came on for the Yankees to replace Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 11th and got the first two outs before giving up a single to Howie Kendrick- who had already homered in the 5th inning- and the game-winning double to Mathis.

In my fairly humble opinion, this was important for the Angels not just to avoid being down 3-0 in the series, but because they managed to make the Yankees burn through much of their bullpen as well as starters being pulled for pinch-hitters or late-inning defensive replacements [Of course having said that, Kendrick and Mathis are bench players themselves- NANESB!]

The next game will be Tuesday night with CC Sabathia starting against Scott Kazmir. The Angels are down 2-1 in the series.

Police Blotter: Police are questioning a man in Bloomfield, CT in connection with the stabbing death of UConn cornerback Jasper Howard this weekend. Early reports from Sunday indicated that the fatal altercation between students and non-students took place outside a university-sanctioned dance at the UConn student union building after a fire-alarm was pulled.

A Low Down Dirty Shame

Citynews.sg/Daniel Poh

What if they had a beauty pageant and none of the contestants wanted to participate?

Since bi-polar kleptomaniac Ris Low was stripped of her crown, the Miss World Singapore organizers have had a hard time finding a replacement. It's not that there aren't any runners-up, it's just that some of them don't want to go to the Miss World Finals in South Africa in Novmber. Runner up Claire Lee was quoted as saying "I don't intend to represent Singapore unless ERM [the pageant's parent comany] threatens to sue me.". The second runner-up is 19-year old Pilar Arlando.

Also, Ms. Low's claims of bi-polar disorder could be an attempt at further reducing her sentence for identity theft and misappropriation charges by pleading insanity.

Today's Train of Thought- Lone Star State of Mind, October 17th

Today's Train of Thought highlights 275-mile Lone Star State shortline Fort Worth & Western. Besides revenue freight on the line running southeast from Ft. Worth, they also have excursions pulled by one of the oldest continuously operated steam locomotives in the country.

Railpictures.net contributor David Hawkins catches FWWR GP38 #2006 leading a quartet of other 2nd generation EMD hood units as it snakes its way through Trinity Park in Fort Worth on their way to Tolar, TX in April 2009.

Sports Chowdah Recap for Oct 17-18: Tragedy in Storrs; Extra Extra! Yanks Take 2-0 ALCS Lead After 13; Snow Contest @ Gillette; Winning Convincing-Lee

(File Photo/AP)
JASPER HOWARD: 1989-2009

University of Connecticut cornerback Jasper Howard was stabbed in an altercation near the UConn Student union at 12:30AM Sunday morning. Howard was airlifted from Windham Community Memorial Hospital to St. Francis where was pronounced dead.

The Hartford Courant has more on this.

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
The Philadelphia Phillies took a 2-1 lead in the NLCS at Citizen's Bank ballpark Sunday Night on the strength of Cliff Lee's eight shutout innings, winning by a final of 11-0. Lee gave up only three hits in his outing while Dodgers starter Hideki Kuroda lasted only 1 and 1/3rd innings, giving up 6 runs. Ryan Howard was 1 for for with 3 RBI and a run scored while Jason Werth has a 2 run homer and Shane Victorino a 3-run homer. Game 4 will be Monday night with Joe Blanton on the bump for the Phils and Randy Wolf starting for the Dodgers.

It took 13 innings to decide a winner at Yankee stadium on Saturday night (early Sunday, east coast time) but a leadoff solo home run by Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the 11th off of Brian Fuentes when the Yankees were down by a run extended another cold and occasionally rainy game in the Bronx. More costly errors for the Angels, as Maicer Izturus' throwing error with runners on in the bottom of the 13th, allowing Jerry Hairston Jr. to score the go ahead run.

(Elsa/Getty Images)

To say it wasn't even close in Foxboro on Sunday would be something of an understatement. New England effortlessly rolled over the hapless Tennesee Titans/Houston Oilers 59-0 in the driving Global Warming.....I mean....Climate Change....damn! I mean snow at Gillette Stadium today. Apparently there hasn't been this one-sided a beatdown since the Bicentennial, when the then-L.A. Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons by the same score in 1976. Tom Brady was 29 for 34 with 380 yards and six touchdowns. Just out of curiosity, where was this offense for the 2nd half of last week's game in Denver? Or overtime? Curiously, after facing a bunch of then-undefeated teams (Atlanta, the Jets, Baltimore and Denver), New England winds up with two winless opponents (Tennessee and Tampa Bay) for consecutive weeks.

The New York Jets lost in overtime to the Buffalo Bills at the Meadowlands in E. Rutherford, NJ, 16-13. Joe Namath was 10 of 29 for 119 yards with five turnovers after taking a 13-3 lead today.....wait. Did I say Joe Namath? I did it again....I keep getting him and Mark Sanchez mixed up for some reason. Mark Sanchez was 10 for 29, with 119 yards and five interceptions today. [Five? Wait- that's as many interceptions from Mark Sanchez all day as touchdowns from Tom Brady had in the 2nd quarter- NANESB!]. This brings the Jets record to 3-3, with a 1-2 record within the AFC East.

Boston College running back Montel Harris rushed for 264 yards and 5 TDs as the Eagles beat the North Carolina State Wolfpack 52-20 in former Eagle's coach Tom O'Briens return to Chestnut Hill. Harris broke the school's records for touchdowns in a single game and yardage in a single game; the previous best was 253 in 1972 by Phil Bennet [Yes, I had to look that up- NANESB!]. The Eagles are now 5-2 and take on the 4-2 Fighting Irish next week at South Bend.

Phoenix's Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced for a 4-1 Coyotes win over the Boston Bruins at Glendale, AZ Saturday night. The Bruins also have traded RW Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for RWs Craig Weller and Alexander Fallstrom on Sunday. The next game for the B's will be at home against the Nashville Predators on October 21st.