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(02/22/00-08/01/00)


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Aug. 1 Today I had my second official student engineer run! I was enlisted to help bring in the CJ. We had WC 6656, MKCX 9032, HLCX 7204 for power and the train was 110 cars long (6900 feet). The biggest problem was the F45 was in the lead and had a ground fault problem soit was off line. With it being off line made it more difficult to run because I had no Amp. meter to go by for Loading or Dynamic braking purposes.
We cabbed from J'ville to Bardwell to pick up the train, as the CJ crew spotted it on the West leg of the Wye to clear for AMTRAK #342.

July 26 Today the new lease units from the WC arrived, they are F45 #6656 - SD 45's #6590 & 7592

June 29 Last night the JLPM derailed 7 cars in the Janesville Yard! But to make matters worse they did it at the East Yard Crossover switches, thus taking the West leg of the Wye, and the whole West Yard out of service for at least a day!
One of the Covered Hoppers was sitting at a pretty good angle, another few feet of movement or if it had been loaded, it would have went over on its side!

June 14 Tomorrow the Lake Country Limited will add a stop in Zenda WI. This will now make it 3 stops each direction for the train - Westbound = Grey's Lake IL. / Zenda WI. / Janesville WI. -- Eastbound just reverse the order and put Chicago IL. as the last stop.
We now have 3 SD40-2's on the Southern Division, they are HLCX 7173, HLCX 7204, & MKO 9023. The HLCX units are in BN Green.

May 28 Yesterday afternoon around 5pm, one of WSOR's trains hit and killed a man in Nine Springs Marsh near McFarland. This man and his wife were fishing from one of the bridges, his wife made it saftey but the man stopped to get his belongings before trying to get off the bridge. The train struck him and threw him off in to the water, witnesses said he appeared to have been killed imediatly.
The was a sensless death, these bridges are posted "No Tresspassing" and people have been repeatedly warned! It's always the same people you see day after day fishing from these spots! Maybe now they will think twice before fishing from here!

May 27 Well we have the track ready for the Road Railers to start up, and we also have 3 empty Road Railers sitting on this track. They will be broken down and should be loaded with product by Wed., so I would imagine the first shipment of loaded Railers will go out either Thurs. or Friday morning! (June 1st or 2nd)

Apr. 26 Bad night continues -- The Reedsburg job was switching in Baraboo when the rails spread apart putting 3 cars on the ground at the Perry Printing lead. Also the JC was putting their train together when the rails spread apart also, putting 3 wheels of a loaded Covered Hopper on the ground.
Man I love Spring!!!

Apr. 25 Last night our crew was bringing the UP Rock job in and had to set some cars out at Janesville Sand & Gravel. In the process the conductor unlocked, but didn't throw the derail thus putting 2 "Dimmers" on the ground. Since they were out of the way of the main, they proceeded to take the Rock train to the UP yard in Janesville.

Apr. 24 Last night I got to service some Hi-Tech power, they put a P42DC on the train. This was my first experience with the Genisis series, they are neat but while riding in one they give the sence of being top heavy when compared to riding in the P38's. Also they have the Dynamic brakes blended in with the Air brakes. When you apply the Automatic brakes it uses both, it does make the locomotive act different during braking then conventional systems.
By my estimations, and not knowing ridership numbers for the 2 day I had of since the start of service, I put the number total of riders at around 90 since April 15. They should start some Express service this week hopefully!! But we'll have to wait to see how it plays out!

Apr. 15 Amtrak started sevice today, they had 22 riders leaving Janesville on the morning run and they had 17 riders on the evening return run.

Apr. 14 My first night working on Amtrak equipment. The power for the first train is 505 a P38. It looks like a Dash 8, but don't say that around Amtrak personnel they're a little touchy with that terminology.

Apr. 11 Today I left for Chicago for training at Amtrak's 16th Street Facilities. I will be in here for 3 days of training on Amtrak power and rolling stock, in preparation for the Janesville train. I will be the person servicing the equipment during its layover in Janesville at night.

Apr. 9 We had a bad derailment in Janesville at the roundhouse today. It totaled 3 cars (Covered Hoppers which are to be scrapped), and messed up a lumber flat pretty bad.

Apr. 7 Amtrak will run 2 trains - 1 each on April 8 & 9. These are familieriztion trips, getting ready for the April 15th start up of service between Chicago IL. and Janesville WI. on WSOR's Fox Lake Sub.

I found out I will go to Chicago April 11, 12 and 13, for training on Amtrak equipment. The equipment I'll be learning about is Horizon cars, Express cars, and Road Railers.

Mar. 24 Today the MALAM was switching Royster's in Madison, when around 1pm the rails spread apart and 3 cars went on the ground. No cars were damaged, but the MoW dept. has to do a good amount of work to the track. The crew left the #2016 for us to use for re-railing the cars, then they left to finish their work.

Mar. 20 At 3:05am the MALPM was switching the Madison yard when they put 2 Bulkhead Lumber Flats on the ground. It appeared that they picked the points on the switch leading from 103 long to 001 track.
When the cars went down they rolled one of the rails, but the stress broke the rail sending pieces flying about 20 feet. It also tore the left point off.
It took 7 and a half hours to get both cars up and on the rail, the MoW crew was putting the finishing touches on the rail replacement when I left at 3:30pm.
What a way to start the week, and the first day of Spring!!!

Feb. 23 Went to Horicon today to work on E9 10C. We removed the HEP unit from the locomotive. To do this we removed about a quarter of the side panels, and also cut away a good part of the side frame to make a hole big enough to pull the unit out.
On the way back from Horicon we got a call to go to Edgerton. It seems the JMA was switching out Terra and put the rear truck of the locomotive on the ground. After inspecting the damage, we knew that they pushed gauge and dropped down between the rails. Even though this unit (WSOR 2015 a ex-IC) had Six axels, it re-railed pretty easy. After being re-railed we inspected the locomotive and found no defects, we sent them on their way.

Feb. 22 It's been a while but here is a update! Today the Car Dept. had to go to Amerhart in Fitchburg (suburb of Madison) on the Centra Soya Sub.
When they last switched Amerhart, a box car "Rode" up on some snow and ice in the curve for this spur and derailed. We arranged to have some power left here for us to use for re-railing. The power was WSOR #6620 (ex-SP), it took us most of the morning to get the job done with all the water (temparature 47+) from the melting snow + the frozen ground made it hard to put our re-railing frogs in place.
RUMMOR Mill ---- I have heard that May 1st is the "Start Up" date for the passenger service to start from Chicago to Madison.
Also I have heard that the State of Wisconsin will be taking bids for 12 train sets. 6 of these will be paid for by Amtrak!


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