{"id":19047,"date":"2017-08-05T05:59:10","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T09:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=19047"},"modified":"2017-07-30T03:07:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T07:07:35","slug":"surprise-at-lena-i-wasnt-expecting-this-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/surprise-at-lena-i-wasnt-expecting-this-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise at Lena\u2014I wasn\u2019t expecting this (and more!)."},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back, John Gruber and I were on our way back to Madison, Wisconsin from the Mississippi River Valley. We\u2019d followed the old Milwaukee Road up to Lanark, Illinois, then cut northward on Illinois State highways.<\/p>\n

The sun was a golden globe in the western sky above rolling corn fields.<\/p>\n

At Lena we intersected Canadian National\u2019s former Illinois Central east-west line that connects Chicago with Council Bluffs, Iowa. I noticed that the signals were lit red and that there was something unusual in the siding.<\/p>\n

Unusual indeed! It was a self-propelled draw-bar connected train of articulated flatcars for maintenance service. I\u2019d never seen anything like it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to tell you all about it, except I know precious little, except that the \u2018locomotive\u2019 had EMD Blomberg trucks and the whole machinery carried GREX reporting marks. Perhaps if I do another book on railroad maintenance equipment, I\u2019ll have the opportunity to research this train more thoroughly.<\/p>\n

\"\"
This is one curious looking train. Exposed with my FujiFilm X-T1 with 18-135mm lens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Look ma, no couplers! That’s a straight drawbar connection between the locomotive and cars. Unusual in American railroad practice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Articulated gons behind the locomotive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Trailing view of the locomotive. Look! There’s a headlight on the horizon. . . .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While I was studying this unusual railway machine, the eastward signals at the end of the siding changed aspects; the cleared from all red to \u2018green over red.\u2019 A train had been lined! Hooray!<\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Tracking the Light Posts Every Day!<\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back, John Gruber and I were on our way back to Madison, Wisconsin from the Mississippi River Valley. We\u2019d followed the old Milwaukee Road up to Lanark, Illinois, then cut northward on Illinois State highways. The sun was a golden globe in the western sky above rolling corn fields. At Lena we … Continue reading Surprise at Lena\u2014I wasn\u2019t expecting this (and more!).<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[493,4300,4297,484,486,4298,4299],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/GREX_MOW_train_Lena_IL_DSCF7884.jpg?fit=1732%2C1155","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-4Xd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19047"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19048,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19047\/revisions\/19048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}