Part Two

"Be thankful"

My day begins with the 9 am mass at St. Bonaventure Church here in Columbus.

Sunday is always special to me, especially over the last 2+ years. My Dad is 93 and I am extremely blessed to still have him in my life since my Mom passed away over 2 years ago. I visit him twice a week; usually on Wednesdays before I go to work and every Saturday morning. My brothers Paul and Jay help out with grocery shopping and upkeep of the house as do I. But the one thing out of all of this, like the Good Book says, is that Sunday is a day of rest. It means a lot to me to be an usher and lector at St. Agnes Church back in Niantic, CT. My faith is what keeps me grounded. And Sunday is that one day of the week for rest of both body AND mind and that is a good thing. And to quote my Dad, "Make the sign of the cross and be thankful for what you've got”. And I truly am. Thanks Dad, and Mom, for what you did and what you will continue to do. And so it goes.

Before I left Columbus, I went down to the grade crossing at MP 83 about half a mile from my hotel. A few minutes later, an eastbound Union Pacific double stack train comes roaring by. 

I am always amazed at what freight trains can move. In a double stack train, you could have as many as 280 containers like the ones you see on any Interstate highway. Put 2 containers on top of each other (hence the term "double stack") in each well car for a total of 140 cars and add three 4400 horsepower locomotives on the head end and one 4400 horsepower locomotive on the rear end. That's 17,600 horsepower moving 280 containers at a maximum track speed of 70MPH. Put each one of those containers on a tractor trailer truck rated 550 horsepower and you use 280 trucks and 154,000 horsepower. And with trains, there is very little friction with steel wheels on steel rails. The width of the tread where the wheel meets the rail is that of a dime. And on average, a freight train can move a ton of fuel about 425 miles on 1 gallon of diesel fuel. Very efficient if you ask me.

As I head west, it appears that there are folks working on the railroad this Sunday. 

Seems the track department has one track out of service in and west of Grand Island as they replace some concrete ties. At 550 pounds each, this is no easy task. And in certain places, the old ties are piled up waiting to be disposed of. Most likely the concrete will be crushed up revealing the steel rebar inside. The concrete would most likely be used for rip rap (filler) and the rebar melted back into new steel.

About 5 miles to the west is the small town of Alda, Nebraska. And right on U.S. Route 30 is the town's post office:

And even for a town as small as Alda, their post office has had to endure reduced hours, per the notice on the front door. I don't think Ben would approve. 

While traveling thru Central City, I happened to notice these 2 radio towers:

Can't remember seeing them before. Per the folks at Radio-Locator.Com, the station is AM 750 KMMJ,licensed to the city of Grand Island, Nebraska. It has a religious format. 

Below is what their antenna pattern looks like:

There is a sharp null to the east to protect WSB, also on 750 AM, in Atlanta, Georgia. 

KMMJ: Keeping your Mind on the Message of Jesus per their website.

As I head westward, the grey clouds are building and as I arrive at Gibbon, Nebraska, the heavens open up with some moderate rainfall. And the trains are not moving very well due to that work in Grand Island. Looks like it will be later in the afternoon before the railroad becomes a little more fluid. Time to check into my hotel in Kearney and wait out the rain.

At about 3:45pm, the rain has let up and I head to one of the city's municipal parking lots of which this one is along the railroad. About a half hour later, I see an event happen on the UP which I have never seen before. First some sidebar: as I traveled thru Silver Creek, I played a game of catch-up with a unit grain train, UP 5859 West. It was about 12 noon when I passed him and managed to snag a few pictures:

Fast forward to 4:15pm and here comes it comes crawling into Kearney:

And stopping right in front of my mobile office. Seems the federally mandated 12 hour work rule caught up with the crew and the train needed a re-crew. Sure enough, an express van pulled into the UP parking lot with not one but two crews. No sooner had UP 5859 West left town, ten minutes later on its heels is UP 7192 West:

An empty unit coal train heading to the Power River Basin coalfields in eastern Wyoming. Once the crews have changed out, 7192 is on his way west. Busy day in Kearney.

Before we close out today, I want to go back to my rental car. This morning, I am trying to figure out how to put the magnetic mounts on the roof for my railroad and ham radio antennas. The right side passenger door may not work and the back hatch will crush the cables. And I look at the right side again and I see this black triangular metal plate next to the window where the right rear passenger would sit.:

I pull on the plate and lo and behold, there is a THIRD door:

Run the cables and I am done. Look at the left side of the car and confirm, yes, there is only one door.

Hmmmm....a 3-door hatchback. As Artie Johnson use to say, "veeerrrry interesting". Oh, and my pimped out car has Sirius XM satellite radio and a rear view safety camera for backing up. And you see it on the 6 inch display where the radio lives. Cool, eh??!! I definitely got myself one great ride for this trip.

Tomorrow we will do some more train chasing and more photos. The weatherman says 63 degrees and mostly sunny for Monday. I’ll take it!!

And we can’t forget that today is Columbus Day. If you are lucky enough to have a 3-day weekend, please enjoy and relax.

And we conclude day two with one more thing about the car’s radio. It has a superb sound system. Very adjustable with some great bass. Somewhere between Central City and Grand Island, Sirius XM’s Seventies-on-7 was playing the Doobie Brothers' " It Keeps You Running'". Beautiful sound. Great to sing to. Good music for a good mood. Car-shaking bass.

“It keeps you Runnin'”. Wasn't that the slogan for Lincoln’s Prune Juice some years ago?? Just wondering.

I'm Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Kearney, Nebraska.