Conrail caboose/ talk about chemical action

[jettrainfan]

I caught this Friday. I had a real crummy day and such because school was a pain and i forgot my memory stick for the camera (energy and 1 hour's railfanning time wasted). I was about to buy a Pepsi and i thought the machine was acting up. Then something blue caught my eye and i ran to the news paper boxes. My day didn't turn out too crummy after all. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwexj7stNxI

Now, as seen in the video, they were switching cars and at different times (I wish i wasn't too lazy to upload the other 20 minutes of footage to help explain) but the clips only show the caboose in action. For about 10-15 minutes, they used it to move some cars, dropped it off and went to work for 45-60 minutes without it. they picked it up again with a tanker in between the GP40-2 and the caboose and switched some cars like that, dropped the caboose off and did the rest. It seemed like they would pick up a line and run them up the one line and down the other(i think for emptying/loading reasons). But they did this one car at a time. Pick the whole line up, go to the siding, start putting a car in and back off. So a whole line from 8-7-6-5-4- ETC. till 1. and on the one, they picked up 2 cars again and messed around some more. This is my first time seeing them do a full job so I really didn't know what to expect.

Other sight facts that i think will help:
The plant is at W110 street of lakewood/Cleveland ohio, the plant seems to have 5 lines, the side track is off the N.S. Chicago line between Triskett and W117th but the switch is about 13 freight car lengths away (Google maps guess). Hopefully this helps. I practicably lost my mind because I thought they'd leave and i rushed to W114th to catch them with the caboose. I gave up after a total of 2 hours and 10 minutes of watching because it was going on 7:10 P.M.

Thanks for any info!

[NarrowMinded]

Thanks for posting that, as a kid my favorite thing was when the crew would wave from the caboose, I miss seeing them, I bet it's been 20 year or more since I have see a caboose in southern California  even now when I see a train go by it seems incomplete without a caboose. I curse the man who invented that stupid little blinking box.

NM

[jettrainfan]

Reminds me of the interview of a worker with the same attitude. I remember him saying F.R.E.D. I forgot what it meant but some would use the F. for something else.... 

[Jim Banner]

Thanks for sharing.  Keep up the good work!

Jim

[jonathan]

Enjoyed it, thanks!

Jonathan

[J3a-614]

Glad to see a bit of the past, too, and am also surprised at how good the paint still looks.  How old would that paint be now, close to 20 years?

[jettrainfan]

I did a bit of research and acorreding to 3 sites, conrail bout 175 bay windows new and 21313 was one of them. So probably closer to 30 years but it could've been repainted between now and then. I'm surprised it's not tagged yet.

[scottychaos]

Thats a Conrail N21 Class..
the only class of cabooses ever bought new by Conrail..
(all other CR cabs came from the predecessor roads..)
built new in 1978..

http://crcaboose.railfan.net/classes/N-21.htm

I doubt its ever been repainted..
so its likely that's 32 year old paint on a 32 year old caboose..

looks like NS didnt re-number the cabooses it got from Conrail?
or it could be a "shared assets" caboose..in which case its STILL technically a Conrail caboose today!

Scot

[WoundedBear]

Reminds me of the interview of a worker with the same attitude. I remember him saying F.R.E.D. I forgot what it meant but some would use the F. for something else.... 

F.....freakin'
R.....ridiculous
E.....electronic
D.....device


Cheers
Sid

[az2rail]

Close, but Fred stands for "flashing rear-end device, or "flashing red end of train devise". Either is acceptable.

Two weekend ago, I was north of Tucson, Az, and watched a train go by being pulled by 3 NS engines. I was sorry I did not have my camera. I will be down there again this weekend, I will bring the camera.

Nice video Jettrainfan.

Bruce

[NarrowMinded]

I think Sid knows what f.r.e.d. Stands for but shares my opinion of them.  I think of them as The Firing Railroad Employees Device.

NM

[az2rail]

Thanks for correcting my about Sid. I figured he was joking, but Jettrain said he did not remember what F.R.E.D. stood for, and my post was meant for him.

Bruce