Search found 72 matches

by Ottergoose
June 11th, 2014, 11:38 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)
Replies: 1597
Views: 355171

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

How many of us will be riding and taking pictures like tourists all day Saturday and Sunday? I'll be out to get a few shots of the "first trains," but, unless the forecast greatly improves (as in sunny instead of cloudy) will probably leave documenting the early days of operation to when ...
by Ottergoose
April 29th, 2014, 8:21 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)
Replies: 1597
Views: 355171

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Only 3 of the 5 feature blue line trains; not too shabby!

That's what they get for farming out perpetual rights through a contest instead of hiring a professional.
by Ottergoose
April 19th, 2014, 11:20 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Saint Paul Union Depot
Replies: 374
Views: 79192

Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Brought my 2 and 3.5 year olds to the new Railfan Park at SPUD today; we'll be making many, many more trips there I suspect. It looks like they might have a webcam mounted on a pole there (in addition to a security camera); anyone happen to know if it's live online somewhere now?

by Ottergoose
February 27th, 2014, 8:33 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)
Replies: 1597
Views: 355171

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Yeah; their snow fighting plan is to simply run so many trains when it's snowing that it doesn't have a chance to accumulate; obviously wasn't possible to be doing that when the last storm came through. My wife got me a copy of "Twin Cities by Trolley" yesterday; TCRT actually had dedicate...
by Ottergoose
November 4th, 2013, 1:07 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Saint Paul Union Depot
Replies: 374
Views: 79192

Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

I know I've seen elsewhere that this stretch of track is pretty busy. How does that translate into frequency? As in, how many minutes between trains?
I'd guess 4-5 trains / hour, give or take. The frequency is really variable though.
by Ottergoose
November 1st, 2013, 8:25 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Saint Paul Union Depot
Replies: 374
Views: 79192

Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Getting back on topic, Trains Magazine ran a story this week (paywalled) on a new railfan park being built on the edge of SPUD's property; here's a photo of it from earlier today: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3712/10616008375_7434281a68_z.jpg Looks like a great addition, especially for families wit...
by Ottergoose
October 26th, 2013, 8:10 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Saint Paul Union Depot
Replies: 374
Views: 79192

Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Apparently Amtrak still offers some express freight service: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241267371736 Here's a post from the Yahoo! Empire Builder group: In the late 90's-early 2000's Mail was handled CHI-MSP in express boxes and then trucked ...
by Ottergoose
October 26th, 2013, 12:22 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Saint Paul Union Depot
Replies: 374
Views: 79192

Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Are there rules preventing freight companies from adding passenger cars to their trains, or vice versa amtrak adding more freight cars? Airlines often add cargo to passenger flights, so why don't railroads? Amtrak trains hauled freight through the mid-2000's; lots of speculation online in other for...
by Ottergoose
October 18th, 2013, 1:51 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Saint Paul Union Depot
Replies: 374
Views: 79192

Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Here's a shot that helps to show how one set of tracks was shifted slightly, apparently to help with switch alignment. Also note the old "searchlight"-style signals. I believe this type of signal historically worked with a single bulb in back and a set of color filters which would rotate ...
by Ottergoose
October 10th, 2013, 8:40 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Type II LRVs - Siemens S70
Replies: 153
Views: 31738

Re: Type II LRVs - Siemens S70

I got a photo of 229 undergoing a testing/qualification run today; assuming they're arriving in numerical order, there are now more Siemens cars than Bombardier cars, which is an interesting landmark of sorts. It was also noteworthy in how long I had to stand around and wait to get a photo of a soli...
by Ottergoose
July 26th, 2013, 10:46 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)
Replies: 1597
Views: 355171

Re: Green Line (Central)

FISHMANPET, thank you, thank you! The vast majority of my recent work is with an old-timey Canon 40D and a 10-22 ultrawide lens, although last night I borrowed my buddy's 60D so I'd have some more ISO to play with.
by Ottergoose
July 26th, 2013, 10:40 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)
Replies: 1597
Views: 355171

Re: Green Line (Central)

A couple more, for good measure... http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3826/9372199582_e637668a4b_z.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3722/9372199454_0d4a6d3f13_z.jpg It'll be interesting to see if there's a preference for the Siemens vs Bombardier cars on one line over the other. If you're into transit t...
by Ottergoose
July 26th, 2013, 2:32 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)
Replies: 1597
Views: 355171

Re: Green Line (Central)

Image

Image

... hopefully that worked, if not, just head over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/ottergoose/

It was nice meeting some of you out there last night; time for bed!
by Ottergoose
June 4th, 2013, 2:59 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Minnesota Zoo Monorail to Close
Replies: 1
Views: 1368

Minnesota Zoo Monorail to Close

The Pioneer Press reports the MN Zoo Monorail is to be dismantled in the fall. In the fall, the zoo will dismantle the monorail that has carried riders around the grounds since 1979. Ehmke said the monorail is outdated and will cost too much to repair. Riders' interest also has declined. Transit gee...
by Ottergoose
January 15th, 2013, 7:49 pm
Forum: Updates - Announcements - Problems - Suggestions
Topic: Forum Maintenance & Technical Issues
Replies: 385
Views: 124199

Re: Forum Issues

I suspect logging into phpMyAdmin and optimizing the database would help. The vast majority of resources that you'd have to worry about here are going to be the interactions with the database. I'm a web developer but have very limited experience with the admin side of this platform; I am comfortable...
by Ottergoose
January 6th, 2013, 8:52 am
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Monorail
Replies: 41
Views: 9585

Re: Why not Monorail? and transit / Elephant accidents.

Ski-Doo has a form of rail-based transit available in the Twin Cities?
by Ottergoose
January 5th, 2013, 10:56 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Monorail
Replies: 41
Views: 9585

Re: Why not Monorail? and transit / Elephant accidents.

In other amusing transit trivia, Bombardier owns the rights to the monorail technology that's in use at the MN Zoo in Apple Valley, so, a transit fan could conceivably experience three different modes of Bombardier rail transportation here, if they so desired.
by Ottergoose
January 5th, 2013, 10:53 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Monorail
Replies: 41
Views: 9585

Re: Why not Monorail? and transit / Elephant accidents.

One of my friends on Facebook stumbled across this gem to tonight - turns out we already had a monorail company in the Twin Cities... Enos Electric Railway Company of St. Paul: The railroad was incorporated under Minnesota law in 1888, had capital stock of $2,000,000, and had its principal place of ...
by Ottergoose
December 4th, 2012, 12:12 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)
Replies: 7
Views: 3131

Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

All of the slides that mention coal trains from the PRB were already out of date; but, now that Canadian Pacific has announced their plans to sell off the DM&E west of Tracy, MN, there's absolutely no risk of coal trains rolling through Rochester in the foreseeable future.
by Ottergoose
December 3rd, 2012, 9:47 pm
Forum: Transportation
Topic: CP Ford Spur to Highland Park
Replies: 32
Views: 3556

Re: CP Ford Spur to Highland Park

CP's using the old Ford plant as a storage and training (as in "learning") yard.

Johnson Brothers, a beverage distributor, is the only remaining customer on the line.