Hi Jeremy, Welcome to the TrainBoard. We're happy to have you on board, especially right nearby in Biloxi. I'm happy that your 3 year old Foamer-in-Training (and her Dad) is excited by the CSX traffic. Hopefully she'll have the chance to see some interesting loads and power. Over the years, I have seen solid military loads going east and west, the American Orient Express (since deceased), the CSX Corporate train, power balancing moves including one with 13 units and about 6 cars, and a single GP hauling the Westinghouse Schnable car and caboose, first westbound with a generator, then eastbound empty. Neat seeing 24 axles all bunched up together with nothing in between. Once, the westbound Sunset Limited (Amtrak #1) ran out of fuel behind my (pre-Katrina) house, and a CSX GP was borrowed from Pascagoula to pull it on into New Orleans. Though the GP first had to pull it back to the Beauvoir passing siding so it could run around to the front of the train. Happy Foaming......:thumbs_up::tb-cool:
Ah Amtrak.....I really love them. I wanted to take the train down to New Orleans while we were here, but it seems like they don't have a station in the area anymore.
Biloxi still has its Amtrak station, actually a loading platform at the corner of Howard and Caillavet, but the Sunset hasn't run east of New Orleans since Katrina. The Gulf Wind experiment between Mobile and NO stopped running in '93. There are two items in the Amtrak funding of the Stimulus Bill that address this area. First is the re-instatement of the Sunset east between New Orleans and Orlando. Second is the designation of a high-speed corridor between Mobile and Houston. However, your tour at KAFB may be over when these occur, or worse, you may have retired after 20+. :tb-sad:
Booming economy Warren Buffett had a good reason for buying BNSF. They're so busy in oil country, they can't find anyone to hire. http://www.bnsf.com/media/video/?fi...Movies" in Search of New Employees##subtabs-5 ... same link -- http://tinyurl.com/9dp6t8b
Another economic indicator and railroads: http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~ipsavage/211-manuscript.pdf During the Great Depression, hobos and unemployeed labor took to the rails in unprecedented numbers in search of work. Here in Rochelle we had at least two hobo junlges during the Great Depression. I have only seen on one occasion a pair of hobos riding in an open gondola car. A funny story here: http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/ballard_water_07.html Steve
