This week I have learned that what I have been calling piggyback cars should be called spine cars.
I saw the crossing gates go down, so I quickly found a parking spot. I took photos of most of the cars because I was surprised how big the spine block was. In that block, 16 of the spine platforms were carrying containers. The train had five engines, which is not unusual for an intermodal. What is unusual is that it was running with two DPUs. Normally all five engines are up front.
20171107 7731
2:57
#7238 ES44DC built 2009
#7222 ES44DC built 2009
At least I realized I didn't frame it properly and...
...took another photo to get the number.
#7917 ES44DC built 2010
A photo to confirm that the four photos were of just three engines.
A domestic (51') container stacked on top of an internation (40') container.
This is the block of white containers that we can barely see above just past the last orange containers. And it shows that there is a block of spine cars after the white containers. It is interesting that some company has chosen to keep its names off of its containers. Most still use containers like boxcars used to be used --- rolling billboards.
The block of spine cars was so long that I took just "highlight" photos. Here we see a short trailer and five containers on a 5-pack of spine platforms.
2:58:06 Trailers as far as the eye can see.
3:58:16 And the trailers just keep rolling. This train was doing at least the freight speed limit in Downers Grove --- 45 mph.
3:58:26 A block of ten J.B. Hunt containers on probably a couple of 5-packs.
2:58:36 It took 10 seconds for those 10 containers to roll by.
3:48:42 A lone container in the cut of mostly UPS trailers.
There were three non-UPS trailers before we got a cut of double-stacks.
I had noticed there was something non-white at the end of the train.
#5076 C44-9W built in 2004
I was shocked that it was two DPU engines. I've watched quite a few intermodal trains on the Racetrack, and this is the first time I have seen one with DPUs, let alone two.
#4209 ES44C4 T4 Credit Loco built 2017
2:59:00
I switched from wide angle to normal (55mm) to capture that the train had spine cars as far as you could see past Main Street. And you can see pretty far because the track is straight and level until past Belmont Station.
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10:16am Basically, I took a picture at the Forest site to document that not much was happening.
As I walked across the crosswalk, while in stride, I recorded that there was a train passing through. It was 3-bay covered hopper. I didn't watch some more to see if it was in a mixed or unit train.
The concrete workers are still working on the north wall. The little green excavator at the far end of the "big hole" indicates that they are working on the drain pipes for the underground garage.
The crane is back to being parked.
This is a good side view of the dirt ramp. This view will be disappearing.
Another angle on a view that will be disappearing. Note that some forms are being piled over by the east wall so that work can start on forming that wall.
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Don't worry, other posting won't normally be this long and tedious. This posting has far more, rather redundant, photos than I normally take because it was the first time I saw the big crane in action.
1:30:32 When I get to the top of the hill while walking to town, I see a commuter is at the station.
1:32:26 The train is still waiting in the station and traffic is now backed up north of Franklin. Note the traffic is jammed up pretty good, and it is not even rush hour.
1:32:38 The train finally heads west and Main Street is no longer blocked.
I take shots of the Forest site...
...from a couple of angles, but it doesn't look like much is happening.
While walking over to the M&M site, I wondered how this telephone connection "box" in a corner of a playground got knocked over.
1:52:42 By the time I got to Main Street, a west bound was heading through town. Judging from all of the cooling grills, that is a modern Tier 4 locomotive.
#4649 C44-9W built 2000
#4641 C44-9W built 2000 (just 8 off from the previous locomotive number)
This one was riding cab-backwards so my rhythm of catching the cab numbers failed. But it looks like a bunch of Tier 4 grills.
And I again caught the wrong end but it has a lot of grills. We have seen at least four locomotives, so this will be an intermodal train.
#7398 ES44DC built 2000 This must be a fifth locomotive, which is typical for a hot intermodal that will be using trackage rights on the UP somewhere along its trip. Someone explained to me that the train needs only four, but they add the fifth so that any engine trouble in "foreign territory" won't impact the speed of the train.
1:52:50 It has international containers.
1:52:52 But the next stack is domestic because the containers are filling the full length of the platform so they are 53'.
1:52:54 My shutter reflexes aren't good enough to grab the logos.
1:53:00 I think that yellow stripe at the top means JB Hunt.
1:52:50 I quit taking pictures of stacks. But now the train has switched to a cut of pigs.
1:53:56 I quit taking pictures of the train because I found a gap in the traffic and got across the street so I can turn my attention to my real objective, the M&M site construction.
I start with an overview of the site from their entrance gate to the ramp down into the "big hole." Note that they are already removing forms from the north wall that we saw them pour yesterday.
1:54:54 They are finally using the crane that you could see parked in previous postings! Be warned, this is going to be a long post because this is the first time I've seen a precast concrete column set. I caught them handling the first column off the truck for this site. Unfortunately, the crew kinda acted as though it was the first time they have seen a column being set. I would have thought the crew would have done this type of work at other sites. Note the truck that is down in the "big hole" that has two columns. And the crane has the hook by a column ready for the riggers to do their thing.
I missed the pouring of the footing for the wall in the southeast corner of the "big hole." There was another "sidewalk superintendent" with me today, and he explained that he learned that the orange caps on the rebar is not needed for iron workers, but they are needed for concrete workers.
My first shot of the crawler crane with the house turned. We will be seeing a lot more of this crane in subsequent posts as they set beams and slabs. I never did catch another time when they were setting columns because there are very few columns in the building compared to slabs.
2:02:42 Note the surveyor instrument to the left of the two guys talking about what they should do.
2:04:24 It looks like I'm so excited in anticipation that the crane will lift something that I got my finger in front of the lens on the upper left. I've taken 10s of thousands of photos with this camera and this is my first, and hopefully last, "finger picture." The wire on the upper right is a reminder that I'm taking all of the pictures from this side of the site through the chain-link fence that surrounds their property. The people over on the ramp are concrete workers taking down the forms from yesterday's pour and getting ready to form up a wall on the new footing we just saw. The right "talker" is on a cell phone.
2:11:58 Finally, the guy on the cell phone starts walking over to the corner of the building.
2:17:48 As a rigger drives his lift to the right, the hook is being swung to the other end of the column. And we can see the concrete workers at the end of the wall.
2:18:34 We have lift off.
2:18:48 Finnlly, time resolution to the seconds is beginning to make sense.
2:19:04 After watching this crane operator for a couple of months, he struck me as being good. Think about how he is having to turn the crane and move the boom angle as he raises one end of the column so that the other end remains at the same spot on the truck and doesn't slide. (As the crane turns, the radius between the crane and the column's bottom changes. So he moves the boom to change the radius.)
2:19:26 A rigger is at the base of the column. I guess he is there in case the hook is not exactly over the bottom. In that case, the base would swing when lifted off the truck, and I presume the rigger would try to dampen the swing.
2:19:42 But the operator nailed it, and it came straight up off the truck.
2:19:54 I took a sequence of photos to get time stamps.
2:20:08
2:20:22
2:21:00
I realized that this is the first chance I have had to see the side of the crane, so I take a closeup view hoping to find the model number. (Later, we will see the model number when we see the rear of the crane. Stay tuned.)
2:25:26 Note the lift has been parked for now and there are four workers over in the corner near where the column is to be placed.
2:26:10 The riggers don't start dealing with the details of the placement site until after the column is hanging over their head.
2:26:48 In fact the column is lifted back up because it seems there is quite a bit of prep work that needs to be done for the base. I think they were putting the bolts in the concrete pad that will hold the column. Why they couldn't have done this before the column was lifted, or even before the truck with the columns arrived is an issue that I could not figure out. I had seen surveyors over their earlier making marks on the pad.
2:33:34 There are at least five workers in this view. Two are working on the concrete pad. Two are talking to each other and probably looking at blue prints. One seems to be just standing.
2:38:42 The column is being lifted, moved back, and lowered to the ground while the man-lift is maneuvered next to the column.
2:39:10
2:39:34
2:40:22 Because a hole needs to be drilled in the column. What I didn't record was that they had to wait while someone walked to the tool truck to get the drill, and then they had to wait while someone strung extension cords across the entire diagonal of the "big hole" so that that drill would work.
2:41:14 It takes a while to drill a hole into cured concrete.
2:44:02 Now they have moved the column back into its proper position.
2:44:32 It has to be tricky getting all four holes in the column alighned with the four bolts that have been put into the concrete pad.
2:46:38 The worker in the orange vest is holding a pry bar. I'll learn that pry bars are a rigger's best friend. In fact, it looks like there may be one by the left, back corner of the column being used to nudge the column base to the southeast.
2:49:12 Remember that hole that got drilled. The rigger on the lift is now inserting a bracket that holds a metal bar.
2:56:50 The bottom of the metal bar is attached to the ground to form a diagonal brace for the column.
3:00:50 The lift is going up to the top of the column...
3:01:22 ...to unhook the crane cable.
3:01:42 A ladder could have been used to drill the hole. But working at the top of the column justifies the use of a lift.
3:01:50 A photo to timestamp how quickly the boom of the lift can be telescoped in. And because I'm bored and digital photos are cheap.
3:03:28 Swinging back to get the second column.
3:02:56 Hooking on.
3:03:46 Standing clear.
3:04:08 Tilting up.
3:04:16 Close to vertical.
3:04:38 Ready for liftoff. (Thanks to our space program, liftoff is now a one word noun.)
3:06:46 I still don't understand why they can't prepare the base until after the column is hanging over them.
3:07:44 The trailer of the delivery truck is now empty, so he is headed back to the Mid-States Concrete plant in South Beloit, IL. (One advantage of being so far behind on my uploading is that I learned about the name of the supplier much later.)
3:09:12 I went back and looked at some of the previous photos. They are just now inserting those bolts into the slab? That job could not have already been done earlier today when they found themselves standing around waiting for something to happen.
3:14:12 The column goes back up.
3:14:24 Not sure what they are doing. I took a lot of pictures because I couldn't figure out what was happening.
3:16:56 Column has gone back down, maybe a little to the left of where it was.
3:17:06 It is on the ground just left of the bolts they installed. Are they going to work on the side of this one?
3:17:32 Its moved a little further to the left. It looks like the guy on the left is drinking out of a bottle. In otherwords, not much is happening. Note their normal quitting time is 3pm, so they are probably getting paid overtime to stand and look at the column.
3:20:06 The column goes back up.
3:20:38 The boom of the man-lift has been moved from the far side of a wall brace to this side of the brace so that it can be used on the column. So when it was orange vest's turn to do something, he first had to take a drink of water so that he could hold up everybody else even longer?
3:26:14 Given the time lapse, I evidently didn't take a photo of the actual drilling of the hole in the side because in this photo they are moving the column back to the right...
3:27:10 ...over the bolts that have been placed in the concrete pad.
3:27:26 As with drawbridges going down, the last couple of inches take the most time.
3:27:34 Putting nuts on the bolts.
3:28:56 Two pry bars in action.
3:29:02 Just the north pry bar still working.
3:31:28 The east diagonal brace is being fastened on the ground while another brace is being carried...
3:31:56 ...to the south side...
3:32:16 ...so that it can be fastened to the side of the column.
3:33:16 I was so relieved that they were nearing the end of working on this column that I didn't even bother taking a picture of them fastening the south brace to the ground. So each column has two diagonal braces at 90-degrees to each other.
3:35:52 I had learned that I could walk behind the remaining buildings north of the site to get a view from the other side of the north wall. Notice that it took me over two minutes to walk from the south side of the site to here, but the cable has still not been released from the column.
3:36:06 The above view is looking east from the public access spot. This view is looking south from the same spot along the backside of the existing buildings.
3:36:56 I was so frustrated with how long it took to place that column because only one job was done at a time that I did not wait around to get a photo to time stamp when the cable was removed from the column. The workers did not do tasks in parallel. They took turns watching each other work even if there was no dependency between their tasks. I've worked enough with Pert Charts to know that serializing all of the tasks is optimally bad.
This photo shows an intermodal train is going through town.
3:43:32 Now I'm north of the tracks, and I turn around to record the reason the gates went down --- a commuter was coming to town. Judging by the name "Lemont" on the ambulance, people in that town have to go a long way to go if they need hospital care.
3:43:50 It takes a while to unload all of the people that get off at the Metro Main Station. Normally I wait around and take a picture of the commuter finally clearing Main Street, but I was tired from this long outing and continued on my way home.
3:46:56 A Davey wood chipper
I had planned on taking photos of other columns being set to confirm it goes faster once they have all of their tools in place and have given some thought as to what could be done in parallel. But these are the only two columns I caught being set.
