20170708 Sewer Pipes, Turning Crane, Taste of Chicago Commuter Action
(If you are new to this blog, please start at the beginning and follow the "next" link at the bottom of each post.)
11:06:24 I got caught on the north side of the tracks by this train.
11:06:26 And I learned that the crossing signals skunk the locomotive shots.
11:06:28 Fortunately, it was an autotrain, and I care mainly about mixed freights.
A photo of Main Street when we still had Grove Premium. It was a dry-goods store with a big arts-and-crafts section that my wife liked.
11:13:48 Workers are doing overtime on a Saturday for the drain pipe and ledge forming work.
I crossed the street on my way to the Forest site so that I could take a "now" picture of the Grove Premium building. It was extensively remodeled into an Irish Pub and Restaurant. It also has an Irish dance studio.
The workers are checking the tags on the big sewer junction pipes because they are going to be moving them today to where they will be buried.
The small excavator really struggles with these big manhole pipes. They will be closing the road the next two days, Sunday and Monday, to lay the building's sewer pipe across the road and tie in with the city's service.
Also trucks of stone are arriving to build up a stock to use Sunday and Monday to bury the new pipes.
They have already done some work along the side of the street. Tomorrow they will go across the street.
11:27:40 They were turning the crane with no load to unwind the cables from when it was turned by the wind changing directions. This crane can handle three turns of the boom.
11:27:58
"Note that most of the weight is on the front of the tracks and the rear actually comes off the ground when he booms out a little." The tower is being turned in a clockwise direction from the perspective of being on the ground and looking up.
"I took a video to catch the rotation speed of the tower crane and as a bonus I got an excavator working in the foreground. At first I had trouble getting both actions in the frame. I have to use the LCD screen for video, and I have trouble seeing it on bright days." The crane is now being turned in a counter-clockwise direction. (How do kids who were raised on digital clocks learn which way a clock turns? In fact, how many kisa have clocks since their smartphone displays the time and has an alarm function?)
They are done turning the tower.
We are getting a traffic jam of trucks delivering stone. In addition to the one behind the fence backing up to dump its load, we have another one coming down the road.
The construction fencing has already reduced the road to one lane, and now the white-cab truck is blocking that lane.
Before a car got trapped behind the truck, a worker put the orange barrels across the road indicating it is temporarily closed.
11:41:54 On my way back home I see a headlight on the middle track. Obviously there is also an inbound commuter parked at the station. A big crowd on the platform in the middle of the day and on a Saturday means something is happening this weekend in Chicago --- the Taste of Chicago.
11:42:14 The headlight is getting closer, but the Forest Avenue crossing gates have yet to activate because I move off the tracks as soon as I hear the bells. The platform is empty, so the crowd should be on board the commuter.
11:42:42 The headlight on the middle track was an express commuter. An express on Saturday is another indication that something big is happening in Chicago.
11:43:20 The inbound is finally leaving, the gates have gone up and the people who were waiting are crossing the tracks.
11:43:32 Metra engines are about 40 years old and they can blow some pretty black smoke when they are pulling out of a station.
I've seen some blow smoke that is blacker than this.
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