Friday, January 13, 2012

Tornado Touches Down in Joliet, IL

A rare weather event occurred this evening when a tornado touched down in Joliet.  A quick moving storm rolled through town and completely destroyed JD Tower in Joliet.  Crews were cleaning up along the right away where they had been working to install double track and a new crossing.  A large vacuum dropped from the sky sucking the tower clear off the map! Luckily, no one was injured as the tower was unoccupied due to the construction taking place.  Damage reports are expected to reach the hundreds of thousands!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Progress Report 01.12.12

Although, I haven't reported in a week, I have been working on the layout.  The daily progress has been small though so I didn't write a report each day.  Investing a little time each day does accomplish one's goals though.  I'm fortunate enough to have 30 to 45 minutes available in the morning before leaving for work.  After getting the kids and wife off to school and work, I often work on the layout.  This little time spent on the layout yields big results. 

Installing the track at the new Blue Island Industrial district has been a bear to say the least.  The track configuration is quite complex.  I managed to complete the last of it yesterday morning.  This evening, I completed mainline 1 & 2 through western Blue Island down to the new crossover near Joliet.  I started tearing up the track at JD Tower, but stopped shortly after the destruction began.  A new crossing and curved turnout will be installed in this area. 

Other than the work at JD Tower, I need to re-install the reversed crossover in front of the station in Blue Island.  Drop some feeders and we'll be done with the trackwork.

The Blue Island local crew will have quite a task before them to get all the cars spotted.  The track arrangement is deceiving.  That seems to be the running theme with Blue Island.  Before the changes, crews often commented that the move they thought they could make was impossible.  I will advise crews to carefully study the train arrangement before setting off to deliver cars.