Showing posts with label Norfolk Southern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norfolk Southern. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Road Trip, Triple Redux

(Three Rivers, MI)- I haven't enjoyed my lunch so much in ages!

Recall that back in September, I took one of my ambitious road trips with my friend Steve, winding around Lake Superior generally, though Michigan, Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and back to Indiana.

On the way through Michigan, I was very insistent upon wanting to return to a trackside restaurant in a small southern Michigan town. The reason was that in June 1997, I took on one of my all-time favorite road jobs: mapping a fiber optic path for Level 3, from Detroit to Chicago. This trackside restaurant was discovered happily by accident, walking, yes, at trackside. It was loaded with railroad decor, complete with an attached converted caboose, and had good, cheap food. This is also how I discovered the Bell's Brewery. More on that with another post.

I thought this place was located in Niles, but discovered upon arrival there that my memory had failed me.

Last week, I was with Alex in Tucson, at the Pima Air & Space Museum. One of the volunteers asked me where I was from, and I told him. For some reason, he felt compelled to tell me that he is from Michigan. I took the bait and asked where in Michigan. He turned it around and told me that I wouldn't know. "Try me." His reply- Sturgis. I knew exactly where it was. I rattled off the names of towns nearby: White Pigeon, Three Rivers, Portage, Kalamazoo. He was stunned. 

Then it dawned on me. "What is the name of that restaurant with the caboose by the tracks?"
He laughed. "That's Frankie's by the Tracks! I ate there just two weeks ago!"

I had the same thing I ate there 10 years ago: a wet burrito and an ice tea. I really enjoyed the decor, even if they did update all the locomotive photos to black Norfolk Southern units. No reason to get rid of the old Conrail "Big Blue". Oh well. They even have stained glass windows in a railroad motif. My kind of place!

After lunch, I went to the tracks to see if there was any evidence of the old project. Sure enough, there were orange marker signs, about every 500 feet or so.

Very satisfying. I love seeing my projects built. Too bad I couldn't have remembered back in September and taken Steve. He would have gotten a charge out of it all. 

Friday, June 01, 2007

Illinois Workfest

The posts have been few of late, mainly because I have been working 2-3 days/week in Illinois, in Danville and Decatur, on contract for AT&T. You know those service cabinets? I make scale drawings of the area so the engineers can figure out where to put another one.


Tough site. Extra room? This is a cross-connect box. A new VRAD cabinet is to be placed near the cross-box. They work together and allow for broadband and video services to be offered. I locate these in their surrounds and make 1" = 20' scale drawings. Curse me, as you will now see these cabinets all over your neighborhood where they were invisible to you before.

These have been interesting places for me to work, as there is much industrial landscape, and much of it still functioning. Translation: Plenty of trains to watch while I eat my lunch in the car.

Decatur, IL. Norfolk Southern and CSX trains work this area. Great industrial view, including the obsolete coal tower! A fellow train geek stands by the diamond with film rolling. I used the flash so that I could get a reflection off the signal tower marker. Is that some geek action, or what?

This work will be ongoing for the next 4-6 weeks, so if the quantity is light, I'll do my best to provide quality.

I enjoyed the recent linkage in "Just For The Record" for my last post. Thanks, Andrew! There's even a search label for my name. I'm flattered!