Chapter Notes: Leaving Chicago (Destination Unknown) · 10:44am Oct 28th, 2021
A mare can’t stay in one place for too long . . . Chicago has plenty of opportunities, but the open rails are calling.
Pre-read by AlwaysDressesInStyle
Due to various mergers and bankruptcies over the years, the railroad landscape has changed significantly even in my lifetime. I could look up how many Class 1* railroads are still in the US, but to the best of my recollection there’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), CSX, Canadian National (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), Kansas City Southern (KCS) maybe, Norfolk Southern (NS), and Union Pacific (UP).
Union Pacific is the oldest operating Class 1 railroad in the US**; they were one of the railroads involved in the Transcontinental Railroad project, founded in 1862. They currently operate 32,000 miles of track and nearly 9,000 locomotives, which means on average there is one UP locomotive on every four miles of UP track. In fact, since by law locomotive numbers can only be up to four digits long, Union Pacific once ran out of locomotive numbers and had to make a new reporting mark to handle the overflow.
Not that this is in any way relevant to the chapter, but just because I was curious, as of 2009 their lowest-numbered locomotive was UP 96, an EMD SW-10, and their highest-numbered locomotive was UP 9999, an EMD SD40-2. While the oldest locomotive on their roster is UP 4014 (a 4-8-8-4 built in 1941), the 844 has the distinction of being the oldest locomotive never retired by a Class 1 railroad
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*Railroad classes have nothing to do with the size of the railroad; it’s based on their annual gross revenue. Currently, Class 1 railroads are freight railroads that gross more then $250 million/year.
**According to Wikipedia, “the Union Pacific of late is the last United States based Class l railroad left in the country that has not originated as a merger between separate road names or holding companies.” In terms of oldest operating US railroad, most authorities agree that it’s the Strasburg Railroad in Lancaster County, founded in 1832.***
***The oldest common carrier in the US (probably) was the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania, founded in 1826. It’s also worth nothing that the oldest continuously-operated passenger station in the US was opened in 1841.
Obviously, drinking water in the wild can be risky. There are all sorts of diseases one can get from unpurified water which range from bad to potentially lethal. Boiling the water will kill all the bacteria, viruses, and amoebas that could be in the water, although of course you need a way to boil the water; if you can’t do that, there are various types of water purification tablets that can be used to get rid of the microbes. (Obviously, neither this nor boiling will solve non-biological water contamination issues.)
Bleach also works in small doses, and according to one source that I generally trust for horse facts, a lot of horses like bleach-y water because it tastes salty. According to the University of Minnesota extension, 4 drops/gallon will both purify and be drinkable for horses.
While I’m probably not the guy you want to ask about wilderness survival tips, I suspect that as long as you treat the water for microbes, most likely whatever other stuff might be in the water is less likely to kill you (in the short term) than not having any water you can drink at all.
Back in Ye Olde Times, each railcar had to have its brakes applied individually, and the brakemen (one who rode in the locomotive, one who rode in the caboose) would run on top of the rail cars, setting the brakes one-by-one. For obvious reasons, that wasn’t desirable, and air brakes were invented rather quickly . . . in the US, the current system is essentially the same as what George Westinghouse patented in 1869—air brakes.
Without getting into details of how the system works (it’s not like truck air brakes; train air brakes do use a reduction in air pressure to apply the brakes, but they also use air pressure to apply the brakes), the train pipe is the pipe that goes from one end of the train to the other. Depending on how long the air system in the train has been empty, and how many cars there are, that could take a while to charge (that’s why some railroads had air supplies in the yard, so the cut of cars could be pre-charged with air before the locomotives attached).
Vitales Pizza is an actual pizza store in Clinton, Iowa, and they do sell a spicy pizza.
Someone noticed in the last blog post I had an asterisk by a railroad air line, but then never explained what that was.
In the early days of railroads, a lot of them that went any distance were what was known as “water level routes.” That is, they followed watercourses (which naturally take the most level path that they can), and some of the railroads back in the day were famous for it, such as the New York Central’s Water Level Route which ran from New York to Chicago . . . and is still in use today.
The thing about water level routes is that rivers are generally twisty, so your mainline is also going to be generally twisty or you’ll be building a lot of bridges to straighten things out, and if you’ve got more money from investors (or more favorable geography), you can take a more direct route, which were known as “Air Lines.”
Probably the most well-known of them was the Seaboard Air Line.
There was also the Michigan Air Line, and while it’s long gone, in Jackson, MI (which also boasts the oldest continuously-operating train station, 1841-present) near the airport there’s Air Line road.
It’s not named for the airport.
It occurs to me that there are a lot of train songs, and I’ve been remiss about not including any of them in the blog posts. Someone in the comments asked if Sweetsong knew a particular song (don’t remember who or what the song was). It’s safe to assume she knows lots of train songs, and going forward I’ll try and remember to include one so you do, too 
Probably as songs everyone knows, this isn’t one of the top ones (probably City of New Orleans is the most well-known for most of y’all), but this is one of my favorites and therefore should be first.
The Rock Island, officially the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific, was a Class 1 that stretched from Chicago to New Mexico. While it is now defunct, living on in song and the memory of ‘Bankrupt Blue’ locomotives and equipment, a new shortline railroad that holds the rights to their name started operating in Mississippi in 2017.
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Can't unsee
https://derpibooru.org/images/194973?q=the+girl+who+leapt+through+time
I like trains...
I think it was me who asked. There are lots of train songs for Sweetsong to pick from, and that's not even counting those she might compose personally. Some of the railroad songs on my playlist:
City Of New Orleans (Arlo Guthrie)
Kansas City Southern (Pure Prairie League)
Canadian Railroad Trilogy (Gordon Lightfoot)
Morning Train (Nine to Five) (Sheena Easton)
Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull)
The Loco-Motion (Little Eva, and appropriately enough, Grand Funk Railroad)
Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)
Downtown Train (Rod Stewart, Patty Smyth)
Downbound Train (Bruce Springsteen)
Runaway Train (Soul Asylum)
Long Train Runnin' (The Doobie Brothers)
Mystery Train (Bob Welch)
This Train Don't Stop There Anymore (Elton John)
Stephen Bishop's hit It Might Be You may not be specifically about trains, but opens with the line I've been passing time watching trains go by, so I'm counting it.
Thankfully, Wikipedia has a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_train_songs
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Is that who the mare in the final image is supposed to be? If I knew my toyline better, I could tell you who it was.
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derpicdn.net/img/2017/5/1/1426097/large.png
"It’s also worth nothing that the oldest continuously-operated passenger station in the US was opened in 1841."
Ooh, which one is that?"Jackson, MI (which also boasts the oldest continuously-operating train station, 1841-present)"
Oh. :D
"Obviously, neither this nor boiling will solve non-biological water contamination issues."
Well, some issues it might solve, if, say, the contaminant is some chemical that's broken down into harmless components by boiling. But, yeah, not something to count on unless one knows exactly what's in the water, I expect.
"While I’m probably not the guy you want to ask about wilderness survival tips, I suspect that as long as you treat the water for microbes, most likely whatever other stuff might be in the water is less likely to kill you (in the short term) than not having any water you can drink at all."
While I'm definitely not an expert on wilderness survival, aye, that sounds likely in most cases. Some sorts of contaminants might actually be worse -- but those probably aren't going to be encountered commonly.
Railway air brakes are neat. :)
I've spent some time thinking about and researching them before, though, and some systems can get pretty complicated! I'd say I know significantly more than most people (admittedly probably not too hard on this topic), but also enough to know there's a lot I don't know or fully understand.
And thank you, as usual, for writing, story chapter and blog post both! :)
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So do I! :D
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...Is the second part of that image a reference to something in particular? I'm afraid that I'm not placing it.
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It's part of the ASDF movie series from "TomSka" on YouTube. Give it a look if you haven't seen it yet. Currently there are 14 parts, but start with the first one.
Here is a compilation of all relevant train scenes.
(You'll also quickly notice what's up to the phrase "I like trains".)
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...Huh. Well, thank you for the explanation!
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It might have been . . . I could scroll up through the comments, but where’s the fun in that?
In terms of the ‘everybody knows’ song, probably City of New Orleans. Also, props for Gordon Lightfoot mention, many people don’t know who he is and that’s a shame.
Kenny Roger’s The Gambler could be considered a train song, I suppose. It takes place on a train. And there’s also a C.W. McCall song about trains (can’t remember the title, but it’s about the Durango and Silverton railroad [which could be one of two, I’d have to listen to the song again for specifics]). C.W. McCall is best known for Convoy, which is a shame because IMHO that’s not his best song by a long shot.
Also, Runaway Train isn’t really about trains, but I’ll give it a pass since I love that song. Speaking of which, there’s an unrelated movie called Runaway Train that’s really good.
That’s a surprisingly long list.
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Gordon Lightfoot's a favorite.
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I’ve taken trains from there before!
There are probably some you could denature with heat, but what came to my mind was heavy metals which AFAIK aren’t really affected by heating.
My dad told me once about a guy who was found adrift on Lake Michigan badly dehydrated because he didn’t think to drink the water . . . in the middle of the lake, you’re probably safe enough drinking it (it’s the fifth-largest lake in the world, about 1,200 cubic miles of water.
I love the fact that they’re not much changed from what was invented more than a century ago. Westinghouse came up with a system that withstood the test of time, I’d say. They’re not perfect, but they do well enough.
I don’t fully understand the details of how they work, but have a good general concept of how they operate, and how it’s different from truck air brakes . . . and just as importantly, why it’s different than truck air brakes.
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There’s also the song, which I think was my first exposure to it.
If nothing else, the flying locomotives makes it worth watching. Pegi-locos?
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As a Michigander, I knew all the lyrics to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in elementary school . . . I wonder if that’s still required learning?
Now, for all the marbles . . . do you know of the Mitchell Trio?
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I didn't, so I had to look them up. I do, however, know one of their former band members... but I don't think I get bonus points for knowing John Denver.
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Yeah, you don’t get bonus points for that. I know who he is, too, although I don’t know the names of the other members. . . .
Anyway, they’ve got some great music I think you’d like. They have some comedy songs which are still relevant today, and a lot of political commentary from the 60s.
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I'll check them out! On a side note, my iPod hit the Gordon Lightfoot part of my playlist earlier. Reminds me - do you like The Pony Man? Seems like an appropriate song for this community, and it's on my playlist.
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That’s one I’ve never heard, I don’t think. Or else I don’t remember it (I think I have that album . . . on vinyl). I just now listened to it, and I like it.
I’ve got one to send back at you, The Ballad of the Absent Mare by Leonard Cohen.
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That's a new one on me! Sounds up Sweetsong's alley, too. Appropriately enough, my first thought was of Sweetsong and this fic.
She longs to be lost sums her up pretty well. Truly that whole verse does.
I'm no stranger to iodine purification pills. It doesn't taste much different than city tap water. A supplemental backpacking filter pump is helpful, too.
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Ah, neat. :)
Right. Well, presumably if you got the water hot enough (under enough pressure to keep it from boiling away) to melt the heavy metals, they'd just come out as slag, and make the water drinkable... once it cooled down. :D
Yeah. Also, of course, if the alternative is potentially dying of dehydration...
Not much changed, aye, though the brake valves have gotten a lot more complex. Simple triple valves, those I recall being able to understand the workings of without too much difficulty. Modern distributor valves, not so much. :D
But it's amazing how much can be done with just one pressurized air line and some clever pneumatic-mechanical design.
(Of course, there are also two-pipe systems adding a main reservoir pipe, in which the brake pipe is mostly just for control with the main reservoir pipe handling charging, but I think, not sure, that even modern American passenger cars still have to work with just the brake pipe, and as far as I know single-pipe operation is still standard on American freight. Not positive, though; I think I've tried to look it up before and not gotten results as conclusive as I wanted.)
I think I did watch an old instructional video on truck air brakes once; I don't know how many details I remember, though.
:)
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...Huh. Well, thanks. :D
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It really does, doesn’t it?
Oh hey I know that pony in that picture! Hehe
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¿How would one get the water so hot in the wild? Raising the temperature of the water might make it a better solvent. If one heats the water to a supercritical fluid, heavy metal might fall out of solution.
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Good point; I'm not sure just what the behavior of heavy metals would be there.
My line was mostly a joke, though, IIRC; for practical purification, it'd be much easier, if we're still talking about thermal processes, to just distill the water.