It's been an incredible amount of time since I posted on the website blog. I doubt many people view this, but I enjoy taking the time to update everyone that I do intend to continue working on the K3Railroads website. I now live further south in Illinois but am still undoubtedly in northern Illinois. I would like to give a wonderful spotlight onto the many people who work to preserve railroad history outside of K3Railroads. While I continue my mission to document and enjoy history I can't help but notice the amazing community of others doing the same thing in their respective regions. As I've matured and started working a full time job at the local steel mill, I've come to appreciate the free time I have and usually spend it with my girlfriend and working around the house.

While things are settling down with me, I definitely cannot say the same about the nations railroads. If you haven't, please go to YouTube and search for the Surface Transportation Boards Hearing on Urgent Issues in Rail Freight and dive into it! The bottom line is that the majority of Class I railroads in America are under-performing at a time when the criticality of their service is at an all time high. At the end of the second hearing date, there was an interview with the COO of Canadian National who walked through their mission and ways of operation that differ from traditional American roads. It appears the Canadian Roads adopt Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) over time with a more gradual change. Now has this been without growing pains, I doubt it. Looking back as a railfan I remember CN running 10K foot long trains years before other railroads started to dabble with it. With this, I wondered how CN was potentially causing issues by doing this. Since then, it has become clear that the kinks have been worked out and CN is moving decent freight. Looking around, I notice the grain elevators along the local CN mainline, the ex-Illinois Central, are still serviced by the Class I carrier. To me this reflects how preservation has as much to do with how business is run and upheld as much as how the museum treats its equipment. It's incredible to see what railroads were removed and abandoned, but equally in my mind, is it incredible to see what railroads manage to survive through the centuries of leadership turnover and outside influences. What a world we live in, and what interesting ways we move our goods.

    I started my learning at the local community college last week, and it has been proving to be a real time sucker it was rumored. I am still active in my interests, of course, but probably will not have as much time as I was so accustomed to earlier to work on such interests. That said, I'm sure you are all in fair understanding that updates may slow on this website, and yes, I know they weren't really fast-paced to begin with. I hope to write some more in my free time and see about expanding the articles I have so far and work on gathering more material to publish.

Cheers,
Joshua

    Now, when you start to see how things change over history... you start to get an understanding of how the world sort of works. You have money, people spend it and things are built. The opposite happens in depression. Connecting the dots is a term I use here referring to going out to a spot and trying to imagine what was there beforehand. Like when you see what appears to be an extended Right of Way, you try to imagine the area with a second track. Sometimes you are wrong, it was always single tracked, but in a lot of cases - I am right.
    Not to sound like I'm cocky, but you tend to get pretty good at guessing. Now it's obvious if you just think for a minute as to what you know about an area. Yes, it helps to know half of the story coming in too! Overall, the whole connecting the dots is what I tend to do here at K3. Now, I mean myself as I am the only one who actually does web editing, but in all honesty I'm not alone. My friends assist me on the website in many ways, so we all work together to piece things together. It's a fun pastime, and there isn't a soul I've met that has said differently. In fact, you get to meet some very nice and cool people as you go along. That's why I always tell you, contact me if you have anything to say. I love hearing from people. I encourage you to share your stories or thoughts on our Contact Us page whenever you feel like it.
    So I hope you enjoy looking around, and thanks for reading. I'm afraid this is all I have time to share with you. Check back sometime later for another post.

- Joshua

Of course you must replace things to create new things. That is a given, it is very hard to do it any other way. Say you have a grade crossing with just crossbucks, and multiple people have been killed there. Well, the upgrades would involve new signals, thus ripping down the old signs. Simple. Yet, I feel a touch of waste is involved. I think those new signals do not need to come with new crossbucks; just use the ones removed from the old signs, assuming they are still good and undamaged. That is easily said, and harder done. I'm no stranger to the work behind being signal maintainer - knowledge wise that is. Strangely, I find it hard to believe you absolutely need brand new signs if you had good ones and if you need brand new signals if you already had some. My beef seems to be directed to the recent PTC upgrades, but don't let it be. I'm actually focusing on how these upgrades are being performed. I enjoy seeing the world change, and feel honored to be able to document it; given I am able to see all the old signals and train signs before they are gone. Now, a prime example of what I wish to talk about is what I recently put on the front page - the signal replacement in Otto, Illinois. Now those gantries were rusty and a little shabby if you ask me. Some proper love and care may have changed that, but I think the railroad intended to let to the signals go and just have the benefits of the new systems on its march to PTC. I completely understand that, and have no problem with it... but I hope they held onto those Safetran LED headed signals on the southern gantry. Because those signal heads were in excellent condition. When I see things like those thrown away like garbage, that is where I get a little peeved. Seriously, if you have a nice signal with usable parts and pieces, use them! Do not just let the railroad spend money on all new systems even if it's already willing to pay for it. I doubt, knowing the CN maintainers, that this happened... but it does in other places. I know that much. Lazy maintenance is a big reason for it, it sometimes is easier to replace then to maintain, but why is that? Is the money that easily flowing from a railroad? Perhaps, but I'm thinking it's a way to ease PTC into the system faster. Maybe the signalmen are slacking on purpose so that they won't be wasting time on signals that will be replaced anyway for immanent PTC upgrades. I doubt this in many areas, but I can definitely see it happening. Is PTC really that good? I don't know. Evidence shows yes, and then you have accidents like the CTA Forest Park, Illinois head-on wreck. A wreck which involved trains with all the bells and whistles of safety equipment installed - including PTC. What I do know, is that it definitely brings about incentive to slack on early retirements for signaling equipment otherwise primed for a few more years of service. The only reason I cannot land good local accusations on the CN guys is because I know they hold onto parts and do keep up the signals like I hope they would. Speaking of which, did you know the US&S Tri-Light signal in Kankakee, Illinois has parts of the US&S Tri-Lights that were once on one of the Gilman, Illinois gantries on it? Yep, the CN signalmen kept the parts and gave them to the Kankakee Model Railroad Club to fill up the empty US&S Tri-Light they have. So perhaps innovation can mean waste, but there's plenty of room for a little recycling on the sign.