Day Trip to Dunsmuir

I took what I call my “Last day trip to Dunsmuir for a while” on Wednesday (10/6/10) meaning, I start my new job at Schwan’s on Monday and it’s going to be a while before I have any time off to do such things. Even though I only saw one train that day, it was a very satisfying and relaxing day. Rewarding as well as I found two new things I have never seen before along the old Siskiyou Line in Northern Cal. and got to chat with an online acquaintance at what was a chance meeting at a remote area along the line.

The night before my trip, I emailed a fellow, Robert “Photobob” Morris saying I was going to be in Dunsmuir area and hoped to run into him. Well the next day as I was driving through Grenada, CA, a very small very old farm town along the Siskiyou line, I noticed a strange looking old Line-shack I had never noticed before. There was a road leading right up to it. It was an old but still usable “in-Motion” track weight scale used for the farmers grain cars.

As I was checking it out, up pulls Robert and his wife to take some pictures as well. Small world… We were both surprised that, after many many years, and being in a small town with high unemployment and basically nothing for the local kids to do it was in such pristine shape. There wasn’t a single bit of graffiti or vandalism, there was expensive but primitive electrical equipment inside behind unlocked doors. I have some pictures at my Picasa site. The first few are of the scale, shack and the old Southern Pacific concrete line shack.

There are a few images of my other discovery that day. An old section of road with a cool old trestle going over it. Thought it would be a good future photo-op location if trains ever return to that section of track again.

Free Virus removal Forum

I recently picked up a nasty little virus cruising the Internet on my NetBook. I was using FireFox so I was surprised. It was what is called “Scare Ware” or “Fake-AV”. It presented itself as a virus protection program scanning my system, a ‘fake’ Windows Security Shield with a balloon pop-up, “Your system is infected, click here to fix”. And that makes the fake AV program window show it’s ugly head, “scanning” your system,… a few virus names show in a “Found” menu and a “Click Here to Clean” button appears. (I later learned that if this happens again, don’t touch anything and power-off. Best way at this point is to just press and hold the power button till it powers off)

When the button is pressed it takes you to a page to “Purchase” the virus scan program to be able to continue. Of course it’s fake, it’s not the virus scan program I have installed you say to yourself. I tried to close it, I tried to use my real virus scanner, I tried “Task Manager” to stop it, no other browsers would open, only the one you were using when you contracted it. Everything kept pointing to “Purchase”

I shut down and restarted in “Safe-Mode” (restart: after the screen goes black, start tapping your F8 key repeatedly until a screen appears, Arrow up/down to select “Safe Mode”, press Enter) I used my Spybot S&D to remove the initial programs and stuff associated with it. After that I did virus scans and used a few other programs designed to remove Malware but all came up empty after Spybot S&D removed what it found.

None of my browsers worked. I basically had to go through the Network setup wizard and establish a network connection again. Then I had to go to Internet Settings (Windows XP…. Control Panel>Internet Options>Connections-tab>Setup, follow the wizard) That got my browsers to at least work, but none would bring up a web page. I did a System Restore back to a few days before the incident. (Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore) That got me back online, but things were still not right….

I went to my un-infected Desktop PC and went online and changed all my passwords anywhere I had important business because after doing a search around Google, Microsoft had a page explaining what this virus was and does, It first tries to fool you to buy the product, then it steals your passwords, looking for FTP servers to put itself on to spread further. I didn’t want to take any chances so I changed everything important.

I did a search for help and whenever I clicked a search result, it would take me someplace other than where I wanted to go. But not on everything, luckily, important places like MSN support, Google support, some fix-it sites, etc… worked fine. So I now had  Hijacked /redirect search results. I did manage to find a great place that basically does the same thing a Tech place would do if you took it down there and paid who knows how much money to have it cleaned.

I went to TechSpot.com where I found other people who had my same problem. It is a several step-procedure, customized to your particular malware/problem. Here is a link to my forum/post and what I had to do to clean my system. If you need help, don’t follow my procedure, every one is different and the scripts they create are catered to only my PC.  Follow the “8 step” procedure before posting (sticky post at top of page) It is all volunteer work, these fellows do this on their own time so be patient, it takes a while, Mine took about a week.  You might swear you are being ignored but everyone does get helped.

“Pottsville” 2010

This last Fathers day, Sunday June 20, we went to “Pottsville” in Merlin, OR. to the annual antique tractor show and flea market / swap meet. There were the usual large but manageable crowds, tractor people seem to be some of the nicest around, hot dog and burger stands, other various food, vendors selling home crafted items. There were these huge steam behemoths rolling around, and the regular old diesel tractors, all were either in the “parade” or parked in rows for viewing. Also there were antique small engines, the kind used for pumping water or some other small job.

Cheryl didn’t find anything at the flea market but I found an old mason jar I’m going to use to make a bird feeder. Here are the few pics I took.

Yummy Quick Ribs!

Tonight I’m making some easy quick baby-back ribs!  It’s basically three steps: cut-boil-grill.

1. Cut ribs into 2-rib sections

2. Place in a dutch oven or heavy sauce pan. Fill with enough water to cover ribs. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 20 minutes

3. Grill over medium/high heat, turning once, for about 10 minutes, adding BBQ  sauce after turning the first time. I salt and pepper the meaty side and cook that side first.

These aren’t the fall off the bone ribs we crave but they are delicious and tender enough for a quick meal.

Short trip to Florence, Or

The weather was perfect for our little one nighter to Florence this last weekend. I had been looking forward especially, for a visit to Mo’s for some fish and chips and chowder. There is a new ramp down to the dock that runs in front of Mo’s so I had a chance to get some shots I hadn’t before. I also got some cool shots from under the 101 bridge.

Check out the latest photos here

CORP tests new GP-20D units on “Hill”

On Friday 04/30/10 Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad tested it’s newest engines in a run from Weed, CA to Medford, OR over the Siskiyou Line, pulling 9 bulkhead flat cars loaded with veneer and 7 Log cars full of logs bound for Riddle and Dillard, Or. mills. The test was to see if it’s new CEFX “GP-20D” engines would make an efficient run over the Hill that boasts some 3% plus grades, testing fuel economy, tractive effort etc… in hopes that service on the south end could economically be restored if the “numbers” looked right.

Service south was halted by CORP around April 15 2008 because it claimed it was loosing money going south of Ashland. Loads originating north of Ashland would be hauled north to Eugene then sent south from there on the Union Pacific. (Instead of originally going south over the Siskiyou Summit to Black Butte to join the UP there.)

A big battle ensued between CORP and shippers, mainly veneer and log mills in Yreka,  and  by the Yreka Western RR. who services the mills, then exchange them with CORP in Montague, CA.

Originally, CORP would take a train of cars originating in the Rogue Valley to Hornbrook, CA, a midway point on the south end, drop that load off and pick up the loaded Log cars, Veneer and an occasional wood chip car and bring them north to awaiting plywood mills etc…  Another set of engines would resume taking the cars from the Rogue Valley south to Black Butte Junction, The shippers felt CORP was asking way too much money to take their loads North, plus reduced shipping days. The logs and veneer have been coming north on trucks ever since.

1 & 2- leaving Weed ~ “old and new” passing old Edgewood Store

Mt Shasta in background ~ passing siding at Gazelle ~ past old tractor Grenada

old tank car ~ fuel tank ~ old tressel

heat waves ~ old Montague station ~ Klamath River bridge

I you like, I have more pictures here

Chinese New year 2010~ Year of the Tiger

We made our 3rd annual trip to the Chinese New Year parade in Jacksonville, OR this last Feb. 13th. I have more history and links about the town here,  our first visit to the parade 2 years ago. Some of the same stuff but fun none the less.

The streets were lined on either side with spectators, not packed mind you, but for some reason several fellows felt the need to jump out in the street to take pictures with their “big” fancy cameras and block other people from getting anything but their backsides.

Here are this years shots

Old wooden Indian ~ Famous Jacksonville Tavern

“Peter Britt” ~ Chinese Dragons from San Francisco

Dragons ~ Chinese orphan girl ~ schoolkids masks

I almost missed the long golden dragon thanks to the idiot standing in the middle of the street taking pictures. It was a beautiful morning, but we weren’t in the mood to fight the crowds after the parade so we went over the the museum and checked things out there.

CORP Job #701 ~ Weed to Black Butte

Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad (CORP) has an Engine  in Weed, CA  (GP38-3 #3809) that switches the local mills, and trades out cars with the Union Pacific RR  from the junction at Black Butte, CA.

CORP runs on the older, more mountainous, former Southern Pacific Siskiyou Line, Union Pacific runs on newer, less mountainous,  former Southern Pacific “Natron Cutoff” mainline. The two meet near Weed, CA at Black Butte, just off of the South Weed exit of I-5. There is an old water tower there and there used to be an old water spout for filling the tenders, until a misfortunate accident involving an Amtrak train and some cars fouling the main line, causing the Amtrak to derail and wipe out the old spigot.

Read more about the history of Black Butte Yard/Jctn.  here

It is a rare thing indeed to actually see the job #701 in action when you have to travel 80 miles and only get down there once or twice a year or so. Northern California recently had storm after storm dump tons of snow in the area, and I was anxious to get down there and get some train/snow shots (actually, my Jeep was threatening to cut me off if we didn’t go play.) It was just by luck that I was there about 5 minutes before it arrived at Black Butte. It must first climb around a steep grade to get there and I could hear the horn and laboring prime mover.

I knew right away what it was, as earlier in the day, I had seen the load and engine waiting at the Weed yard.

(above)  taken at Weed Yard

(above) Arriving at Black Butte.

(above) backing train to existing load. Mount Shasta, (middle) Black Butte, (right)

(above) Old water tower, CORP employee SUV, he ran around throwing switches for them, probably no conductor on board.

Up until this point it was not a great day for spotting trains. I stopped at Yreka Western RR on my way down there, no action, just a few of the engines sitting at the depot. Then I went down to Dunsmuir where the snow was deeper but no trains. Just the snow removing equipment sitting idle in the yard.  (below)

I did see a train however, just as the CORP train got next to the mainline, backing it’s load, a south bound mixed freight rolled through with two helpers on the end.