A new feature for the web site...You can now look up  stock prices and see weather for Selkirk...There is a Collection for member BJ Haynes, please see Matty if you want to contribute.....                                                 

This is a real pet peeve of mine...You don't have to be exactly at 15mph, you can be UNDER 15mph, just don't be OVER 15mph. The most important thing though is being able to stop within 1/2 your range of vision. If you can only see 1/4 mile you have to be able to stop within 1/8 of a mile. 

Back about 10yrs ago I had an engr. trainee who was a bit nervous to say the least (He's now over on NJT). Well we had a RFE riding with us this one trip and we were coming down into Milton (Which at the time going into the siding you got a Restricting) Well this fellow brought the train down, came right in at 15mph all the way to CP66 and stopped, perfect, right at the signal...RFE said,  very good but..."What if the dispatcher put a work train in ahead of you and didn't tell you?" This does happen...take nothing for granted...I was coming down to Milton myself a couple of months later with the SEAL and there was an Empty Hopper train from Roseton sitting on the Main. For whatever reason I started to think about what this RFE had said and came in the siding doing about 8mph...The Northbound crew on the main said " The other guy's rear end is just South of the Winery Crossing." First thing that comes to my mind is "What other Guy?!?!" Dispatcher never said a word about the guy ahead of me, not that he had to either...

On another subject but intertwined to this...Keep an ear to the radio...know who is ahead of you and who is coming at you....If you're just North of Haverstraw and you hear the dispatcher say to the guy ahead of you that he's going held at  Newburgh or Milton...Chances are you're going in behind him...