RATS!
Wound up sitting there at the crossing for 35 minutes as they moved a train back and forth getting all the cars connected.
They back it down one siding, pull forward past the switch, throw the switch, and then back down another siding to connect more cars, finally getting the rest of their load, and then they pulled out of the yard, past the crossing, and off in to the distance.
Here's a screenshot of the crossing I have to traverse every day. Follow "Nimitz Rd" from the lower right, and towards the top you'll see it turn, and this is where the crossing is. It's a choke point for everything out on the Navy Mole besides us, and can really cause a jam, as it's the ONLY road leading on and off the mole.
The sidings with all the traffic are to the left of Nimitz Road, while the sidings on the right take a different route off Terminal Island, and never impede vehicular traffic.There's been a couple of times in the past (a derailment, and a fatal accident) that kept the crossing blocked for 24 hours, so we had the railroad guys open up one of their access roads for us, so we could get off Terminal Island. It wasn't easy, but we had access.
SO.....I didn't get home until about 0045, which means by the time I get into my jammies, and wind down, I finally got to sleep about 0130.
The Launch Platform is leaving Sunday morning, and the Command ship will be leaving Thursday morning, and I'll be standing on the pier waving to them.
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Sorry you got stuck, but standing on the pier as they get underway? Priceless!
ReplyDeleteSorry you're not going on the ship. That would be fun.
ReplyDeleteLL, this would have been my 19th trip out for a launch.. I've been out for over 30 days when we had problems, and out for 19 days when everything went by the book.
ReplyDeleteI've seen one rocket blow up on the pad at liftoff (NSS-8), and another come crashing down less than a mile away (Intelsat-27).
I've had my "fun", the work is getting too physically demanding for me, the place is now run by a bunch of lying schmucks who won't give you a straight answer, and will go out of their way to screw you out of 30 minutes of justified overtime, and are letting all the systems fall apart from lack of maintenance.
I have TWO "direct" managers, both decent guys. One gives me my work assignments, and the other just signs my time sheet. They're kept in the dark, too.
We don't have enough spare parts or equipment, and we've been "robbing" spares from other systems. I don't know what they'll do out on this launch if certain things fail.....probably write a waiver, and continue on.
Nope, I won't miss going on this one at all.
One last screw job... :-) Glad you're not going!
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