Missed

I spent the days around Christmas visiting family so I missed several things that happened in Rensselaer. I missed the onset of the very cold weather (missed in the sense of I did not experience it, not in the sense that I felt sad). However, the forecast says that I will get to experience plenty of very frigid weather in the next week.

The roads were snow and ice covered when I returned and that may limit my ability to get around for a few days.

 Below is College Avenue as it appeared Friday evening.

 The river has frozen where the current is slow. The picture was taken from the College Avenue Bridge looking east.

The big event that I missed was the train derailment before Christmas, a major local news story. Fortunately no one was injured.

On Saturday I was surprised to find that the derailed cars had not been removed from Rensselaer but were mostly lined up along Walnut Street. All the wheels seem to have been taken off the cars. The news reports said that a faulty wheel on one of the cars was the cause of the accident.

Below is a view showing two cars still along the tracks with the eleven cars along Scott Street which was still closed to traffic on Saturday. The picture was taken from the Scott Street rail crossing.

 Below is a closer look at the tanker car closest to the camera in the picture above. It shows the scars of the derailment.

There are a couple of pieces of railroad equipment for track repair on the siding east of Scott Street. There are piles of rock that will be used in making repairs, but the snow makes it hard or impossible to see what needs to be done.

I have not heard or read about what will happen to the cars that derailed.

Other events I missed were a City Council meeting and the Commissioners end of the year special meeting. In a few months I would have forgotten what happened at these meetings, but I will remember the family adventures for the rest of my life.

Here is hoping that 2018 bring good adventures to Rensselaer.