1958 Lake Berryessa, Morning Glory (Glory Hole) Spillway and 11.5mw Monticello Hydroelectric Project

If you are here because of "Mendota, IL: CB&Q Coaling Tower and Roundhouse," then you need to go to there.

Monicello Dam: (Satellite)

Spillway: (Satellite)

 Лариса Юрьевнa drove video, Nov 2023

jefferson lopez drone video, Apr 2024

Unique and beautiful posted

🇺🇸🕳️😳 The "Glory Hole" of Lake Berryessa, located in Napa County, California, is a remarkable funnel-shaped opening that functions as a drainage system for the reservoir. Despite its unsettling appearance, this phenomenon is an ingenious hydraulic structure designed to regulate the lake's water levels. Built in the 1950s, the drain connects to an underground tunnel that redirects water into the Putah River. While its primary purpose is technical, the Glory Hole has become a popular tourist attraction due to its impressive design and the mesmerizing spiral motion of water disappearing into its depths.

Credits to Cienciatum

[Several comments say these are photos of different places. Others, and myself, think it is the same hole.]

I spent some time looking at Google results trying to find photos of the outlet. I should have first looked at the comments for this post.

Daniel Cross commented on the above post
People skateboard or used to at the river level exit.

Jason Wells commented on the above post
And the other end is skateable. I’ve always wanted to go there.

Ted Kelley commented on the above post
The other end is more impressive...

NapaValleyFocus
The spillway is designed to handle 48,400cfs or 96,000 acre-feed per day. This flow would be achieved in the unlikely event that the lake level is 15.5' above the spillway rim, which is at 440' msl. The dam is just 0.5' higher. So far, the highest level reached was 446.7' in 1983.

NapaValleyFocus, PeterKilkus Photo
The main outlet allows the dam to supply water downstream for irrigation and drinking water. The minimum flow requirement is 45cfs and it can reach 700cfs durng the summer growing season.

Historic lake levels

NapaValleyFocus

Recent lake levels

NapaValleyFocus

The watershed

NapaValleyFocus

During the 2019 flow:

4:25 video @ 1:18

@ 4:20
The horizontal tunnel was part of the original diversion tunnel that was used during construction.

Here we see the spillway outlet on the left and the main outlet further right in the background.

Jayson delamora, Mar 2017

Oscar Omar, Mar 2019

A small release from the main outlet. The hydroelectric plant should also be releasing water.

Leo Xu, Dec 2024

A large release of water out of the main outlet.

Christopher Gaczol, Feb 2019

And California also has some dry years.

Constantia Oomen, Aug 2021

A nice overview as a summary.

jefferson lopez, Apr 2024

When I looked at YouTube a few hours after doing the Google search for the above dam, the YouTube algorithm offered this 6:41 drone video. I'm reminded that Google also owns YouTube. At 2:10, the drone starts flying down into the Glory Hole. I wondered about the drone loosing its signal from the controller. At 2:52, some text appeared confirming that a loss of signal was an issue. But just a few seconds later, it does go down into the hole. Actually, I thinkthe drone went in from the outlet.

I-290/Eisenhower/Congress Bridge over South Branch of Chicago River

If you are here because of "Galesburg, IL: Coaling Tower and Roundhouse," then you need to go there.

(Satellite)

 

Boat View, Oct 2014, looking North

Boat View, Oct 2014, looking South

Raymond Kunst posted
Construction in 1956 of the Congress Expy bridge.
Raymond Kunst shared
Construction in 1956 of the Congress Expy bridge.

George Beres: Grand Central Station in the background.

[And we can see the freight house between the station and the river.]

Covered Hopper Cargo

The number of bays under a covered hopper indicate the type of cargo it is carrying.

5-bays: flour.

20140609 0183-cropped

4-bays: plastic pellets. The bays have a connection for a hose for pneumatic unloading.

Plastic pellets going to a dairy to make milk cartons

 3-bays: grain. A couple of the cars being loaded at the CGB grain elevator in Olney, IL. (Update: also potash and urea.)    Number of bushels a 3-bay hopper can hold

20141108 0286c

2-bays: sand. And the cars are shorter. They are also used for other high density cargo such as frac sand, cement, roofing granules, alumina and aggregates. But different cargo types may require different liners.

Bruce

Update:

A 2-bay hopper carrying feed. The resolution was good enough that you can see it was built in 1951. Were 3-bay grain hoppers developed after 1951 is the density of feed (ground grain) enough higher that only 2 bays are needed. The CSX reporting mark indicates Central Transportation Company. As I have mentioned before, my Dad worked for Central Soya. The founder was Dale W. McMillen Sr. I had always heard of Master Mix as their feed division. This posting is the first time I have seen McMillen Feeds. I found a history of Central Soya, but it is more info than I have time to read now. Now that I think about this car some more, 1951 is an early date for any type of covered hopper.

Stan Sienicki posted

Trackside Treasure doesn't take pictures of just the locomotives so I was able to learn that a 2-bay car may also be carrying salt and that sodium chlorate uses pneumatic unloading. And I include a standard 3-bay hopper because BN green is indeed getting rare.

Trackside Treasure
AXLX 20072 salt cars - your choice graffiti or rust!

Trackside Treasure
UNPX120701 sodium chlorate service cylindrical

Trackside Treasure
BN 461908 rare to see a large "BN" logo!

One of two photos posted by Brett Stevens
Can anyone tell me what exactly this type of 5 bay hopper is and what are the commodities it hauls..I been trying to find these in HO scale.
Noe Gutierrez I believe that's referred to as a pressure differential covered hopper. They're used for transporting fine dry bulk commodities and use pressurized air to unload the product ..... https://www.everestrailcar.com/.../pressure-differential.../
Dave Burman BLMA and Atlas make them(Trinity 5660 cu ft. -an earlier car from Walthers was similar (A North American car) but hasn't been released in a while-I see them at shows often however.
Rhett Coates These usually carry baking flour for any type of food product manufacturer which uses a lot of that ingredient, such as a Nabisco cracker factory.

2020: covered hoppers are now up to four bays for grain and Dry Distillers Grain.

Danny Welch posted five photos with the question:

I see strings of these covered hoppers leaving homewood illinois southbound on the canadian national frequently.
A. What are their contents?
B. Where are they headed?
C. What is their starting point?

Eric Rissman Trinity 6351 grain hopper. Built for the ethanol boom on getting product to the plants.
Daniel Larabee Usually hold Dry Distillers Grain. The after product of making ethanol. Used for cattle feed in foreign countries. https://www.iowacorn.org/corn.../livestock/distillers-grains
Ken Schmidt DDGs is fed to many animals (different animals take different rations of it) in the U.S. It is as others said, the byproduct of making ethanol at a dry mill plant.
A good quantity goes to Mexico, but feed lots in the U.S. also get their share.
DDGs is not actually 100% dry, so it can bridge in the car while unloading. Most destinations use vibrators to get it out, however in Mexico, they use what ever mean to brake up the bridge. Including in one place, a pole on a rope banging on the side of the cars.
At first in 2001, they were using any 6000 cuft cars they could. But soon, a majority of the fleet became TILX cars. The first of the TILX cars started at 634000. Last I looked, they were up to 650000. Many since that early time were leased to others with reporting marks such as SOXX. As well, cars from Gunderson joined the fleets.
DDGs moves in both units and single cars. With 40 plants in Iowa, you could not help seeing them on all the carriers in the state.

1

2

3

4

5

Ken Schmidt commented on Danny's post
This is how they looked new in 2004.

I learned that 3-bay cars can carry fertilizer as urea as well as potash from this post.

Screenshot via a David Jordan post
BNSF Railway unit fertilizer train, G-PEIOAN (Grain, Peoria IL to Oakes, MN) slows on the Peoria Subdivision as it nears the Quincy Main early afternoon Saturday, May 1, 2021. BNSF 5420-5121-6503 have 65 cars of urea loaded by TP&W-served Growmark at Mapleton. Later, the same train, BNSF 5420 setout and the other two units "turned," rolls up the Barstow Subdivision at Bouhan.
Dennis DeBruler: So 3-bay hopper trains may be hauling fertilizer instead of grain. Judging by the number of green BN hoppers in the train, it appears BNSF tries to use their older hoppers for fertilizer.
David Jordan: Dennis DeBruler Older cars are commonly used for dry fertilizer service. I've seen that for potash as well.

Update: The above was a railfan perspective. I recently looked at some hoppers in satellite images. Flour cars have seven covers.

41°55'16.7"N 87°44'29.4"W

For Pepperidge Farm in Downers Grove, IL, I had to switch to Google Earth because it appears that bakery is now closed.

Google Earth with timeline set to 10/2019

Cement cars have three covers. 

It appears the cement plant in Oglesly, IL, is no longer distributing cement. I had to go back to 2013 to find a cut of cement cars.

Google Earth with timeline set to 5/2013

At least the plant in Limedale, IN, is still operational.

Satellite

And sand cars have three covers.

Satellite

At least some plastic hoppers use 10 covers.

Satellite

Satellite

Satellite

And grain cars have continuous hinged covers so that they can be loaded as a train slowly rolls past an elevator.

Satellite

The reason for analyzing the satellite image of hoppers was to try to figure out what a hopper with 6 covers carried. That hopper was parked in Avondale Yard.

The information was used in various comments in this post.

ND&W: Maumee & Western and Napoleon, Defiance & Western

Since my home town was Fort Wayne, IN, this video caught my attention. It has a nice write up that explains the fate of the Wabash mainline east of Fort Wayne. The segment east of Liberty Center, OH, and Toledo became a rail-trail. The 51-mile segment between Woodburn, IN, and Liberty Center, OH, was obtained from Norfolk Southern in 1990 by Indiana Hi-Rail Company to form the Maumee & Western Railroad Company (MAW). When Hi-Rail liquidated in 1997, MAW purchased the line. In December, 2012, Pioneer Rail Corp acquired the trackage and formed the subsidiary Napoleon, Defiance & Western Railroad Company to not only operate it, but to maintain it. When the track has not been maintained for 50 years, it becomes news when there is maintenance activity. The Crescent-News in Defiance, OH, took a video of a MoW mowing operation. The mower not only removed brush, it cut trees. Note timestamp 0:51. Note that the equipment design assumes it is the sides of the track that need to be trimmed, not the track bed itself. The track had not been properly maintained since 1964 when the Norfolk and Western, Nickel Plate, Wabash and other railroads merged. This line became redundant with the Nickel Plate line between Fort Wayne, IN, and Toledo, OH.

Jason Hall -> Off The Beaten Track Branchline Railroading

Jason's comments:

A Napoleon, Defiance, Western GP-16 heads south out of Cecil, Ohio on a section of the former Cincinnati Northern to pick up cars at LaFarge in Paulding.

Donald Burford Didn't even realize that they serviced them anymore

Jason Hall Yeah at least twice a week i believe.

Scott Taipale They went from receiving waste oil to shipping cement after Pioneer got the line. 

Matthew Ditton -> Off The Beaten Track Branchline Railroading

Matthew's comment:

Signal on the ND&W east of Defiance Ohio. This portion is mainly used for car storage although there are now rumors of trains possibly running to Liberty Center again. This was, I assume, the one time approach signal for the now I&O Railroad.

Hopefully, you can access to comments from the "->" link in the caption because there was a lot of useful info including the predecessor corporations: "Wabash 5th District from Toledo to Fort Wayne , NW, Indiana Hi Rail, Maumee and Western."

Update:

Matthew Ditton ->  Off The Beaten Track Branchline Railroading
Napoleon Defiance and Western at Okolona Ohio
headed toward Napoleon Ohio.

Jim Etchie posted 12 pictures including the bridge, and B&O diamond, and the depot that is now the office.

Matt Ditton's 2015 photo of an engine coming down a track east of Cecil, OH, shows that ND&W still has a lot of track work to do.

Michael Schwiebert shared

Work progressing on the transload facility along the Napoleon, Defiance & Western RR. This enabled the railroad to take the line east of the Napoleon industrial park out of service.

https://www.facebook.com/HenryCountyCIC/posts/1580652405347081
[They got monetary assistance to build this transload facility in exchange for abandoning the segment to Liberty Corner including (especially) the 4-lane crossing of US-6.]

Michael Schwiebert posted two photos with the comment:

Had the opportunity to take a picture or two of the new ND&W transload facility in Napoleon Ohio earlier today. Note that there are two tracks on the site. My guess is that the second one will provide a secure facility for keeping their locomotive(s) in town when necessary. The second photo was from a post a few weeks ago. Looking at the aerial photo the facility is in the portion of the rectangle that is to left (west) of the street that dead ends at route 424. Also noticed that at least some of the rail is 115 lb, so it's obviously not re-lay rail from elsewhere on the line.

1

2, Satellite

A YouTube video of a Tomato Paste Express