Hi guys, I saw this really nice looking Australian locomotive in the Geelong west yards and thought ya'll would like to see it. I really like the colours and the shape. I think its an old one but I dont really know. Its been sitting there for a couple of weeks.

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Hi guys, I saw this really nice looking Australian locomotive in the Geelong west yards and thought ya'll would like to see it. I really like the colours and the shape. I think its an old one but I dont really know. Its been sitting there for a couple of weeks.

And it says CRL on the side, I think that isn't Crazy Raccoon Lady of course, but still interesting, looks like two 'F' or 'E' units welded back to back.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

A little picture search says its a B class belonging to Consolidated Rail Leasing (CRL)and looks so good because it was recently rebuilt in Bendigo.

Edit Crazy racoon lady lol, good pick up Vic.

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Love it!

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A little more info

1 of 6 B class purchased by West Coast Railway. Was later swapped with GM19 from Great Northern Rail, with GNR folding B75 was sold to four members of Yarra Valley Railway, sold to SSR/CRL Early 2011. Not Operated by any of these operators yet.

The B class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Granville for the Victorian Railways in 1952/53.

The B class were the first mainline diesel locomotives built for the Victorian Railways. The design was based on the successful Electro-Motive Diesel F-unit locomotives with the distinctive bulldog nose. They were unusual in having a streamlined drivers cab at each end. In the 1980s some were rebuilt as the V/Line A class.

So yes it is indeed based on the EMD F unit, except a bit like the UK a lot of Australian locomotives had double cabs, means you never need a turntable or even a "wye"

Very nice looking machine.

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Thanks Bernie, that info is great. Arent I lucky to have such a fabulous locomotive living just one mile down the road.

@Chris I like the double cabin design, its my favourite design. They always look like they are going the right way.

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Not good for Amtrak. Beech Grove Shop worker burned. A reliable source (but who did not cite a public report) says he was ordered to weld a fuel tank and it exploded, he was burned over 85% of his body, and he died Sunday morning.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Not good for Amtrak. Beech Grove Shop worker burned. A reliable source (but who did not cite a public report) says he was ordered to weld a fuel tank and it exploded, he was burned over 85% of his body, and he died Sunday morning.

No. That will come down on them like a ton of lead bricks dropped from a mile high. Talk about an explosive event. I feel for his family.

For those who missed last weeks Iowa Pacific feature (yes I know you can scroll up/down to see to but wheres the fun in that!!) here is a slightly different repeat performance.

Of course since it was turned on the wye last week, it is now facing the other way with SLRG 4137 and the dome "leading"



Which puts SLRG 4135 on the other end



With one of my favoutite pairs of PV The Patrick Henry Creative Promotions train(Yes I have mentioned these before as well, bit like TV lots of repeats)



The dome and diner. Warren R Henry named after his father.

Who apparently worked for the Santa Fe railroad for 40 years hence his sons, interest in railroads.



And the Evelyn Henry sleeper named after his mother

You can see the insides and read all about them here

Patrick Henry Creative Promotions Train

All yours from just $9,750 a day!!

PS Linked fixed.

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Bernie, that link just shows the last photo on your post, no info page.

Sometime in the next couple summers, I'm going to retrace the trip we took in December 1963. California Zephyr to Chicago, then up to Milwaukee to see some relatives. Back down to Chicago, then the Santa Fe Chief to LA, then back home on the San Joaquin Daylight.

Also want to take the Coast Daylight from San Diego all the way to Seattle (never been there, they tell me it's nice).

As they say, you can't (quite) go home again. The CZ now runs on the former Southern Pacific line from Oakland (actually Emeryville) to Salt Lake City. The Southwest Chief runs on the same tracks as the CZ from Chicago to Galesburg (a mere 165 miles of Illinois cornfields, pretty much the same either way). And the San Joaquins are buses between LA and Bakersfield; I think that has been the case for as long as Amtrak has existed.

The last of the yearly vacations with my grandmother was in 1984. We took the Chief from Chicago to LA (still "Santa Fe all the way" back then), immediately caught a San Diegan (now called Pacific Surfliner) to San Diego, and stayed there for about three days. Rode the Trolley down to the border when that was the only route the Trolley had. Then we rode back to LA and spent another three days there. LA only had buses for local transit then, silly gits. Then we rode the Starlight to Oakland, arriving during Labor Day fireworks. Caught a cab to our hotel in SF and spent three days riding the cable cars to Fisherman's Wharf, riding BART, riding the modern streetcars to the zoo. Got Amtrak's bus to Oakland and rode the CZ back to Chicago.

Now that is the sort of trip I would like to take. For me it would be Lakeshore NY to Chicago, then the Zephyr to SF. Then the decision whether to go north or south from SF!! I think I would probably take the Coast Starlight to Seattle, then the Empire Builder back to Chicago. I think that would be my "dream trip".

Other than the LSL part, that's what my friend Mike does with the IPH cars all summer. However, his passengers don't do it all with him. The tour package they all sign up for has them get off the train at Grand Junction (I think) and take a bus up through the various national parks. He loads a different group at SLC and takes them to Emeryville. I'm not sure if they're the same ones who go with him to Seattle, or if either of those groups is the one that rides out of Seattle a few days later. Regardless, the people out of SEA get off at Whitefish, Montana, and at the next stop, West Glacier, he picks up the original group that he left at Grand Junction. His departure from SEA last week was delayed a day due to the fires in Washington and Montana, so he got home yesterday.

What I would like to do is take the Texas Eagle's through cars that connect to the Sunset Limited to LA, then the Starlight all the way to Seattle, and the Builder home. The only parts of that trip that would be duplicates for me would be Chicago to the first stop past St. Louis, LA-Sacramento, and Wisconsin Dells back to Chicago.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Not good for Amtrak. Beech Grove Shop worker burned. A reliable source (but who did not cite a public report) says he was ordered to weld a fuel tank and it exploded, he was burned over 85% of his body, and he died Sunday morning.

The linked article has been updated with the man's name and death, plus a memo from the CEO of Amtrak about it. Still relying on a source who has lots of inside info about Amtrak and likes to post it in public for the other details.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Surely double cabs make so much more sense, albeit probably dearer to build with doubling up on all the controls.

The expense of dual sets of controls was the main reason American locos don't have them. Besides, they still had turntables, loops, and wyes from the steam engines. That said, some roads put dual controls in a single cab on early GP and SD types. At the other extreme were cabless B units of various makes and models. The way bean counters see it, a cab and its controls cost money to buy and maintain, and when it's not being used it's not making any money to pay for itself. In most cases, the operating department ended up winning the argument about cost of equipment vs. cost of inconvenience when you can't just put any unit at hand in the lead.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

For those who missed last weeks Iowa Pacific feature (yes I know you can scroll up/down to see to but wheres the fun in that!!) here is a slightly different repeat performance.

Of course since it was turned on the wye last week, it is now facing the other way with SLRG 4137 and the dome "leading"



Which puts SLRG 4135 on the other end



With one of my favoutite pairs of PV The Patrick Henry Creative Promotions train(Yes I have mentioned these before as well, bit like TV lots of repeats)



The dome and diner. Warren R Henry named after his father.

Who apparently worked for the Santa Fe railroad for 40 years hence his sons, interest in railroads.



And the Evelyn Henry sleeper named after his mother

You can see the insides and read all about them here

Patrick Henry Creative Promotions Train

All yours from just $9,750 a day!!

PS Linked fixed.

I've been in those cars, and they are very nice. Top luxury, if not much in the way of historical accuracy. Almost too much luxury for me; I'd feel guilty about getting them grubby.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Me, I wouldn't care, if I needed a place to sit and I often do, I'd sit..

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

German student living on train. (Well, not really, she usually crashes with someone to sleep.)

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Re: Canadian Pacific engines

Rumor has it that they will go to Buffalo via N.S. then into Canada on the wat to Winnipeg, this is unconfirmed.

So here is a bit of an oddity.

Most US deisel locomotives have what is know as a "long hood" and a "short hood"

Normally the long hood (usually the back) is high and the short hood (normally the front) is low, however there are still quite a few of these out there.

"high short hood"


Demonstrated here by GP38-2 NS 5168

The most surprising thing about it is that as delivered to The Southern Railway between 1968 and 1972, they were originally used long hood forward.

One reason was to protect the crew in case of an accident, another was it apparently placed the engineer on the right side with a good view of the signals, not really sure about that.

They are apparently mostly used as switchers where the direction changes all the time so it is not so important.

Just so you can see the difference here is a low short hood GP38-2 you have seen before.



BNSF 2661

Of course now days all main line units have full width "safety cabs" as demonstrated by C44-9W BNSF 5479 in the picture. These provide better crew safety and better visibility.

NS 5168 as you can see in the first picture was being used as a second unit so visibility was not important.

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Ladies only

Why am I not surprised? I'd say more, but then this would be in politics PDQ.

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Re: Canadian Pacific engines

Rumor has it that they will go to Buffalo via N.S. then into Canada on the wat to Winnipeg, this is unconfirmed.

Rumor was wrong. They were photographed in Elkhart, IN, today. Computer shows one of the flat cars being bad ordered. No word on when they will move any further, but I'm sure that at the very least they will fix the bad order before moving the other two.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.