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The train thread
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David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
It was suggested during my TLPTPW thread that there should be a train thread, so here it is. I just wish I'd started it sooner (hence the parenthetical word in the title, which won't last long). This thread is for discussion of any and all kinds of trains: real, model, modern, historical, steam, diesel, electric, simulated, even Thomas. The only thing I don't want is major arguments over the politics of trains. However, humorous observations of the cluelessness of many politicians, reporters, and other people is allowed. (Yes, that could be a fine line. Just keep it light.) David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 3 Jun 99 Posts: 2422 Credit: 12,323,733 RAC: 1 ![]() |
So who's into Z gauge? ... ![]() |
rob smith ![]() ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 7 Mar 03 Posts: 22675 Credit: 416,307,556 RAC: 380 ![]() ![]() |
I go for 12" to the foot myself - you know where the bit you just landed... Bob Smith Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society) Somewhere in the (un)known Universe? |
Sirius B ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Dec 00 Posts: 24922 Credit: 3,081,182 RAC: 7 ![]() |
I like 00 myself - it has many uses....LOL. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 26 May 99 Posts: 9958 Credit: 103,452,613 RAC: 328 ![]() ![]() |
I have always been a "closet train fan" myself. Living in a small flat I never had the room for a model layout, so I have had many versions of this Trainz Simulator 12 including that one. I still have the occasional ride! This is a screen shot from the game about 4 years ago. ![]() I also went to the National Railway Museum in York last year where due the large size for the rolling stock and the small size of the museum, it was very difficult to get any really good shots. Quite like this of the BR class 76 and early electric loco designed by Sir Nigel Gresley the famous steam loco designer. Info here BR class 76 ![]() Just a few minutes walk from me is South Croydon station, which is on the London to Brighton and south coast line, where I have been known to take the occasional picture from the handy footbridge. Both local commuter trains(the green one) and non stop services to the coast(the blue one)can be seen every few minutes. ![]() Probably enough for now!! |
David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
Let me start by offering sympathy to the victims of the Metro North derailment in Connecticut last week. [edit] (I was delayed about 2.25 hours in the middle of writing this post.) David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
there are only 2 C&O H8 Allegheny locomotives left on earth... Which is 2 more than the number of New York Central Hudsons. David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
I want to take this occasion to explain my thinking when I chose the number for my TLPTPW thread. Obviously, I was going for a steam engine, and a well known one. It didn't have to be one I had personally seen operate, but as it happens most of the candidates were. It also had to be in the range that numbers usually are for TLPTPW. A number that was too low, but which I crypticly referred to by saying if it had been the number, Vic would have won, was 261. This magnificent Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 just ran its first excursion trip after a four-year rebuild. The winning number referred to Nickel Plate 587, currently undergoing rebuild at the Indiana Transportation Museum. The number two dozen higher that I thought about changing it to was N&W 611, which its owner, Virginia Museum of Transportation, is considering restoring for service. It was used for many years by Norfolk Southern in excursion service and taken out of service in such a way that a future restoration would not be difficult. I hope all of you will visit that web site and vote in favor of restoring it. Stabled with 611 at VMT is 1218, which was also used by NS, but it was in the middle of a rebuild when they canceled the old steam program, so it was just reassembled and moved back to the museum. I didn't really think about C&O 614, or Southern 630, having never seen them myself, although 630 is currently operating and has recently been doing trips for NS's new steam program. The next number I considered, the last one really, since it was already getting too high, was Nickel Plate 765, currently away from its home in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, doing trips for NS. I did think about Cotton Belt 819, although I've never seen it. I sure wish Union Pacific would somehow let it out again. A friend of mine was on a tour of the UP steam shop in Cheyenne last week and saw 844 partially disassambled, but they have to get it back together pretty quick because it's scheduled to run to Omaha this weekend. 3985, on the other hand, they said would probably not run for another 5-10 years; it hasn't run since 2009. I hope they do it sooner than that. However, they are negotiating with Southern California Chapter R&LHS to buy back a Big Boy and restore it for operation in time for the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory, Utah, on March 10, 2018. If that comes to pass, 3985 will probably get pushed even further back on the calendar. more later... David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 26 May 99 Posts: 9958 Credit: 103,452,613 RAC: 328 ![]() ![]() |
Well I have to admit to never seeing a US steam engine, a few UK ones but strangely I am attracted to diesels and one of the highlights of my first visit to the US was catching SD40-2 CSX 8901 when I went to Gettysburg in October 2009. It came through the station while I was taking photos. ![]() I will be around NY and New England in September, anywhere I can see anything?? |
David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
Well I have to admit to never seeing a US steam engine, a few UK ones but strangely I am attracted to diesels and one of the highlights of my first visit to the US was catching SD40-2 CSX 8901 when I went to Gettysburg in October 2009. It came through the station while I was taking photos. In New York City, the only place you'll see any freight is across the East River. If I haven't lost track, Canadian Pacific comes down the Hudson and over to a yard in (I think) Queens. The contract freight operator on the Long Island RR (I forget its name) delivers from there to various points in Queens, Brooklyn, and anywhere else on Long Island. I'm not sure, but Providence & Worcester may also have trackage rights into that yard, but does most of its interchange via Worcester, MA. I'm not an expert on the freight railroads of New England, but the major Class 1 is CSX. NS has a partnership with Pan Am to move containers east of Mechanicville, NY. (The yard in Mechanicville "scalps" double stack trains because they won't fit through tunnels to the east; ideally, the boxes were loaded at the origin so the top layer is all for local destinations in upstate New York.) There are lots of other short lines too. The State of Connecticut owns the main passenger route from New York to New Haven; it's operated by Metro North Commuter Railroad (except that it's been shut down since a major derailment last Friday). Amtrak runs over this line, and owns it from New Haven east to Boston, and also north to Springfield, MA. I believe Boston's commuter agency, MBTA, just bought the CSX line from Boston out to Worcester(?). It may interest you and others to know that CSXT 8888 is being dismantled (read: scrapped, probably). It's the engine that became famous in the real-life runaway train incident in Ohio that the movie Unstoppable was (rather loosely) based on. If you want to see a US steam engine, you could go to The Valley RR in Essex, CT, where they have a New Haven engine... that's actually a heavily modified Chinese-built engine built and imported in the 1990s. David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
Scarecrow Send message Joined: 15 Jul 00 Posts: 4520 Credit: 486,601 RAC: 0 ![]() |
Union Pacific's 844 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() (Thanks to Steve Lee for letting me get intimate with her.) |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 31126 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32 ![]() ![]() |
There are still a few places to catch a ride in the USA http://www.railsusa.com/links/Tourist_Railroads/ Amtrak of course, if you want delays and derailments ... ![]() |
Mike Sebrey Send message Joined: 10 May 99 Posts: 108 Credit: 5,017,919 RAC: 0 ![]() |
Alaska Railroad EMD SD70MAC pulling the Denali Star train at Denali National Park. ![]() ![]() I took this shot from about half way down the train from an open vestibule. And if we are talkin' about the Jon Voight movie from 1987 Runaway Train, that was Alaska Railroad EMD GP40-2 #3010 (Serial #757143-4) with scenes filmed near Portage Valley. #3010 is still on the roster in service. Fortymile Photo |
W-K 666 ![]() Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 19494 Credit: 40,757,560 RAC: 67 ![]() ![]() |
When I visited a coal mine, on business, near Steamboat springs, my colleague who's a steam engine nutter, works on the worth valley railway at w/e and holidays, dragged me down to the Georgetown loop so he could see the steam engine there. ![]() ![]() Worth vally Black 5 |
David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
Amtrak of course, if you want delays and derailments ... Amtrak Acela Express on time performance: about 88%. Airlines, Reagan National to Boston Logan: about 78%. David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
And believe it or not there is a plan to link the Alaska RR with Railroads in the lower 48 states and in Canada too and in 6 years. That's a BIG if. i'll believe it when I see it. David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
David S ![]() Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 ![]() ![]() |
And believe it or not there is a plan to link the Alaska RR with Railroads in the lower 48 states and in Canada too and in 6 years. As I recall, the road to Alaska was built for military purposes during wartime. A railroad to Alaska, now, faces opposition from environmentalists too shortsighted to see that it will actually benefit the environment in the long run. David Sitting on my butt while others boldly go, Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri. |
Mike Sebrey Send message Joined: 10 May 99 Posts: 108 Credit: 5,017,919 RAC: 0 ![]() |
The highway is "paved" of sorts. They don't use traditional asphalt as it can not take the flexing from the freeze and thaw. So they use this nasty concoction. Bituminous surface treatment (BST) or chipseal is used mainly on low-traffic roads, but also as a sealing coat to rejuvenate an asphalt concrete pavement. It generally consists of aggregate spread over a sprayed-on asphalt emulsion or cut-back asphalt cement. The aggregate is then embedded into the asphalt by rolling it, typically with a rubber-tired roller. This type of surface is described by a wide variety of regional terms including "chip seal", "tar and chip", "oil and stone", "seal coat", "sprayed seal"[12] or "surface dressing".[13] They spread this out and roll it and leave it for a few days for the traffic to pack it down. When dry it throws more dust than an Indiana gravel road and when wet is a soupy nightmare to ride a motorcycle through. After a few days / weeks, they come back and sweep off the loose bits. Then you can run over 100 mph on it with a bike. But this has nothing to do with our homage to railroads. ;-) Fortymile Photo |
W-K 666 ![]() Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 19494 Credit: 40,757,560 RAC: 67 ![]() ![]() |
Domino effect on burning railroad bridge in Texas. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22641179 |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 6 Feb 00 Posts: 10923 Credit: 5,996,015 RAC: 1 ![]() |
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2333385/Record-breaking-steam-locomotive-Mallard-goes-display-sister-trains-time-mark-75th-anniversary-126mph-journey.html A bit long, but enjoy. I do miss the sound of the 11 pm choochoo to Paris. And close to that time, the Russian Satellite and then it's American Sister. Pluto will always be a planet to me. ![]() Seti Ambassador Not to late to order an Anni Shirt |
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