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.)

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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.

So who's into Z gauge?

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I go for 12" to the foot myself - you know where the bit you just landed...

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I like 00 myself - it has many uses....LOL.

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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!!

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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.)

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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 still like Steam, but if ya want the most powerful steam locomotive ever built and that Diesels only get close to matching, then one wants the H8 Allegheny 2-6-6-6 Locomotive as It was supposed to produce 7500hp, which is more than the UP's 4-8-8-4 Big Boy loco at a mere 6900hp...


They looked at restoring this one to running order(It was stored outside for many years), but it would be very expensive, the other would be a better candidate, since it was stored inside and still had some oil dripping from time to time, but I doubt the Henry Ford Museum would let anyone try to run or do any restoration work on it, so expensive it is, since there are only 2 C&O H8 Allegheny locomotives left on earth...

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

there are only 2 C&O H8 Allegheny locomotives left on earth...

Which is 2 more than the number of New York Central Hudsons.

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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.

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...

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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.

there are only 2 C&O H8 Allegheny locomotives left on earth...

Which is 2 more than the number of New York Central Hudsons.

I hear ya, we're lucky any steam locos still exist in the US...

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

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??

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Then Bernie you'd love this monster locomotive, it's the EMD DD40AX with 6600hp, there are 17 surviving examples according to the wiki. Sometimes you might see one with the UP 4-8-8-4 Big Boy locomotive.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

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??

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.

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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.

Union Pacific's 844
















(Thanks to Steve Lee for letting me get intimate with her.)

C&O's 500

PRR HSR(If PRR still existed)

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

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 ...

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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.

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Fortymile Photo

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

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.

The two-track, Canadian-Alaska railroad will be built by the year 2018, if we get the required $4.5 million and start working now.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

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%.

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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.