Holy smoke! Yes, actual smoke. Breaking news from Illinois Railway Museum: Frisco 1630 passed its official steam test today.

They didn't post details yet, but I'm sure it has some finishing and fine tuning to be done. But they can run it! Non-rented steam at Union. WooHoo!

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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.

Took this video this morning, 34046 pulling the Blue Bell Explorer through my local station on route to the Bluebell Railway

http://youtu.be/IMCf0wYzpUQ

With LMS Class 5MT 4-6-0 no 44932 on the rear

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How do they synchronise between one pulling and one pushing?

No idea, experience? I am sure someone else will know.

While I was waiting there was an announcement to say another local line (to Caterham) was blocked by a vehicle and services were suspended.

Here's why (courtesy of my local paper.)



No trains were involved but that is a road crossing at the bottom of the picture. no idea how it got there, notice the buckled 3rd rail, that carries 650 volts DC.
Notice also the "earthing bars" inserted between the 3rd rail and running rail to make sure the current stays OFF

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I think they are known as Track Clips Bernie.

I thought Track Clips are used between the two running rails to simulate a train occupying the rail. So if there was an accident where a train is blocking both lines, a track clip can be placed on the other line and immediately put the signals to red.

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So yesterday evening I knew that the excursion train would return, however I only noticed at the last minute that it was actually stopping to pick up water one station down the line from me, so a quick trip in the car to Sanderstead station.

http://youtu.be/6omsh3Oan6g

Now of course with The Black 5 44932 in the lead.

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Cool stuff, Bernie.

Synchronization from one to the other isn't very important. I'm sure either of the engines is capable of moving the train by itself, so probably the lead one is doing the work and the one at the rear is just putting enough steam in its cylinders to keep them lubricated. In a true helper situation, the rear one would just shove as hard as it can and the head end crew would regulate the speed. In the old days, they would communicate with whistle signals, but now they have radios.

(Interesting story from Union Pacific a while back... 844, their 4-8-4, was returning to the steam shop in Cheyenne from a trip to Texas or someplace. The passenger cars were being taken by diesel back to their home shop in Omaha, so 844 had 10 empty flat cars behind it, just to help it with braking. Somewhere on the Colorado Front Range, they came up behind a freight train that had stalled on a hill. They just sat there listening to the crew talk to the dispatcher. Finally, the dispatcher asked the steam crew if they could help. "Sure!" replied the then-head of the steam program, Steve Lee. After being given proper instructions, they pulled up to the freight train, removed its EOT, coupled on, tied in the air, and radioed the freight crew the code number of their EOT. When they got a highball, they opened up the throttle all the way. They shoved in several feet of slack, then stalled. Eventually, the freight crew (who seemed to be a bit dubious about the whole thing) asked "How you doing back there, 844?" "We're in the 47th notch and not moving." "HUH???" Diesels have eight notches on their throttles (plus idle). Anyway, the freight crew wasn't applying full power up to this point, but they did now and soon the train was marching up the hill, with the 844 barking loud and proud, and Steve holding his phone out the window so someone could hear it. I wish I'd been there.)

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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.

Holy smoke! Yes, actual smoke. Breaking news from Illinois Railway Museum: Frisco 1630 passed its official steam test today.

They didn't post details yet, but I'm sure it has some finishing and fine tuning to be done. But they can run it! Non-rented steam at Union. WooHoo!

How did I fail to post this before now? Not real good video of the day 1630 was steamed up. If you don't want to watch all the stuff during the day, skip ahead to about 12:30 for when she actually moves. BTW, it was raining by the end.

And I hadn't even seen this one until a few minutes ago. 1630 test running on the mainline on Sunday the 3rd. I had a feeling I should go out there that day, but I didn't. ($@*$#$^%#$$ %$#&#$$ $#@&*%$#^$#$!!!)

Having confirmed that everything works pretty much correctly, and identified a few minor things to fix, they will probably dry her out for the winter now, while they proceed with the finishing touches. There is still some lagging to be applied, and the jacketing over the lagging. And lots of paint so she looks good in the spring.

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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.

If anyone would like to see the article about the "goddess of the train" who was arrested for riding the L naked, PM me for the link. I think the moderators would object if I posted it here. It has photos.

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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.

British train news.

(Or is this old news?)

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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.

Fairly new news, its more or less the same group as built the A1 not that long ago.
Fascinating project to see getting going. Hopefully it won't take as long as the A1 did to get to completion.



[Edit - did I really type "A2" - brain must be asleep, or dreaming of my Great Uncle's loco...]

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

Hopefully it won't take as long as the A2 did to get to completion

"The P2SLC is building the seventh member of this class and will demonstrate how the design can be fully realised through use of modern computer design and modelling techniques, enabling it to deliver its full potential hauling passenger trains at high speed across the national network.

Around £5million will be needed to build No. 2007 over a 7-10 year period, with funds being raised through public subscription. The formal launch of the project will take place in February 2014."

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The specific news this week is that it will be named Prince of Wales, by kind permission of the Queen.

It is a subsidiary of the A2 group, which built Tornado. They will be able to use some of the same parts as Tornado, including the boiler, which will greatly reduce design and manufacturing costs. They are currently using performance testing that was done with Tornado to build a computer model that they can then use to redesign some of the other components to be more reliable in the modern world than they ever were on the original P2s. There is a rather long page explaining all of this in sleep-inducing detail.

They have to redesign part of the frame to hold the modern air brakes instead of the old-style vacuum brakes... but they will also install vacuum brakes so they can pull older stock. The tender will also be identical to Tornado's.

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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.

We are railfans.

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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.

We are railfans.

Indeed we are!!

I find that since I "retired" I have more time for what use to be a passing interest. Living as I do just a few minutes from the main London to Brighton line, I have discovered that this time of year there a quite a few steam specials that pass my way.

This was Friday at 3:25pm on the return leg.

35028 Merchant Navy Class "Clan Line"

I have also discovered various web sites that list all steam excursions and routes.

Plus a really amazing website that list, every station in the UK and EVERY train (passenger, freight and excursions) that is stopping AND passing, in realtime, so standing on the platform with my iPhone, I new to the minute when 35028 was due!

And this is where it leads 23:30 on a deserted South Croydon station to get a not very good shot of 44871 and 45407, 2 "Black 5's" double heading "THE CATHEDRALS EXPRESS Christmas Carol" run on Monday.

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Got to ask, how come LMS Black 5's are in Croydon.

Ignoring the top class loco's the Black 5's must be my favourite, they seem to have been able to do everything and rightly upheld their 5MT rating.

Got to ask, how come LMS Black 5's are in Croydon.

Ignoring the top class loco's the Black 5's must be my favourite, they seem to have been able to do everything and rightly upheld their 5MT rating.

It seems the London to Brighton line gets a few steam hauled services this time of year courtesy of companies like this Steam Dreams This was the Cathedrals Express

And for Chris Realtime Trains. Fairly easy to use, just enter the station, the default date is today and time is + and - an hour.

To see everything, click the "switch to detailed" link

You can also track individual trains by clicking on the "ID" number and it will list the complete journey for that train.

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I would take Amtrak from GA to Santa Fe, NM, however, the schedule is horrible. From Atlanta, I can go to either Washington DC or New Orleans. There I wait for 8 to 10 hours. From DC I go to Chicago. From NO I go to either Chicago or Los Angeles. There you wait for a further 8 to 10 hours. The final leg is to Lamie (about 20 miles from Santa Fe). The total journey time is 3 days and nearly as much money as the airlines. Travelling by air is 4 hours by air, possibly with a layover someplace and $500+ / ticket. Driving is 22 hours driving time (sanity dictates that this takes 2 days at minimum).

If there were not 20 hours of layover, I would be much more inclined to take the train for the journey.

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BOINC WIKI

Got to ask, how come LMS Black 5's are in Croydon.

Ignoring the top class loco's the Black 5's must be my favourite, they seem to have been able to do everything and rightly upheld their 5MT rating.

It seems the London to Brighton line gets a few steam hauled services this time of year courtesy of companies like this Steam Dreams This was the Cathedrals Express

And for Chris Realtime Trains. Fairly easy to use, just enter the station, the default date is today and time is + and - an hour.

To see everything, click the "switch to detailed" link

You can also track individual trains by clicking on the "ID" number and it will list the complete journey for that train.

I generally don't like the "independent entity owns the track and operators have open access" model that European railroads have adopted, but I must say it's great for steam excursions. Union Pacific won't operate any steam engine but its own. CSX won't operate any steam engine, period, even a deadhead move for a few miles on a lightly used branch line. Norfolk Southern just eased away from the same position in the last couple of years and now actually sponsors trips (but is not reviving its own steam program that ended in the 1990s). Amtrak has certified a couple of steam engines so excursions can be run with them under its authority, but the sponsor still has to negotiate with the freight railroad it will run on.

I also wish we could have a tracking site/app like that. In the Chicago area, automated announcements are made at Metra stations when commuter trains are approaching, but in the case of express trains not stopping at a particular station, sometimes the train is already going through by the time the announcement gets to the part about it being an express train and will not stop. I think there's also a real-time tracker app. But Metra's system only knows about its own trains, not freight or Amtrak. Maybe this will change when PTC gets running and more data are available.

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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 would take Amtrak from GA to Santa Fe, NM, however, the schedule is horrible. From Atlanta, I can go to either Washington DC or New Orleans. There I wait for 8 to 10 hours. From DC I go to Chicago. From NO I go to either Chicago or Los Angeles. There you wait for a further 8 to 10 hours. The final leg is to Lamie (about 20 miles from Santa Fe). The total journey time is 3 days and nearly as much money as the airlines. Travelling by air is 4 hours by air, possibly with a layover someplace and $500+ / ticket. Driving is 22 hours driving time (sanity dictates that this takes 2 days at minimum).

If there were not 20 hours of layover, I would be much more inclined to take the train for the journey.

Yes, I'm afraid that thanks to Congressional penny-pinching, Amtrak doesn't have the dense network of passenger trains that once existed.

I know how inconvenient it is to connect through New Orleans. The schedules are such that ANY connection requires an overnight stay. All the outbounds leave before any of the inbounds arrive.

In your case, my best suggestion would be to take the train to El Paso, rent a car, and drive to Santa Fe from there.

I was about to suggest that you take it to Phoenix, ride Amtrak's Thruway bus to Flagstaff, and back to Lamy from there (actually, I'd go to Albuquerque and take the New Mexico Rail Runner from there to downtown Santa Fe), but checking the schedules, I was just reminded that the Sunset doesn't go to Phoenix, it goes to Maricopa, and the bus to Flagstaff doesn't go to Maricopa, only to downtown Phoenix and the airport. You could still do it that way, but I don't know what arrangements are available from Maricopa to Phoenix.

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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 generally don't like the "independent entity owns the track and operators have open access" model that European railroads have adopted, but I must say it's great for steam excursions.

I can see that in the USA it might make more sense for the train companies to own the track but the UK is a lot smaller and to me it is much more sensible that if an engine is main line certified it can then travel the length and breath of the UK. The steam clip I posted a couple of months back was a train that was celebrating a preserved line The Bluebell Railway finally getting reconnected to the mainline again. The train was able to run down the mainline and the cross over to the Bluebell Railway.

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