|
Speaking of steam turbine locomotives, they have existed but most were apparently terrible boondoggles and didn't really work. There were a few that did work (mostly because they dispensed with most of the fancy bells and whistles) and were used in service, and apparently the only preserved steam turbine locomotives in the world are here in Sweden, and they're currently restoring one of the three survivors to running condition (it has been running in museum service before, but was last run in the 1990's, I believe).evil_bunnY posted:How could anyone look at this and not think "Hey lads how's about we put the loving motor on the axle next time eh?" I don't know exactly why they did it like that but it seems to have been relatively common and it lasted for a long time. Check this thing out:  This is a SJ Dm3, which is essentially three D-series locomotives (although with an extra driving wheel axle each) permanently coupled together. Two engines (one per side) and eight driving wheels (four per side) per unit, but the engine isn't directly connected to the axles, instead it's in between the driving wheel axles and connected with tie rods. The design goes back to the 1920's (the SJ D-series electrics) but these heavy variants for iron ore trains are an updated model from the 1960's. The last ones were retired as late as in 2011 (!). e: I may actually have found a reason for the tie rods - apparently it was hard to make a gearbox that was durable enough to handle the torque. TheFluff fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Apr 11, 2019 |
#
¿
Apr 11, 2019 23:21
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:17 |
|
|
Klaus Kinski posted:Dm3 are 3 Dm built into one unit and Dm is just an updated Da which used axle mounted engines. Iirc they were actually in use until 2013 but not in regular traffic, just as last resort backup. If the engines are axle mounted, what is the thing in the middle then (between the drive wheel pairs)? I was absolutely sure that was the engine. e: wait, okay, it's called a blind axle? I think I'm with you then - one engine per side (per sub-unit), in the middle, axle mounted, but there's no wheel on the axle. That right? TheFluff fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Apr 12, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2019 00:02
|
|
|
madeintaipei posted:Remember us talking about train wheels w/ axle on semi-trucks? Found one in the wild: This Swedish trucker hauls them on a regular basis. Starts at about 4:50. Still don't understand it. I don't remember that, and I don't know what you're curious about, but I think I know something about this! That looks like a driving axle and wheel pair unit for a SJ Rc locomotive but without the wheel flanges. The flanges are manufactured separately and are shrunk onto the wheels; they are wear items and they need to be replaced occasionally. The wheels themselves are of course also wear items and are occasionally touched up on a lathe. Removing the wheels from the axle seems to only be done in exceptional circumstances; normally the axle, the transmission (the big bulky thing inboard of the wheel on one side) and the wheel pair seem to be treated as a unit with a single serial number. I don't know exactly why you'd ship around the entire thing around on a truck, but I presume that it might be for certain types of maintenance that cannot be done everywhere. All I know about SJ Rc wheels is from this report (in Swedish) from the Swedish equivalent of the NTSB, regarding a 2008 derailing caused by a wheel flange on one of the locomotive's driving wheels breaking off.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2020 12:22
|
|
|
Neat little mini-documentary about another cool railroad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMvU-lgPE-A
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2023 17:03
|
|
|
Work sent me and some coworkers to a conference in Prague a couple months ago (I'm in Stockholm). Travel would be booked for us, but we were given the opportunity to choose between flying and taking the train. Naturally I chose the train. Now, normally this should be a really chill trip, you take a comfy sleeper to either Hamburg or Berlin and then an intercity service to Prague. Total travel time 18-20 hours or so, almost half of that you'll be asleep and the rest of the time you can work or watch the countryside roll by. However, the travel agency was not European and had apparently never heard of a train before, and due to some track work messing with the regular connections they got me an insane itinerary with no less than 7 train changes: Stockholm (departing around 8:30 AM) - Malmö - Copenhagen - Hamburg - Berlin (arriving around midnight) - Cottbus - Dresden - Prague (arriving around 10 AM the following day). The return trip was sane though, just Prague - Hamburg - Malmö (overnight from Hamburg) - Stockholm. I should have just rejected this outright and booked my own tickets, but instead I took it as a challenge. I was starting to question the wisdom of this when I came to Berlin at midnight and got to the platform where I was supposed to catch a train to Cottbus (a city I never heard of before this trip), but the signage said the train was bound for Vetschau (another place I've never heard of). Even though the conductor "spricht nur Deutsch" I understood what was up though and ended up waiting for a replacement bus (sorry, ersatzverkehr) in a small town in rural Brandenburg at 3 AM. The bus did arrive, I did get to Cottbus, then to Dresden and eventually to Prague, and I wasn't even meaningfully late, but that adventure I'm not too keen on repeating. At least I arrived on a Sunday morning and got to spend most of the day napping. I guess the moral of the story is, don't let American travel agencies book European train tickets for you. It's so good though that the overnight trains to Germany are back again. They were gone for a while but they're my favorite way to get to continental Europe. There's a service Stockholm - Hamburg that takes only 12 hours or so and arrives at 6 AM; it's a really efficient way of traveling, both for tourists and for business travelers. I do mourn the exotic weirdness of the train ferries Trelleborg - Sassnitz and Trelleborg - Rostock though. The pandemic was the final death knell for those, and now all the trains to Germany go through Denmark instead which increases the travel time Stockholm - Berlin by at least an hour if not more. Up until 2020 they'd roll your entire sleeper train onto the ferry for the trip across the Baltic. TheFluff fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Nov 6, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2023 13:13
|
|
|
Noosphere posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANl_MV-yZcE I like train horns as much as the next foamer but one thing that drives me nuts about US trains is how they seem to honk at every single level crossing. I was in Palo Alto on a work trip once and you would regularly hear Caltrain honking its way through the city late at night, even indoors a significant distance from the railway. No wonder Americans don't like trains. I mean, yes, level crossings are hazardous and are best avoided, but here the rule is that the train only needs to honk if the crossing has no barriers/gates (typically only a thing in very rural areas). If the crossing has gates then those do the signaling already so there's no need for a train horn. TheFluff fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Dec 17, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2023 02:28
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCc839UL8po I have no idea what's going on here but I'm here for it
|
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2024 21:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:17 |
|
|
Those old sci-fi visions didn't look far enough ahead. We're living in the future. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the DARPA/Northrop Grumman Lunar Railroad:https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grumman-to-develop-concept-for-lunar-railroad posted:REDONDO BEACH, Calif. – March 19, 2024 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been selected by DARPA to further develop the concept of building a moon-based railroad network as part of the broader 10-year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study. The envisioned lunar railroad network could transport humans, supplies and resources for commercial ventures across the lunar surface – contributing to a space economy for the United States and international partners. (not fake!)
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2024 19:06
|
|