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An interesting thread to read through! I don't work on a railroad, nor am I a railfan, but I like learning about them. One thing that I was reading about recently was the Mark Twain Zephyr, which featured four units mounted on only 5 trucks, which saved money and weight but made for some interesting problems with turn-arounds. If you really want it, it's for sale, along with a lot of other interesting stock here. Question: do train tracks follow the usual highway practice of driving with your right hand toward the outside of the tracks, or is there any convention at all? Also: I've been to the B&O Museum in Baltimore a number of times and enjoyed it. Is Steamtown like that and worth going to see?
Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Jan 31, 2014 |
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Jan 31, 2014 21:22
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I might have missed it, but Amtrak is apparently getting some new locomotives for the Northeast Corridor runs.
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Feb 8, 2014 15:27
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I had no idea that British Rail produced so many abortions. It's like a comedy of errors. He even continued it in Ireland. "Bulleid developed two prototype peat-burning locomotives, one a converted coal-fired traditional steam locomotive and the other, CC1, new and fully enclosed, along the lines of the Leader design. CIÉ did not adopt peat-fired traction for widespread use."
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Feb 11, 2014 04:25
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I just happened to be looking through some train searches and found this: an article on armored trains! Holy poo poo, there were some really radical stuff that people came up with. I can't see how any sane person could resist wanting to drive one of these. If only they were here in the US and were put on special rail tour trains, like a military version of the Polar Express...imagine it.  ed: Actually, Darkroastedblend has an index to their train-related stuff: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/01/category-trains.html Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Feb 16, 2014 |
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Feb 15, 2014 23:30
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So I saw this picture today, and it raised some questions: Are the railcar bodies and wheelsets (trucks?) just held together by gravity? No bolts to hold them together? And why are there so many wheel+axle sets just laying around? Are derailment forces that great that the axles just rip off the trucks?
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Feb 21, 2014 23:32
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Cygni posted:Gas/ban D&D, excited for part 3 Axeman. Seconding this. 
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Apr 9, 2014 22:10
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Wilford Cutlery posted:Did somebody say coal trains? Big rail yard. http://goo.gl/maps/YZqPa
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Apr 16, 2014 02:11
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Apparently, it could have been worse than a foot to the head.
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Apr 16, 2014 21:03
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Part of CSX's recent bad day: a train hauling coal to a power plant in southern MD derailed as it passed through Bowie, MD. (Photo from here.) 
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May 4, 2014 14:06
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B4Ctom1 posted:I am guessing they are a long ways from roads and right of ways? No, not really, Bowie is a big suburb and there's apparently an at-grade crossing nearby. ed: The derail is right in this area. http://goo.gl/maps/i7DNr Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 00:21 on May 5, 2014 |
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May 5, 2014 00:09
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B4Ctom1 posted:I put it up with my memorable experiences from the first gulf war as far as historical significance. The only way that you're going to be able to top this is by driving a humongous steam engine through Iraq in wartime. That said, if these huge steam engines thrash modern trackage so much, what was done in years past when locomotives like the Big Boy and the Allegheny were really prevalent? Did the railroads use super-heavy construction, track, and accessories? Did they do more maintenance? Any ideas?
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May 10, 2014 13:34
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Brother Jonathan posted:
Is the U.S. rail system really growing? If so, aren't most of the optimal routes taken already (either in use or used and abandoned)? If you wanted to retrack an abandoned line, do you have to buy the land up all over again, or do states control the line?
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May 30, 2014 00:04
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Bad track, you say? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrvLK24VlEs
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Jun 19, 2014 02:10
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lovely neighborhood talk: I recently took Acela for the first time, a round trip from Newark to DC. I really liked the trip, it was much nicer than being treated like cattle as the airlines do. Unfortunately, North Philly and North Baltimore were real shitholes, the nearby neighborhoods were lined with abandoned factories and burned out row houses. In Philly, along the tracks were ugly row houses, and directly below the houses - on the track embankment - were landslides of garbage that the inhabitants had hurled out of the windows on to the embankment. I know the railroads can't clean up everything, but it was really sad to look at.
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Jun 28, 2014 15:04
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They could sell the fuselages for amazing luxury condos. On a serious note: do you think that the train cars will be salvaged?
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Jul 6, 2014 01:43
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That actually looks pretty cool. gently caress the elbow-biters.
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Jul 9, 2014 22:41
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bytebark posted:Half hour long documentary video on the Penn Central's deterioration circa 1974: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmyYqfNYnc 649 derailments in a single month. 
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Jul 27, 2014 13:58
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B4Ctom1 posted:This email is making the rounds. It's a chain mail, and I have no research to of check to see if it's true or not myself. I don't know, it might make some sense in a way. Maybe BLET saw pension funding issues in the future and saw an opportunity to cash in on a building that they're not fully utilizing. What is 'state of the art' for a training center? Is it just decent computers and projectors in dedicated classroom settings? If so, when they move, they just yank out what's worthwhile to move and take it along. As for the building, city-data had this: 1370 Ontario Street Cleveland, OH 44113 Find on map >> Show street view Owner: BROTHERHOOD LOC ENG BLDG ASN Total land marked value: $2,267,600 Total buildings marked value: $6,482,400 Total marked value for property: $8,750,000 Total land assessed value: $793,660 Total buildings assessed value: $2,268,840 Total assessed value for property: $3,062,500 Assessments for tax year: 2008 Parcel usage: Office Buildings - 3 Read more: http://www.city-data.com/cuyahoga-county/O/Ontario-Street-1.html#ixzz38iZetUSd I'm not sure what the difference between marked value and assessed value is, but BLET got about 30% above the assessed value. ed: Their typo, apparently should be'market value'. ed2: According to the Cuyahoga county auditor, in 2104 the assessed value is $2.123M and the market value is $6.066M. So they got significantly more than the assessed value but less than the full market value. Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Jul 28, 2014 |
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Jul 28, 2014 01:35
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B4Ctom1 posted:Anyone know where this is? It seems to be this. http://www.nbcrightnow.com/story/26174805/13-empty-union-pacific-rail-cars-derail-on-hwy-730
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Aug 2, 2014 14:59
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drat, a head-on collision of two trains. Apparently no one knows (yet) why it happened. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/18/2-dead-2-hurt-in-arkansas-freight-train-collision/?intcmp=latestnews
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Aug 18, 2014 13:51
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McDeth posted:Apparently this steam engine ate something that made it throw up. Its the Cthulhu Express!
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Aug 20, 2014 01:18
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Since the thread is about locomotive insanity, how about a promo video of how a steam locomotive was built? It's really amazing, though the jobs were probably hellish (witness what looks like welding w/o goggles around 9:40) and I doubt that people had any hearing protection or other PPE in those days. http://bangshift.com/general-news/videos/watch-a-4000hp-locomotive-get-built-by-hand-in-1928-absolutely-amazing-video/ ed: The locomotive survived a full life and still exists at a museum. http://www.steamlocomotive.com/northern/?page=cp More info: http://trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_steam/3100.htm Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 02:26
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Neddy Seagoon posted:I saw something horrifying yesterday while on a train in Melbourne. An intact Hitachi sitting off on a siding. They were supposed to be dead, dammit. They promised they killed them all Tell me more, what's so bad about a Hitachi (locomotive?/car?/trolley?)
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Oct 12, 2014 13:31
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Yeah, the odds favor the train in any train/car confrontation. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/10/31/3-die-when-train-strikes-suv-in-southern-illinois/?intcmp=latestnews
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Nov 1, 2014 00:39
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B4Ctom1 posted:I saw we were hauling passenger locomotives to someplace that uses a big one of these on the side of them The holy sign of Our Ford!
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Nov 5, 2014 03:08
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I hope that at the very end there was single flat car loaded with a single pallet of kleenex.
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Nov 6, 2014 01:46
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ijustam posted:I took a shower on the Zephyr at 80 mph. The drain just emptying on the tracks so everything under me is just whizzing by. It was awesome. I thought that all US passenger cars had to empty into a holding tank.
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Dec 25, 2014 04:15
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What a pleasant, intelligent way to start off the New Year: an Allentown woman tried to crawl under a slow-moving train. Got knocked over and lost part of her leg. What an idiot. http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-t-allentown-train-accident-leg-injury-20150102-story.html Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 04:01
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Mokotow posted:Crosspost from RUSSIA.JPG thread. If the rims were chromed, that car could be donked out big time.
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Jan 4, 2015 22:26
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People need to get a grip on the forces involved:
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Feb 6, 2015 23:44
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Apparently CSX is nicknamed Chemical Spill Xpress, and it lived up to its name today. Part of a train of Bakken crude oil derailed in West Virginia and caught fire, so they have a flaming oil spill on their hands. http://www.charlestondailymail.com/article/20150216/DM01/150219449
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Feb 17, 2015 02:18
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Slung Blade posted:Saudi teenagers have really stepped up their game. I'm glad that someone else saw this and thought "man, that's a serious drift".
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Feb 24, 2015 22:32
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So when a train derails a ways back from the engines, what alerts the engineer to it? Do alarms go off? Does the engine suddenly get balky and lsuggish? Just curious. Hopefully none of the train folks here were around this. http://chicago.suntimes.com/nationworld/7/71/417253/bnsf-train-carrying-crude-oil-derails-galena
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Mar 6, 2015 03:54
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In more news of interactions between trains and stupidity, a personal trainer decided to skip rope beside a train track for a video. He misjudged the width of the train. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/19/personal-trainer-killed-train-shooting-youtube-video/25007365/
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Mar 20, 2015 17:51
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So I've been reading through Axeman Jim's posts on BR, and I have to ask: How does the UK even have a rail system left? It seems like every locomotive that they put out is lovely, the physical rail system has been hosed over, neglected, and stabbed in the back for a century now, and the bureaucracy really seems to have its head up its rear end.
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Mar 28, 2015 20:59
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Question on rail weight: It looks like 141lb is the heaviest rail now made, and PRR once produced 155lb rail. If heavier rail implies heavier freight and faster freight, why not go heavier? Is it an economic thing of rail cost vs benefits, or benefits vs installation / maintenance, or weight vs strength, or just manufacturability? Aslo, accident time a mile from where I used to live: a contractor for Washington DC Metro had a crane accidently knock down a pedestrian bridge on to the tracks. Not only closed the Metro tracks, but apparently the CSX / MARC main line (in the foreground of the picture in the link) as well. You would have thought they would be aware of the bridge, it's been there for 20+ years. http://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2015/04/bridge-collapses-onto-metro-marc-train-tracks-in-prince-georges-co/
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Apr 17, 2015 15:53
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The Locator posted:5 dead, 50'ish injured at this point it looks like. It looks like the toll is up to 7 now. Newspaper reports: "PHILADELPHIA — The Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing at least seven people, was barreling through a sharp turn at 100 miles an hour or more, at least twice the speed limit on that stretch of track, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The train’s speed was recorded in the “black box” data recorders that were recovered from the wreckage, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation, while emergency crews searched for more survivors and victims of a wreck that injured more than 200 people."
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May 13, 2015 22:14
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drunkill posted:I saw a story pop up on my feed about some locals who have found some of the track from the original Ghan route (The (Af)Ghan is Australias interior north-south railway) and the story had this image of one of the original locomotives crossing some floodwaters in the outback Australia special: a locomotive with a crocodile catcher on the front.
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Jun 1, 2015 15:15
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Classic piece of trainwreck news: MIDDLETOWN, OH (FOX19) - A 24-year-old driver was hurt and faces charges after authorities say she crashed her car onto train tracks and her vehicle was hit by a train. When paramedics attempted to help Jessica D. Barnes of Middletown, she told them "Don't bother me, I'm drunk," according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. http://www.fox19.com/story/29507832/troopers-drunk-driver-crashes-onto-train-tracks-vehicle-hit-by-train
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Jul 10, 2015 01:55
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Ferremit posted:Why would you stand on the OUTSIDE of that and cut it? Like many things, it probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Sep 2, 2015 01:19
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