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Cygni posted:Have a gratuitous Big Boy picture I wish there were pictures like that of the Allegheny. Those are by far my favorite locomotive. I'm sure more than a few people here have been to the B&O Railroad museum and seen the one they have on display there, but for those of you that haven't, the sheer size of the thing is awe-inspiring. I wish they had the money and desire to restore it to working condition.
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Aug 28, 2012 19:23
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G scale best scale. My collection is missing a large steam engine, though. On the other hand, I have 2 of the Whitepass diesels LGB used to make.
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Oct 14, 2012 00:27
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The DL535.
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Oct 14, 2012 16:21
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Boomer The Cannon posted:No HO love? Nope. If the engine isn't larger than my cat, it's not really a train set. And if the layout doesn't take up two separate rooms, it's not really Christmas.
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Oct 16, 2012 03:39
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Brother Jonathan posted:A picture from the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad: That's beautiful. I haven't been up there since I was a little kid. I should go back sometime...
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Nov 14, 2012 16:57
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Boomer The Cannon posted:So who mentioned G-scale trains? Give me a few hours, I'll have some pictures of my Christmas trains set up. Edit: Trains are up, pictures will have to wait until better lighting tomorrow. Anyone know anything about track cleaning cars? Some of my track has a bit of oxidation, and it makes the lights flicker on my second Whitepass when I run them both pulling the same train. Of course, that's also partly due to how much power they draw... Log082 fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Dec 22, 2012 |
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Dec 22, 2012 19:14
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kastein posted:Friend of mine posted this on facebook and I had to share... Man, what's even the best case scenario there? Either the train cuts right through the hose without stopping, or by some miracle the protectors hold and now suddenly your train has jumped the tracks and you have an even bigger mess to clean up.
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Apr 7, 2014 00:42
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Is there any easy way to look up what track is in use online? There is a LOT of rail around the neighborhood I grew up in from a steel mill that recently got shut down, and it'd be interesting to see what of that is abandoned, what's still used to make occasional drop offs to the factories, and what isn't used at all.
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May 30, 2014 14:15
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The train I take on my work commute was late three days in a row because of deaths on the tracks. On of those strikes was due to idiots doing poo poo like this.
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Sep 17, 2015 02:25
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:
New maglev tests looking sweet.
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Mar 4, 2016 04:18
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JuffoWup posted:Is there a reason companies just park their trains in odd places and then strike them from their inventory instead of at a minimum, selling them off for scrap? Or did scrapping not really exist back then? I'm pretty sure most do get scrapped - there are only two surviving Alleghenys, for example. I'd love to be wrong about that, though, because finding odd locations to explore looking for old trains sounds like a lot of fun.
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Aug 19, 2016 16:34
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kastein posted:Really depends on the situation. I'm sure a lot of the abandoned trains way out in the woods were owned by companies that went bankrupt and their asset tracking may or may not have been organized enough for those who (if anyone) sold their stuff at auction to ever actually track it down. For example there's an old Boston & Maine GM EMD SW-9 parked in the woods of Greenfield NH behind what used to be a train station (and is now some sort of daycare), slowly being destroyed by vandals, rotting into the ground, and taken over by hornets. It's been there for as long as I can remember - early 90s at least. And if the scrap prices surging a few years back didn't get it dragged out and scrapped then, they never will. http://newhampshirerail.tumblr.com/post/123763968525/springfield-terminal-emd-sw9-1423-ex-boston Is there any good way to track these things down? I'm wondering what's hanging around Maryland, for example.
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Aug 19, 2016 20:42
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nm posted:We're making up time now. Just the Colorado section has made the entire fare worth it. I'm jealous. I was going to take a trip from DC to Pittsburgh instead of flying for a work conference, but sadly the train left at 5 pm and got in at midnight, so I wouldn't see anything interesting. It's a shame, I bet the trip through the mountains is pretty.
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Nov 10, 2018 23:53
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nm posted:For the record this has been loving awesome and we're only getting in like a hour late (knock on wood). Also, I killed 8 strong pint cans. My flight was actually pretty good and short and I STILL got the short end of the stick here, I can tell (the pint cans are a clue)
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Nov 11, 2018 23:40
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mekilljoydammit posted:Oh yeah, hi thread - I started work as a test engineer (the normal non-train style engineer) for a company that does roadway work equipment. Does anybody care how some of this poo poo works? I'm not sure if the maintenance side of stuff is covered much or is interesting to anyone. Yes, absolutely. I pass that stuff all the time on my daily commute and while the broad strokes are clear enough I've always wondered about the details.
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Jan 8, 2019 23:58
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That is cool as poo poo. I'd figured out some of that from youtube videos and just staring at the things parked on a siding while my train went by, but not all of the details. Thanks for the post!
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Jan 9, 2019 01:34
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Schadenboner posted:So, vidya game question: my tiny hu-mon is a burgeoning train sperg and I’m shopping around for a good train game. Is OpenTTD still generally considered the state of the art? Look at Transport Fever. The economic and signalling sim isn't as good, but the 3d track laying looks very pretty - your kid might enjoy it more than the older openTTD graphics.
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Apr 12, 2019 23:05
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Those Big Boy videos sure are something. It's impressive to see something that big up and running again, and that whistle... Hot take, though: The Alleghenies are cooler. If I ever win the lottery, I'll pay for one of the two remaining ones to be restored...
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May 4, 2019 02:16
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mekilljoydammit posted:In fairness though, what is as cool as a T1? Allegheny.
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Jul 11, 2019 23:41
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I actually visited the B&O Railroad Museum last weekend with some friends from out of town. I will never not enjoy sitting in the Allegheny's cab and poking at the random levers and buttons. You're allowed to mess with pretty much everything; they just have the gates to the firebox pinned so small children can't open them up and slip inside, or close them all the way and pinch their fingers. As a bonus, since it was so hot, they had the back door to the car shop open and I could see one of the steam engines that normally isn't on display. Have a link to some pictures: https://imgur.com/a/FYYEMnj I took these on a cell phone, so they're not great quality, and I didn't have any of the Allegheny without my dorky rear end in them but there's still some cool stuff.
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Jul 12, 2019 01:37
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Livestreams caught a train derailment on horseshoe curve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LedfGZCz7t0 Timestamp is 16:08 by the time at the top of the video (not youtube's time.)
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Jul 27, 2019 00:40
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:That's the second stringline derailment there in the past few weeks. Someone's in trouble. Chatter from the youtube watchers is that they had light cars at the front of the train, which is bad because of the way the forces build up? I'm not really knowledgeable on the subject but it makes sense to me, and it IS the light centerline cars that derailed.
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Jul 27, 2019 04:28
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ChickenOfTomorrow posted:wha? That link was the livestream, and it only goes about 12 hours back. There's a video of the derailment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsE9mOohSB8
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Jul 28, 2019 18:04
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Tex Avery posted:In the true spirit of Murphy's Law, the first Amtrak long distance train to use one of the new Siemens Chargers in revenue service hit a cement truck. No fatalities, but minor injuries reported. Oh hey Amtrak got some of those? My local commuter railroad got some in 2018. They look pretty neat. Anyone here enough of a nerd/industry insider to know if they're a good or lovely design?
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Feb 22, 2020 18:00
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Stairmaster posted:America Needs More Trains.
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Feb 23, 2020 00:15
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smackfu posted:Interesting that there is a modern concrete rail bridge right next to the old trestle on fire. That’s convenient. That looks like light rail or a subway system to me, not heavy rail. I don't know the city, though, so I could be wrong. And yes before you ask I am fully in favor of routing freight trains over light rail. It's the same gauge, I'm sure there won't be any terrible and foreseeable consequences at all.
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Jul 30, 2020 01:23
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Tex Avery posted:The most pressing issue, should they choose to do that for some bizarre reason, is that I'm not even sure there's a connection to the UP anywhere. They'd have to cut in some switches and make a shoo fly. Ah. I was going off the light rail in my city, which has a connection to the mains in at least two places which I'm pretty sure is used exclusively for the delivery of new train sets and maintenance supplies. That said, just because it isn't used to run freight trains through the middle of the city doesn't mean you couldn't recreate that scene from Inception with enough motivation. Probably.
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Jul 30, 2020 04:16
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Tex Avery posted:The light rail system I work for has an interchange connection too, but I don't think it's been used since we shipped some of our cars to Salt Lake City and back to help SLC during the Olympics. That checks out with what I would expect but it's not like I had any firsthand experience so confirmation is cool. Thanks!
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Jul 31, 2020 00:19
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OMGVBFLOL posted:i did, but any recommendations for train or train-adjacent gaming are welcome Transport Fever 2 is on the more train garden end of train sims, with a relatively simple pathfinding and economic model. It does, however, have a huge variety of trains to play with, and more when mods are included. Workers and Resources is not, strictly speaking, a train game, instead being a Soviet-era socialist city/industry builder. However, trains are going to be one of the primary means of moving both workers and, uhhh, resources to and factories. The train pathfinding is robust with a heavy emphasis on proper signaling, and the train variety is pretty good as long as you like Soviet era diesels and electrics. As a bonus, it's the only train game where track construction is actually simulated instead of abstracted, though you can also just pay from your nation's budget to abstract it. The downside is that you'll be doing that a lot, because the pathfinding of the track construction units is the only place where the train pathfinding does hold up great. I recommend playing your first game with winter and fires off (you can always reenable them without starting a new game if you want to up the difficulty once you've gotten a handle on things) and possibly vehicle fuel requirements as well. If you don't turn off vehicle refueling, expect to have to build your own refueling sidings, buy or refine your own fuel, and then ship it by truck, pipeline, or rail to said refueling stations. W&R is that kind of game. Or you can skip all of that and build electric lines. (But then you have to supply the coal or nuclear plants with fuel and workers, and...)
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Mar 21, 2021 04:00
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Holy poo poo this is cool.
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Mar 26, 2021 04:26
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Steam engine 611 is moving north from NC towards its new temporary home at Strasburg today. Supposedly it should pass by this cam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV17Ri0ONrg Edit: Supposedly around 8:30ish, emphasis on the ish. Log082 fucked around with this message at 13:06 on May 17, 2021 |
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May 17, 2021 13:01
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611 is finally arriving at Paradise, PA after delays due to a broken stoker. Live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZ_VnPrzhs
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May 26, 2021 18:59
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OMGVBFLOL posted:wth am i looking at a train line. no trains yet though. there were some earlier, and there might be some more soon. (Strasburg RR is a shortline that does steam excursions and cargo services for local industries. Paradise, PA is the location of its interchange with Amtrak lines that are also used by NS locals to deliver freight. Norfolk and Western steam engine 611, operated by the VMT, is visiting Strasburg to run excursion services for a few months. It will be arriving under tow but powered for lubrication reasons today, supposedly in the next few hours. It's a big, neat steam engine.)
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May 26, 2021 20:05
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MikeCrotch posted:This is why the British method of just having a guy is better [swears britishly as my view is blocked by a commuter train]
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May 26, 2021 21:22
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I'm not a rail professional either, but from the various videos I've seen and books I've read, recovery usually does involve cranes, jacks, sidebooms, and other heavy equipment. Of course, when you have a lot of equipment specialized in pulling heavy things, and you need to pull something heavy, sometimes you end up in a hammer/nail situation. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3hgL4WpF60
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Nov 10, 2021 21:05
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Amtrak's new Acela that's coming out next year: It's been coming out "next year" since like before the pandemic.
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May 28, 2022 16:07
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Powershift posted:I saw this truck getting his train on. I've seen trucks like that used to pull a car or two for work trains before but never one that big. I wouldn't have thought it could handle that many cars either. I guess if you have enough traction to get going... In other news, https://twitter.com/Amtrak/status/1565414263530950662
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Sep 1, 2022 23:45
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Today I saw a normal CSX road engine pulling a train in reverse/long hood forward. That... isn't normal, right? I've never seen that before. It was on a main line, pulling a full train, not switching or servicing an industrial spur or something. All of the hoppers looked older and rustier than normal, too, though I have no idea if/how that would be related. Maybe clearing out or shifting rolling stock around in case of the strike?
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Sep 14, 2022 21:01
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Strasbug 475 hit a parked MoW excavator after running an open switch while running around an excursion train this morning. The accident was caught on livecam and is all over twitter: https://twitter.com/Thunderhead925/status/1587845150755135489 (No one was hurt or I obviously wouldn't be posting it.) The damage should be repairable but still, ouch.
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Nov 2, 2022 18:17
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Tex Avery posted:Yeah, Virtual Railfan has been oddly protective of that footage. The side view that got copyright struck appeared to be phone footage from someone on the train, I think. VR is being protective of their own footage, though; they usually upload clips of derailments and such and keep the cams on through the recovery process. The difference is probably because these cams are located on Strasburg's property and VR wants to maintain a good relationship with them so the cams don't get taken down. UP doesn't give a poo poo if VR films a derailment recovery, but a small excursion railroad has a lot more of a stake on their reputation, I guess.
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Nov 3, 2022 03:53
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