Locomotive Insanity: Murder on the BNSF Mixed Consist doesnt have the same ring to it

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Locomotive Insanity: Murder on the BNSF Mixed Consist doesnt have the same ring to it

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

echoplex posted:

And there's the infrastructure. We used to have some of the most amazing stations

St Pancras is still a sight to behold, but many of the great ones are gone.

We still do, it's just that we tend to fill them with gawky furniture now. Manchester Piccadilly's still around, as is York with its weirdly-placed coffee shop. Leeds was built in much the same arched way too.

# ¿ May 4, 2011 18:43

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 13:01

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

B4Ctom1 posted:

I have lots of stuff here
http://www.outlawperformance.com/images/trains

Feel free to post a link and ask a question about any of it. You are bound to be VERY curious about some of it. Some of it I took as an engineer, some as a conductor over years and years.

There won't be much new video as the new FRA rules are pretty strict about the use of electronic devices while running. Sometimes someone will break the rules with a camera and I can get a copy.

Holy crap, the bottom of that nuclear flask is rather close to the sleepers!

# ¿ May 26, 2011 23:27

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

bytebark posted:

Here's what an ALCO RSD-15 "Alligator" (actually the same one pictured on the top of the wiki page) looks/sounds like while being fired up after hibernating for 20+ years. Lots of "Alco smoke" and audio diesel bliss.

Edit:

Oh, right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_YbT2nLQcQ

Reminds me a lot of the british Class 37s - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv_cGG56QA4

# ¿ Jul 13, 2011 23:03

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Ferremit posted:

I'm more interested in the knocking noise on startup? Is that even remotely normal??? Last diesel I encountered that made that kind of noise is in my shed getting a full tear down and rebuild!!!

They're such low RPM, judging by the video at least that's the sound of an exhaust valve opening?

# ¿ Jul 14, 2011 14:20

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Zeether posted:

Does anyone enjoy watching cab footage? I found a site with cab footage of trains in Japan. There's some other neat things there too.

It's like playing BVE! :keke:

# ¿ May 11, 2012 09:40

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

I went out today and I saw one of Freightliner's new(ish) Class 70s while I was waiting for my train, and oh boy do GE make a gently caress ugly locomotive.

Then when I was trying to figure out what the hell the abomination I'd seen, I discovered that when they were unloading them from the ship they're bought here in, they, err, dropped one.

Also another one caught fire, oh well they are only 3 years old.

They go past my office in Sheffield every day. My God they're ugly.

If it looks right, it flies right. And that engine does not look right.

meltie fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Aug 14, 2012

# ¿ Aug 14, 2012 21:21

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

echoplex posted:

Didn't know about that, thanks - will check the iPlayer.

The Design Museum had a good retrospective on Ken Grange last year and of course, the 43 was a huge part of it:

Prototype chair for the HST:

Got a poster print of the 43 artwork framed, as well. They had planned to get in a 43 and repaint it in it's original Intercity livery, but it wouldn't quite clear the gallery doors. Real shame. In short: love the 43s.

It's a gorgeous design. I've got his book and the Class 43 stuff is the best bit.

It's a shame they're taking the Valenta engines away, they don't scream any more

# ¿ Sep 17, 2012 20:48

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

No Pun Intended posted:

Stalin's Rope Roads

That looks like a suspended suicide cabin! :eek:

# ¿ Aug 24, 2013 11:04

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Cygni posted:

This doesnt... I mean how... I just...

All of our HSTs had this as well until very very recently. It felt so swish to pull in to a sleepy town on a late Summer's evening, head and shoulders sticking out of the window, ready to open the outside handle.

I was surprised how many people still didn't know how to use them up until the end. You'd get the person at the head of the exit queue waiting bemusedly for the door to open after the *thunk* of the lock opening. Especially when you could see the carriage next to you emptying out.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 08:55

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

EightBit posted:

I'm more astonished that people can't hold it for 90 minutes. I've been stuck in traffic while driving for longer than that.

You're probably in the prime of your life right now. Others aren't; old people, drunk people, commuters in a rush in the morning, disabled people...

# ¿ Apr 2, 2014 08:21

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

CrazyOldGuy posted:

Above is test train with 145mm treads on the wheel (Vic standard), de-railed train has 125mm treads (NSW standard)

That's weird. The loco really really looks like a UK InterCity 125. I spent a while trying to work out which network operator that was :o:

# ¿ Jul 30, 2014 00:58

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Manny posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_South_Wales_XPT

Yes, it just took me a while. They really hosed up Kenneth Grange's aesthetics

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/09/how-we-made-intercity-125

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 00:48

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

EoRaptor posted:

Oh crap, that looks like a brake failure on the truck

# ¿ Jun 1, 2015 18:55

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

InterceptorV8 posted:

Icy road?

Oh yeah, that's pretty obvious. Ouch

# ¿ Jun 1, 2015 19:19

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Fire and deaths on a Shinkansen.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150630_35.html

An odd, horrible suicide apparently

# ¿ Jul 1, 2015 02:50

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

MikeCrotch posted:

They no longer sound like the shriek of the damned since they took out the Valentas, so they had to make up for it by filling the braking systems with brimstone.

The sound of the Valentas was the best thing about those

# ¿ Jan 28, 2016 00:55

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Das Volk posted:

Why do the Class 43s smell so bad when using dynamic braking? Did they make the resistor banks out of corpses?

I heard it's not dynamic braking, the carriages' fresh air intakes are down by the bogies, so when you brake hard...

...or so I heard.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2016 01:45

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Axeman Jim posted:

You're not kidding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1n0LjhBlkM

That sounds like a pretty solid 80Hz-ish rumble at idle that my music production clients would complain about if I put it on one of their mixes...

And then it sounds like an HST as it spools past, that's a great-sounding supercharger.

For those who haven't had the pleasure, the as-built HSTs (they've since been re-engined) had supercharged Paxman-Valenta engines that would scream under load, more than an F40PH even:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ICcOu0NkM

I really miss the Valentas.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 09:49

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

Clang.

Sure that'll buff out.

Noooooo! They're so pretty those

# ¿ Apr 3, 2016 19:38

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Axeman Jim posted:

Non-Crap British Trains (a very short series) � The British Rail Class 253/254 �High Speed Train�

THANK YOU!

Right; if you're not making your Crap British Trains series into an actual small book � la "Roundabouts of Britain" you're a fool.

Axeman Jim posted:

Do you know what the turbo whine of the sort of turbo required to boost a 79 litre V12 sounds like? It sounds like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUK94mIcyKw

I miss the Valentas 😁

Axeman Jim posted:

^{Track? Signals? Booooring!! You can�t even paint fancy stripes on those or make them look like a Lamborghini!}

Oh look, the tilt mechanism's failed on just one of the carriages too.

Did you hear Sir Kenneth Grange on R4? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086l4zd

# ¿ Jan 6, 2017 01:49

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Sun Dog posted:

I was decluttering, and found these two promotional Metroliner paper models at the bottom of a pile of stuff. I was gonna throw them out, but I remembered this thread and thought I'd run it by you guys first. They're yours for postage, complete with "Hey it's not the 90s anymore but we wish it was" graphics and all, if anyone's interested.

Thanks for this thread. I'd like to know more about train whistles. I swear I would be able to tell who was driving by the pattern of their signals, if I could put names to horns. Sometimes we get a train that comes through, and the guy on the horn, he plays it like an old timey western choo choo, with a lot of soul in the notes, rather than just yanking out the notes mechanically.

This isn't the Manchester Metrolink, yeah?

poop poop!

# ¿ Jan 15, 2017 04:32

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

MikeCrotch posted:

lots of smaller engines didn't work out too hot for the Soviets though

turns out having lots of small rockets as opposed to a few big ones make the rocket plumbing a lot more complicated and prone to failure

More devices -> more moving parts -> higher chance of one failing per unit time.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2017 12:04

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Elukka posted:

Sorry for the derail.

No apologies! This was a good derail, and an interesting exercise in risk accounting! Anywhere I can read more about it?

# ¿ Feb 9, 2017 22:11

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Clarence posted:

(I was going to go into some detail explaining stuff but didn't want to teach you all how to suck eggs - everyone here seems pretty knowledgeable.)

are you quite serious

# ¿ Jul 19, 2017 23:56

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Clarence posted:

Some basics of steam operation, with doubtless many tangents along the way. This has turned out to be much longer than expected, so it'll be just the burning of coal in a locomotive in this part and I'll cover steam itself later.

That was bloody ace, thank you!

# ¿ Jul 21, 2017 22:32

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

hackbunny posted:

Ika posted:
Oh come on it's even got tram lines

Tram lines? Its even got the different animal enclosures at the zoo I take the train to get to in Holland labeled correctly.

(And I know I'm months behind, but still! )

Someone's taken it a bit far

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ¿ May 26, 2018 19:34

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Jonny Nox posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UZwqWw7REA

What a crazy funny crazy thing to do...

Loved their All the Stations series.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2019 20:36

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

MrYenko posted:

Those aren't model trains, that is a highly-distributed-traction switching locomotive.

horizontal scaling

# ¿ May 10, 2020 11:50

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Rude Dude With Tude posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAuuS6tKHZc

A really interesting snapshot of a small slice in time - modernising goods yards, electric vehicles and computerised dockets... but all the goods are still breakbulk. Fascinating.

The new yard still exists: https://goo.gl/maps/8fYEfCVdX9AdzJ8Z9

Most of the bulk steel has left Sheffield now - i'm told that they make more money now than before, concentrating on high-precision engineering tasks.

A history of the Dowty marshalling yard system: https://www.dowtyheritage.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Wagon-Control.pdf

meltie fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Jun 21, 2020

# ¿ Jun 21, 2020 18:51

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Neddy Seagoon posted:

If we're really going down this rabbit hole, Duck's not in the right but Diesel's go-to response was to functionally undermine the whole yard just to get back at one engine, which is downright toxic for any professional environment. He got ~~fired~~ sent away on his own merits.

This is literally my office right now and this loving train thread has me questioning my workday

# ¿ Jul 4, 2020 16:43

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

The Real Amethyst posted:

where's the rest of the video :aaa:

# ¿ Jul 11, 2020 23:58

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

The Real Amethyst posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFTkgupgRpw&t=122s

uhhh did they run out of sand?

# ¿ Jul 30, 2020 22:28

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

BalloonFish posted:

I'm always fascinated by the downfall of the Milwaukee Road, and how in the mid-60s the management decided that the railroad had no viable long term future...and spent the next 20 years proving themselves right.

FISHMANPET posted:

Don't sleep on the Milwaukee Road de-electrifying their transcon route to get the scrap value of the copper right before the energy crisis of the 70s.

The fish duo make a great point! Where could we read or watch more about the Milwaukee Road?

# ¿ May 24, 2021 22:50

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

BalloonFish posted:

It's been years since I actually hunted this stuff down - as a Brit I first learned about the Milwaukee Road playing downloaded custom scenarios on Railroad Tycoon 2 about 20 years ago (which is where I picked up most of the rest of my knowledge about American railways and, indeed, American geography and history...)

Crikey, thanks!

# ¿ May 28, 2021 15:55

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Baconroll posted:

Finally someone went and did it,

https://i.imgur.com/I7TMzY1.mp4

"do not hump", I guess?

# ¿ Jun 22, 2021 11:26

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

GotLag posted:

The 500 series was the most beautiful shinkansen and if you disagree you're wrong and have bad taste and you were adopted and nobody likes you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuAqNehSn9A

nooooooo

Original > N700 > whatever else

N700: I love the extruded cube train

# ¿ May 21, 2022 16:58

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

Greg12 posted:

Question, from a former caltrain commuter

All of conductors use the phrases "last and final" and "station stop."

Do these mean specific things that the single word synonyms "last" and "station" don't, or is it a verbal tic they pick up from the conductors who trained them, who got it from the ones who trained them, all the way back to some kook on the SP in 1879?

British announcers started using this jargon with the public for the last decade or so and it was incredibly irritating to hear.

They seem to have stopped it recently though; i've not heard it this year - thank God.

meltie fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Mar 28, 2023

# ¿ Mar 28, 2023 14:02

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

JingleBells posted:

The National Railway Museum have just posted a video of their most prized possession, the Pacer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWVMmvOswjU

Thanks, I hate it

# ¿ Aug 14, 2023 20:02

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 13:01

meltie: Nov 9, 2003; Not a sodding fridge.

I utterly hated them. They were the only train we got; I spent a decade rattling around on them in Greater Manchester and the Peak District.

My most treasured memory of them was a winter journey on one with failed window seals. The glass was rattling in the pane and leaking water onto the window ledge. The combination of the rattling and the leak meant that the window was blowing bubbles to itself.

BalloonFish posted:

For that, and for being pushed into uses they were never designed or intended for, I have a sort of grudging respect for the Pacers. I certainly welcome that the NRM has one. They're utterly representative of an era of UK railway history.

Yes.

meltie fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Sep 3, 2023

# ¿ Sep 3, 2023 23:32

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Locomotive Insanity: Murder on the BNSF Mixed Consist doesnt have the same ring to it