quote:

Our World Famous "Run-A-Locomotive" program allows you to rent a vintage diesel locomotive and operate it on the museum grounds, under the close supervision of your own private instructor. Income from locomotive rentals helps fund the restoration of our historic equipment.

The R-A-L program has three basic plans, all include private instruction from a qualified engineer:

Plan A - $150 for 1 hour
Switch Engine: USA 1857 (FM H12-44), WP 608 (EMD NW2), SP 1100 (EMD TR6A).
Plan B - $175 for 1 hour
Road Engine: WP 917D (EMD F7) or SP 2873 (EMD GP9)
Plan C - $275 for two hours
Switch Engine for the first hour and Road Engine for the second hour.
*Please note that while advanced reservations are strongly encouraged, walk-ins will be taken on a time available, first come first served basis, weather, personnel, and locomotive availability permitting.

~Coxy posted:

N is the best because you can have something vaguely approximating real towns, yards and main/branch lines.

HO is cool for its detail, scale and cost but even the largest home layouts look horribly cramped.

Mr. Wiggles posted:

Sorry to quote from more than a month ago, but here's my photo criticism: for goodness sake stay the hell out of Trona oh my gosh it is the worst town on Earth.

auzdark posted:

I found this on my daily surfing on the internet, but I was not able to find a story for it, looks like a terrible case of buffer over run! (I always wanted to see what a train would do to a road haha)

B4Ctom1 posted:

If there are any problems the until alarm bell will sound.

Oil pressure gets low it does an auto shutdown.

Engine coolant temp gets too high the locomotive will stop or reduce loading, high idle cool down, or just shut down protectively if it runs out of water. This also goes for lube oil temps on some locomotives.

If crankcase pressure goes above a certain threshold then the locomotive shuts down immediately.

CommieGIR posted:

Apparently there is money in it:

http://www.paducahbilt.com/Pages/locos_wreck.asp

B4Ctom1 posted:

Here is a scary cam view
http://www.outlawperformance.com/movies/cactus-texas-dark_territory-wreck.htm

B4Ctom1 posted:

More stupid Laws

Ika posted:

I was driving south from tacoma WA a while back, and along the interstate there appeared to be many miles worth of abandened SP doublestacks. Is there any story behind that, it seems pretty wasteful to not sell/reuse those cars.

Geoj posted:

People like that kill me. In 2005 in a city just north of where I live a 16 year old girl was killed at a railroad crossing when she attempted to cross immediately behind a southbound train and walked right into the path of a northbound train that through some freak occurrence happened to go through the crossing just as the other train was clearing it.

For about two weeks afterwards there were protests at the crossing every weekend with the protesters carrying signs saying "CSX kills kids" (etc.) and throwing rocks and eggs at trains as they passed through.

auzdark posted:

I'm pretty sure this video has been posted earlier in the thread...

In regards to crossings, there are hardly any in Australia where I drive around, the trains are all elevated across the roads until they hit the city, then its all underground.

B4Ctom1 posted:

and this http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/20/local/la-me-metrolink-ntsb20-2010jan20

CharlesM posted:

The NTSB report was posted in another thread a while back. The guy was sending text messages to high school kids (kinda creepy) up to a few seconds before they crashed. They also detail how it's extremely unlikely the light could have been green due to the way the electric system is designed.

Disgruntled Bovine posted:

Stupidity knows no bounds. I caught some kids on video crawling under an actively switching train at the MBTA station in Ayer, Massachusetts. Two of them crawled under it before I started filming then the other two followed them. Why? So they wouldn't have to walk 500 feet to cross the tracks on a nearby bridge or wait for the train to clear the crossing.

Link: http://youtu.be/5uXq0ZOQU1c?hd=1&t=3m34s

BrokenKnucklez posted:

HA! I wish. They are bolted right to the floor.

Though the CN has about the best units... Most have microwaves and tea kettles. They are good for us sacks that are stuck cooking with turbo's

http://www.nebraska-locksmith.com/articles/ManifoldM.pdf

yes, we do that crap. I mostly have my food pre made and warm them up.

BrokenKnucklez posted:

If you work for the railroad its pretty well known that they openly hate their employees. I know most companies at least act like they care for you, but this place openly hates you. Your just a number and a liability. Do some reading on FELA (federal employees liability). Basically they just place any blame on the employee.

Honestly, most guys that work here hate the company but do love what they do for a living. I really do running engines, and there are not very many people that work for the railroad. If you want to do some reading, look up a book called Railroad Noir by Linda Neimann.

Oh and for people who are concerned about crappers, we do have them! The best ones are the air powered flushers, like a plane. They stay about the cleanest, the chemical toilets can get down right nasty... think porta potty style, but baking and sloshing around for a good couple of weeks.

Among rails, its very socially unacceptable to poop in the lead unit. Every one craps on the second unit. If you do, you end up with a nickname. And this is a place that remembers a nick name better than your real name.

B4Ctom1 posted:

Just read this
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/OSHA20120410.htm

B4Ctom1 posted:

On a separate item. The UPRR has hired social media monitors.

I was told by attorney reps at the recent union meeting that a UP employee was level 5 permanently terminated under the "conduct unbecoming" rule of the General Code of Operating Rules.

This was for posting information on his Facebook about his UP manager which he got from the newpaper police blotter. This post was caught by these new social media employees and forwarded to that manager to handle the termination.

I made my arguments to the attorney reps about how something that is a matter of public record can be terminable. The attorneys said the company can do whatever they want.

This is because the UPRR has stated their policy clearly enough that if fired, we could possibly have no recourse at a federal mediation law board to try to get our job back.

This would likely preclude any litigation for wrongful termination.

The railroad lobbies heavily in DC to ensure the federal law boards are unfunded/underfunded to make sure most of these are never mediated.

Here is the funny part.. these hearings also cover lots of considerations. Like where the railroad has without any good cause, refused to pay employees for work performed. For example you work 20 overtime hours and they say that you are not entitled to the pay for those hours. Then, as in some sort of twisted joke, take some of the money they did not pay these employees, and then use it to lobby to de-fund the mediation process further.

edit:
GENERAL CODE OF OPERATING RULES—Fifth Edition—April 3, 2005
http://www.utu1904.com/files/Download/GCOR%202005.pdf


Edit #2:

B4Ctom1 posted:

also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_6to6eRMos

(thanks to aphex)

B4Ctom1 posted:

old news but funny news
http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/business_news/x530602459/Police-investigate-theft-of-railroad-tracks-in-Taunton-today-train-derailed

(thanks to Aphex)

Boomer The Cannon posted:

It might be a museum down the road. They're only finishing phase 1 of 3 or 4, if I understand correctly.

The guy who owned it was a doctor of some sort and made a shitload of cash. He turned it into one short-line, which turned into 10 around Ohio/Pennsylvania and a shitload of cash, which he used to purchase steam locomotives for a tourist train. He sold said lines about 6 years ago and made yet another shitload of cash, which he turned into what you see here for his collection.

From what I've gathered, the plan is to open some sort of museum and rent out the equipment for excursion lines to use, like the Milwaukee 261 group in MN.

Preoptopus posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyVIVHJ5RUA
wash out

9axle posted:

The brakes don't apply on the entire train all at once, there can be a significant delay between the front and rear. When the front slows significantly, and the rear is still moving at track speed, things can get exciting. The force can be enough to force the midle right off the tracks.

If the trainline emergency happens towards the rear, a train will rip itself apart as the rear slows and the front keeps moving. I have had to change knuckles when this happens, and occasionally it will rip a drawbar right out of the car.

Some types of cars, boxcars and autoracks have drawbars and couplers that slide in and out to help cushion the shock of starting and stopping. The amount of movement can be a couple of feet per car, so a long train can stretch or bunch significantly when starting or stopping. An engineer has to account for this, and be aware of what the rear of his train is doing as well as the head. Just because the head end is going up hill and losing speed doesn't mean you don't have a mile of train behind you going downhill and picking up speed. If there is a lot of slack between the cars, things can go bad.

B4Ctom1 posted:

B4Ctom1 posted:

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1606941

Tex Avery posted:

I'm going to demand a refund if I don't want to blow my brains out after two hours. New Year's Day of 2011 was the coldest day on record in Williams, AZ, in quite a while. I was fireman on the regular train up to Grand Canyon, and the car we had that generated HEP for the train took a poo poo not too far out of Williams. My engineer and my conductor made the decision to fire up the onboard HEP gen on the F40 we were in and I got to spend the next two hours listening to that stupid thing scream all the drat way to Grand Canyon.

McDeth posted:

God drat truck drivers. I swear to god, half of them are mentally retarded and the other half seriously have me wondering...

McDeth posted:

I'm not talking about trucks vs. cars, I'm talking abou trucks vs. trains. How the gently caress does a truck driver manage to drive into the side of a train? Oblivious? Clinically blind?

B4Ctom1 posted:

Train hits water truck in Utah
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3e9_1351905068

Erwin posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvyIrsZ7Zhs

I hate when that happens.

Giblet Plus! posted:

Not really. The engine in the prius is connected in parallel to the wheels with the electric motor, through a planetary gearset.

http://eahart.com/prius/psd/

If you every hear so called "technical" people ripping on the prius, they are dumbasses. There is more clever tech in 1 prius than all musclecars from the 1960s.

B4Ctom1 posted:

Gah! How did I miss that

B4Ctom1 posted: