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BrokenKnucklez posted:drat, It sucks being tired. I should say I am freight engineer that is a set back to conductor. I will try to answer questions the best I can. Sorry I have been up since 2 am. Heya, I'm headed in for a hiring session for Brakeperson/Switchperson at PD1 at the end of this month. I'm wondering if you might be able to tell me a little bit about the day-to-day life of a complete newbie, so I have a better idea of what I'd be getting into. Possible? Drop me a PM, or reply. Tried to send you one, but I can't 
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Mar 16, 2011 10:29
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Thanks! That site looks like a wealth of information! Toss me an email at ctishman@mac.com and I'll platinum-plate your account.
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Mar 16, 2011 18:05
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InterceptorV8 posted:I've been through there before. Someone put this together as well. Seems very fitting.
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Nov 3, 2012 07:41
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bennyfactor posted:The MTA posted some raw footage of one of their special pump trains draining water in the subway tunnels beneath lower Manhattan, pretty cool: So wait, they just dump the water back in the sewer system? The one that's probably hosed up from being completely immersed for five days? The one that most likely has leaks going right back onto the tracks somewhere else?
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Nov 3, 2012 18:26
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Ahh. That makes better sense, then. I suppose they don't really have a better option anyhow.
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Nov 5, 2012 16:41
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Erwin posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvyIrsZ7Zhs Dear god. What happens there? I mean, the frame is obviously hosed. Does the shipper's insurance rate just skyrocket after the insurer pays out of pocket for a goddamn locomotive?
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Nov 7, 2012 02:25
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A bit of steam-porn for those of you who are interested. The full-quality images are available on the Imgur gallery here: http://imgur.com/a/V2hTX In early September, I got the chance to head up to York while visiting England. Shot a bunch of pictures at the museum, but the highlight of the trip was an afternoon on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a heritage railway that runs over some of the many rural branch lines that got the Beeching Axe in the early '60s. They had a whole raft of locomotives in various states of disrepair and restoration, including a Deltic that's apparently on loan from some other railway, though I failed to get a shot of it.     One of the old 'Quick and Dirty' War Department locomotives from WWII. Most of these ended up exported from the UK after we sent them over to help with reconstruction, but apparently this one found its way back.   I also took some movies of a few locos and carriages arriving at and leaving from Goathland Station. This is sort of the highlight of the line, being a 1920s-style station that's been kept largely as-is and maintained. It's at the top of a 1-in-49 grade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRhw-VejgFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-doSwP_MQ ctishman fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Dec 3, 2012 |
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Dec 3, 2012 05:31
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Terrible Robot posted:This is really loving cool. I guess sometimes teutonic engineers are ok. When I was a kid, we used to drive up from Vermont to Montreal, and the main thing I remember was the sound of the metro trains accelerating out of the station and their distinct 3-note stepped acceleration. Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJlW0tpSY4s&t=47s
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Jan 12, 2013 19:13
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:I had forgotten that Montreal used rubber-tire trains. What is the reasoning behind that, I wonder? Cheaper? According to Wikipedia…
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Jan 12, 2013 20:11
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bytebark posted:The one "advantage" listed there which I disagree with is "smoother ride." I've ridden a few rubber-tired transit operations (mostly those running at airports) and they're never smooth. A few years ago I went to Disney World and made it a point to ride the Monorail (rubber tired on a concrete beam) so I could compare it to the CTA in Chicago. Without a doubt the CTA (operating on a 100+ year old elevated structure in some places) has the better ride. Really? I've ridden Montreal and NYC in my youth (no real comparison there, NYC could jar your loving teeth out), and CTA this June. The rubber-tired ones were always smoother from my recollection. Regarding airport 'metro' systems: Keep in mind that the little trains at airports aren't really a metro system. They were a gee-whiz thingamabob stuck underground sometime between 1970 and 1990 and probably given the absolute minimum necessary maintenance to keep them dragging rear end around their tiny circles of track. They've probably run up more working hours than a real metro would, under harsher stop-start-stop intervals because there's like… four trains to cover the whole airport, 24/7/365.
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Jan 15, 2013 18:48
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Wouldn't something like that be just hideously expensive to operate regularly? I'd think something like a plow would do just as well, even in Russia™
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Mar 4, 2013 22:30
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It's interesting – Most of the trouble I see with the Class 1s descends directly from the management culture – a culture that, in the case of the railroads, seems to still hold these robber-baron attitudes about labor and maintenance. I get the feeling that they would rather let employees die in the course of their duties, or would rather have like you said vast inefficiencies in their operations, than make drastic changes to the way they operate. I just wonder what makes them behave that way, and what sort of cultural shift it would take to drag them out of the 19th century, attitude-wise.
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Mar 9, 2013 19:13
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Styles Bitchley posted:Good question. I know much of the control components we sell are really old designs that are terribly complicated, labor intensive, and costly. It's not uncommon for me to come across drawings originally drafted over 100 years ago. This becomes particularly problematic when you have to replace a lot of the stuff quickly ala Hurricane Sandy. I can understand though the mentality of sticking with what you know works. I think that culture is baked into a company in its first few years and then crystallizes and can't be easily shifted unless there's some major, traumatic change. It gets passed on through generation after generation of workers in the form of a set of attitudes towards others in the business hierarchy, both above and below. In the case of the Class 1s, they've been able to operate inefficiently and unsafely and yet still make money hand over fist for the investors. They hold an 1870s attitude and have no real incentive to change things up because it works well enough. All of the 'safety culture' stuff with (as you said) first aid kit placement and little machines you have to smack every few minutes are band-aids to cover up the gaping wound in the culture – a wound that would require vast sums of money and time to change. I suppose I've answered my own question.
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Mar 10, 2013 18:45
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Makes sense. Ever tried to walk over that huge-rear end gravel they sometimes use for roadbed? The stuff with 3-6" chunks? That'd be a ton of workplace accidents waiting to happen, and I'll bet it's what they wanted to use, given that there's plenty of it around.
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Apr 10, 2013 17:52
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B4Ctom1 posted:Here is a rare patch from my military service That's a really cool patch, but I must say that the perspective is… a bit jarring.
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Apr 21, 2013 10:13
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Interesting that they have a passenger car. Do they have two rotating crews, or what?
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May 7, 2013 16:34
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"Average-sized alligator attempts to cross railroad track, gets high-centered, T-boned" doesn't have the same ring to it.
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May 15, 2013 18:07
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Not sure that if (or how often) this has been posted, but… drat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je7N8wkgAOE Apparently this is what happens when you spray fire suppressant not only on the ties of a steep grade, but the rails as well.
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Aug 12, 2013 08:02
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Phy posted:Well, Naples is well known for its funiculars. What about my favorite, the Trieste-Opicina Tramway? It's a regular streetcar that uses purpose-built funicular engines to push the car up a steep grade, or brake it back down again. Crazy poo poo I want to ride before I die. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trieste%E2%80%93Opicina_tramway
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Aug 22, 2013 21:24
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Interesting series of Youtube videos I stumbled upon. It's a BBC TV series, I think. Extreme Railways. Sort of like Jeremy Clarkson's condescending railfan brother travels the world, riding on broke-rear end, dangerous track. Fun stuff to watch, particularly if you think Amtrak is bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrH6cuoXn4 ctishman fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Jan 30, 2014 |
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Jan 30, 2014 10:21
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Ferremit posted:The Ghan in Australia uses two NR class diesel electrics to pull it from Adelaide to Darwin and they have variable power GE 7FDL-16 engines, with power levels of 2 850 HP, 3 560 HP or 4 020 HP. Thats a purely passenger train with 2-3 Auto transport carriages. Those Amtrak locos are GE Genesis units, producing 4200 HP apiece on DC, or 3200 AC. I mean, think about that. A potential peak of nearly 13,000 HP pulling that train. Of course, our coaches here in the US have a Nightstar-like weight problem too, due to FRA crashworthiness standards.
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Apr 24, 2014 09:25
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So France just pulled a British Rail. Not sure why the government decided that after what happened to the UK, splitting track ownership from train ownership would be a good idea, but they did.
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May 21, 2014 07:06
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Brother Jonathan posted:Because it was mandated by the EU, thus providing more fodder for the Eurosceptics. SNCF and RFF will now be put under a single bureaucracy, but a legal "firewall" has to be kept between them to meet EU rules. So basically they did it for the same reason the UK did it, with predictable results.
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May 22, 2014 01:30
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Update on the France thing. From what I hear now, it actually wasn't as stupid as it seemed initially. Apparently RFF was supposed to modify the platforms years ago, but it went something like this: SNCF: "In ten years' time we will be buying new trains that are wider. Please widen ze platforms" RFF: "But we are le tired" SNCF: "Well, have a nap, ZHEN WIDEN ZE PLATFORMS!" <5 years pass> SNCF: "How are the platforms going? That big order of trains is on its way." RFF: "We're um… zhey're… euh… good? Yes. Les platforms sont great! How are you?" <5 years pass> SNCF: "Les trains are here!" RFF: "Wait, wait, les platforms were supposed to be done NOW? But we are le tired." World Press: "LOL  "The way it's going now, it sounds like it's entirely on RFF for loving around rather than doing their job.
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May 26, 2014 23:48
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drunkill posted:Swanston Street is the busiest tramway in the world. It is where the majority of the Melbourne tram routes end up though the city, more like 3 trams per minute in peak. It was blocked for an hour or two, lazy sunday so not too bad. Are those Z-class PCC-derived? They look sort of like it, particularly the front doors.
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Jul 27, 2014 22:32
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atomicthumbs posted:What do y'all think of this new north Bay Area train thingy? I have no idea how they plan to squeeze the necessary ridership from the North Bay area for this to be anything but an expensive boondoggle. IMNSHO, the west coast cities (LA excluded) just aren't dense enough outside the city cores for something like long-range commuter service to make much sense.
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Aug 2, 2014 19:07
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No railbed? No problem. loving Spain. http://vimeo.com/104870648.
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Oct 10, 2014 11:47
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Tex Avery posted:Nah, it's 2015 here... most of the time. I work for a company in Dallas that runs vintage streetcars in a modern day commuter service. What sort of background do you have so as to get such a position? City bus, I'm guessing? 
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Jan 5, 2015 21:40
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Stick Insect posted:Modern electric trains can sound pretty cool/weird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeRYuEDD8SA That sounds like a more complex version of the famous acceleration sound of the Montreal Metro: http://youtu.be/oHKtPpiezb0
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Mar 27, 2015 04:53
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_eRWbpQKbg Stolen from /r/trains. Quick conversation between the (edit) signal operator and train crew. ctishman fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Apr 6, 2015 |
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Apr 6, 2015 19:51
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Tex Avery posted:The chugging noise is the standard two cylinder air compressor. The whistle on this car was added around two years ago. It's definitely a Melbourne tram. Why the whistle? Is it a historically accurate for the city, or what?
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Apr 21, 2015 19:51
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Tex Avery posted:Because we are a transit agency that happens to operate vintage vehicles, certain bits of historical accuracy had to be sacrificed for safety purposes. Nothing says "get out of the way" like a trombone whistle while not pissing off the neighbors too much. Ahh, and the bell was too much noise, I take it? That makes sense. I was afraid it'd been some concession to some dude on the city council who thought all trains should go 'whooo' or something stupid like that.
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Apr 21, 2015 20:07
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MeatloafCat posted:Just saw this posted. A train was blown off a bridge in Baton Rouge or New Orleans, not sure which. From what I've heard no one was injured, but I'm not sure. Mirror's up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB-nBhsMiYc
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Apr 28, 2015 01:57
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kastein posted:Wait, those guys actually do something? I thought it was a "fat out of shape old dude in a beat-rear end buick lesabre with a $50 flea market grubby second hand yellow light bar and four magmount antennas" pension plan. As far as I know, it isn't the job of the lead or trailing car, but is either up to the person who applies for the oversize load permit or the person who grants it to verify that the load will clear obstacles on the road. That said, this sounds like the classic juris-my-dictional fuckup where gates had been added to what was formerly a primitive crossing, but the paperwork didn't get through to the right people on time. Also: What's up with this? Was CP holding out on the gov't or something?
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Jun 23, 2015 04:35
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