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T1g4h posted:My apartment is actually right across the road from a set of train tracks and there are constantly freight consists rolling through all hours of the day and night and it makes for oddly soothing background noise when they go rumbling by I took my first trip on a passenger train (if you don't count light rail) this year. Didn't have a sleeper, just a coach seat, but damned if that clickity-clack and rocking back and forth wasn't sedating. Even when I was awake, it was a really refreshing change to get up and just walk around, between all the cars, and hang out in the lounge (glass ceiling/walls). Though it took 27 hours to make a trip that normally takes 10-12 by car. And I didn't get groped by a sexy TSA agent. But the upside is ... no TSA to deal with.
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Mar 6, 2011 06:54
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meltie posted:Reminds me a lot of the british Class 37s - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv_cGG56QA4 For some reason, I figured they'd use an air start on something that big. Just how big are the starters on those things?
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Jul 14, 2011 00:16
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B4Ctom1 posted:Holy gently caress! New traincam video of freight train hitting a piece of track hanging over a washout.  Holy.poo poo. How the gently caress did it not derail? Or did it and just manage to stay upright?
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Aug 8, 2011 08:35
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Any links to a report on the incident?
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Aug 8, 2011 09:51
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That atomic locomotive scares the poo poo out of me. Not because of the technology - I don't mind nuclear power - but because a nasty incident, such as one where the radiator car becomes separated, seems like it could... do bad things to an area.  Nam Taf posted:Fun fact: a colleague of mine came in to the tech room on site one day laughing because he'd seen a loco come in with a fault. Looked up the fault code, turns out it's the fault that says you haven't had a fault in 28(? or so) days and to check poo poo to make sure it's still working. So kind of like the "maintenance required" light in my last car that lit up every so many miles? 
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Sep 7, 2011 15:36
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ijustam posted:When they say a train stalls out, does that mean it can't get moving or the engine actually stalls? Can you even stall a locomotive engine? Doesn't have enough power to get over a hill/crossing/whatever.
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Apr 21, 2012 08:58
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InterceptorV8 posted:You'd think that they might like a rear lock-up first because if it breaks the train up, it's replacing couplers instead of "well, this is going to take a couple of weeks with a plasma to cut apart a ball of steel that was once a train" Somehow I don't think cars coming apart is a good idea, you might wind up with this calming scene.
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Sep 6, 2012 21:56
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Shifty Pony posted:Some long distance routes like the Texas Eagle run a single locomotive but it is a pretty darn flat route. I rode Texas Eagle about 2 1/2 years ago. I seem to remember it having 2 engines for at least one major segment of the trip. I'm not 100% positive on this though - I rode it from Dallas to El Paso, then back a week later. The overnight layover in San Antonio in the middle of winter kinda sucked, though it did give me several hours to get dinner, drinks, and drunkenly wander around downtown SA.
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Oct 12, 2012 08:39
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Shifty Pony posted:For example a link or loop in Texas between Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston would really be a great alternative to driving or regional flights. I know this is an old post, but Amtrak already links Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, and San Antonio (Texas Eagle). You can then catch Sunset Limited to Houston, though you're stuck with an overnight layover in San Antonio if you do that. If you don't count Houston, it's not a bad trip at all. Longer than a bus ride for sure, but far more comfortable with beer/wine available in the lounge car. The Austin station is an itty bitty little shack (with a hilariously short stop - I think it was 5 minutes?), while Dallas, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio are all decently sized with a decent amount of time at the stops. Source: Took Amtrak from Dallas to El Paso; same route, except took Sunset Limited west instead of east. The station in San Antonio isn't in that bad of an area either, it's just outside of downtown.. which has plenty of bars and a decent bit of food.
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Mar 5, 2013 10:10
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Here's an odd one. Mostly applies to light rail, and more because I'm just curious what happened (aka  )A few weeks ago I was riding on DART's blue line. For about 30 seconds, all of the interior lights (aside from a couple near each door, and they were a bit dimmer than usual) cut out, along with the AC blowers. The train didn't feel like it was slowing down at all. When I looked up it was also affecting the next car ahead of me. When everything came back on, I didn't feel the train accelerate either, it seemed to stay at the same speed. When it came back on the blowers were circulating humid air for a bit, which makes me think the AC compressors also cut out at the same time. What happened? 
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Jul 27, 2013 06:29
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This made me think of this thread. There's a flickr album within that post with a lot of signaling porn.
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Mar 5, 2014 06:26
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Tex Avery posted:I was just running one of the W2s in Dallas this morning. W2 369 is one of the workhorses of the fleet of streetcars operated by McKinney Avenue Transit Authority, which runs streetcars in Dallas, TX. MATA actually changed up the W2 to be totally enclosed, with a major PITA manual door in the center of the car. 95% of our operations are done without conductors, so every time someone wants on or off the car, I have to stop, run to the middle of the car, open the door, let people on/off, get back up, close the door, run to the front of the car, and start moving again as quickly as possible so that I don't clog up traffic too badly. Small world, I've been on Matilda a few times. You guys have iron balls to operate the MATA cars as smoothly as you do - I'd be screaming at every car that decided "rail car? what rail? They put the tracks in the middle of the street, therefore they're required to stop as fast as a small car by law, amirite?! I'm gonna cut them off and slam on my brakes to make a turn into this restaurant parking lot!" I've mostly ridden on weekends though, which seemed to usually have someone handling the middle door. I'll try and get on/off at the front from now on though
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Apr 17, 2014 11:41
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Matilda!  I've ridden her a few times.  Forget the name of the other ones I've ridden, Matila just stands out for some reason.
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May 11, 2015 13:24
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Given the speed, I'm honestly amazed anybody survived that. I'd guess the only reason is because the sheer mass of the cars kept most of them from coming to the kind of quick stop you'd see in a 100 mph car accident? Weird foamer-like question - how does the emergency lighting on those work? I saw more than one photo where the exit signs and emergency lights were still working in a lopsided car, are they run off a battery in the car, or are they like a traditional emergency light in a building where each fixture has its own battery? The two times I've ridden Amtrak, I had an overnight layover, and noticed that while they were playing musical chairs with the cars, similar lights + exit signs worked for at least a few hours (I was asleep by the time they got it back together, and once I woke up the train was an hour away from the layover, so I never noticed). One such photo I'm talking about : 
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May 17, 2015 04:55
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