I wonder if you can still find Prince Albert in a can. Or, has he been let out now so he will not suffocate?[:)
Johnny
Johnny, from what I see at the local smoke shop (I call it "Joe Butts") ol' Prince Albert's still around, but the can is a thing of the past. Just a plain ol' pipe tobacco package now. He may still suffocate in that plastic wrap though!
Now just what are people supposed to use to store screws, nuts, bolts, and assorted hardware? I guess you could use glass jars, but they can break!
Ah, times change, sometimes not for the better.
Wayne
Since I gave up tobacco decades ago, I haven't followed the changes. I remember sampling both Prince Albert and Sir Walter Raleigh. My dad used to smoke the latter. I remember those small tins you could stick in a pocket, also the larger one pound tins.
I used to like these aromatic tobaccos by MacBarens of Denmark. Still, I'm glad I quit.
Flintlock76I wondered if they were the iron pyrite that was used in the old wheel-locks. Close, but no cigar.
There has been quite a bit of development on 'flints' since then, especially on the mischmetal used for the pyrophoricity. For a while other 'rare earths' were used... while they were more lab curiosities than critical strategic materials.
Note that this is not a 'flintlock' arrangement where the hard material makes the steel burn, like sparks off a grinding wheel. The "secret" knurling on the striker wheel cuts off fine pieces of the "flint" - which contains not only the prompt ignition source but some soft magnesium for flameholding. I wondered years ago if the 'iron' was actually oxide being used as an oxygen source for extended Goldschmidt reaction, as you need some extended sizzle to get the relatively long carbon chains in 'lighter fluid' to ignite in cold and wet conditions -- the little perforated shield in the Zippo design notwithstanding. Of course the pyrites Firelock mentioned are 'pyrophoric' themselves, but only because friction ignites the sulfur, which then develops enough chemical heat to light off oxidization of the elemental iron (ever see steel wool burn coming out of a carbide cannon?)
also 'of course' the ignition with butane is easier -- and of course ignition of butane with piezo spark is even easier -- and of course plasma generated from a Li-ion source charged from a typical USB phone charger is better still, requires no pesky fuel fill, and is potentially carbon-neutral...
Some years ago I was given as a presentation a very small tape measure. It was a little smaller than the usual cigarette lighter and I assumed that it was intended for use in sports like golf and lawn bowls where distance might be important in the game. I'm not sure where it is now but it came in a box clearly labelled "Zippo" and the brand was visible on the base of the tape.
I assume that this was Zippo's response to the general decline in smoking and the need to have a more politically acceptable item particularly for corporate presentations.
Peter
Zippo is still happily in the business of making lighters and 'promotional' items. It was my impression that they got into tape measures as an alternative use of the deep-draw capability for making the tops of the lighters - I may be able to winkle information out of someone at the IDDRG.
They stopped making the lighter-top model tape, and the current model in their catalogue is a ridiculous little thing made out of plastic. You may well be right that this represents a PC choice for nonsmoking awards ... but it was a far better 'award' when it looked and felt like a Zippo lighter.
When I was a soph in high school taking AP chemistry, I didn't like the standard strikers used to light Bunsen burners (I'm left-handed and they were tough to work that way). So I happily bought a brushed-stainless Zippo and carried it around on a daily basis. I suppose today I'd be prosecuted and perhaps expelled for having smoking paraphernalia on school grounds...
Overmod I'd dearly love to see a proper kinematic analysis of the Hi-Ad C truck, including formal description of the couples that produced harmonic rock on jointed rail at relatively common operating speed. I can't help but think that there are some interesting reasons contributing to the 'off-side' wheels being more shelled... I still love these trucks and think of them as modern, even in the present where far simpler designs that are far better arranged are commonplace. They look the way high-speed trucks in the pre-wimpout '60s ought to...
I'd dearly love to see a proper kinematic analysis of the Hi-Ad C truck, including formal description of the couples that produced harmonic rock on jointed rail at relatively common operating speed. I can't help but think that there are some interesting reasons contributing to the 'off-side' wheels being more shelled...
I still love these trucks and think of them as modern, even in the present where far simpler designs that are far better arranged are commonplace. They look the way high-speed trucks in the pre-wimpout '60s ought to...
I've been thinking about my answer.
I often thought about instrumenting an Alco Hi-Ad but there was no pressing need to do so. You should bear in mind that the Mount Newman Mining Company had started off with 132 lb rail continuously welded on ties at close spacing on 24 inches of rock ballast in a generally dry and hot area.
Nobody was at all concerned about the locomotive truck performance and the ride was smooth with nothing to draw attention in normal service. Having ridden hundreds of miles in these units, I never experienced any "rolling" action, harmonic or otherwise. The Australian rail had been cut into 45 feet lengths before flash butt welding rather than 39 feet but there were no "dipped joints" except for insulated joints (which were glued with epoxy anyway) and these were side by side anyway.
On a trip after our dynamic tests on the ore cars were completed I leaned out of the cab of a trailing unit to watch the flexing action of the coil secondary springs on the sharp curves on the descent of the Chichester Ranges, and the whole assembly seemed to operate quite smoothly.
Somewhat earlier, I rode a loaded train back after having driven the length of the line with the Superintendent from the Newman area (to open the farm gates that were still in place on the access road).
This was an unusual day. For a start it rained south of the Chichester ranges, which is very unusual between cyclones, and there were tumbleweeds (different from those in the USA) being blown across the line. We had three units, one M636C with Hi Ad trucks and two C636s and 140 cars loaded to 120 long tons each. Sadly, nobody had thought to sand the two trailing units and on the wet rail the trailing units were slipping from time to time. You could tell when the unit had slipped by the shock coming through the draft gear well before the wheelslip bell sounded.
The driver decided that he should control the wheel slip by applying the independent brake on all locomotive wheels, and this seemed to work. when we reached the siding at the top of the hill, he went back to check that the wheels were not cracked from the heat, and sent me back to check the wheels on the other side. You could feel the heat radiating from the wheels a couple of feet away.
Anyway, assuming that this was not an exceptional situation, although it was the worst I ever experienced in many trips, I could conclude that the wheel away from the gear slipped more than (or at least differently to) the wheel near the gear simply because of the limited torsional flexibility in the axle.
Interestingly, two Indian Railways high speed electric passenger locomotives use Alco Hi Ad trucks. I don't know where these came from. All the examples built for Alco were standard gauge and these would not be easily adapted to 5' 6" gauge. They could be new, either castings or possibly welded fabrications (which has been adopted for several truck designs in India).
My screen name is of course the code for the M636 with C636 Hi-Ad trucks. These, along with other Australian M636 units had a different cooling system to those built in Canada which greatly improved their reliability, not just in hot weather. In fact they were better than the first GE Dash 8 units tested in the Pilbara in many respects.
Fr.Al Since I gave up tobacco decades ago, I haven't followed the changes. I remember sampling both Prince Albert and Sir Walter Raleigh. My dad used to smoke the latter. I remember those small tins you could stick in a pocket, also the larger one pound tins. I used to like these aromatic tobaccos by MacBarens of Denmark. Still, I'm glad I quit.
I smoked a pipe for a while, and the tobacco I liked best was "Borkum Riff," had a nice aroma to it.
Just as well you quit Father, tobacco in the shops smells a lot better than it actually is. Kind of like coffee when you think about it.
Flintlock76Kind of like coffee when you think about it.
Just have to find the right coffee. We had a thread on that once. It irked some people.
Now you have people smoking these robot dongs that smell like candy cotton mixed with sewer gas.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Miningman You can dial out using the rotary dial?
You can dial out using the rotary dial?
It's the "pulse" function.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
zugmann Flintlock76 Kind of like coffee when you think about it. Just have to find the right coffee. We had a thread on that once. It irked some people. Now you have people smoking these robot dongs that smell like candy cotton mixed with sewer gas.
Flintlock76 Kind of like coffee when you think about it.
Oh yeah, those tobacco-less "robo-smokes."
Remember a few months back when the big panic was those "robo-smokes?" I did a little on-line research and found they're all made in China. No surprise there. The big surprise was I couldn't find out where the fluid you put in 'em was made. Big mystery. Wonder why?
I remember that coffee thread, it was fun! No pleasing some people I suppose.
Penny Trains Miningman You can dial out using the rotary dial? It's the "pulse" function.
Makes perfect sense!
Flintlock76 Penny Trains Miningman You can dial out using the rotary dial? It's the "pulse" function. Makes perfect sense!
I've even heard of people dialing with the hook switch on the phone - ISTR the pulse rate was 10 per second. I also remember one of our FAX machines taking a while to dial numbers as it was programmed for pulse, not tone dialing - did take care of that eventually.
One for Mr. Ripley, until about 3 years ago I was using a dial-up modem.
1) Rather ominous in today's atmosphere.
2) This is the actual entrance to the subway in downtown Frankfurt near the University. What can I say, a sense of humour, macabre, just plain weird, avant garde?
3) New use for retired railcars... a widespread movement in Russia to organize Orthodox Christian Churches in old railway cars.
4) Air Locomotion Show in the Grand Palais, Paris 1909
5) What do you call a roundhouse that isn't round .. a long house?
18 stalls, Mauch Chunk, Pa.
6) What the? A deep sea diver? No. A Miner.... yes, and not only that but an employee of the DL&W. This is the DL&W Avondale Shaft in Nanticoke, Pa. The employee is demonstrating an early Draegar Oxygen Helmut used by Mine Rescue. They still use Draegar equipment but it's quite a bit more modern. I teach Mine Rescue and we use Draegar equipment.
7) Expired iPhone, iPad or old Mac that you were fond of? Maybe you could get permission to memorialize it here.
8) Not happy with the latest instalment of 'very strange things'?
Well, here, have one. How can you go wrong?
Erik_MagI've even heard of people dialing with the hook switch on the phone - ISTR the pulse rate was 10 per second.
I was going to mention this before: When I was a sophomore in college, I was responsible for one of the two telephone lines in the suite. This was in the days when many phones and exchanges were still Strowger-enabled and all the provided equipment and premise wiring was still 'officially Bell System'.
I had a dial lock of the kind that went through the #1 hole and prevented any dial rotation. I discovered I could happily dial out, even long distance, by quickly clicking the hook switch and leaving 'morse-style' pause length between the groups. You quickly got the 'rhythm' required for timing, just as you do when learning keying.
This was relatively facilitated by the old design that had sprung cylindrical prongs for the hookswitch, but with a little practice and some provision of 'steady resting' you could do it on pay-phone equipment that had the dial damaged. (Or in conjunction with your portable tape recorder with coin noises on it... )
I no longer use landline phones, so I have no idea if current switchgear is still Vail backward-compatible with rotary pulse generation, or if 2-wire (red/green) dialing via pulse is still 'supported'. Might be worth trying, though -- although cheap DMTF dialers or apps for portable devices are so cheap and easy now there may be little point in it except the egoboo.
Miningman 1) Rather ominous in today's atmosphere. 2) This is the actual entrance to the subway in downtown Frankfurt near the University. What can I say, a sense of humour, macabre, just plain weird, avant garde? 3) New use for retired railcars... a widespread movement in Russia to organize Orthodox Christian Churches in old railway cars. 4) Air Locomotion Show in the Grand Palais, Paris 1909 5) What do you call a roundhouse that isn't round .. a long house? 18 stalls, Mauch Chunk, Pa. 6) What the? A deep sea diver? No. A Miner.... yes, and not only that but an employee of the DL&W. This is the DL&W Avondale Shaft in Nanticoke, Pa. The employee is demonstrating an early Draegar Oxygen Helmut used by Mine Rescue. They still use Draegar equipment but it's quite a bit more modern. I teach Mine Rescue and we use Draegar equipment. 7) Expired iPhone, iPad or old Mac that you were fond of? Maybe you could get permission to memorialize it here. 8) Not happy with the latest instalment of 'very strange things'? Well, here, have one. How can you go wrong?
Interesting shots! Let's see now...
1) Ghost train? I don't know, looking at that crew I'm thinking more "Stoner Train."
2) That Frankfurt shot? They still cleaning up the mess from WW2?
3) Now that railcar re-purposed into an Orthodox church doesn't surprise me, the Russians are a very practical people, they don't throw anything out that's still usable. Supposedly they've still got a mess of T-34 tanks warehoused, "Just in case."
4) Now that French air expo looks like it must have been a gas. The French went absolutely aviation crazy in the early years, so much so French aviation terms found their way into the English language, like "fuselage," "empennage," and others.
5) That Mauch Chunk (now called Jim Thorpe) engine house. I don't know who it belongs to, I don't think it's Jersey Central, I checked the books and couldn't find it.
6) It's "Diver Dan!" Anyone besides me remember that kid's show?
7) Ah, my dream cherry bomb!
8) Great, just great. NOW I'm in the mood for doughnuts!
Oh yeah Diver Dan was soooo good. Baron Barracuda always getting foiled. Just loved that show as a kid.
If you made a cherry bomb like that today you would be facing terrorism charges! Lady Firelock would have to visit you in the slammer, even Saul Goodman ( s'all good man) couldn't get you off.
The 'long house' was unidentified but someone will know . Maybe Lehigh Valley. Obviously they were up against that big hill and couldn't go 'round' . Pun intended. Looks like an interurban possibly above them.
Flintlock76) Now that railcar re-purposed into an Orthodox church doesn't surprise me, the Russians are a very practical people, they don't throw anything out that's still usable. Supposedly they've still got a mess of T-34 tanks warehoused, "Just in case."
Many were set up as monuments ilke this one in towns around the Soviet Union and satalites. The locals were supposed to maintain them so they could be used on short notice,
A T34 destroyed in the "the Croatian War of Independence in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina." The war was 1991-95. Tank qwas probably removed from a monument.
destroyed in
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
#1 reminds me of one of my favorite movies.
If you go looking for it, the 2002 restoration by Kino is the ONLY version you should buy.
#2 reminds me of a caboose I had crushed under a large boulder on my train layout.
#4 reminds me of the airships they had at Tower City Center (nee Cleveland Union Terminal) back in the 90's.
And #8 reminds me of John Belushi!
Used on short notice Mr. Schmitt? I wouldn't be surprised. A number of T-34's have been restored in the past decade and it doesn't take much to get those diesel engines working again. Not the best or most sophisticated tank ever made, but the T-34 is one tough machine! An icon for the Russian people as well, like the Spitfire is for the British or the M-1 rifle for the Americans.
There was a T-34 captured in Korea displayed at The Basic School in Quantico VA when I was there in 1975. It was OK to crawl around inside the thing, and let me tell you, it is TIGHT in there! I'm told Russian tankers were no taller than 5'8" and I can believe it. I'm 6' and felt the squeeze.
The turret traverse and gun elevation mechanisms still worked too.
MiningmanThe 'long house' was unidentified but someone will know . Maybe Lehigh Valley. Obviously they were up against that big hill and couldn't go 'round' . Pun intended. Looks like an interurban possibly above them.
That had to be CNJ. They had an engine terminal on the north side of Jim Thorpe. There is still a turntable. LV's yard was a few miles south in Lehighton.
Also, I didn't know the Russians had (onion) dome cars.
Mike I have to concur. I enlarged that enginehouse photograph until I stated losing resolution, and there's a shallow gondola car on the right with what looks like the CNJ's Statue of Liberty herald. It's blurry, but looks about right.
The herald on the tender of one of the locomotives "kinda-sorta" looks like a CNJ herald, it's blurry as well, but I wasn't ready to stick my neck out over it.
1) A steam locomotive tender for Penn Central ... long from its glory days.
2) Pennsy Oil Burners? You bet. Used as stationary boilers for heating buildings.
3) We talked about Troy, NY lately. So what's so weird about this scene?
Its this... everything you in the picture is gone except that big hill in the background.
4) Where's the fire? Man that's a tight fit. No bubble wrap in those days. Maybe they stuffed in pillows.
5) North American Rail Car Association (NARCOA) get together. Quite the thing!
6) Alaska Railroad 1050A & 1050B, prototypes for ARR RF1 Alco's.
Rebulit from surplus RSD1 locos USA 840 and 854. Delivered in Oct. 1947. Rebuilds by International Car Co. Kenton, Ohio.
Now that's a nose!
7) New Haven to Newfoundland! Well part of the way anyway. Quite the ad!
8) Not too often do you see an ad featuring Mail Trains.
" Be you wise"
That's the arriving D&H Laurentian with the NYC Observation on the rear. If the picture was taken before 1953 a car or two from the Rutland/B&M Green Mountain Flyer will get cut in before the train heads for New York probably behind an NYC RS3 or GP7.
Miningman6) Alaska Railroad 1050A & 1050B, prototypes for ARR RF1 Alco's. Rebulit from surplus RSD1 locos USA 840 and 854. Delivered in Oct. 1947. Rebuilds by International Car Co. Kenton, Ohio.
Huh! I knew about the Kenton toy company but I never knew about International car.
I never knew about International Car, either; I knew about International Harvester, which made farm equipment, trucks, cars, and carryalls (station wagons).
Strange things all right.
Photo 3. All gone, except for the hill? That whole neighborhood and railroad infrastructure? Without a trace? You said it Vince, what the Luftwaffe wanted to do to us during WW2 but couldn't we ended up doing to ourselves.
Photo 6. Man, those RSD1 rebuilds are ug-leeeeee!
Photo 7. Ah, Newfoundland! "Come for the sights, stay for the seafood!" Best lobster anywhere! The cod tongues are pretty tasty too!
A bit of trivia, Lady Firestorm's mother was a Newfoundlander, and she and other Newfoundlanders who grew up pre-Confederation never called themselves Canadians, it was always Newfoundlanders! Lady F's Newfoundland cousins, all born post-Confederation, call themselves Canadians.
Photo 8. "Be you wise..." Wow, it's like that ad was written by Charles Dickens! 19th Century English may be archaic, but it's still pretty cool!
I guess that poster was before 1949 since they refer to both Canada and Newfoundland. The NH at one time controlled B&M and MEC. I wonder if the train went thru Vanceboro or along the Fundy shore?
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Get the Classic Trains twice-monthly newsletter