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Virginian box-cab electrics photo

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, July 8, 2017 4:18 PM

1. Peter Davison

2. Christopher Eccleston

3. Colin Baker

Worst

!. Rowan Atkinson

2. Hugh Grant

Honourable Mention- Joanna Lumley

RME
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Posted by RME on Saturday, July 8, 2017 4:24 PM

Miningman
I'm rather amused of the other way around and fond of humans mimicking a synthesized voice. "Danger Will Robinson!" [fixed that for you!]

Or the Daleks on Dr. Who.

Or my personal favorite, the original Cylons.

Or my not-at-all favorite: almost anything involving Autotune for vocals.

(Somewhere, along with my master tape of famous organ works played on historical stadium organs, is the tape of Cylons singing some notorious autotuned pop songs ... you can probably guess what some of them were.)

 

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, July 8, 2017 5:03 PM

RME- Thanks for the fix. Our local trading post here is "Robertsons" and I use it in communications almost daily so the 'puter autocorrects to that name...didn't notice. Sometimes I get into a real tug of war with the machine overriding it three times before it capitulates. 

We have all seen some doozy texts. 

Cylons defeated the latest Doctor as he blew them and himself up. 

Also on Battlestar Gallatica...they had Cylons too!

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, July 8, 2017 5:33 PM

Best...

1.  Jon Pertwee

2.  Tom Baker

3.  David Tennent  (Had some input from Lady Firestorm on this one, she's the real "Whovian."

Worst...

1.  Sylvester McCoy

2.  Colin Baker

And....Best Companion...

Elisabeth Sladen

Lady F also says Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley weren't REAL Doctor's, they were spoof Doctors, they don't count.

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, July 8, 2017 6:45 PM

For sure Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith...agree 100% with the spoof Doctors comment. 

We need an episode where the good Doctor goes back and saves the Rock Island from extinction becoming a powerhouse today. 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, July 8, 2017 7:22 PM

Miningman
What I find really disturbing these past few years, and continuing still, is the use of those super fast clips, like 5 or 10 images in a second. It is prevalent throughout all forms of media these days.

And those of us with seizure disorders reallyappreciate those!  SoapBox

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, July 8, 2017 7:25 PM

How about the Doctor goes back and discovers diesels are a Dalek invention to further diminish the earth's supply of fossil fuels, and saves steam in the process?

Oh yeah, Elisabeth Sladen and Jenny Agutter (I know, she never did Doctor Who) best Brit Babes ever!   I caught Jenny on a "Call The Midwife) show a few weeks back, and even though she's a geezer (geezeress?) like me now I just felt this BIG smile creeping over my face.  Kind of like meeting a high school flame again you haven't seen in decades.

Jeez, how'd we get this far from jackshaft electrics?

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, July 8, 2017 7:30 PM

Firelock76
Informal poll time: Who's the best Doctor Who?

This is funny to me seeing as I just bought a Tardis at Books-a-Million today!  Laugh

To answer your poll: considering that it was the late 1970's to early 80's when I discovered Doctor Who, and I was limited to seeing what my local PBS station could afford to buy, and, all the effort I had to go through with the rabit ears just to get a fuzzy black and white picture in those days, I have to say Tom Baker is my favorite because I sure worked hard with those antennae and often stood in some strange positions with pieces of tinfoil just so I could see the show at all!  Laugh

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, July 8, 2017 7:41 PM

No surprise Becky, the first Doctor people see is usually their favorite.  Tom Baker was in our case as well, until a British friend of mine told us "Wait until you see Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker's predecessor.  HE's the best!"

Lo and behold, our local PBS station started airing the Pertwee shows after "Doctor Who" got popular here in the US, and we switched allegiance, although we've still got a soft spot for ol' Tom.

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Posted by RME on Saturday, July 8, 2017 8:08 PM

Firelock76
Lady F also says Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley weren't REAL Doctor's, they were spoof Doctors, they don't count.

You mean as in 'The Curse of Fatal Death'?  That was spoof Doctor Who, got no closer imho to the real thing than a Saturday Night Live or Mad TV sketch of the show would.

I love Rowan Atkinson, but putting him as a Time Lord is like putting Stephen Colbert on the bridge of the Enterprise.

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, July 8, 2017 8:22 PM

Firelock76 - Coal is fossil fuel and many steamers were oil fired so that won't work. 

How about using Dave Kleppers suggestion for alternate history and have the Doctor steer Electo-Motive away from developing the FT and instead focus on revitalizing interurban and streetcar systems, all very much to the betterment of mankind. 

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, July 8, 2017 10:08 PM

That'll work!

Poor choice of words on my part, I know very well coal's a fossil fuel, I should have said "..diminish the earths supply of oil..."

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Posted by RME on Saturday, July 8, 2017 11:10 PM

Miningman
How about using Dave Klepper's suggestion for alternate history and have the Doctor steer Electro-Motive away from developing the FT and instead focus on revitalizing interurban and streetcar systems, all very much to the betterment of mankind.

I have a much better one, which has the advantage of considerable factual truth behind it.

Go back to the thread with the CV 2-10-4 and look at the article after the one on the T&P 2-10-4 ... the one about the Canadian railcar with the lightweight Beardmore oil engine.  Note the figures quoted there for the saving of the oil engine over a conventional steam train ... and a gasoline car.  Yes, those figures would be right, for 1926.

Remember the reasons for Teapot Dome, and look at other contemporary sources: with the rise in auto traffic, so increased the marginal price of gasoline, with a decidedly short supply.  So much so, that a couple of the Standard Oil babies paid I.G.Farben (or some combine including them) something like $100 million for rights to the Fischer-Tropsch process collateral for synfuels in 1928.  I do not think it coincidental that EMD's market for gas cars softened in these years.

Now, the first thing to have the Doctor do is go to 1922 and keep someone from being run over -- that gives us functioning Unit Cars as an alternative.  Then do something to keep the big West Texas oil fields restricted, perhaps by having state and Federal governments tax the hell out of oil revenue like Huey Long on steroids.  We now have an incentive for EMD to go after the Stanley operation instead of (0r as well as) Electro-Motive, but we have kicked the pins out of any economic reason for large two-cycle road power, or massive sales gains in new cars.  Small wonder that Sloan consolidates his 'railroad' operations into interurbans instead of oil-electrics, although for the life of me I can't see anything that preserves most streetcars unless "EMD" and Winton concentrate their engine development on rural electrification plants instead of locomotives.

Locomotives can be just as easily fueled on some combination of torrefied wood and coal dust as they can now.  Clean, efficient, adjustable in its sizing, treatment, and coating, and with known 'recycling' for the ash content.  Even small coal-fired plants become practicable.  (Beslers and Doble working with solid fuel or gasification might be interesting to observe...)

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, July 8, 2017 11:46 PM

Tea Pot dome eh?

Pretty good...I like it. The good Doctor just might go along with it. 

NDG
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Posted by NDG on Sunday, July 9, 2017 1:51 PM

 

Thank You.

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, July 9, 2017 5:09 PM

Yes, very good. You can clearly see the cables go from motor to motor. 

Jackshafts/Siderods and big steam...and now what..lost diversity, lost independence and look alike Diesels. 

Is it run better, more efficient? Squeezes more loot for the 1% thats for sure. 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Sunday, July 9, 2017 6:53 PM

Need I say more?  Laugh

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Firelock76 on Sunday, July 9, 2017 7:15 PM

Is that a steam-powered Dalek?  If it is, it's sacrilege!!!

On the other hand, that's a cool-lookin' TARDIS.

Cute representation of Tom Baker too!

Getting back to the Virginian, I love those funky jackshaft electrics, almost comical the way they look, but I'm REALLY impressed by those big GE electrics.  Man!  Talk about a machine that just exudes power! 

I know, I know, steam freaks shouldn't talk like that, but still...

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Posted by Penny Trains on Sunday, July 9, 2017 7:23 PM

Google "steam tardis" and this and many others will come up!  Big Smile

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, July 9, 2017 7:59 PM

Just picture a big steam locomotive inside a small steam locomotive. 

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Posted by SD70M-2Dude on Sunday, July 9, 2017 9:06 PM

Miningman

Just picture a big steam locomotive inside a small steam locomotive. 

Oh my, now I'm imagining climbing into the cab of a light Pacific and seeing a Big Boy's boiler stretching out the cab window in front of me.  Even in my mind's eye it's surreal!

And Firelock is right about the first Doctor we see being our favourite, I'm still partial to David Tennant as he was on the air when I first started watching.  Can't forget Billie Piper as Rose Tyler either.

And I've always thought a Dalek's body looks kind of like a riveted vertical boiler, perhaps the original proto-Dalek was steam-powered?  Anyway great models there Becky!

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, July 10, 2017 6:23 AM

Firelock76
but I'm REALLY impressed by those big GE electrics.

Virginian's early electrics were Alco-Westinghouse...  They do look a lot like contemporary GE boxcabs, because their carbodies were also Alco-built.

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Posted by RME on Monday, July 10, 2017 8:06 AM

rcdrye
Firelock76
but I'm REALLY impressed by those big GE electrics.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, July 10, 2017 10:13 AM

I presume you meant EL-2B's.  E-2b's were six GE-built experimentals on PRR. 

By the way, all diesels DO NOT look alike, steam fans just let the smoke get in their eyes so they don't see the differences.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Firelock76 on Monday, July 10, 2017 4:51 PM

I was referring to the Virginian's EL2B electrics, and they were built in 1948 by GE.  And at 6,800 horsepower and one million pounds they were definately impressive!

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Posted by Miningman on Monday, July 10, 2017 5:03 PM

Well Fairbanks Morse and Baldwin certainly tried style wise anyway. Minority failed builders . Alco somewhat. As for EMD the BL2 looks like it belongs somewhere else, otherwise fleets of F's, E's and Geeps. 

Did a nice job with the paint schemes though. So do NHL goalies with their helmets. 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Monday, July 10, 2017 6:50 PM

SD70M-2Dude
great models there Becky!

I have no idea who made them, I just found them by googling "steam Tardis".  Big Smile  Concerning Daleks, there's always been the notion in the Whoniverse that they resemble "pepper pots".

(Found by googling "pepper pot".)  In the story "Remembrance of the Daleks" of the Sylvester McCoy era, one of the earth scientists rails about them referring to them as "tin plated pepper pots".  That story line is supposed to occur almost immediately after the "Unearthly Child" story which started Dr. Who in November of 1963.

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Firelock76 on Monday, July 10, 2017 6:58 PM

Penny Trains
 
SD70M-2Dude
great models there Becky!

 

I have no idea who made them, I just found them by googling "steam Tardis".  Big Smile  Concerning Daleks, there's always been the notion in the Whoniverse that they resemble "pepper pots".

(Found by googling "pepper pot".)  In the story "Remembrance of the Daleks" of the Sylvester McCoy era, one of the earth scientists rails about them referring to them as "tin plated pepper pots".  That story line is supposed to occur almost immediately after the "Unearthly Child" story which started Dr. Who in November of 1963.

 

Jeez, I got hungry lookin' at that thing, and I just ate!

Wish there was a decent diner around here, I could go for a "heart attack on a plate" breakfast special right now...

Hey, any decent diner serves breakfast 24 hours a day!

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Posted by Miningman on Monday, July 10, 2017 7:52 PM

Oh great. Now everytime I'm out at a restaurant, or even at home, and I pick up a Pepper Shaker I'll walk it across the table and start exterminating and very very people will understand. 

Folks will say " What are you doing!?

...and will have to say "it's Penny's fault"

to which they say "Who is Penny?"

There is no doubt of this. 

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Posted by erikem on Monday, July 10, 2017 10:43 PM

So when does this discussion drift towards Dr What and Dr I Don't Know???

The EL-2b were indeed impressive looking beasts and looks like the D&RGW would have bought something similar if they carried through on their post-war electrification plans.

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