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Very strange things

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Posted by M636C on Wednesday, September 25, 2019 11:03 PM

 

 

 

There was a fleet of these Purrey steam trams in Rockhampton Queensland on 3'6" gauge which lasted until 1938. The rails were still visible in suburban streets in 1972 when I lived there. One steam motor has been restored to working order. These were built as cross bench cars but a number had saloon bodies not unlike those illustrated. None had upper decks by the 1930s.

Peter

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Posted by Jones1945 on Thursday, September 26, 2019 9:27 PM

M636C

There was a fleet of these Purrey steam trams in Rockhampton Queensland on 3'6" gauge which lasted until 1938. The rails were still visible in suburban streets in 1972 when I lived there. One steam motor has been restored to working order. These were built as cross bench cars but a number had saloon bodies not unlike those illustrated. None had upper decks by the 1930s.

Peter 

I saw some YouTube videos of the Rockhampton steam trams, can't stop watching them. Less smoky than I imagine, and it sounds like a diesel engine. The power generated by that small firebox and boiler is amazing. 

 

"Double-decker steam tram travels south on Elizabeth Street, Sydney, at the intersection of Market Street c. 1890s [RMS Image Library]"

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Posted by Jones1945 on Thursday, September 26, 2019 9:56 PM

Penny Trains

I can understand that feeling! My first 3D project was a highly detailed fantasy long-distance-travel-trolleybus base on a German proposed 6-wheel Double Decker Trolleybus. I also made some vehicles that were supposed to be imported to a game, so that I could drive them in the game, roaming around the 3D city but turn out, the hard disk suddenly down! I had many stuff like custom made textures, TONS of different skyscrapers floorplan for my family business in that Hard Disk. Not all data was backup or saved....... I still keep that hard disk in my safe.EmailCoffee

I can recreate them anytime I want, but it is like painting, the original is always better than a copy of it. 

 

I had a bad habit of storing files in vulnerable directories.  Now I backup, backup, backup!  Wink

My current modeling project:

Problem is, it has to go from CGI to real world in an annoyingly short amount of time.  Wink

Lovely! I guess this thrill ride will become a fantastic addition to your amazing layout, isn't it? It seems the red carriages would be lifted up and attached to the rockets, the rocket will be rotating around the main tower at the speed of 156mph, then the main tower will raise together with the rockets. Exciting! Looking forward to the 3D print-out of it. (I wish it will be steam-powered) Smile

Back up and save, back up and save! I wish there was a save point in real life so that I can choose millions of paths through one life. Or maybe there were save points that I never notice them. Coffee

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Posted by Penny Trains on Friday, September 27, 2019 6:43 PM

It's scheduled to replace the rapidly disintegrating Astro Orbitor:

It was a good model in it's day but it really doesn't appreciate being shoved into a box every January.

So I decided it was time to go retro and build the Apollo inspired Rocket Jets of the 1966 Tomorrowland revamp:

Including the Peoplemover on such a small scale is the tricky part.

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

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, September 27, 2019 8:50 PM

Boys, we are truly privileged, a peek at Becky's holiday layout is as reliable a harbinger of the approach of Christmas as the "Star of Bethlehem!"  

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Posted by Jones1945 on Monday, September 30, 2019 4:04 PM

Flintlock76

Boys, we are truly privileged, a peek at Becky's holiday layout is as reliable a harbinger of the approach of Christmas as the "Star of Bethlehem!"  

Indeed! Becky's layout reminds me of that year when I celebrate my 16th birthday. My best friend and I went to the amusement park and took the rollercoaster 16 times in a roll for celebration. It was a weekday, so we didn't need to queue up. We repeated the same thing to every thrill rides in the parks. Good times! I love and enjoy the feeling of centrifugal force if only those machines could sprint (or actually fly) faster! We did go to visit the cute dolphins though. CoffeeBig Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, September 30, 2019 6:58 PM

Sixteen times  on a rollercoaster?

Mr. Jones, you're a braver man than I am!  I hate  the things!

The last rollercoaster I was on (because I had NO idea what I was getting into) was "Space Mountain" at Disney World Orlando in 1975.  It took me a half-hour and five cigarettes to calm down and stop shaking!  Good thing there weren't any such things as "Smoke Free" zones back then, even in Disney World!

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Posted by Penny Trains on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 7:21 PM

How about with the lights on?

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

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 8:13 PM

Mamma mia!  

It's a lot less scary with the lights on, but I still need to have a smoke after watching that!   Surprise  

I remember that red tunnel!  Jeez!

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Posted by Penny Trains on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 7:26 PM

It's been about 28 years for me and about all I remember was that it was hard to see anything but white dots on a black background.  More like this:

That red tube is called the "Speed Tunnel" by the way.

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

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 9:42 PM

That was an interesting clip.  It's been a long time, 44 years, but it looks like they've installed a few more lights since I was there.  All I remember except for the light tunnels is dark!

I don't remember any background music either.  The only sounds I remember are blood-curdling screams!  Some of them were mine!

Sure wish I sweated out the line for the "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" ride!

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, October 4, 2019 11:25 PM

More strange things:

1) And where would you like to go sir.. we go everywhere!

2) Erie fans ( that's you Wayne)  avert your eyes... the Erie's on fire!

3) This loco seems to have a real move on. Get the blazes out of the way! 

4) Well not everything on the Santa Fe was classy. Seems BNSF got pretty frugal as well, they really cheaped out on the fix.

5)  Well not everything on the New York Central was beautiful. I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder but this may be their ugly duckling.

6) The Milwaukee Road, stunning in its greatness and reach. What's so strange ?... all this is gone that's what.

 

 

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, October 5, 2019 9:33 AM

Yikes!  Looks like that Erie caboose crew left the ham n' eggs on the stove a little too long!  

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, October 5, 2019 2:09 PM

Another look at street running in the Big Apple, brakeman up top the cars, great sightseeing! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SECM3ufU9M

 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, October 5, 2019 7:18 PM

Flintlock76
Sure wish I sweated out the line for the "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" ride!

Here's a compilation video from several sources that does a good job at giving you a feel for the ride.  It was, of course, a notoriously difficult ride to photograph with the film and video cameras of the day.  The films usually were just shadows if you were lucky and the CCD camcorders usually made everything look blue-green.

Unlike steam locomotives that are lucky enough to retire to museums or excursion organizations, the WDW Nautilii are quite literally "dead and buried".  Here they are prior to their entombment:

And that's ground up and put into sealed containers because of lead contamination by the way.

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

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, October 5, 2019 9:18 PM

Oh wow, now I really wish I'd sweated out the line for the "20K" ride!

The film quality was just fine!  Thanks for that Becky!

Hey, wouldn't it have been cool if Disney had James Mason do the narration?  The definative Captain Nemo!

And what a shame about the "Nautilii."  What a waste.  Coolest sub ever!

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, October 20, 2019 1:58 AM

1) They had to elongate the locomotive to fit in the railroad name. Honest!

2) I can sympathize.. Somedays I really feel like this.

3) Have to be careful here.... don't we all? 

4) Man oh man those PRR Passenger sharks were big units.

Even the B Unit was ginormous. 

 

5) Speaking of B Units how about this Soo Line SD40. Acting like they are just like the real big big guys.

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, October 20, 2019 9:02 AM

What a shame about those Baldwin "Sharks."  Good locomotives, but Baldwin got their act together on 'em just a little too late, the race had already been lost.  Cool-lookin' diesels!

Interesting, I didn't know there was an SD40 "B" unit.  

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, October 20, 2019 11:00 AM

It was rebuilt from a wreck as a cabless booster. Do not think it was a standard production model but I'm sure EMD or GMD would be happy to build one if required. 

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, October 20, 2019 11:36 AM

Flintlock76
Baldwin got their act together on 'em just a little too late, the race had already been lost.

Race was essentially lost when Baldwin chose a very heavy low-speed engine with inherent limited horsepower increase and truly awful precision-machining requirements (just look at the crank out of one of these, and recognize the practical horsepower limit even of the Belgian license-built engines).  That was a good idea in the '30s when everyone put two motors in their passenger engines by necessity; not so good as your surprise 'fallback' when your free-piston future doesn't work out and a major competitor gets power from a single prime mover; not good at all by the late '50s when heavy turbocharging comes in and GE has the insight that the Cooper-Bessemer design can be pushed to surprisingly large power density.

It's not for want of trying: Baldwin had light high-horsepower designs that should have been reliable in the Thirties; they just couldn't make them at a price point railroads wanted to bother with.  Had they marketed the Essl design, with a few refinements they'd have had remarkable production efficiency (x number of motor types, x number of frame and carbody configurations, x number of traction motors either in frame or bogie) but... BLH saw itself as a semi-custom builder right to the effective end and most probably wouldn't have benefited from high inherent standardization.

I thought (1) was a battery-electric construction locomotive, and that's exactly what it is: one of two built in 1905.  They didn't have third-rail shoes because they'd be done working before any energized rail would be available ... this may have been related to their blistering 7kph ... yes, that's under 5mph ... top speed.  It appears the battery chemistry, and perhaps no little part of the battery construction, was the same used in contemporary submarines (and derived from American practice!), so there is a kind of moral link to later FM power...  Wink

(Incidentally, I believe the guys who built these are responsible for one of the first, if not in fact the first, true 'production' HEP application, before the turn of the 20th Century.)

 

My first thought was fire in that gondola!  Probably loaded up with trash, and primary air increasingly delivered through rust holes or bad seams down low for that blast-furnace effect.  You see the same thing happen with dumpsters.

Alternatively this type of damage could have happened in an industrial-plant accident, where the car was exposed to massive flame heat, but the type of damage indicates 'internal' to me ... internal involving the whole of the inside load, at depth.

Could also be heavy, loose scrap banging around in there -- or severe wreck damage, which I think is the likeliest thing.  Note something that isn't busted: the paint.  Unusual to see this degree of heat distortion with the painted information still clearly legible like that, so I'm naturally suspicious...

 

Note the interesting placement of the dynamic-brake blister on the rebuild ... and the absence of porches.  This opens a question, because it would not use DB in the absence of a lead unit so equipped ... which would likely be six-axle, so why would it be relocated in the wreck rebuild rather than put in a 'factory' location?  I suspect these and other answers are known to Soo ... or EMD ... aficionados.

 

I purposely left Campbell to the end.  In the old days, "humpin'" was an expression much like 'getting on the ball' (my suspicion is that it came, at least in part, from caterpillars as well as dromedaries), and just as with expressions like "ballin'" (as in ballin' the jack, which means running ('highballin') a locomotive fast), it naturally came to be used, probably with some back-formation excuse for, say, body parts, for other forms of strenuous exercise.  (I'm still surprised that hot-rodding, another railroad-derived term, didn't take its place in the pantheon...) 

I'm quite sure the 'other implied meaning' was in there by intent, with the camel cleverly used to show... 

... well, if you want a better double-entendre, look no further than the old Culver City meat company, which when I had offices there could still be seen to advertise a historic boast:

 

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Posted by Jones1945 on Sunday, October 20, 2019 12:33 PM

Pennsy have done everything they can to help Baldwin, from a fleet of T1 to a fleet of "Passenger Shark" and centipede...... it was tragic. 

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, October 20, 2019 1:08 PM

Overmod-- Culver City Meat... luv it luv it luv it. 

How about Fluke Transportation ... " if it gets there on time it's a Fluke" 

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Posted by WILLIAM O CRAIG on Sunday, October 20, 2019 1:58 PM

Campbell Express was based lin my home town of Springfield MO, next to the Frisco tracks.  We were laughing at that double-meaning motto back in the 50s. To make it even better, there was an adultery suit in court at that time involving people in their office.

Concerning the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride,  my son got out of the Navy in 1989 after spending six years on a fast attack sub.  Then he got a job at Walt Disney World and his first assignment was attendant on that ride.

 

 

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, October 20, 2019 3:00 PM

Miningman
How about Fluke Transportation ... " if it gets there on time it's a Fluke" 

Bobby was quite a character!

I note that as of August 2019 Fluke Transportation Group still gives this slogan pride of place on their site...

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, October 20, 2019 3:02 PM

Miningman
How about Fluke Transportation ... " if it gets there on time it's a Fluke" 

Bobby was quite a character!

I note that as of August 2019 Fluke Transportation Group still gives this slogan pride of place on their site...

 

BTW, see if you can find any of the pictures of how PRR used those BP20 B units gainfully after the As went off to glory in New Jersey.  Their dreadnought length is even more evident in that service...

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, October 21, 2019 10:27 AM

I remember seeing the Campbell Express trucks passing through my hometown in South Carolina in 1946. Our home was at a right angle bend in the highway through town, so I was able to get good looks at the passing traffic. It was an interesting place to live--especially when a gasoline truck turned turtle as it made the turn (the lady who lived right across the street from where that truck landed simply went to visit her sister). Our house was far enough back so, unless it had exploded, we were safe; as it was, there was no fire.

Johnny

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, October 21, 2019 2:45 PM

The top NYC photo is actually Syracuse, which had street running until 1936, even for the Twentieth Century Limited.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, October 21, 2019 2:51 PM

rcdrye
The top NYC photo is actually Syracuse, which had street running until 1936, even for the Twentieth Century Limited.

And there is something unusual about it.  Most of the other pictures on the Internet that show Syracuse street running seem to have been taken from nearly this vantage ... but facing down the track in the opposite direction.  This looks as if it might have been taken at roughly the same time as the one in Thoroughbreds (which if I recall correctly was celebrating the 'last train down the street' before the grade-separation cutoff opened) and it might be interesting to research sources as to why (or indeed whether) miningman's picture is relatively less common to find.

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Posted by Penny Trains on Monday, October 21, 2019 6:57 PM

WILLIAM O CRAIG
Concerning the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, my son got out of the Navy in 1989 after spending six years on a fast attack sub. Then he got a job at Walt Disney World and his first assignment was attendant on that ride.

Cool!  Big SmileThumbs Up  Have him take a look at this site: http://www.20kride.com/photos_after.html, it's so sad!  Crying

This is a cast photo from that site of the last ride crew:

By the way, sticking with a railroad orientation, the subs were an outgrowth of the monorails:

The operator's view of the tracks ahead:

I built one of these Metal Earth models yesterday:

I built the Mark 1 monorail today (not my photos):

I'm waiting for this one:

I build these and turn them into ornaments for my Christmas tree.  Big Smile  15 so far...

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

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Posted by Miningman on Monday, October 28, 2019 7:08 PM

1) Now then this is similiar to my stance after releasing my rock in curling, but for a locomotive this is problematic. This also happens on my model railroad once in a while, quite embarrassing and amusing at the same time.

I do have a question however.... could a locomotive frame and body get all twisted up or engine mounts snapped? Looks painful but maybe it's a nothing.

2) Zee Santa Fe! A military train forming a perfect Z. 

 

3) Cute little semaphore! I've been corrected to identify it as the CNJ, with the Lehigh Valley being the bridge crossing in the background. As opposed to the more life size common one as shown below. Signal Maintainer perched high above a passing T1 below. Got to luv those old colourful Railroad Magazines covers.

 

 

4)  Maybe not strange but was this a normal or usual occurance?

Ok,  an express boxcar, a baggage car and likely a coach rider for the conductor and crew, perhaps in lieu of a caboose, then a whole train of boxcars. They don't appear to be reefers but maybe they are, maybe just boxcars. Perhaps a whole train of express but would they not use baggage cars for that? So what do we see here? ( besides the spiffy GG1).

 

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