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Very strange things

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Posted by Jones1945 on Saturday, November 23, 2019 9:47 AM

Miningman

You want fleet of modernism? Well here you go...about as modern as Pennsy got before entering the event horizon into nothingness. 

Is it even lettered Pennsylvannia along the side? Who knows, too dirty to tell. Looks like everyone from management to union has thrown in the towel... morale must have been pretty low by this point.

Surprised they kept the Keystone.. at least the headlight works.

Sad! The decline was so overwhelming that I could feel the emotion of the author, disappointed and powerless, in some railroad books published in the late 1960s, when the author trying to describe the shortening length of the passenger train consist, named train combined or removed from the time table... I can find the attrition rate in the annual reports, but I just don't want to look at it. It was probably not that high, but imagine people who really love railroading and their jobs, had to change their career path for a more secure future...  "For everything there is a fixed time, and a time for every business under the sun..."

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, November 23, 2019 1:05 PM

M636C

I couldn't find the  picture on line anywhere, but I found a  picture of some PC Tuscan E8's.   Nasty!

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=811630  

 

Wayne 

The two Tuscan units are E7s

The E8 is black...

Remind me of a couple of Rock Island E7s I saw in 1977.

Peter

 

 

Thanks for the correction Peter!  While I know E and F units when I see 'em the "nuances" of each type usually escape me.

Sometimes I use my "fall-back" phrase and call them "Superman Diesels."

"OK, NOW what's he talking about?  Has he lost his mind?"

Fair enough.  THIS is why Lady Firestorm and myself call 'em "Superman Diesels..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1C8d2qZrbA   

Wayne

PS:  Plenty of actors have played Superman, some quite well, but George Reeves WAS Superman!  George set the bar high, none have jumped over it!

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Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, November 23, 2019 3:51 PM

Flintlock76
Sometimes I use my "fall-back" phrase and call them "Superman Diesels."

"OK, NOW what's he talking about?  Has he lost his mind?"

Fair enough.  THIS is why Lady Firestorm and myself call 'em "Superman Diesels..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1C8d2qZrbA   

Wayne

PS:  Plenty of actors have played Superman, some quite well, but George Reeves WAS Superman!  George set the bar high, none have jumped over it!

As I recall the 'original' Superman lead in showed the SP's GS series as the 'powerful locomotive'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2l4bz1FT8U

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, November 23, 2019 5:43 PM

You sure recall correctly Balt!

Personally I think that GS is a LOT more impressive than the diesel.  Just look at those drivers and rods turning!  WOW!

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, November 23, 2019 10:10 PM

Wayne--.Just noticed you have 2,313 posts in not quite 11 months! Wow!  That's got to be some kind of record. Always fun to see what you have to say! 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, November 24, 2019 9:23 AM

Miningman

Wayne--.Just noticed you have 2,313 posts in not quite 11 months! Wow!  That's got to be some kind of record. Always fun to see what you have to say! 

 

Wow.  And that's not counting the ones I did when I was Firelock76!

I appreciate your appreciation Vince, otherwise I'd be thinking I talk too much!

Wayne

PS:  I'd love to get Lady Firestorm in on some of these threads just to get her to indulge in her "My Mighty 611 is all dressed up with nowhere to go!" rage.

But she's a bit shy.  I know, I can't figure it out either!

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Posted by Penny Trains on Sunday, November 24, 2019 5:58 PM

I feel her pain.  Wink

Thoroughbreds need to run free!

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

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Posted by Miningman on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 8:34 AM

1) The Cat Came Back:

So here we have a long line of brand new fresh out of the factory of Canadian Pacific's unique SD40F-2's. It's 1989. They were nicknamed 'Red Barns'. CP starting retiring the 25 locomotives in 2012, completing getting them off the roster in 2016 with the sale of 10 of them to Central Maine & Quebec. Now then the CM&Q operates on the former Canadian Pacific International of Maine Division, which CP also sold.

So fast forward to today and CP has now bought back its Eastern Lines and are now the owner of the previously sold Red Barns. Stay tuned to see what happens.


Acquired ten units 9/2015 (retired 12/2012) 
9004, 9010, 9011, 9014, 9017, 9020, 9021, 9022, 9023, 9024. 
SD40-2F with "Draper Taper" full width carbody. 

9017_9011 with Brownville to Millinocket turn job heads back south after making its pickup from the Maine Northern.
Norcross, Maine October 2, 2016

 

2) The Cat Got Lost

What is going on here?  Great Northern somewhere in Europe ( coorected)  using European design locomotives? 

3)  Pennsy Cats

Scale Inspector for the PRR at Altoona.  Do you think you could pull a fast one past this guy? I don't think so!

4)  Pennsy dwarf signal. Looks like something from Minions.  Going to walk, waddle, right over to you and check you    out! 

5)  The cab on Pennsy Decapods just kind of hang out there with nothing underneath.  Must have made for a rough ride.  Since I never heard of one 'falling off' we can assume they were secured pretty well.

 

 

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 11:04 AM

Vince, are you sure those "Great Northern" locomotives are in Germany?  I recall there was a movie made in Sweden that was supposed to take place in the American Pacific Northwest.  A Swedish NOHAB diesel was painted into a Great Northern scheme as part of the production.  The Swedes thought it looked so good in the GN scheme it still has it to this day.  I wonder if those diesels were part of the production?

That PRR Decapod.  A Pennsy engineer was asked how well they rode.  His answer?

"They don't!"

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 11:44 AM

Miningman
The cab on Pennsy Decapods just kind of hang out there with nothing underneath. Must have made for a rough ride.

Still more amusing is that they were designed with 50% limited cutoff to be a 50mph locomotive!  And PRR did some highly unusual tinkering to reduce dynamic augment ... note that it has to be 'both types of augment' at once, not just coordinating the bounce as on the late British Decapods ... including the aluminum side rods found in one of Staufer's Pennsy Power books, replete with strain gages.

What was probably needed was the steering effect of a trailing truck, and that might have been provided independent of equalized adhesion by pushing the front tender truck on an extended tender frame up close to the rear driver pair and then arranging roller lateral as far back adjacent to the rear of the deck as possible.  Woodard of course had his methods of addressing this, and we might note the Timken approach to providing a Bissel pin pivot in an "articulated" truck frame designed for proper weight distribution...

Since I never heard of one 'falling off' we can assume they were secured pretty well.

Quite a bit of frame behind the driver pairs, so a good surface to attach the cab.  The problem was far less with the cab falling off than with anything temporarily contained in it, from scoops of coal to trainmen.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 12:38 PM

The NOHAB units are basically offset-cab GP9s or double-cab SDF9's, with Co'Co' bogies and a very american 567C engine (some also had 567D1s making them maybe SDF18s).  NOHAB contracted with GM to produce carbodies and running gear.  There are examples in both GN and ATSF paint (BNSF?) on private railways in Sweden.  The "GP9" road switcher, appears to be a Bo'Bo' T43 built between 1961 and 1963.  NOHAB is Nyqvist & Holm AB.

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Posted by Miningman on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 4:20 PM

Most interesting rcdrye.... not sure how that works, I mean legal wise with the paint scheme. I assume they had to get permission but then again maybe not. You would think GN and Santa Fe would be a bit concerned with someone disguising/ masquerading as themselves. Flintlock states it was for a movie but then you say they liked it so much they kept them that way.

Overmod-- 50 mph in a Decapod, slam, bang, jolt, repeat in opposite direction, "where's the engineer" says the fireman... " was sitting right there a second ago". I think I would need a good stiff drink after a day of that hanging on.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 5:46 PM

Mr. Drye, it's too bad GM wasn't in the mood for any special orders in 1946, The Jersey Central just might have had those GM double-enders first.  So, Balwin got the order.

Sadly, the concept was good but Baldwin's execution was poor.  Those NOHAB's showed there was nothing wrong with the double-ender concept.

That's a good question Vince, whether that movie production team had to get GN and Santa Fe permission to use the paint schemes, or maybe threw them a few bucks, or GN and Santa Fe didn't care since it was a foreign film.  We'll never know.  

And personally, I doubt those Decapods were pushed up to 50mph very often, but I could be wrong.  

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Posted by Penny Trains on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 6:46 PM

Miningman
'Red Barns'

Mmmmmmm.....Red Barns......(drooling noises)

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

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 6:55 PM

Flintlock76
Mr. Drye, it's too bad GM wasn't in the mood for any special orders in 1946, The Jersey Central just might have had those GM double-enders first.

EMD indeed did have double-enders earlier than those NOHAB engines, and a whole lot better looking too... both ordered and built earlier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Railways_B_class_(diesel)

It was my pleasure to be present for the 25th anniversary commemoration of the delivery of the first locomotive in 1977.  One of Harold Clapp's sons was present and asked me if I were there from 'La Grange' -- I told him yes, I was, and made his day.

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 7:15 PM

Too bad they didn't build 'em sooner, they probably would have grabbed a big portion of the commuter railroad market.  But then, with road diesel orders pouring in post-war they didn't have to bother with special orders and models.  

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 10:58 PM

Penny Trains
 
Miningman
'Red Barns' 

Mmmmmmm.....Red Barns......(drooling noises)

Remember them - were pretty good too.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, December 5, 2019 8:35 AM

"The Red Barn" sure looks good!  Burgers, chicken, everything you'd want.

I take it they're not around anymore?

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Posted by Miningman on Thursday, December 5, 2019 9:54 AM

The one we had in Burlington, Ontario became a KFC.  The company got out of the restaurant business focusing on real estate and construction. 

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, December 5, 2019 10:13 AM

Flintlock76

Too bad they didn't build 'em sooner, they probably would have grabbed a big portion of the commuter railroad market.  But then, with road diesel orders pouring in post-war they didn't have to bother with special orders and models.  

 
Keep in mind that they were export designs, allowing for lighter axle loadings.  Note that they ride on six axles, all powered.
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 Overmod on Thursday, December 5, 2019 2:30 PM

CSSHEGEWISCH
Keep in mind that they were export designs, allowing for lighter axle loadings. Note that they ride on six axles, all powered.

There's a certain amount of 'ringery' in mentioning either the VR or NOHAB locomotives, as they have only the horsepower of a single contemporary 567-16 (like an F unit) and in American practice would get no more 'benefit' from six-motor operation for commuter service than, say, a SD7 would, with the additional length and weight consequences from the added cab.  You can imagine the fun with a pair of 567-12s, like an E unit, with the double cab ... you thought a Centipede was long?

The real 'solution' for commuter engines didn't really appear until PRR tested a big second-generation Alco hood unit (IIRC DL-624) on one of the Jersey Coast lines in the latter 1950s -- this was 2400hp six-motor with trimounts and did things very well.  Problem was of course that there was no money at that time to go toward the service, and wouldn't be until the advent of government subsidies in the latter Sixties.  And that's really the major point behind post-dieselization commuter power: you only bought 'new' when replacing steam.

Lesson was certainly learned, and learned well, when New Jersey DOT began looking at replacing the fascinating combination of equipment used on the Erie Lackawanna lines with something new.  They used the very largest contemporary high-horsepower unit design, only slightly derated for traction because of then-new HEP provision, with lightweight GO-style trains, and their answer was magical.

The Baldwin engine likewise didn't involve more horsepower than could safely be put down with four motors, but did involve enough weight to require six axles.  I'd suspect their performance was as good as the BP-20s, with many of the same design, quality, and engine-detail issues (there are good references on the problems with the various 600-series engines). 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, December 5, 2019 3:35 PM

Dee-leeted

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, December 5, 2019 3:36 PM

Time to resurrect an old thread concerning NOHAB diesels.

From the "Trains" magazine Forum, October 2013.  Even that erzatz "Santa Fe" unit shows up!

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/741/p/221200/2504749.aspx  

Have fun!

OK, maybe someone can light it up, won't work for me.

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, December 5, 2019 4:14 PM

Flintlock76

Time to resurrect an old thread concerning NOHAB diesels.

From the "Trains" magazine Forum, October 2013.  Even that erzatz "Santa Fe" unit shows up!

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/741/p/221200/2504749.aspx  

Have fun!

OK, maybe someone can light it up, won't work for me.

 

I simply highlight it and then open it.

Johnny

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, December 7, 2019 11:57 AM

Twilight Zone ... seriously

This is the NYO&W Port Imperial Ferry Terminal in Weehawken,N.J. 

It's 1956. The trains are no longer running at the time of this photo.

Dead silence. Not a person in sight. It's not run down or full of litter, it's as if there is no one left on the planet.

 

The single rail Cycle Train. If your needing to attach it to an eloborate overhead structure then why not use Electric?  Well it's steam so it's ok.

 

Posted this one on Trains but everyone over there is so absorbed by their own genius and tripping over each other they likely didn't notice. The Classic crowd is much better suited. 

Here's a former Pennsy GP9B, lashed up with F Units and all in Penn Central decorum to boot. Now there's something you won't see ever again. The GP9B made it into Conrail paint but was short lived, none got past 1980.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 7, 2019 1:42 PM

Good stuff!

Photo one.  The poor old New York, Ontario & Western.  As the late Don Ball described it, "The 'road that could not live."  Once the anthracite mines they serviced played out in the late '20s it was all downhill, except for a brief spurt of prosperity during WW2.  Even the F3 diesels the prosperity paid for didn't help.

That Weehawken terminal is a pretty good indication of what was coming, the total abandonment in 1957, which sent a shock and a shudder through the rest of the railroad world.  

But, the "Old and Weary" still has it's fans to this day.  Take a look at this...

http://www.lionel.com/products/new-york-ontario-western-conventional-4-6-0-camelback-253-6-28755/  

I bought one of those Friday after Thanksgiving!  Whoo-hoo! 

Got it here, http://www.henningstrains.com   Well worth a visit if you're in the area, great train shop with great people!

Photo's two and three.  "Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot?"

Photo four.  Yep, units like that GP9B didn't last too long under Conrail.  They were pretty ruthless in eliminating the oddballs.

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, December 7, 2019 3:59 PM

That is no more a "Port Imperial" NYO&W terminal than I'm your uncle.

Remember that NYO&W didn't actually reach Weehawken except on trackage rights, so it's only in Edgewater on tolerance from the West Shore (aka NYC).  Port Imperial refers to the much, much later use of this area by Arthur Imperatore (hence the 'imperial', get it?) for his trans-Hudson ferry service with small boats.  My service with a high-speed ex-Russian lake hydrofoil would have been markedly more interesting...

Those two steam engines are historically important.  As a quiz question, who recognized what the B.B.Ry stands for?

This was, in part, a remarkable way to convert a standard-gauge track into a double-track operating railroad by placing overhead guide rails above the running rails.  Theoretically the original track could still be used by regular train traffic when the 'special' stuff wasn't running. 

See if you can find pictures of the passenger cars; they were even more 'special' than the locomotives.  Many railroads had double-deck cars, but did they have them five feet wide?

On the Internet there is an infamous picture of one of those GP B units supposedly actually leading a train during the dark years of PC.  It goes along with that picture of the GP60B leading at Barstow in 2018: "One hell of a long hood!)  But let's be honest: still more visibility than from a Big Boy!

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 7, 2019 4:40 PM

Well OK Mod-man, you  know that's the old NYC West Shore Terminal, and I  know it's the West Shore Terminal, but let's give Vince a little credit for finding it, shall we?  Most people not of the area wouldn't even have guessed at it's existance.

Anyway, NYC commuter service down the West Shore didn't have much longer to live, it was all over in 1959, although freight service continued for quite a while longer. 

By the way, Morning Sun's got a book out called "New York Central's West Shore Commuter Territory In Color" by Walter Zullig.  For $59.95 it's a cheap trip home for guys like you and I.  I've got it, very well done, runs right up to the CSX era.

https://morningsunbooks.com   Go to page two under "Hardcover Books"  to see it.  It's item #1641

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, December 7, 2019 5:02 PM

Well all my Uncles were definitely overmodulated so you fit right in, but I cannot imagine you are quite as bad as those dudes were.

The point is the pic depicts the demise of the service and the trains are dead and I suppose stored, awaiting disposition. It is an eerie scene.

And now ... this!

The Boynton Bicycle Railway 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 7, 2019 8:51 PM

You mean it actually worked?

Geez.  I guess it was a little too "nouveau" to catch on.  

How does Mike find these old documents for us?  I continue to be amazed.

Vince, your supposition that those O&W passenger cars are awaiting disposition is probably spot-on.  I believe O&W passenger service was dead by 1956.  They never did handle commuters to my knowledge, but had seasonal traffic to resorts in New York State.  Rail traffic to those destinations had just about evaporated by the 1950's.

Wayne

 

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