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Very strange things

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, August 15, 2020 12:45 PM

Flintlock76
Anyway, it makes a lot more sense than that gaggle of British signals!  I've read M636's explanation three times and still can't get my head around it! 

Think of it, conceptually, as a more complicated version of the NYC searchlight signal setup.  There, you have a completely different physical aspect for freight at every signal post than for passenger.  Now imagine that you had both distant and predictive-home doubling each of the aspects.  And then the same thing for what would be dwarfs at the individual crossover switches in a CTC setup ... that's two aspects plus at least two more for each CTC control point.  Follow me?  That's what those coded aspects in each 'stack' would be doing if it is as he says.

My imaginary high-speed railroad used four stacked aspects to show all four block occupancies in front of the supposed 135mph traffic... this allowing shorter control blocks for 'more traffic' while preserving the predictive ability to do smooth high-speed braking of the special passenger trains.  The advantage here is that there is no real way to misread which aspect applies to you in the relatively few seconds you have approaching at what are legitimately TVM-style speeds... 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, August 15, 2020 9:23 AM

Thanks Mod-man! Never driven one?  I'm not sure you'd want to!  Me neither!  I rented a Penske box truck in 1982 that had a double-clutch set up.  Not bad once I got used to it, but it would have helped if I was told it was in there! 

Anyway, it makes a lot more sense than that gaggle of British signals!  I've read M636's explaination three times and still can't get my head around it!  But I'll keep trying!

As they used to say on "Monty Python,"  "My brain hurts!"  

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, August 15, 2020 7:00 AM

Flintlock76
Photo 3)  What the hell is he driving anyway?  

Quad box, I think.  Common on older very heavy trucks with engines of relatively low power and narrow, low power bands.  There's an art to driving them while 'splitting' properly -- there is not only steering with the knees as a technique, there is reaching through the spokes of the wheel while double-clutching.  I know the theory but have never actually run one.

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, August 15, 2020 1:44 AM
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Posted by Miningman on Friday, August 14, 2020 11:06 PM

Here I thought PreCambrian geology was complex. Thanks Peter, read it three times now, slowly, think I got it. 

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Posted by M636C on Friday, August 14, 2020 10:29 PM

All Stop! You mean to tell me there is not one open track forward? 

 

Firstly, this gantry is owned by the London and North Western Railway.

The set of arms with black rings in the middle of the gantry refer to access to goods lines (freight only). I suspect they refer to the same tracks as the right hand signals, but give access to different tracks ahead. Note that the pattern of arms is repeated on these two sets of signals.

Looking at individual posts, it can be seen that the upper arm has a flat end and the lower arm has a vee-end (called a fishtail). The upper arm is the "home" signal, which controls the location in question. The lower arm with the fishtail is a "distant" and is an indicator of the position of the next signal.

So if the upper arm is "on" (horizontal), the train must stop. If the upper arm is "off" (angled) and the lower arm is "on" (horizontal) the train may proceed at reduced speed prepared to stop at the next signal.

This refers to the signals on the upper level of the gantry.

The signals on the lower level are "shunting signals" and replicate exactly the signals above them, but they all have shorter arms to indicate their subsidiary function.

The shunting signals allow a train to pass the signal otherwise at stop at low speed for the purpose of moving vehicles around the yard. The "distant" shunting signal indicates the position of the next shunting signal, as described for the main signals.

This is explained at https://www.railsigns.uk/

Peter  

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Posted by M636C on Friday, August 14, 2020 9:53 PM

Miningman

One for Peter... in Australia a cane train hits a harvester

https://www.foxnews.com/world/australia-train-collision-sugarcane-video

 

 

The sugar cane railways in Queensland are two foot gauge (60.96 centimetres).

I don't recognise the location in question, (although it could be south or west of Mackay, a big sugar centre) and Wilmar operate most of the mills in Queensland. Wilmar is a German company which bought most of the operating mills.

The sugar cane wagons shown are fairly large, many mills using wagons half that size. Most wagons are four wheeled. These do not have continuous brakes, which shows up in the video after the locomotive is turned through 180 degrees by the force of the train after derailing. Some trains have remote locomotives or brake wagons which have brakes that can be remotely actuated.

The sugar wagons use Willison couplers which interlock but don't use a knuckle. The Willison is used in Russia on main line trains.

Many sugar lines use concrete ties which last better in the damp tropical environment

Peter

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Posted by pennytrains on Friday, August 14, 2020 6:52 PM

Aye chihuahua!  Tongue Tied  Maybe the upper set of bridge signals is for low flying aircraft?  Laugh

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, August 14, 2020 4:26 PM

Well, what do we have here?

Photo 1)  Talk about redundancy!  And there's only three tracks in view!  That signal bridge would turn a Christmas tree green with envy!

Or maybe some railroad official had a brother-in-law who sold signals?

Photo 2)  Classic ad from WW2!  And they weren't kidding about how many trains it took to move a division either!

Photo 3)  What the hell is he driving anyway?  

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, August 14, 2020 3:45 PM

All Stop! You mean to tell me there is not one open track forward? 

 

2)  Probably because this is ahead... 75 trains!  Now that's a Broadway.

 

3)  Well you can steer with your knees.. heck we've all done that... just don't admit to it. 

 

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, August 14, 2020 10:26 AM

Not a whole lot of difference between the two gauges but I believe that the sugar cane lines were 60-cm gauge, this being in addition to Australia's three mainline gauges.

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 Flintlock76 on Thursday, August 13, 2020 9:36 PM

Ouch!  You think they edited out the accompanying profanity?

Interesting line though, looks like two-foot or 60 centimeter gauge.

How's about a look a another sugar cane train?  You love this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LZKPIiisM8  

Here's the story of that gorgeous locomotive.  Reminds me of an Erie K-1.

http://www.railfan.com/u-s-sugar-4-6-2-steams-again-in-florida/  

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Posted by Miningman on Thursday, August 13, 2020 5:53 PM

One for Peter... in Australia a cane train hits a harvester

https://www.foxnews.com/world/australia-train-collision-sugarcane-video

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, August 9, 2020 9:18 AM

Yeah, that's a cattle car all right!  They haven't changed much.

That video of those kids dressed up like soldiers ( I'm 66, I can't think of them any other way!) made my day!  Their morale must be sky-high, none of them's going "Moooooo" like we used to do!

 

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Posted by Jones1945 on Sunday, August 9, 2020 7:39 AM

Flintlock76

I don't know why I didn't remember this sooner ( Gettin' old?) but we had something very similar to those caravan coaches when I was in the Marines, but not as stylish-looking.

We called them "cattle cars," basically converted semi trailers, and they were used to haul troops out to the training areas.  When we got on board it never failed, someone would start going "Moooooooo..." and everyone else would join in!   

It seems that the tradition of using "cattle cars" still exists! The truck can pull other things when the cattle car is not needed (I guess). 

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, August 8, 2020 10:06 PM
The Plywood Bus!
Wichita Eagle, Sept. 10, 1942
Santa Fe Trailways will exhibit its new 117 passenger “Victory Liner,” built at its shops in Wichita, to the public at the Union Bus depot this evening. The bus body is constructed mostly of wood. This is the first of a series being built to carry workers to war production plants. It will operate between Kansas City and the Sunflower Ordnance Works at Eudora.
 

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, August 8, 2020 4:23 PM

I don't know why I didn't remember this sooner ( Gettin' old?) but we had something very similar to those caravan coaches when I was in the Marines, but not as stylish-looking.

We called them "cattle cars," basically converted semi trailers, and they were used to haul troops out to the training areas.  When we got on board it never failed, someone would start going "Moooooooo..." and everyone else would join in!   

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Posted by Jones1945 on Saturday, August 8, 2020 12:36 PM
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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Saturday, August 8, 2020 10:25 AM

Flintlock76

Body made out of plywood?  Not surprising since it was 1942, that's one way to get around strategic metal shortages.

 
Not unlike the Illinois license plates made out of soybean meal in one year.
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 Flintlock76 on Friday, August 7, 2020 3:10 PM

Body made out of plywood?  Not surprising since it was 1942, that's one way to get around strategic metal shortages.

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, August 7, 2020 12:10 PM
The Plywood Bus!
 
Wichita Eagle, Sept. 10, 1942
Santa Fe Trailways will exhibit its new 117 passenger “Victory Liner,” built at its shops
in Wichita, to the public at the Union Bus depot this evening. The bus body is constructed
mostly of wood. This is the first of a series being built to carry workers to war production
plants. It will operate between Kansas City and the Sunflower Ordnance Works at Eudora.
 

 

 

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, August 7, 2020 11:26 AM

The weird thing is that I distinctly remember 'Santa Fe Trailways' designing large double-deck buses by 1940, as a kind of intermediate service between typical buses and trains.  The sort of thing the Pickwick Nite Coaches pioneered... but bigger.  What I remember was that Missouri slammed the door on these bigger and bigger combinations (circa 1938?) and other states through which most of the prospective superbuses would run were planning to follow suit.  I think of this a bit like a roadgoing DST.

Here is a contemporary newspaper account of the 'Victory Liner'

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19420730&id=zmdeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KWENAAAAIBAJ&pg=1960,1346525&hl=en

Now who's going to post pictures of Australian Dysons?

 

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, August 7, 2020 7:59 AM

Neoplan:

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, August 7, 2020 7:38 AM

Double-deck transit buses are an old story, more than 100-years.  And Chicago Motor Coach and New York's Fifth Avenue Coach Co. used double=declers on most routes for many years, up to government authroity operation.  Neoplan made an excellent intercity double-deck used in Europe, and Egged bought a few for Tel Aviv - Jerusalem, but then converted them for sight-seeing service.

Most transit buses in the UK, today, are double-deck  Blackpool heritage trams and Hong Kong trams continiue a double-deck tradition.

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Posted by rcdrye on Friday, August 7, 2020 6:56 AM

Maybe the inspiration for Santa Fe's Hi-Levels?

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Posted by Jones1945 on Friday, August 7, 2020 4:55 AM

Miningman

I made a mistake. The longer one was built by Marmon-Herrington, this one was built by Budd:

 

Miningman

Or take the Santa Fe...

You go left, I go right !

It is hard to believe that this thing had a capacity of 117 passengers... 

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, August 7, 2020 1:30 AM

"New type sleeper trailer, of light-weight, stainless steel construction, for travel in Syrian desert. Constructed by the Edward G. Budd Company of Philadelphia, for the Nairn Transport Company, Ltd., the trailer utilizes the same principles of construction incorporated in Budd-built light-weight trains. It is of 14-passenger capacity. Pulled by a 150-horsepower Diesel tractor, the unit weighs less than 28,000 pounds and is capable of a top speed on the desert of 65 miles an hour.

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, August 7, 2020 12:39 AM

From Mike titled "Literary Sominex"



1938 book pages about Nairn Transport 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, August 6, 2020 8:51 PM

Flintlock76
Or maybe the Nairn is in a Damascus or Baghdad back alley somewhere waiting to be discovered?

The Nairns gave the company to their employees in the early '50s instead of letting governments 'nationalize' it; the service persisted to 1959.  It is possible that a Marmon-Herrington has survived as well as one of the Budds... I'm still hoping for at least one of the streamlined Iraqi Pacifics...

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