Whats your favorite loco?

|
Want to post a reply to this topic?
Login or register for an acount to join our online community today!

Whats your favorite loco?

  • Towers, Dispatching : We hear on the Forums are lucky to have someone who has been allowed to photograph the loco cab that is in service on a major class 1 rail road. All of the roads in my aera Frown on photos taken whithout getting permission first hand, :P and It seems that the day that I am asked to ride up in the cab, I did not have a cam. ahhhh lol, but the photos you did are great, by the way, do you have any photos of any of the few Towers that are still in use in the New England aera, as much as I under stand the CTC system, and the Great tours that I have been on down in the Master CTC center across the street from Philadelphia 30st. station, I was blown away, that what looks like a flight control center for NASA, they are still phaseing in controls points BOS,NY,PHIL,WASH,HARR. well that was back in 2004. And a wee look at my Tower model and dispatch control of many rail roads hear in the US, Canada, and a few aeras on the Euro Rail system in the UK. The photos below are of the NEC north of New york border starting at Branford sta. in to Boston W tower south of the boston station.















  • Security is BIG.  I spent my entire working days in "Vertical Transportation".  I had, in the 1980s, worked at the Twin Towers.  After 9/11, on 9/12, I was sent to the Prudential Tower in Boston to meet with the Building Managers on added Elevator Security. People, and people with cameras, are not always welcome in locations where you are moving the publc.  Railroads, Elevators, and Airlines!  On the other hand, photographing crew training, escorted by a Amtrak Manager, is an offer you jump at. 

    Access on railroad property is restricted for your own safety as well as security. Employed by a sub-contractor in the Boston Area, I have had to attend "Right Of Way" (ROW) Safety Training every two years to maintaine access.   Also, to access secure areas in some High Rise buildings also required an FBI check.

      On the up side, to be the guest of a BLE Officer or a NTSB member in a Diesel cab has also been great thrill.   A retirement gift 4 years ago was a days training on a Mikado Steam Locomotive ("you've got 6 grade crossings, don't hit anything")

     

    Don U. TCA 73-5735

  • in terms of steam engines no doubt about it 4-8-4,as diesel -electric engines go ac4400cw,and es44 cw,as far as electric engine accela express.
  • Hi and all I can say is Wow. Yeh now I see Why thing are the way they Are,  I work in New York City downtown right on Wall Street across From the NYstock excange, at HQ for AIG world Insurance. Yeh I do know first Hand,I was there, and had just left the wtc, lower concorse, after just getting off the E train which I get at Penn Sta. rail road.  Yhe I do know.  I'v worked down there for a little over28 years, and spent 10 years driving for Greayhound Bus Up in Canada, Runing Multi Day Tours through what we in the tour industry call the Great Loop , an 11 day 1,547mile grand tour NY,CT,VT,ME,QUE.ONT,NYS,BUFFALO,BATAVIA,NY,FINGERLAKES,TiogaNY,Corning,NY,WASH,DC,BALT.MD,PHIL.PA,NYC, KJFK,AIRPORT,the end of tour. I drove 11day off two cycle for the whole tour Seasion, the offseasion was just as busy, running Ski trips up into Canada's St.Ann Mt. in upper Que.killington,Mt.VT.Stowe,VT and Loved every crazy mile, and miss being on the road. the Big Greyhound break up took care of that, they do not owne any of the buses you still see around, nore do any of the driver belong to the old company. they sold off the entire bus name and routes, greayhound corp. still is very big, still builds tour, and customs bus up in Canada and Detroit and they brought out the GM deasiel division so those bus you see whith the builder plate on the front that says:  TMC, or MCI.  That Is the Greyhound corp. but they do not run the bus industry anymore:(   Hey, I bet you have Not forgotten that day on the Right hand Seat,   What was the talk, before, you made your first Standing Break test.   I was in a class for 6 months trying to get cert. in Penn as Fire crew, I interned for two years working in the yards, asst. to the House crews. and the Light up crews, dirty hard hot cold bone breaking no thankyou work, which I had to Pay to do for two years and i miss that, steam locos are, not for the weak, lol and you don't just climb in the cab and go.  lol :D,  after the 6 weeks of shop, Oral Testing, in the field testing, safty class every day with test written test. everything I Thought i knew about Steam and train operations, and as each of us moved up in the class. the reward was helping to clean out the AshPit, ohhh NO class member was allowed next to a loco that was already fired by ourselves. oh did I tell  YOU this was the Durango & Silverton waaay out west :)  sorry NO did not make the cut , and the 3rd year did not make the lottory to go back to class :(
  • You asked about the Locomotive behind the "Challenger".

    Gilford Rail System SD45 by Aristo-Craft.

    Don U. TCA 73-5735

  • :D   funny I just came  off the http://www.ridgeroadstation.com/  page I was looking at some 0 gage for Garden railway type of use. Just dreaming, I never gave it a thought until reading all you guys hear in this forum somthing I hve heard of and pasted over in train mags. Until Now . hmmmm  lol Must keep this under my Hat, cannot let the wife know that there might be another New Hobby in the house or outside  heee  Shhhhhhh    :)
  • Garden Railroads are "G Gauge" or "1 Gauge", both run on 45MM track.  This is about twice the size of "O" gauge. "G" Scale size can run from 1/22nd (Narrow Gauge) to 1/29th (most popular) and 1/32nd (true scale for 45mm track), "O" Gauge is 1/48th scale..

    Buildiers in "G" gauge are LGB, USA Trains, Bachmann, Hartland, Aristo-Craft (like my SD45), and MTH Railking (My Hudsons, Challenger, and SP GS2).

    Ridge Road is a fine dealer, I use them as well as others. Check Garden Railways Magazine in this "Trains.com" site for more dealers.

    Don U. TCA 73-5735

  • Ahhhh Thanks on the proper use of the Gauge, and terminology as I said before, Model RailRoading is New to me, regarding the terms and How to put one together. I model in and on the computer, running, building, designing complet rail roads  using auran Trainz simulator 2006    www.auran.com/TRS2006 and the Microsoft rail simulator, and have been doing this as far back as 1997.  Eventhough I have been spending a lot of time at a Place called the Red Caboose Hobby Shop in midtown manhattan -which I have been going to from the age of 4years old with my dad, heee im 52 now and still make the trip there just to look talk meat other pople , and to pick up my many copies of railroad mags. nope, do not subscribe, cause if I did , there would not be people like me to run down at the 1st of the month, and grab the $80 worth of mags. lol and then spend the hour or so talking to others who do the same. Funny the displays have NOT changed all the years, yet I still will walk the narrow isles, and sadly the man and son who rent the room in the back which has for all the years, displayed only Lionel Trains Sets and layouts are not there any more. My other Hobbies take up a lot of my time and money, for me to have gotten into the models and layout over the years. But technology has been changing the way my other very expensive hobby of Ham Radio Computers Real Aircraft flying , sailplaning flying the thermals up at an airfield near my aera up on rt.17 in Ellenville NYor the wife and I will drive up in the finger lakes in western NY, we make it a 3 day weekend and do the B&B for the over night stays. At the airfields we rent tow time and carring my Soaring "Club" mimbership card there is no problem renting a good Soaring aircraft, oh yeh we both hold a Sailplane Pilots licence.The two photos below: Hear we are up in the finger lakes Tioga County New York: enjoy and again thanks on info all ready started reading up on the G scale stuff, wow $$$, lol:)



    Marcia & Greg, Kevin our son in towplane


    Marcia my wife
  •  DMUinCT wrote:

    Garden Railroads are "G Gauge" or "1 Gauge", both run on 45MM track.  This is about twice the size of "O" gauge. "G" Scale size can run from 1/22nd (Narrow Gauge) to 1/29th (most popular) and 1/32nd (true scale for 45mm track), "O" Gauge is 1/48th scale..

    Buildiers in "G" gauge are LGB, USA Trains, Bachmann, Hartland, Aristo-Craft (like my SD45), and MTH Railking (My Hudsons, Challenger, and SP GS2).

    Ridge Road is a fine dealer, I use them as well as others. Check Garden Railways Magazine in this "Trains.com" site for more dealers.

     

    Sure, that's true enough, but LGB does not adhere to any known scale, including their own.  There is a wide diversity of scales (and pseudo scales such as LGB's Gumby scale) that creates a major headache in the Garden RR world as something labeled "1/22.5" from one manufacturer may or may not be the same "1/22.5" from another.  That is why most G gaugers don't go too much in for the fine scale modeling aspect of the hobby, but entertain themselves in other ways.

    Now there are a lot of fine scale G'ers out there, don't get me wrong, but if you intend to go out and buy a fine scale G anything, you may be disappointed by what you find.   BUT (caveat and disclaimer!) in the word of "outside" a bird or flower will always be 1:1 scale, so a train only needs to "look right" to be right.  

    There is so much more you can do in G than any smaller scale I can't even begin to cover it here.  All I can say is to go outside and set up a train, you won't be disappointed!

    The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"

  • Thank you both LOL, sounds to me this is A Matter Of Taste, than the tech, side of thing.  :) fact is This Old House did a Garden RailWay TV Episode a few years back or that other PBS  house building program, saw it 5 times, the tape i made is somewhere around, at one of my buds house :)  I am just looking at the PDF Scale and gauge charts, from our home page.

     

     

     

  • This clip is cool

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwRsnHh7R5E

     

    One thing I notice how much nicer the controls of a North American passenger diesel fit into the hands compared to the deltic. 

    Let me reiterate, what I was saying to you previously -Rex Mossop
  •   So I Gather You Have Never Been insid a Running  F-40PH at Track Speed  LO  LOL, or had the Chance to sit in the Right hand seat at the controls of a GG-1  :) hmmmm   I am not yet going to tell you what is't like ,only to say.... 1.after leaving the cab of a F-40PH on a 4 hour trip. It was Hard to Hear Anything anyone was saying. and 2. do not enter the GG-1 ... If you are clostrafobic :D,     NOT comeplaning  just the facts lol  

    Ahhh Thanks  for That Sweet Vid.:D of Deltic's days gone by:)

     

     









     

  • Yeah I know that on the av US based designs of that period did have noiser cabs compared to European diesel locos. A good example of that, is in Australia where in the 60's/70's the various state systems had both British and American designed equipment in use.  If you asked drivers which loco they would prefer to drive it was almost universal that Clyde/EMD or a Goodwin/Alco would get the gong ahead of an English Electric. After privatisation of the state systems you ocasionaly see English Electric relics around on work trains operated by South Spur railway services or hired out to other operators. But from drivers I know who have driven EE's, certainly don't have a very high opinion of them and one of the biggest complaints was the cab layout.   As to the point about GG1's you are spot on.

    Let me reiterate, what I was saying to you previously -Rex Mossop