Flintlock76Less weight on the drivers? I'd have assumed otherwise, but what do I know?
Well, it has two weight-bearing non-driving axles, rather than one...
My guess here, if Wikipedia is accurate, is that someone looked at some of the vertical-boilered single-powered-axle steam railcars around Europe, and decided that it would be nice to get greater access to the machinery and have more capacity for fuel and water by making a tank engine and trailing coach instead.
They'd probably have been better off buying a diesel or gas railcar...
"...better off buying a diesel or gas railcar." Well sure, but what fun is that?
Most un-cool! Better to have a steamer on the head-end and instead of transporation call it a ride!
By the way, I just got back from my favorite Italian restaurant with a half-carafe of the "House Red" in me. Don't hold me too responsible for anything I say tonight!
MiningmanSo Overmod driving thru under the tracks in his convertible would be swarmed by bees as he exited on the other side and I have it all on video.
I'm from New Jersey. I'd be threading the needle at about 60 going through there and sounding the horn, bees don't fly that fast...
I'll grant you the videos would be good, both from the ground and from shotgun
Yeah but... you would stop once on the other side in acknowledgment that you made it through, you know ham it up for the video a bit and then turn around... swarmed! I mean who knew about the bees anyway except Agent Kid.
Oh well it's all nonsense regardless.
What isn't nonsense is that of all the railroad pictures in all the world Agent Kid/Bruce is probably the only person in the world that knows what it's all about, why it came about and where.
The only seperated grade crossing in all of Alberta for decades... that's amazing.
MiningmanYeah but... you would stop once on the other side in acknowledgment that you made it through,
You must not know people from New Jersey very well. Made it through what? compared to the Pulaski Skyway under repair, the clearance in that Bel-Del style arch is as large as spacedock for the Enterprise. And we'd keep right on going.
In a previous life I enjoyed going 100mph through the Baltimore Harbor tunnel (in an Eldorado with the top down), if that gives you some insight into the Tao of Nova Caesarea.
Flintlock76"...better off buying a diesel or gas railcar." Well sure, but what fun is that? Most un-cool! Better to have a steamer on the head-end and instead of transporation call it a ride!
Can't argue with you there! This has been an informative and fun thread. Thanks, all.
NorthWestThey'd probably have been better off buying a diesel or gas railcar...
Oh no they wouldn't! You probably have a large fleet of comparatively small, perhaps even four- or six-wheeled passenger coaches in your railroad 'fleet'. These are the same cars whether coupled in 16-car trains for suburban rush, or used in one- or two-car sets for little branch lines.
In all of history, we've seen that most self-propelled railcars are captive to the types of service for which they were built. If they break, you often can't tow them (as you could RDCs, as the T found out a few seasons ago) and when they work, they often can't tow much (as several RDC owners found out the hard way from Budd) or be towed in the middle of a long consist.
If you KNOW trains will always be short, you build a locomotive that pulls only short trains, and use your standard cars on them. Any standard cars, and the cars can be reassigned to any other comparable class of train at any time, including the hours that the short train isn't running, or doesn't run.
Bet there are lots of standard parts on that little locomotive that fit other classes, or that are familiar for shop crews to make and maintain, and for average drivers and crew to run.
Overmod Miningman Yeah but... you would stop once on the other side in acknowledgment that you made it through, You must not know people from New Jersey very well. Made it through what? compared to the Pulaski Skyway under repair, the clearance in that Bel-Del style arch is as large as spacedock for the Enterprise. And we'd keep right on going. In a previous life I enjoyed going 100mph through the Baltimore Harbor tunnel (in an Eldorado with the top down), if that gives you some insight into the Tao of Nova Caesarea.
Miningman Yeah but... you would stop once on the other side in acknowledgment that you made it through,
Only 100 mph in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel? That's all?
Lady Firestorm asks, "Were you feeling off that day?"
She used to drag race Cadillacs on Paramus Road in her mother's VW Fastback.
Beat 'em too! The "Tao of Nova Caesarea" indeed!
For further insight into the "Tao," check this out, but be advised, it's a rant page. There's some VERY angry people on it!
Some of it is hysterically funny though!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1959587334362143/
Well now hang on.
I'm directing this thing and the whole point is to pass thru the CP newly created piece of mystic engineering without getting chomped by the PAC-man's. So you go thru, stop and turn around , wave, " hi mom, see I'm fine" and come back thru.
The only other scenario is Overmod can be the video operator ( probably way better at it than me anyway) and I'll drive thru in my '69 Malibu with the top down and then it's me that gets swarmed.
Not like that hasn't happened before.
2007, whilst walking my dog, I stepped on a yellow jacket nest they had built in the ground and both of us got hit pretty darn good. 2 trips to the hospital! I was still picking out live Yellowjackets out of my dogs ( the late great 'Storm') coat a day later. They had buried and entangled themselves. My hands, feet, face, I looked the Hulk, was probably pretty green too!
Flintlock76Only 100 mph in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel? That's all?
Speedometer in the '76 Eldorado is only calibrated that far. And the car was still running on the original Kevlar Vogue P-rated 235/75s, which were supposedly prone to seps if you ran them too fast for too long.
Besides, there was traffic in the adjacent lane. Can't be blasting by people from Balimer too quickly; they dither when rocketed past and that could be bad (unless you need to lose a 'tail' definitively, and it is not easy to avoid being picked up again in a cotillion-white convertible that size anyway).
In those days I ran the thing mostly at 55 on cruise, going down to Charlottesville (which could be reached on one tank, about 17mpg actual, which is not bad for a 502cid engine and only a 3-speed transmission with no TCC). Of course this would be with the top down and of course I would have a boiled-lobster 'Cadillac tan' when I arrived.
The thing Lady Firestorm would appreciate was the analogue to sand worm riding. Top down, driver's marshmallow all the way back, tilt 'n telescope tilted all the way up, and on cruise at our national double nickels, you could stand up, rest one forearm on the windshield header, and steer safely with the other hand. This usually produced cheers from other cars, and of course you were face to face with truck drivers. Very nice on hot days, too, as Eldorado air conditioning is never more than indifferent even with the top up.
Now that's a tall tale .. no doubt with a Turkish Oval or a Sobraine dangling from the lips , a bit tough to do with a headwind but I'm sure you would manage! Actually on second thought if anyone could pull all of that off it is likely yourself.
Speaking of cars. I watched a terrific film on TCM last night called Cash On Demand. From England's Hammer Films, well known for Horror flicks, but this was a Christmas movie, a brilliant take on the Christmas Carol/Scrooge Classic without being obvious about it. Peter Cushing (of course) and Andre Morell. I would like to know what the model of car is that Andre Morell, (the bank robber and 'Christmas Present' ) drives in the movie. It's the only vehicle featured in the film.
Perhaps 54Light15 knows, he is very familiar with British cars.
Late edit--- I'm guessing only... a Lotus or a Jensen? Film was made in 1961. ( a fairly decent hit in the US, downplayed by the studio in England so not a hit there). Critics were very favourable and it received praise everywhere.
Doubt if many have seen it. TCM has it playing once in a blue moon.
Ground jackets are the worst. You can't reason with them once they have fixed on you. Most hornets can be trained to recognize you and be an excellent security system - not those things.
i wonder if Avon Skin-So-Soft works on Canadian bees as well as it does on Canadian biters? I tested this at a fish camp in Quebec where the diesel generator cut off on thermal overheat because so many mosquitoes and black flies were sucked into the radiator -- and with judicious slathering-on of SSS... not a bite. Glad it wasn't an urban legend!
MiningmanNow that's a tall tale .. no doubt with a Turkish Oval or a Sobraine dangling from the lips , a bit tough to do with a headwind but I'm sure you would manage!
I had moved on to the apple-bowl churchwardens by then, with John David Tobacconist's Battersea blend, lit off one-handed with one of those Colibri pen lighters. I was famous at several 'historically women's colleges' as being the only person who could pull that off without looking like an affectation.
Tip the bowl to the front and it stays alight in the slipstream, with a little feedwater-heater-vent-like plume from the bit end.
With the top up the bowl projects out the driver's window - or vent window if the car has one; people said power vent windows were useless but I sure found good uses for them...
You would need a good length on that Churchwarden... I actually have 3 of them and one is insanely long, but I luv it. Keeps that smoke some kind of cool. I have a pipe collection, all bought brand new, second to none. Since you need at least 3 pipes if you're going out for a length of time, a folding Pipette is one of them. Churchwardens stay home.
A fine Meerschaum and a five dot Briar make up the other two to go out with for me, but you have to rotate.
Have 3 Sherlock Holmes, one is Meerschaum, kind of fragile and expensive to take outside the home but once in a while you must strutt your stuff.
Took a literal screenshot of that car in question and send it to you, perhaps you know what it is?
Of course Mike has found the movie! The car is right at the start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QChHo5Chj4k&t=16m10s
In the still picture in the post, the roofline looks like a Facel-Vega, one of the little short-wheelbase chassis. I will now look at the clip to check...
.. no, that grille looks like a Volvo P1800 but the rest doesn't; I'd have said mid-to-late Fifties Ferrari but the proportions seem off a bit. The wheels are likely a key to the actual chassis ID.
It does have a Ferrari look to it. Those little chrome wraparound bumpers below the tail fin are some kind of giveaway. I have PM'd 54light15 as he rarely comments on Classic.
Bingo! Mike found it with definitive proof! It's a 1959 Maserati 3500 GT
https://www.imcdb.org/v544932.html
http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/alfieri67x.htm
Of course it is! Now that I can see the grille clearly in a still, the trident is visible. And yes, the wheels help give it away.
An almost identical car (in maroon) at the end of the bodystyle's production run (IIRC as the Mexico) was for sale for the longest time just down the street from where I lived. My father and I were after a Ghibli Spyder at the time (which is a far better Maserati in most respects!) and did not seriously think about getting it for what I recall was the asking price, in the mid-1980s, of $13,500, which in retrospect was and is a shame.
Having no experience of driving a Maserati, nor even a Cadillac, I though I might revert to Latvian steam locomotives.
This is a Bt class 2-4-2T
And this is the slightly larger Ct...
It appears that when the Russians left in 1919 or so, they left Latvia well provided with the standard Class O 0-8-0s (most not actually serviceable until overhauled) and probably a few equally old and slow passenger locomotives. So the priority was for new passenger locomotives, and given the small size of Latvia and the generally flat terrain, small tank locomotives were seen as the answer, although I still wonder what the Tk could do that the Bt would be too large for...
Peter
Ct class -- A tank locomotive with smoke deflectors and a balloon stack!
Do you know the range and time available in use before having to replenish?
You know, that Ct looks like an oversize wind-up toy! Cool!
Wouldn't mind having one myself.
Wild guess on range, probably ten-to twenty mile out-and-back runs. Maybe. Most American tankers of similar size operated in that range.
Latvia
Miningman Latvia https://ia800502.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/18/items/generaltransport02confiala/generaltransport02confiala_jp2.zip&file=generaltransport02confiala_jp2/generaltransport02confiala_0217.jp2&scale=2&rotate=0 https://archive.org/details/generaltransport02confiala/page/198
That is the best listing I have seen of Latvia at that period...
I've seen photos of lines of Russian 0-8-0s awaiting overhaul in the snow but not the actual numbers of locomotives concerned. I seem to recall seeing a photo of a Russian S class 2-6-2 in Latvian service. It was lettered and numbered with Roman rather than Cyrillic lettering.
It is a great pity that the accompanying Lithuanian list was not as well detailed regarding wheel arangements.
A very interesting and well done rendition of the Union Pacific M-10000. In the at least 50 years I have known and seen the M-10000 I have vasilated between liking it and really not liking it and have still not settled one way or the other. Well it's quite colourful in this presentation and looks like something from the movie 'Dune'. They did afterall call it the 'worm'.
2) Another possible not too pleasant design was the Baldwin Turbine. I think Loewy had a hand in this. The schnoze is way too overdone. If the Pennsy had sharks then this is a killer whale. Apparently it worked ok but alas no orders for poor old Baldwin.
3) What is going on here? Penn Central logo, weird paint scheme, and it actually looks nice! Can't read the road name along the side.. too fuzzy.
4) Just in case you guys, who enjoy much more temperate climates, have forgotten about us in the land of living skies and Northern Lights, a reminder that we are really really .. really...cold up here.
Great assortment of pictures, let me take them seriatim...
Photo 1. Yeah, that looks like something out of "Dune" all right. That was one weird movie, the one with Kyle MacLachlan and Jose Ferrer. I watched it once and got the impression you needed to have smoked at least three doobies to make sense out of it. I heard there were sequels planned titled, "Lorna Dune," "Howya Dune," and "What-cha Dune?" but since the first "Dune" bombed they dropped plans for the sequels.
Photo 2. Speakin' of doobies, what were they smokin' at Baldwin?
Photo 3. The Penn Central was described as "A marriage made in Hell and the bride wore black!" Hence the funereal black paint schemes on PC engines.
Except for that switcher. It looks pretty good! Must have been a bridesmaid.
Photo 4. My God, it's July in Moosejaw! Rough stuff all right!
Seriously though, that's a water tower in the picture, isn't it? One of the insulated and reinforced ones?
I gotta stop, I fell asleep watching "Antiques Roadshow," woke up suddenly and I'm still groggy. When did I start watching TV like Dad used to? Scary...
Yes a water tower, there were many many like it across the land. Have one still standing a few hours down the road from me.
July is nice... it would be all golden fields of wheat and canola. Not so much in Nov. all the way to May. So we curl. And watch hockey.
At least the Dude gets Chinooks in Edmonton but I'm afraid there is no such reprieve for us North Westeners on the Shield. The Northern Lights are nice. Fishing is good. Gimme time, I'll find another good thing.
Here's a slightly better resolution:
https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/143405268189_/Penn-Central-Despatch-Shops-Inc-Sw8.jpg
Despatch as in "Merchants Despatch", the legendary refrigerator car line. This was the shop switcher at their East Rochester, NY facility.
We've been enjoying mostly warm weather so far this winter, with daytime highs usually only a few degrees below freezing (T-shirt weather). But it's going to get cold in about a week.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Re: UP "Little Zip". The paint job matches what I remember being described in Kratville's book on the UP Streamliners. The gray came later.
2) The "Westinghouse Engineer" had a writeup on the gas turbine locomotive in a 1948 or '49 issue. One of the foci of the article was the Westinghouse developed alloy for the turbine blades, that, IIRC, allowed for a 1200F turbine inlet temperature. My guess is that most railroads were turned off by the fuel consumption, though the turbine exhaust would have been a good source of heat for steam generators - IIRC, the locomotive was intended for passenger service. I would think an exhaust driven steam generator would have kept the steam ejector A/C units happy.
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