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Very strange things

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Posted by SD70Dude on Monday, February 10, 2020 10:10 PM

The 'CN 100' logo is painted on.  The round Native relations logo on the side of the nose actually is a sticker, and I suspect they will start peeling off after a couple years.  Just like the EcoConnections ones from 5 or 10 years ago.

I agree that they should have put a lot more effort into this anniversary.  But, then again, this marks 100 years since a bunch of bankrupt railways were nationalized by our Federal government.  The current company does not like thinking about that part of its history.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Miningman on Monday, February 10, 2020 10:54 PM

20 units in green and gold, should have leased, refurbished and put 6060 out there on a cross continent wide good will tour, with a train of green and gold. Also another 10 heritage units, Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk, CV and so on. A bit of planning and foresight and some moolah but 100 years only comes once. Cripes it's history and this is how CN wants to be remembered in the history books for future generations. 

'100 CN'.. 100 What? 100 bottles of beer on the wall. Gaaar-baaage

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 9:29 AM

The thing is, it all depends on who's butts are in the seats at the corporate level.  Some people running a business realize 100 years is a hell of a milestone, it's hard to count on the fingers of two hands how many companys last that long, or longer, and are more than willing to ballyhoo the fact.  

For example, 2020 marks the 120th anniversary of the Lionel Corporation.  They're not making the big deal of it the way they did the 100th anniversary in 2000, but they're also not letting it pass unremarked.  

Others just don't care.  "BFD, what's this quarter's figures like?"  

Just the way it is.

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 9:34 AM

SD70Dude
then again, this marks 100 years since a bunch of bankrupt railways were nationalized by our Federal government.

He has a point.  What you're actually commemorating now is the kludge, not what Tellier & Co. subsequently made out of the franchise... most of the century later.  That probably accounts for the relative absence of component-road heritage units ... I particularly wanted to see interpretations of the Canadian Northern 'heritage' 

The actual celebrations for the modern CN as a cyanide-radical superpower probably begin sometime in the 2090s.  But they are depressingly likely to have a substantial Hunteresque component...

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Posted by Miningman on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 12:38 PM

Sir Henry Thornton would vehemently disagree, as would I. 

See Page 6 Classic Trains Forum

Big Hank and how the CNR was saved
Posted by Miningman on Friday, December 7, 2018 7:18 PM
 
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Posted by Penny Trains on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 6:51 PM

I've always thought this version of CN's paint scheme was the best:

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Posted by Miningman on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 6:59 PM

Ohh.. the bird poop one! It was better than the w.w.w. one. 

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Posted by SD70Dude on Wednesday, February 12, 2020 9:51 PM

Thornton made Canadian National into the original ONE Team (the current slogan management refers to themselves by) out of a bunch of sometimes bitter rivals.  Without his efforts the CPR would probably have acquired at least some choice major parts of the current CN system, with the rest being left as a true government ward. 

Tellier finished what Thornton, 'dieseling Donald' Gordon, Norm MacMillan and Dr. Robert Bandeen started.  Then Hunter came and tried to wreck it all.  Giving Harrison all that authority was Tellier's great mistake, I don't think he knew quite what was about to happen.

Miningman

20 units in green and gold, should have leased, refurbished and put 6060 out there on a cross continent wide good will tour, with a train of green and gold. Also another 10 heritage units, Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk, CV and so on.

For the record, this is only part of what I would have done, had I been placed in charge of the 'celebrations'.

I would have to say that this version of the 'zebra stripes' is my favourite CN diesel paint scheme.  As much as I hated running these things, they sure looked great when new:

http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=12881

Greetings from Alberta

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Posted by M636C on Wednesday, February 12, 2020 11:44 PM

Penny Trains

I've always thought this version of CN's paint scheme was the best:

 

I recall a cartoon where a crewman looking at a unit with this scheme just outside a wash rack said:

"The black paint has lifted showing the grey primer..."

Peter

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Posted by Miningman on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 7:32 PM

1)  Does this come with straws? 

 

2)  Once a magnificient vision, and attained, only to be destroyed. The Milwaukee Road. End of the vision.

 

3)  Baldwin and Union Pacific are not exactly synonymous, as in Baldwin and the Pennsylvania. They threw them a bone however and bought six AS-616's from Baldwin in 1952. They toiled away in yard service in Omaha until Oct 1968 and then they were scrapped. 

 

4)  Leaving on a more humorous note, I see the US Postal Service is about just as good as the Royal Canadian Mail.

 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Thursday, February 20, 2020 7:12 PM

I got one for ya!  Big Smile  What is a common nickname for a yard switcher?  Give up?  Here's the answer!  Laugh

By Basile Morin - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63084672

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

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Posted by Miningman on Thursday, February 20, 2020 8:13 PM

Definitely a 'Very Strange Thing' while being educational and demonstrative. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, February 20, 2020 8:50 PM

Good one Becky, goats on a goat!  I wonder where that is?

That US Post Office truck in the tree!  The first thing that came to mind was "Are Stan and Ollie in the area?"  

And just to show you how some things don't change...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWJ5pHiLVZM  

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Posted by Penny Trains on Thursday, February 20, 2020 9:23 PM

Flintlock76
I wonder where that is?

Laos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Det%E2%80%93Don_Khon_railway

Bit of a rough ride!

By Christophe95 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79801760

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

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, February 21, 2020 9:09 AM

Penny Trains

 

 
Flintlock76
I wonder where that is?

 

Laos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Det%E2%80%93Don_Khon_railway

Bit of a rough ride!

By Christophe95 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79801760

 

Wow.  Ain't nobody gonna run trains on that bridge no more!

Jeez, I wouldn't even WALK on it!

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, February 22, 2020 12:22 PM

More strange railroad items:

A 'shad-belly' car circa 1878. These cars had the floor between the wheel wells, or ‘trucks,’ lowered so that the cars would look more stable and people wouldn't worry about the cars tipping over.

 

2)  Sticking with The Elevated... how about this, Flying Junctions, Diamonds and Towers in the sky! 

This is an 1878 view of the Third Avenue Line El train tracks, looking north up the east side of the Bowery, at Chatham Square in lower Manhattan, New York. (AP Photo)

This is an 1878 view of the Third Avenue Line El train tracks, looking north up the east side of the Bowery, at Chatham Square in lower Manhattan, New York. (AP Photo)

# 3

#

Pennsylvania Railroad compound Mallet 7693 pulling a string of cars across the CA&C crossing headed for the PRR’s Pennor Yard. Number 7693 is a class CC-2s, 0-8-8-0 used in hump and transfer service in Columbus. The time is the 1940’s, photo from the Jay Williams Collection.

Well whaddyaknow, Pennsy actually had a Mallet or two .

4)  Heck of a way to power a railroad. 

 

New Zealand Railway Observer (No.140) from 1974 relates: "In September 1952 the Heisler had to be withdrawn from service. It was found uneconomic to attempt the necessary major overhaul, so arrangements were made for a contractor, Mr Oliver Smith, to undertake the log haulage to the mill using "ingenious rail tractors consisting of motor trucks each mounted on two powered bogies." And that I'm afraid is basically the only information I'm able to give on the motive power at Mamaku.

 

The line commenced at the NZR Stores Branch sawmill at Mamaku, crossed over the main NZR line near the station, and then headed south into the bush.

 

#5  Long way around to throw a switch! 

Kingsbury Ave. Chicago Apr. 2007

 

Further down the line the crew works to "throw the switch" to drop off a boxcar for their test run. This, however, is an especially difficult task because the switch levers were removed long ago. The crew has to chip out wooden blocks put in the tracks to keep the switch in place, then pound another one in to line the switch for the boxcar, and then repeat to line the switch for the main line.

 

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, February 22, 2020 5:00 PM

Cool pictures!

Oh yeah, the Pennsy did have some Mallets, but they never went in for them in a big way.  Too bad in a sense, it's been said by some the experience of handling two engines under one boiler might have served them in good stead when the duplexes showed up on the property.  Not quite the same thing certainly, but it might have helped a bit.  

That pick-up truck's a gas.  There's some very clever machine shop work there!

That last picture.  Aren't they sorry they removed those switch handles?  

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, February 22, 2020 7:02 PM

Flintlock76
Pennsy did have some Mallets

They gave them all to their susidiary road, the king of mallets, N&W.

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, February 22, 2020 9:47 PM

Penny Trains
Flintlock76
Pennsy did have some Mallets

They gave them all to their subsidiary road, the king of mallets, N&W.

How ya figure that?

It was the other way round, PRR got 10 Y-3s from N&W, I think for use in Columbus and on the Sandusky branch later so famous for 2-10-4s, as a wartime expedient.

Doubt N&W had any use for the CC2 Mallets PRR built, or for the HC1, glorious as it was...

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, February 22, 2020 10:23 PM

Some other 'roads got N&W Mallets as well, however I don't remember who they were.  More wartime expedients.  I'll have to go into the archives and see if I can find out who they were.

N&W was the "King of Mallets" all right.  Nothin' anyone could tell them about building Mallets.  

I just remembered the old Frankish king "Charles the Hammer."  Maybe N&W was "Mike the Mallet?"  Wink

OK, I did some checking on that Y3 diaspora  during the war, and here's how it went...

Eight to the Santa Fe, six to the PRR (who classified them as HH-1's), and five to the Union Pacific. 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Sunday, February 23, 2020 6:34 PM

Overmod
How ya figure that?

It's a bit of a pun.

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

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, February 23, 2020 8:31 PM

Flintlock76
I just remembered the old Frankish king "Charles the Hammer."  Maybe N&W was "Mike the Mallet?"

Ed was the King of Mallets.

And he too knows it was the other way round with Y3s.  What the PRR provided to N&W was Pacifics.

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Posted by Jones1945 on Sunday, February 23, 2020 8:46 PM

Miningman
A 'shad-belly' car circa 1878. These cars had the floor between the wheel wells, or ‘trucks,’ lowered so that the cars would look more stable and people wouldn't worry about the cars tipping over.

 

Miningman
A 'shad-belly' car circa 1878. These cars had the floor between the wheel wells, or ‘trucks,’ lowered so that the cars would look more stable and people wouldn't worry about the cars tipping over.

I love that extra-large size headlamp, it was almost 1/54 of the size of the steam engine! The 'shad-belly' car predictably reminds me of Budd built Tubular Train on PRR's Keystone (NYC-DC), an unsuccessful product designed by the country's top railroaders in the 1950s. I love streamlined cars with the long skirts; Pennsy couldn't remove all of the skirts on these good looking streamlined passenger cars since the belly is part of the structure which contained the floor with most of the coach-seat on it. The 1878 'shad-belly' had more windows, but heavy rain would have caused trouble for the passenger due to leaking. 

 

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, February 23, 2020 9:48 PM

Overmod

 

 
Flintlock76
I just remembered the old Frankish king "Charles the Hammer."  Maybe N&W was "Mike the Mallet?"

 

Ed was the King of Mallets.

And he too knows it was the other way round with Y3s.  What the PRR provided to N&W was Pacifics.

 

Wow.  The PRR had something the N&W could actually use?    Wink

And Yankee locomotives to boot?

Well, it's a wasted day if you don't learn something new...

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, February 24, 2020 5:37 PM

Flintlock76
The PRR had something the N&W could actually use?

Five somethings, if I remember correctly -- ex-class K3s (that on N&W were reclassed E3s as that was the class letter for the somewhat gawky-looking 'indigenous' Pacifics.)

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/thumbs/photos/NW06323.jpg 

(sorry about the watermark...)

Hard to beat these for classic 80"-drivered good looks, even with the N&W ... twist ... in detail.  But they did not last very long (apparently only into the mid-Thirties) whereas some of the latter 'regular' engines worked all the way into the late Forties.

Some revenge may be had in that the NWHS Commissary will sell you a pack of diagram cards that includes the E3, but not any E1 to E2b...

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, February 24, 2020 6:58 PM

Right, I did some N&W fact finding last night and found about those ex-Pennsy K3's.  Good looking engines, and you can see the K4 coming just by the look of them.  

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, March 1, 2020 12:43 PM

Things on flat cars.

Too nice to run! ?

 

 

2)  A new use for old heavyweight sleepers!

520053 last of 29 (520025-520053) side loading 83' container flat cars converted from heavweight sleeping cars. 

 

3)  Imagine this rolling by ,,, you would do a double take for sure!

300147

 

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 1, 2020 12:55 PM

Miningman
Too nice to run?

More likely, too heavy to run on their own wheels.  See how they are braced up not on trucks?  They're going someplace where there is adequate overhead clearance for this, but needing four relatively spread axles per 'end' rather than three in the regular truck.

A new use for old heavyweight sleepers...

Inspired, I suspect, by the earlier experiment of this kind by ATSF (with dedicated mail containers on a heavyweight underframe).  Much more interesting to do it with ISO marine containers!

These were a highly logical follow-on to the much stranger Portager experiments in the early Sixties.

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/CPR/intermodal/pioneer.htm

Now find a picture of one of the heavyweight underframes modified with rails, with or without a subway car on it!

 

For #3 -- surely someone has a picture of it with the band playing.  Mike should be able to find a link to the actual commercial.[/quote]

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 1, 2020 2:03 PM

Photo three, the first thing I though of was "Is that some kind of a 'gag' container they haven't set up yet?"

You know, smaller box in the big box, then a smaller box in that box, and a smaller box in that  box,  and a still smaller box in that box...  

Can you imagine the look in the receivers face?  Huh?

Photo one?  I just assumed they were 12" to the foot scale Athern kits.

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 1, 2020 2:43 PM

Flintlock76
Photo three, the first thing I though of was "Is that some kind of a 'gag' container they haven't set up yet?" You know, smaller box in the big box, then a smaller box in that box, and a smaller box in that  box,  and a still smaller box in that box...  

A principal concern with LCL in containerization is the 'sub-quantization' of filling space with minimal dunning, and an absolute minimum of non-standard dunning.  One easy way to provide this is to use standard internal 'boxes' instead of wrapped pallets or whatever, with the customer providing internal 'shockproofing' they deem suitable, and no more than the equivalent of bubble sheets, foam pieces or air bags interposed to control movement.  I have little doubt this is the 'sense' of those smaller-size boxes, whether or not they've been hollowed out to make a bandstand for the commercial...

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