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Very strange things

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 1, 2020 4:25 PM

You mean I was closer to the mark than I thought?  Surprise

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Posted by Penny Trains on Sunday, March 1, 2020 6:50 PM

I need a model of one of these.  Big Smile

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

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 1, 2020 7:09 PM

Flintlock76
You mean I was closer to the mark than I thought? 

Multi-Mark?

to be honest, I just think it's pews for a bandstand... see the railings?

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Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, March 1, 2020 7:21 PM

Overmod
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.

Those are SD80ACe's for Brazil.  They had finishing work and painting done at VIA's Toronto (Mimico) Maintenance Centre before being shipped though Halifax.  They were some of the last locomotives built at London. 

Some were shipped on their own wheels, others went on flatcars.  Vale's railroad is 5'3'' broad gauge, so all the units would need to receive new trucks, or at least new wheelsets, upon arrival in Brazil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqG475tYYt0

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, March 1, 2020 7:30 PM

Penny-- Yes of course! If anything ever screamed Penny that's it. 

Dude-- Yeah that's Vale's paint scheme all right. Wonder why the 'detailing' was done in Mimico. Thanks for the info.

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Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, March 1, 2020 7:44 PM

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 1, 2020 7:57 PM

Distracting from my embarrassing broad-gauge fail:

How did the containers get on those CP converted heavyweights with that tight spacing?  In part, I think, via the Steadman side loaders that so enamored John Kneiling in the mid-Sixties.  See the technical description in this fascinating reference...

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, March 1, 2020 7:59 PM

Yes yes of course. That was the end of the plant as a locomotive manufacturer.

Now it's a distribution centre for greeting cards and balloons, not quite the legacy one would hope.

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Posted by M636C on Sunday, March 1, 2020 10:52 PM

SD70Dude

I note that the Lego modeller has built an eight axle GE as well as the SD80ACe.

Vale have both broad and metre gauge lines.

It was the three cooling fans, rather than the two on the SD70Ace that convinced me that they had 20 cylinder engines.

Peter

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, March 6, 2020 9:42 AM

A strange kitbash as the result of scrapping steam.

418014 is a steam generator car (note stack near side door) rebuilt from a 230000 40 foot 60 ton hopper bottom box car. 
That is a steam yard locomotive slope back tender you can see the curved outline of. Holding 1700 gallons of oil and 3500 gallons of water. It would be used to thaw culverts in winter after steam locomotives were all retired. Lettering beside door: Steam (next line) Generator Car. Behind it is a cutdown wooden box car number unknown. No idea what it was used for!

 

2)  C&O mighty Allegheny's, Turbines, ...wait... a fireless Cooker! They had three of them. 

Circa 1950 photo

 

 

Several others as well...

 

 

3)  Here come da Alco. You don't have to wait until it's close to spot distinguishing features.

 4)  Alco again.. an RSD 15 Alligator showing off its muscle. 

Barstow Shops '73

 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Friday, March 6, 2020 7:19 PM

Interresting streamlining.  But no use for the streamlined coaling tower eh?  Wink

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 6, 2020 7:39 PM

At least C&O got some use out of the coaling tower...  Whistling

NDG
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Posted by NDG on Friday, March 6, 2020 8:41 PM
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Posted by Miningman on Friday, March 6, 2020 9:39 PM

Truly a strange thing.

Let me state that I could really use that for my Physics class... can think of a slew of experiments. Trumpeters, we need trumpeters!

 

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 6, 2020 9:44 PM

What a perfect thing for parades!  Or to show off a municipal administration, or group of honorees.

Could have refreshments provided at their elbows ... civilized.

But rainy days would pose a problem.

NDG
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Posted by NDG on Friday, March 6, 2020 11:30 PM

 

418014 is a steam generator car (note stack near side door) rebuilt from a 230000 40 foot 60 ton hopper bottom box car. 
That is a steam yard locomotive slope back tender you can see the curved outline of. Holding 1700 gallons of oil and 3500 gallons of water. It would be used to thaw culverts in winter after steam locomotives were all retired. Lettering beside door: Steam (next line) Generator Car. Behind it is a cutdown wooden box car number unknown. No idea what it was used for!

 

Cheapo 36 ft.Gondola w loading doorway. K3 Brake, Arch Bar Trucks, still.
 
 
Nelson, B.C.  had similar tender tank in box car.
 
We used ten 10 of the 36 ft. Gondola Version on Arch Bars as Idlers when loading/unloading Barges @ Procter on Kootenay Lake
so that Traction Motors would not enter water over track in ' Dip ' on Slipway up to Barge.
 
Locomotives nor Cabooses accompanied Barge so water could be deeper for Barge at land end so they would not ground.
 
Centre track slipway Procter was laid w SOME Rail Joints OPPOSITE= unusual Rhythm.
 
Just found these.
 
Slip Tracks,  CPR Procter, BC.
 
 
Procter. Looking East to East Main Track Switch. Main and Siding, Right.
 
 
Slip Tracks 1 and 2. Track 3, left, already lifted.
 
 
CPR Procter. Looking West.
 
Main, Siding, Slip 1 and 2. Auto where Slip 3 once was.
 
 
Older view Slip, Procter. Barge would moor at far end.
 
 
Crews named shore side track Dry Track. Lake side track Wet Track.
 
From this site. Use Slider.
 
 
 
FA2 on Barge, Procter. Hit snow slide.
 
 
From this Site.
 
 
 
Google. Procter.
 
 
Once East end of Steel from Nelson. Note outline Wye to West/Left @ West Siding Switch.
 
Slipway into Lake, centre.
 
FWIW.
 
Cable Road Ferry, Harrop. Still in use.
 
 
CP Troup.
 
Once GN Ry. Lake Port.
 
 
CP Troup. Looking West.
 
 
Great Northern Ry. to Left.  Leg GN Ry. Wye to Right, this side of Shack.
 
 
HO Model GN Ry. Train from South Wying @ Troup, then West to Nelson.  SD9s usual power in Sky Blue Era.
 
 
 
 

Thank You.

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Posted by Jones1945 on Friday, March 6, 2020 11:48 PM

NDG

This is amazing! I want a band car like this in every single city, so that people on the street could focus more on things that could enrich our quality of life...

Meanwhile, in British Hong Kong, the 1920s... First-Class on the upper deck, Third-Class on the lower deck. There was no 2nd Class. Somehow, the Third-Class passenger got better protection. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 7, 2020 8:15 AM

Third class may have had better protection, but I'll bet they didn't get first crack at the lifeboats!    Whistling

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, March 7, 2020 1:25 PM

Flintlock76
Third class may have had better protection, but I'll bet they didn't get first crack at the lifeboats!

Which seem to be suspiciously sparse in the picture, short even of Titanic-era requirements.  Perhaps vessels below a certain size only required collapsibles, which we do not see.

How many points on the system were susceptible to the corresponding depth of flooding?  I know other systems had their places, usually under bridges or in dips that could be flash-filled with surprising speed in the 'wrong' weather conditions...

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, March 7, 2020 6:39 PM

Flintlock76

Third class may have had better protection, but I'll bet they didn't get first crack at the lifeboats!    Whistling

 

I'm guessing being farther from street level in 1920's Hong Kong was worth getting rained on once in awhile.  Wink

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

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Posted by NorthWest on Saturday, March 7, 2020 9:47 PM

There's a running string on the WDL group on Sulzer-powered Alstom export locomotives from the 1950s. The tri-bo units for Equador qualify as very strange things.

https://www.derbysulzers.com/ecuador.html

Also on that site (which is fantastic) are the diesel Crocs for Bolivia.

https://www.derbysulzers.com/boliviasulzer.html

These are more cool than strange, though. They lasted until the 1990s!

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Posted by Jones1945 on Saturday, March 7, 2020 9:57 PM

Flintlock76

Third class may have had better protection, but I'll bet they didn't get first crack at the lifeboats!    Whistling

Women and children first! But many "third-class women and children" were locked in the third-class area... many thought the ship was really unsinkable until "she tilted her massive stern into the heavens and sank by the head"... 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 7, 2020 10:05 PM

Jones1945

 

 
Flintlock76

Third class may have had better protection, but I'll bet they didn't get first crack at the lifeboats!    Whistling

 

 

Women and children first! But many "third-class women and children" were locked in the third-class area... many thought the ship was really unsinkable until "she tilted her massive stern into the heavens and sank by the head"... 

 

Right you are Mr. Jones.  They were, in reality, "neglected to death."  The passages to the boat decks weren't opened for most of the Steerage passengers until it was too late. 

As Lady Firestorm's late mother used to say, "It's not a mortal sin to be born poor, but sometimes it might as well be." 

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, March 8, 2020 12:07 PM

NorthWest-- Thanks for those links, quite good. The Ecuador locos as you posted are certainly strange. Looks like they had a hard life and took quite a beating under all that sun and heat and the rainforest.

The Bolivian Sulzers Crocodiles and Bo-Bo's are very handsome locomotives. Happy to see that Croc in a museum resplendent in blue.

Some more strange things:

Raymond Lowey, Industrial Designer, surrounded by his other creations that are not of the rail but certainly off the rails. I think we had a lot of this stuff around the house in the 50's.

 

2)  To be Rexall or not to be Rexall, that is the question?

 

3)  There was a place where rivals Pennsy and New York Central got along and interchanged like kissin' cousins.

Canadaigua NY

 

4)  Scranton, PA  doing its fine imitation of a model railroad diorama.

 

 

 

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Posted by Jones1945 on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 2:41 AM

Miningman

2)  To be Rexall or not to be Rexall, that is the question?

I thought changing the position of NYC's streamlined K5's headlight would give them a better look, but it seems that wouldn't make much difference...

 

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 4:34 AM

Jones: on the Kantola nose, put the Central herald -- in red, not blue -- on the nose where the headlight goes, and the full-size Golden Glow all the way at the top where the C&NW E-4 has one that is too small.  Get rid of the Moe Howard/Hitler kok-teppel "smoke lifting" patch at the top, too; it doesn't work and looks like h-e-double toothpicks.

I don't like those squinty cross-eyed whale 'headlights' on the German streamlined engines any more than I do on the Morgan Aero.  There are better ways to do this: there are many trucks and automobiles that have reasonable headlight clusters to scale, for example.   Think of eyes as windows to the soul, not thick monocles...

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Posted by Jones1945 on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 11:04 AM

Overmod

Jones: on the Kantola nose, put the Central herald -- in red, not blue -- on the nose where the headlight goes, and the full-size Golden Glow all the way at the top where the C&NW E-4 has one that is too small.  Get rid of the Moe Howard/Hitler kok-teppel "smoke lifting" patch at the top, too; it doesn't work and looks like h-e-double toothpicks.

I don't like those squinty cross-eyed whale 'headlights' on the German streamlined engines any more than I do on the Morgan Aero.  There are better ways to do this: there are many trucks and automobiles that have reasonable headlight clusters to scale, for example.   Think of eyes as windows to the soul, not thick monocles...

How about this one? Another lazy photoshopped images. I moved the NYCRR logo to the spot you suggested, borrowed the headlight from Denver Zephyr. I enlarged the headlight about 200% because the smaller size version looks like CB&Q Burlington's ''Aeolus'' and really reminds me of Big Alice the Goon! 

 

After editing these images, a new idea came up. A square-ish headlight housing sealed with glass or transparency material. I prefer this version to other versions I posted above :

 

  

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 2:07 PM

Try the headlight opening 'faired' back along the top of the boiler, perhaps with 'streamline moderne' horizontal fins to emphasize the horizontal line.  If there's any 'break' at the back of the headlight it looks like the arrangement on the NZR class K as built ... like it's sitting there rather than a part of something more organic.

Something to try might be a glassed-over 'teardrop' shaped enclosure high up, perhaps where you have the square opening.  The headlight (and here you might try the 7x sealed-beam array that's on some early E units) goes in the top of the teardrop, and the mouth of the air horn(s) goes in the escutcheon underneath ... doesn't the Ingalls unit have a horn arranged like that?

What happens if we use illuminated glassed numberboards a la Loewy on the T1 prototype, in the forward upper corners of the stair skirts?  Or an illuminated Central oval, or lit script like 'Empire State Express' on 999, on the flank over the illuminated drivers.

I'll confess one of the first things I did with this design was to arrange the 'seams' so they don't create a worm or caterpillar appearance.  "Slavish devotion to the horizontal line" ... or smoothed contour like the front end of the Kantola Commodore Vanderbilt shroud on parts of the front, are beneficial.  I also confess, although I was influenced by correspondence with Otto Kuhler at the time, that I brought the curve of the steps out deeper toward the front, and put trim brightwork on their forward edges... this being similar to one of the LV engine designs.  Handrail gets modified at the front accordingly.

I detailed the paint on the drivers differently, to give sparkle when the drivers are turning, and considered putting lights or reflectors on the rods to illuminate the complex motion...

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 3:28 PM

Interesting efforts Mr. Jones!  Ummmm...

Number One looks weird.

Number Two looks weirder.

Number Three?  Ah, there you go, third time's the charm!  Not bad at all!  

Good save of a streamlining style that was kind of weird to begin with!

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Posted by Penny Trains on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 8:51 PM

Those locos always remind me of the Batmobile's armor plating.  Wink

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

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