MiningmanWe need a new event proposal--
Come one, come all, to the Alberta Precision Scheduled Railroadeo! See all the excitement of modern vulture capital operations together with the best downhill-fast safety-last practices of the golden age of steam!
WATCH as teams compete for the fastest flat switch, risking their lives as they board and depart equipment as fast as possible! THRILL to full-speed acceleration contests with tied-down safety valves, featuring the best spine-chilling promise of nineteenth-century steamboat racing! DELIGHT to the competition of who can run the longest train divided into the most pointless expedient blocks! Plenty of authentic beanery cuisine, and watch for our cooking reality show on preparing cordon bleu nouvelle cuisine dishes on a shovel within a strict time limit! You won't want to miss the thrills, the chills, the spills as history comes to life writ large just for YOU red in tooth and claw!
Miningman We need a new event proposal--
All the foregoing may well be easier on the HORSES?
Thank You.
Not quite the spirit of it all I had wished for but it's not going to happen anyway ever, so its moot.
As the poet said " thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season".
The beans part is a good idea though!
More very strange things
1) I think this is Illinois Central but maybe not. Is this a saddletank? On top? Not very good visibility for the engineer. Has has very high number as if its part of the mainline fleet.
2) A Pennsy caboose. Was this the Pennsy trying its best to be humble, perhaps seeking alms or showing brotherhood with struggling railroads or just being cheap? Like the round windows though.
3) So they hid the throttle in the keystone? Secret message. Don't think so but was this throttle one of the few things that worked well with the T1? By the way Elesco made out like a bandit up here in the Dominion as their Feedwater Heaters were applied to just about everything that moved and had a whistle.
Wish I could say the beans were a parody... see the Newswire for the real thing, in some ways funnier.
(1) is surely a shop switcher, probably 'repurposed' from something older. One of the IC mavens will tell you why it carries a 'road' type number.
(2) might be something from WWII days, a boxcar repurposed as a caboose or perhaps guard car for military trains. Those portholes are certainly snazzy but I'm not as sure about the paint...
(3) The keystone opens at midnight as the blackbird takes wing...
Seriously, the pictured item is just a typical multiple throttle... in fact it was one of the great problems for the T1 since as built you couldn't install one for both engines, and the company couldn't figure how to put two full sets of progressive poppets with one header. Hence the need for Wagner-throttle trim on the forward engine in the rebuild.
FAR more interesting is the thing at the other end of the linkage driving that cam ... but it isn't made by the Superheater Company so doesn't show. That's the Franklin Precision air throttle actuator, a thing of charm and beauty that will figure importantly in 5550's actual operation now that all the ham-fisted old heads have moved on...
Overmod Miningman We need a new event proposal-- Come one, come all, to the Alberta Precision Scheduled Railroadeo! See all the excitement of modern vulture capital operations together with the best downhill-fast safety-last practices of the golden age of steam! WATCH as teams compete for the fastest flat switch, risking their lives as they board and depart equipment as fast as possible! THRILL to full-speed acceleration contests with tied-down safety valves, featuring the best spine-chilling promise of nineteenth-century steamboat racing! DELIGHT to the competition of who can run the longest train divided into the most pointless expedient blocks! Plenty of authentic beanery cuisine, and watch for our cooking reality show on preparing cordon bleu nouvelle cuisine dishes on a shovel within a strict time limit! You won't want to miss the thrills, the chills, the spills as history comes to life writ large just for YOU red in tooth and claw!
And for the final event, all contestants must RERAIL anything and everything they have derailed, no matter how many pieces it's in! No cranes here folks, just good old-fashioned elbow grease, 200 lb hunks of metal and whatever junk the crew can scrounge up!
You'll experience the AUTHENTIC feelings of passenges whose train has been stopped by a derailment, and who knows, maybe the crew will "request" YOUR HELP in fixing the mess! Don't hold back, JOIN IN THE FUN!
PUZZLE at the pointless nonsensical arguments of whose fault it is, when everyone knows the junior brakeman will get to haul those pesky RERAILERS around! All while the conductor CRACKS JOKES with the crowd and samples all those fine shovel dishes!
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Are you saying you can't do a simple drop off and pick up without derailing and huge mishaps? Suppose we have to get well qualified people then. Regardless I'll be mocked into eternity. Sigh
Overmod-- Very interesting about the throttle. I thought it was the one thing that worked well but now have seen the reality.
Good to hear the T1 trust has a handle on it.
From Mike: 1912 Stampede
Book says 40,000 came by train at half fare.
Did you know? ... bull and bucking bronco riders cannot touch the animal with their free hand, that's why you see them desperatly trying to hold it up freely swinging in the air. Outriders in the chuckwagon race must stay within 150 feet of their wagon and ride the distance.
All the finals tomorrow for the big bucks. Calf roping & tie down, bull riding, bronc riding, bareback bronco riding, steer take down, chuckwagon races, barrel racing ( the American gals are cleaning up and they are gorgeous! , gotta luv the kids teams and the wild pony catch 'em and ride 'em. So much more.
Crazy rodeo-type stuff with locomotives? You mean like this?
(Go full-screen if you can, the print's not too sharp.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q53AYdnZX8Y
Well... yeah! Tug of war would work. How about those spinning bells!
How about pulling a very heavy weight up a grade until you stall out or 'make it'.
Well you get the idea. There are events for steam tractors.
Even if it's just done on a demonstration type level.
Ok I'll drop it.
MiningmanFrom Mike: 1912 Stampede
The stuff about the 1919 Victory Stampede was interesting too. There have been stories about that in the local media ever since the 100th Anniversary of the end of WWI last November. It seemed like a really good idea that didn't work out.
I think Veterans from all over rural Western Canada would have liked to have seen a reminder of what life was like before they served. What they didn't know was that they were on the cusp of a world wide recession and money was getting tight. And the Spanish Flu Epidemic was about to come.
In my own family's case my Mom's father served with the British Army before he immigrated to Canada. In the final years of her life Mom talked about problems they had on the farm when she was little, but they were British, so they had to keep a stiff upper lip, and keep problems in the family. One thing he did do though was get involved with the formation of the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Brooks, AB, along with local Canadian Veterans.
My Dad's parents were already in Saskatchewan and had gotten married the year before the war broke out. He was given a specific exemption from military service to continue farming and raise crops and animals to support the country.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Glad you enjoyed that Bruce. Did you get to the Stampede. All the big money prizes go today. Yee-Haw!
Think this is a better pic of that shopswitcher
Well ok but I'm not going up
MiningmanDid you get to the Stampede.
I was downtown to see the action there but I never did get the time to get down to Stampede Park.
Watching the TV coverage has been keeping me off the streets most evenings!
MiningmanWell you get the idea. There are events for steam tractors.
The real 'problem' being that railroad equipment has so much more momentum, and such tiny contact patches with effectively sharp edges, and so little hp/ton and so many tons per effective brake that most of the events would either be safe and on the order of watching grass grow around a loading-down GE, or fodder for ... the folks who used to watch Indianapolis open-wheel racing, or NASCAR in the late '60s, the people there for the blood and circuses. Neither of these the 'target audience' for much fun.
Now, that's not saying there isn't an almost indecent amount of fun involved in steam tractor events (I just introduced my son to one in Ashtabula). You haven't quite lived until you take a turn in the 'car' during steam ploughing when the throttlemen show what the winches can do full-open. If you've watched them test the reverse on 3985, and then extrapolate that motion to hundreds of feet 'reach' ... well, yes, it puts the tame little zipline toward the Falls in perspective.
And yes, it would be worth building a 'replica' of the LeTourneau steam tractor from the Forties, just to put in a typical sled pull against the little 2000hp trucks you find there now. Even a Case 110hp does a number on their typical sled... be interesting to see what the restored 150 might do.
I should also be a little puckish, and think about building a steam-motored balancing machine to use for barrel racing, which I consider by far the best of the rodeo sports even regardless of the charm.
Quite a bit of fun to be had in the 'light steam' department!
That puts things in perspective, so thanks. Steam tractor events are pretty lively affairs. 1999 I came within an inch of buying one, and looking back now, thankfully a couple of fellas from Holland topped my bids and I gave up at 13,500. It required boiler work before being permitted and certified. They took it back to the Netherlands which I imagine was quite an additional expense.
1) How about a T1 caught with its pants down!
2) Well this is different. Built in Renovo.
3) Was this the last series of milk cars ever built?
Mike weighs in:
These two cars were the last milk cars built for service in the United States, constructed in 1957-1958 for the Boston & Maine railroad. 1910 was equipped with mechanical refrigeration, for transporting processed milk in one-gallon glass bottles from Bellows Falls Creamery in Vermont to Boston (the Creamery owned the refrigeration units carried by the cars). 1920 was designed for handling “raw” milk in the classic tall 40-quart cans, with crushed ice spread over the load. Both cars last were used for milk service about 1965, and wound up as company storage cars. Both were purchased from B&M in 1989. They look like low steel boxcars, but are equipped with passenger-style trucks, brake systems, couplers, and through steam heat lines. 1920 was restored in 1992, with the interior set up for display and exhibit space. Currently B&M 1920 is on display at Thomaston Station on the Naugatuck Railroad, while B&M 1910 awaits safe movement to RMNE.
A lucky guess on my part, but it made sense.
B&M's 1964 ETTs still list speed limits for trains carrying milk. The Rutland also handed milk cars over to B&M at Bellows Falls until abandonment, though Rutland's New York milk trains were gone after about 1953.
I regularly drive NH 12 paralleling the Cheshire Branch from Bellows Falls to Keene. Tank type milk cars were not fitted with baffles. If they had been, milk shipped via the Cheshire would have arrived in Boston as solid butter.
Interesting! I wonder if that every happened?
Miningman2) A Pennsy caboose. Was this the Pennsy trying its best to be humble, perhaps seeking alms or showing brotherhood with struggling railroads or just being cheap? Like the round windows though.
I just happened to stumble across an article in the PRRT&HS Vol. 52 #1, Keystone, regarding the conversion of seventy-five, 1913, X23 boxcars into "War emergency" cabin cars classed NX23 re-built in early 1943. The War Production Board did not allow for construction of all-steel cabooses for the duration and in order to fill the need Altoona made this conversion.
By 1947 nearly half the roster was reassigned to M-of-W work, two went to the Long Island and two more to the Western Allegheny. In 1960 the PRR sold two cars to a building supply dealer in Urbana, Ohio where they were used as an office and the other as storage.
Today, one of those cars is still in Urbana along the Simon Kenton Corridor (an Ex-Erie bike trail).
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM596B_Pennsylvania_NX23_Urbana_Ohio
Regards, Ed
Well will you look at that! Thanks so much Ed. Who knew?
More strange things in Railroading:
1) What in the heck is this? Craziness! Is it real?
2) Steam? Diesel? Electric? Batman?
I'm not even going to guess about that whacked-out monorail, but I blew up the second photo to the point of fuzzyness and it looks like some kind of jackshaft electric locomotive. Follow the main rod up to where the cylinders would be if it was a steamer and the rod seems to connect with an electric motor assembly.
Now just where it gets the juice from is anyone's guess. Maybe there's a generator and power source in the "supestructure?"
You've got a couple of famous favorites there.
1) is the Brennan gyroscopic monorail, as seen here and here.. Those panels are the radiator for the gas motor. (Ask Mike to find you the picture of this running on top of a cable strung between two sides of a ravine, like the 'daughtermobile' on steroids, a field military demonstration which is, in my opinion, even today a damn amazing one).
2) is the Swiss Eb3/5 high-pressure locomotive of 1927. (See the joke about European heaven and European hell.) Those hooded scoops are combustion air intakes. Good coverage also on the Douglas Self site.
The jackshaft drive is not from a turbine, but a transverse three-cylinder steam motor, running off the nominal 850psi steam.
For years I had this confused with a Velox-boiler locomotive, which was 'not quite invented yet.' The Swiss made up for lost time with that, though. (In large part I joined the Newcomen Society to read Duffy's paper on the Velox; you can get the flavor of the thing as implemented in France, quite possibly responding to the Borsig 05 003 streamliner, from Self.)
Well wasn't that Swiss locomotive interesting! I suspect they couldn't get the bugs out of it, especially concerning the scale issue, that and maybe the Swiss considered total electrification was just a matter of time, so why persue a dead-end?
I forget just where I read this, but supposedly steam experts said a little boiler scale was all right as it helped to seal the tubes, but obviously you didn't want a lot of it.
That gyro-monorail's interesting as well. I'm assuming there had to be some outriggers to keep it in the upright position when the gyros weren't engaged. I didn't see any mention of the same in either article.
The design of the Schweizer Lokomotiv und Maschinenfabrik (SLM) Eb3/5 (this was NOT an SBB engine, SBB's Eb3/5 2-6-2 tanks were very conventional) was a product of the strange mind of SLM's chief engineer Mr. Buchli. SLM was perhaps the most aggressive of the Swiss locomotive manufacturers, and is still very much in business.
Buchli also came up with strange drives for Tramwagen (streetcars) including one with cardan shafts, as well as a slightly more successful three axle design with steering sone by the sidways shift of the center axle.
Buchli redeemed himself with the Buchli Antrieb, used extensively in Swiss electric locomotives of the Ae3/6 I, Ae4/7 and Ae8/14 classes among others (several classes in France), many of which remained in service for well over fifty years. Similar to the quill drive used on locomotives like the GG1 but with links rather than springs to transmit torque, it allowed almost the entire weight of the motors and propulsion equipment to be carried as sprung wieght, making the classes very light on their feet.
If my memory serves me correctly the class designation breaks down to:
E = Tender locomotive
b = max speed between 70 and 80 km/h
3 = number of powered axles
5 = total number of axles
Flintlock76I forget just where I read this, but supposedly steam experts said a little boiler scale was all right as it helped to seal the tubes, but obviously you didn't want a lot of it.
That's for older, low-pressure boilers (and it technically isn't the 'tubes' but the joints at the tubesheets that are the beneficiaries of 'sealing') That is NOT the case in high-pressure systems!
You may remember the parody of the old Alco 'fire to water' ads, where the heat transfer involved 'fire-soot-a pipe-scale-water'. Scale is an excellent insulator, as is any steam film under it against the pipe metal. That can lead to dramatic heat increase back across the wall thickness, softening or creep of the metal ... and various kinds of swelling or bagging failure. These are much more serious in relatively large-bore tubes subjected to high pressure!
Does the name 'Fury' ring a bell?
I dimly remember an arrangement between a kickstand and training wheels, which when lowered allowed an unpowered vehicle to be pushed or towed and would hold it stable as the gyro servo system 'initialized'. (You may or may not have noticed that the Brennan system easily accommodates even fairly severe off-center loads, unlike a Lartigue system, when under power, but NOT when shut down or during spinup, so the gear and its jacking and leveling means should be more robust, and perhaps better powered, than you might expect at first glance.)
Not trying to be a wise guy, but the only time the name "Fury" rings a bell is...
1) The TV western "Brave Stallion" with Fury the horse.
2) the movie "Fury," and quite honestly ALL four Shermans should have been knocked out by that Tiger tank! Charging at a Tiger in "line abreast" was a good way to get all of you killed!
3) "Son of Fury," the Tyrone Power movie.
4) Sergeant Nick Fury, and his "Howling Commandos" in Marvel Comics.
Sorry.
The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) No. 6399 Fury was an unsuccessful British experimental express passenger locomotive. The intention was to save fuel by using high-pressure steam, which is thermodynamically more efficient than low-pressure steam.
Built in 1929 by the NBL (North British Locomotive Company) in Glasgow,[1] it was one of a number of steam locomotives built around the world in the search for "Superpower steam". The locomotive was a joint venture between the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), with Henry Fowler as Chief Mechanical Engineer (C.M.E.) and The Superheater Company[2]with the latter having responsibility for constructing the complex, 3 stage Schmidt-based boiler.[3] The LMS provided a Royal Scot frame and running gear.[4]However, Carney [3] shows that the frames for Fury were not standard Royal Scot frames, but longer. For the complex boiler, John Brown & Company of Sheffield forged the special nickel-steel alloy high pressure drum and many boiler fittings were imported from Germany[5] but otherwise all manufacture was carried out by NBL.[3]
A 3-cylindered semi-compound compound locomotive, it had one high-pressure cylinder between the frames (11.5 inch bore) and two larger low-pressure outside cylinders (18 inch bore). The Schmidt steam-raising boiler was a 3-stage unit. The primary generator was a fully sealed ultra-high-pressure circuit working between 1400 and 1800 psi (9.7 to 12.4 MPa), filled with distilled water that transferred heat from the firebox to the high-pressure drum. This raised high-pressure steam at 900 psi (6.2 MPa) which was taken to power the cylinders and also recirculate pure water. The third steam raising unit was a relatively conventional locomotive fire tube boiler operating at 250 psi (1.7 MPa) heated by combustion gases from the coal fire.[3] The engine was technically an "ultra-high pressure, semi-compound steam locomotive". It was given the LMS number 6399 and then inherited the name Fury from LMS 6138, which had itself been renamed in October 1929.[6]
After short runs during January 1930, a longer test run from Glasgow to Carstairs was scheduled for 10 February 1930. Approaching Carstairs station at slow speed, one of the ultra-high-pressure tubes burst and the escaping steam ejected the coal fire through the fire-hole door, killing Mr Lewis Schofield of the Superheater Company.[7] Subsequently the burst tube was thoroughly investigated at Sheffield University but no definitive conclusion reached. The boiler was eventually repaired and Fury moved to Derby where a number of running trials were carried out until early 1934, mostly revealing significant shortcomings in performance.[9] Fury's rods and linkages were then removed together with the indicator shelter and test gear when in 1935 it was rebuilt by William Stanier at Crewe Works with a more conventional type 2 boiler becoming 6170 British Legion, the first of the LMS 2 and 2A boilered 4-6-0 locomotives. Despite the accident, Fury was primarily an economic rather than a technological failure. Although tolerating the trials from Derby, Stanier didn't devote much effort to rectifying the faults Fury displayed, no doubt because of his many other work pressures and development of the LMS Turbomotive.[3] Nevertheless, Fury never earned revenue for the LMS and in fact "Fury must have travelled more miles under tow than under its own steam".[10] As many other experimental locomotives showed, the theoretical benefits of ultra high steam pressure steam were hard to realise in practice. Fuel is only one part of the operating costs of a steam locomotive—maintenance is very significant, and introducing extra complications always increased this disproportionally.
In France, the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée had bought a Schmidt system 4-8-2locomotive (no. 241.B.1) and in 1933 this too suffered a burst ultra high pressure tube. The failure was investigated and if a single conclusion could be reached following both incidents, it was that inadequate water circulation in the ultra high pressure circuit was responsible.[3]
Well cut off but you get the idea.
Sgt. Fury was great and I assume the Fury character as the head of SHIELD in Marvel movies.
Remember the Sherman that was protected by the ghost JEB Stuart .. he was always knocking out Tigers!
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Get the Classic Trains twice-monthly newsletter