TRIVIA ?

[Anonymous]

Poling a car is the practice of pushing a piece of equipment on one track with a locomotive on another thru use of a stiff pole socketed in round poling pockets located on the end sills and pilot beams of steam era cars and locomotives. Those little circles on the lower end corners of 6464 boxcars are poling pockets.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering what those poles were for now I no ,thanks Jhonblair .mersenne6.

[Anonymous]

railroad caught over charging ( bustin a gun)

[mersenne6]

Nope, "busting a gun" was slang for exploding a track torpedo.

[Anonymous]

what is a track torpedo

[daan]

An air propellor driven engine like the rail zeppelin?
Do you guys know what a "schienenwolf" is? (railwolf)

[lionelsoni]

A torpedo is an explosive put on the track to warn other trains of a stopped train ahead.

[daan]

We use red lights over here to warn other trains of a stopped train ahead[xx(][B)][:-^]

[Anonymous]

Daan, the torpedos weren't used in place of red lanterns; they were used in addition to them.

Sometimes an engineer would miss the red signal...Just ask that crazy Casey Jones about that...

[daan]

@ steve, I figured that already, but it was a shot for open goal to make that remark..
We have an automatic system, which turns the power of if an engine driver ignores the red lights.
The only failure of the system is that it works from 40km/h and up, so can it happen that a 39km/h locomotive runs into a 39km/h train head on, a collision of 80km/h. It happened last week..

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by daan


Do you guys know what a "schienenwolf" is? (railwolf)

OK, I'll admit that I didn't know what a shienenwolf was, but I did a search for it and came up with these pictures.


It seems to be some kind of an MOW car used for taking out track. Scary looking thing!

And now for another question from me.

Which of the following inventions did Joshua Lionel Cowen claim to have been the first to make?
a. Electric Doorbell
b. Dry-Cell Battery
c. Electric Fan
d. Flashlight

[daan]

The "schienenwolf" was indeed a nasty machine. Used in the second part of the 2nd world war it was made to destroy the track. The Germans invented the thing because they wanted to leave the biggest possible damage when retrieving their groups.
It was hauled by a BR50 type engine (2-10-0), stripped to war outfit.
I didn't expect anyone coming with an answer; good searching! ..[tup]

Then the inventions. I think it is an electric doorbell. The drycell battery is nothing mechanic, I doubt that an electric fan is an "invention" and flashlight needs electronics, which they didn't have back then...

[lionelsoni]

Flashlight. Electronics, Daan? A battery, a lamp, and a switch.

[daan]

Flashlight like on ambulances and policecars will not work with only a switch.. But probably, as you name the components you couls also mean an electric tourch..
But I remain silent, let's try if other ones join in...

[lionelsoni]

I wondered whether you might be unfamiliar with the term, Daan. "Torch" is British for what Americans always call a "flashlight". "Torch" here always means "firebrand". I have read that Cowen could think of no better use for his invention than lighting up ornamental potted plants at night. He also made electric fans, but admitted himself that they were almost useless. The electric train I believe was an attempt to find a more salable use for the fan motors.

[Anonymous]

You are both partially right. This was actually a trick question because Cowen claimed to have been the first person to create ALL of them. I felt that if I would have included "All of the above" as a choice that it might be too obvious.

Cowen said that when he was a teenager in school, that he created a device that would sound a buzzer to anounce a guest's arrival at a house when they pushed a button. His teacher told him that the idea was silly and that people would never want to use such a thing, so he abandoned the project.

Cowen also said that he created the first dry-cell battery. However, it's power didn't last too long and so he abandoned that project, too.

Cowen made an electric fan in about 1900 by placing blades onto an electric motor. You couldn't feel any air unless you were right next to it. Lionel did market a slightly improved fan in the company's early days when they were manufacturing "electrical novelties."

The flashlight for illuminating potted plants was marketed by Cowen together with a man named Conrad Hubert. They sold them solely as decorative items. This holds some simmilarity to the first Lionel trains, which were marketed as store displays rather than toys. Cowen got fed up with the flashlights and Hubert left to market them on his own. Hubert was a huge success with them and formed the Everready Battery Company becoming a millionaire.

[mersenne6]

Here's a few more to ponder.

1. Passing the Croaker
2. Paperweight (no, he's not what you think it is)
3. Pair of pliers (no, it isn't what you think it is)
4.Lizard Scorcher
5. Electric Owl
6. Drop a little Run-Fast
7. Dusting her out
8. Counting the ties
9. Brownies
10. Deckorate

[Anonymous]

WHATS RED AND WHITE AND GOES UP AND DOWN

( the red sox )

[daan]

@Lionelsony, Yep I thought I might be mistaken there.. @scratch_b, I'm missing the white part of it, red sox are only red (and yes, I know I'm probably wrong with that, since I learned that the red sox are a baseballteam..)
And then for the other things;
1. Passing the Croaker: Not the faintest idea...
2. Paperweight (no, he's not what you think it is): The wheight of an empty car
3. Pair of pliers (no, it isn't what you think it is): some grip iron i think
4.Lizard Scorcher: A spade to scrape the burnt coal in the fire of a steamengine
5. Electric Owl: Electric aircompressor to blow horns with
6. Drop a little Run-Fast: Oil
7. Dusting her out: getting the ash out the pipes in a steamengine
8. Counting the ties: ??Nope??
9. Brownies: Dot's of used lubricate??
10. Deckorate: Some ornament on the last journey??

[Anonymous]

[imghttp%3A//sportsmed.starwave.com/media/mlb/2003/0417/photo/pedro_i.jpg[/img]

good ol' pedro



and Teddy


As you see dan, they have always had white on there uniforms!

[mersenne6]

1. Passing the Croaker = Being examined by the company doctor
2. Paperweight (no, he's not what you think it is) = Railroad clerk or office worker
3. Pair of pliers (no, it isn't what you think it is) = Conductor's punch
4.Lizard Scorcher = Dining car chef
5. Electric Owl = Night operator
6. Drop a little Run-Fast = Oil the engine
7. Dusting her out = Putting sand through the firedoor of an oil burner while working the engine hard; cuts the soot
8. Counting the ties = Reducing speed
9. Brownies = Demerits - system is traced back to George R. Brown, general super of the Fall Brook Railway in 1885. He thought the then current practice of suspending men for breaking rules was unfair to their families and substituted a system of demerit marks. Too many demerits in a given period resulted in dismissal. The Brown system was adopted by the entire industry.
10. Deckorate = Get out on top of freight cars to set hand brakes.

- From Railroad Avenue - Hubbard

Locomotive engineer = Speed artist, Ballast scorcher, Big E, Eagle-eye, Glory Hunter, Grunt,Highball artist, Hot-footer, Lung doctor, Milage hog, Pig-mauler, Positive block, Runner, Speed gauger

[daan]

@ jerry, I only see white boxes with a red cross in it. I doubt that's the uniform of the red sox.. though it's red and white also..[:D]