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Trackside with Trains Vol. 308: "Decrepit diesels" is open for voting

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Posted by zardoz on Friday, July 21, 2017 8:36 PM

cx500

That CP B-unit was just dirty from the hump retarders at CPR's Alyth Yard in Calgary.  Not exactly decrepit, and this many years later that pair of AC4400s probably looks far worse.  Not sure what vintage your picture is, but they left CPR's roster quite a long time back.

CP overhauled two B-units to be assigned to the Alyth hump, in company with GP9s.  While I believe they initially were working units, later their role was reduced to brake slugs when handling the long cuts.

 

The photo of the B unit was taken around 1995. It was a grab shot as I saw these while on my way to work; the image is the only one I could get in time, which is why the image is of lower quality. I did hear on my scanner that the "B" unit was heading for the scrapper. A zoom in on the "B" will show somewhat how decrepit it really was.

A decrepit camera used to take a photo of a decrepit locomotive.

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, July 21, 2017 5:53 PM

RME
zardoz

MLS 9

CP 1019 "B" unit

These are the images my wife and I sent in, but were disqualified.

You might need to go back behind the curtain and work a couple of knobs; I get the same image (with the B-unit trailing) for both links ...

Access the thumbnail pictures under the featured picture!

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Posted by cx500 on Friday, July 21, 2017 5:20 PM

That CP B-unit was just dirty from the hump retarders at CPR's Alyth Yard in Calgary.  Not exactly decrepit, and this many years later that pair of AC4400s probably looks far worse.  Not sure what vintage your picture is, but they left CPR's roster quite a long time back.

CP overhauled two B-units to be assigned to the Alyth hump, in company with GP9s.  While I believe they initially were working units, later their role was reduced to brake slugs when handling the long cuts.

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Posted by RME on Friday, July 21, 2017 12:27 PM

zardoz

MLS 9

CP 1019 "B" unit

These are the images my wife and I sent in, but were disqualified.

You might need to go back behind the curtain and work a couple of knobs; I get the same image (with the B-unit trailing) for both links ...

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Posted by zardoz on Friday, July 21, 2017 11:25 AM

Edited: Maybe these links will work for you. I tried to just post the photo, but I am doing something wrong.

MLS9:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jim53171/35934388831/in/dateposted-public/

 

CP 1019-B

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jim53171/35677932770/in/dateposted-public/

 

These are the images my wife and I sent in, but were disqualified.

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Posted by zardoz on Friday, July 21, 2017 11:13 AM

zugmann

 

 
zardoz
Actually I sent in one and my wife sent in one, although I'll admit that she used my email account because it was up and we were too lazy to switch to her account. Our error.

 

Your error was not submitting a photo of CNW 401 or the PREX 1612! Laugh

 

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Posted by zardoz on Friday, July 21, 2017 11:12 AM

Murphy Siding

 

 
zardoz
 
Brian Schmidt

 

 
zardoz
Perhaps if they had chosen to include my photo there would have been a little more variety.

 

Perhaps. But you sent multiple images, and the rules specifically state to send only one.

 

 

 

Actually I sent in one and my wife sent in one, although I'll admit that she used my email account because it was up and we were too lazy to switch to her account. Our error.

 

 

 

 

Mathematical irony squared? You were disqualified for submitting 2 entries. 2 entries accepted were of the same locomotive by different photographers. That happened twice.

      I wonder if it’s possible to just send back a reply to someone who submitted 2? How ‘bout “Hey pal- we see you submitted 2 photos. Sigh   How's about you re-read the rules, pick up the pace and resubmit ONE photo. Thank you and have a nice day.Smile” (Or something like that Whistling )

( Clown )

 

 

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, July 20, 2017 5:14 PM

Murphy Siding
2) A locomotive in the process of being scrapped doesn’t seem to be within the realm of what I’d expect decrepit locomotives to be about.

Ditto - but in Trains' defense, they may not have considered all the possibilities (and any of us might have handled it exactly the same).  Hindsight is usually 20-20.

I rather considered the topic to mean a beat-up locomotive still earning it's keep despite it's sorry condition.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by BOB WITHORN on Thursday, July 20, 2017 4:13 PM

Murphy,

 

+1

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, July 20, 2017 12:54 PM

RME
 
BaltACD
Regardless of the submitter, I would have expected the screener to only permit one version of a submitted engine.

 

Not at all!  (At least not without revising the stated rules to say that 'first person posting a similar image is the only one credited' even if the later person's image is objectively better in some way... and I don't think that rule would 'wash')

Now, if the images were displayed as they were received, and the screener could say 'your submission is up already', the situation might be different.  But even there, you'd want some sort of grievance or appeal procedure about why the new image is different enough to receive its own spot in the voting.  And that turns into its own set of cans of worms.

 

Who's to say that they didn't get 15 submittals for those 2 locomotives and decided to publish the 2 best ones? Whistling

My own opinion:
1) Doubling up on 2 of the engines meant we lost out on seeing two other entries.Sigh
2) A locomotive in the process of being scrapped doesn’t seem to be within the realm of what I’d expect decrepit locomotives to be about. To me that’s like photos of dead people. Save that for the title “Decomposing diesels”.Dead

 

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Posted by RME on Thursday, July 20, 2017 10:07 AM

BaltACD
Regardless of the submitter, I would have expected the screener to only permit one version of a submitted engine.

Not at all!  (At least not without revising the stated rules to say that 'first person posting a similar image is the only one credited' even if the later person's image is objectively better in some way... and I don't think that rule would 'wash')

Now, if the images were displayed as they were received, and the screener could say 'your submission is up already', the situation might be different.  But even there, you'd want some sort of grievance or appeal procedure about why the new image is different enough to receive its own spot in the voting.  And that turns into its own set of cans of worms.

The striking thing in this case is how very similar the two chosen images (of the Florida locomotive) were.  And how dramatically small the voting percentage for each picture was ... which tells me that perhaps voters 'split down the middle' of which the "better" one was, leaving other ones to rank higher.

(I have already expressed my opinion that encrustation from birds or lime or whatever doesn't make that particular locomotive 'decrepit', and it would appear even from the aggregate voting that many people who vote in these things concur.)

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, July 20, 2017 10:00 AM

Regardless of the submitter, I would have expected the screener to only permit one version of a submitted engine. Devil

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, July 20, 2017 8:52 AM

zardoz
 
Brian Schmidt

 

 
zardoz
Perhaps if they had chosen to include my photo there would have been a little more variety.

 

Perhaps. But you sent multiple images, and the rules specifically state to send only one.

 

 

 

Actually I sent in one and my wife sent in one, although I'll admit that she used my email account because it was up and we were too lazy to switch to her account. Our error.

 

 

Mathematical irony squared? You were disqualified for submitting 2 entries. 2 entries accepted were of the same locomotive by different photographers. That happened twice.

      I wonder if it’s possible to just send back a reply to someone who submitted 2? How ‘bout “Hey pal- we see you submitted 2 photos. Sigh   How's about you re-read the rules, pick up the pace and resubmit ONE photo. Thank you and have a nice day.Smile” (Or something like that Whistling )

( Clown )

 

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by BOB WITHORN on Thursday, July 20, 2017 6:52 AM
Balt - B&O 6525 would have been an excellent choice.
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Posted by zugmann on Thursday, July 20, 2017 5:49 AM

zardoz
Actually I sent in one and my wife sent in one, although I'll admit that she used my email account because it was up and we were too lazy to switch to her account. Our error.

Your error was not submitting a photo of CNW 401 or the PREX 1612! Laugh

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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Posted by RME on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 4:54 PM

samfp1943
The GM&O RR's # 1900, an Ingalls Shipbuiilding S-4...

S4 is an Alco.  The Ingalls was a 4-S.

Even in 1966 that thing wasn't really decrepit-looking.  For GM&O diesel desuetude you wanted these:

(Adding insult to injury, just a couple of tracks over were the two Baldwin passenger units, just as clean and dapper as could be.)

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 12:12 PM

Brian Schmidt

 

 
zardoz
Perhaps if they had chosen to include my photo there would have been a little more variety.

 

Perhaps. But you sent multiple images, and the rules specifically state to send only one.

 

Actually I sent in one and my wife sent in one, although I'll admit that she used my email account because it was up and we were too lazy to switch to her account. Our error.

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Posted by Brian Schmidt on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 10:58 AM

zardoz
Perhaps if they had chosen to include my photo there would have been a little more variety.

Perhaps. But you sent multiple images, and the rules specifically state to send only one.

Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine

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Posted by samfp1943 on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 9:19 AM

Well, Since the time is about to run out on this Thread (07/23?) I am going to put in a vote for my personal favorite one. Unfortunately, it was an 'Orphan'. 

The GM&O RR's # 1900, an Ingalls Shipbuiilding 4-S, built in Pascagoula, Ms.

Photo linked here @ http://www.railpictures.net/photo/612180/#remarks

After the War (WWII) Ingalls built the 4-S @ 1650 HP (Eng: Superior Diesel-Marine type- ). It was to be a demo for Ingall's ideas of what was needed by the railroad industry ( a whole family of power- something similar to EMD's F-3 multi- unit engine sets?).

  It did a tour around the country (C&O and Southern, were two, I remembered). Unfortunately, it was not welcomed with open arms, (in a time of EMD rising, and Baldwin,ALCO and others?).  It was eventually offered to the GM&O, and sold for less than $150K. It was based out of the Shops at Jackson, Tn, and ran South, mainly into Mississipp and to Mobile,Al.      I used to see it regularly, working in the small yard at Corinth,Ms.  I was told that the railroad employees considered it to be a 'Shop Pet' at Jackson.       It was said tio be a very tough engine. In fact, it was once derailed and rolled over, in the 1960's. Repaired, it was put back into service. I think it was finally traded to EMD, and scrapped in '67(?) @ Pielet in Chicago(?).

 

 


 

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, July 18, 2017 10:07 PM

Murphy Siding

I wonder if the results would have been better if the category was "Decrepit diesels still in use"?

Second!

LarryWhistling
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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, July 18, 2017 9:50 PM

Surprised no one submitted this one

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, July 18, 2017 8:48 PM

I wonder if the results would have been better if the category was "Decrepit diesels still in use"?

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, July 18, 2017 8:46 PM

tree68

Interesting that two submitters found the same locomotive...

And I've finally found an image of an IC/ICG Paducah rebuild with the "frog eyes" headlights - or the remnants thereof...

 

Aren't there two sets of photographers who submitted the same locomotive? Joanathan Arndt and Kerry Skidmore submitted C&NW #401. Kenneth G. Williamson and Alex Mays submitted A&F #1612.

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Posted by RME on Tuesday, July 18, 2017 12:09 PM

NorthWest
That brutal "improvement" shattered the glass in all lenses pointed at them?

I'm actually one of the few who liked those things.  Railroading's answer to the Porsche 928!  (Of course those are funny-looking too -- but oh brother! what a joy it is to really SEE where you are going at night!)

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Posted by zardoz on Monday, July 17, 2017 10:10 PM

tree68

Interesting that two submitters found the same locomotive...

Perhaps if they had chosen to include my photo there would have been a little more variety.

Two people shot the same locomotive. Twice (the CNW F7 and the Fort Smith GP16). What are the odds...?

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Posted by NorthWest on Monday, July 17, 2017 7:39 PM

RME
Many, perhaps all of these had those distinctive frogeye lights. What makes pictures of them hard to find?

That brutal "improvement" shattered the glass in all lenses pointed at them?

(I worry about that when I shoot the Talgo 8 sets.)

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Posted by TOMinTN on Monday, July 17, 2017 6:57 PM

What a great selection of geriatric growlers.  Making a decision wasn't easy...and I think it's safe to say that in its own way, each of them is a winner.

 

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Posted by RME on Monday, July 17, 2017 5:01 PM

tree68
Interesting that two submitters found the same locomotive...

And that it is so far removed from being 'decrepit' -- the paint is good, panels straight -- it just has goopy white deposits on it.   Much of the power I see on NS or BNSF in Memphis is technically in more-worn-down shape than this...

And I've finally found an image of an IC/ICG Paducah rebuild with the "frog eyes" headlights - or the remnants thereof...

Pictures of those are rare?  There were scads of them around on Mid-South in Shreveport in the mid-Nineties, the last place I could park and listen to the music of five idling 567s at the same time.  Many, perhaps all of these had those distinctive frogeye lights.  What makes pictures of them hard to find?

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, July 17, 2017 4:45 PM

tree68
Interesting that two submitters found the same locomotive... 

and the interveining years didn't enhance it's appearance one way or the other!

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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