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March 2020 Trains Needs a Better Photo Caption Writer!

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Posted by Miningman on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 8:23 AM

The Kalmbach staff must be having a good laugh about this considering even just the spelling that goes on in the Forums, let alone the rest of it. Glass houses, stones and black kettles come to mind. 

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Posted by BigJim on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 8:10 AM

I learned a long time ago that many times "Blurbers" and "Editors" don't know their butt from a hole in the ground!

.

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 8:00 AM

Ah, if Miss Rosemary Entringer had married and given birth to a daughter who had the same qualifications as her mother--and now had the same position as her mother had!

Johnny

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 6:05 AM

Back to "Zipper" in October 2017:  Peoria Rocket at Bureau pictures is clearly Westbound from position of shadows and location of the station, not eastbound according to the caption.  The caption editor probably thought eastbound because the westbound came through in the evening, but there was plenty of light early summer.

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Posted by MMLDelete on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 11:10 PM

Unfortunately, there are lots of English mistakes in Trains, also. I notice errors in grammar, usage and punctuation regularly. And it seems that at times editing results in confusing sentences, or articles with incomplete information.

I find the quality of writing and editing higher in Classic Trains than in Trains.

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March 2020 Trains Needs a Better Photo Caption Writer!
Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 9:35 PM

1. Pages  64 - 65 is a 2-page spread of a double-headed South African Railways train, with the trailing locomotive identified as "articulated 4-8-2+2-8-4 No. 4122".  If that wheel arrangement isn't enough of a clue, it takes only a glance at it to see that it's no 'ordinary' articulated - it's a Beyer-Garratt ("Garratt"), running backwards, no less.  

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garratt :

South Africa[edit]

The most powerful of all Garratts irrespective of gauge were the South African Railways' eight 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge GL class locomotives of 1929–30, which delivered 89,130 lbf (396.47 kN) of tractive effort. However, they were all out of service by the late 1960s.[18] There was also a proposal for a quadruplex super Garratt locomotive with a 2-6-6-2+2-6-6-2 wheel arrangement for South African Railways, but this was never built.[19]

 

2. On the preceding 2 pages - 62 - 63 - is another 2-page spread, this one of a " 'Little Joe' for Brazil", being electric No. 6452, built for the Soviet Union.  The massive 2-D+D-2 running gear and "Little Joe" reference is half of a hint; but nothing points out this is the same (or nearly so) class of locomotives that were used by the Milwaukee Road and the CSS&SB.  See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Joe_(electric_locomotive) 

 

3. On pages 50 - 51 is an remembrance titled "30-Year Delay" about a man's railroading experience.  At the end he had involvement with construction of a line relocation for the Missouri Pacific.  Photo 4 has the caption "Workers manually distribute tie fishplates by walking the route, here on a new bridge."  The problem is that "fishplate" - an archaic or misapplied term for a joint bar that connects 2 rails - is conflated with tie plate, which are the plates that go under a rail and on top of a tie.  From the photo they're clearly tie plates - look like double-shoulder ones, too.

- PDN. 

 

 

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)

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