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John R Crosby, author, Penn Central engineer

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, September 2, 2020 1:50 PM

mvlandsw

Locomotives can produce some pretty high speed recorder readings when the wheel slip system does not work properly.

Been there...

When you look up at the speedometer and it says 70, even though it read 25 a couple of seconds ago...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by mvlandsw on Wednesday, September 2, 2020 12:52 PM

Locomotives can produce some pretty high speed recorder readings when the wheel slip system does not work properly.

Mark Vinski

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Posted by CMStPnP on Monday, August 31, 2020 4:45 PM

Overmod
If Mr. Coffee can furnish an Iced Tea Maker

I bought one of those they are awesome!!!

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, August 31, 2020 4:36 PM

Overmod
 
tree68
I believe they are teapots

 

If Mr. Coffee can furnish an Iced Tea Maker, surely Mr. Fusion can design a 'cold' fusion tea machine replacement ...

Thumbs Up

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, August 31, 2020 4:01 PM

tree68
I believe they are teapots

If Mr. Coffee can furnish an Iced Tea Maker, surely Mr. Fusion can design a 'cold' fusion tea machine replacement ...

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, August 31, 2020 3:48 PM

Overmod
Don't Canadian units already have coffeepots...

I believe they are teapots...  Microwaves and mini-fridges, too.  Smile, Wink & Grin

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Overmod on Monday, August 31, 2020 3:41 PM

CSSHEGEWISCH
You made a time machine out of a Delorean??

Well, no, but if you can make one out of a steam locomotive, why not a dash-9 or rebuilt SD70 with appropriate electronics?  

Don't Canadian units already have coffeepots that could be switched out for Mr. Fusion easily when the technology is allowed out?

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, August 31, 2020 11:50 AM

Murphy Siding
 
jeffhergert

I've seen a locomotive's speedometer (digital dial) hit 173mph many times.  It's when testing the Automatic Train Control on engines with a certain type of computer screen.  The ATC test drives the speedometer to certain speeds when performing the test.  It's first supposed go to 73 mph, the high speed setting, but often for a second will register 173 mph first.

On the pre-intergrated EMS*/PTC if the EMS was already engaged, the speed test drove the EMS and it's speedometer's accelerometer nuts when seeing the speed going from 0 to 73 (or 173). 

Jeff

*EMS = Energy Management System  

All I know is, "when that thing hits 88 m.p.h., you're going to see some serious sh.....shtuff".Whistling

Only if you can bring all those giggawatts of power to bear in the proper time frame.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, August 31, 2020 10:11 AM

You made a time machine out of a Delorean??

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, August 30, 2020 10:10 PM

jeffhergert

I've seen a locomotive's speedometer (digital dial) hit 173mph many times.  It's when testing the Automatic Train Control on engines with a certain type of computer screen.  The ATC test drives the speedometer to certain speeds when performing the test.  It's first supposed go to 73 mph, the high speed setting, but often for a second will register 173 mph first.

On the pre-intergrated EMS*/PTC if the EMS was already engaged, the speed test drove the EMS and it's speedometer's accelerometer nuts when seeing the speed going from 0 to 73 (or 173). 

Jeff

*EMS = Energy Management System 

 

All I know is, "when that thing hits 88 m.p.h., you're going to see some serious sh.....shtuff".Whistling

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by jeffhergert on Sunday, August 30, 2020 8:53 PM

I've seen a locomotive's speedometer (digital dial) hit 173mph many times.  It's when testing the Automatic Train Control on engines with a certain type of computer screen.  The ATC test drives the speedometer to certain speeds when performing the test.  It's first supposed go to 73 mph, the high speed setting, but often for a second will register 173 mph first.

On the pre-intergrated EMS*/PTC if the EMS was already engaged, the speed test drove the EMS and it's speedometer's accelerometer nuts when seeing the speed going from 0 to 73 (or 173). 

Jeff

*EMS = Energy Management System 

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, August 30, 2020 8:44 PM

As long as we're telling stories - this was related to me by the medic on the call...

Ambulance enroute to the hospital - critical patient.  Driver was pouring the gas to it (big gas motor, before Diesels became common).

Medic noticed they were clipping along pretty good, so he called out to the driver "how fast are we going?"  

The reply:  "MPH."

Yep - the needle had gone all the way around the 120 MPH dial and was pointing at the MPH at the bottom of the display...

The medic advised the driver he could slow down substantially.

I spent my formative years in MI, but left for USAF after high school, so never really got a chance to ram the roads.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by SD60MAC9500 on Sunday, August 30, 2020 2:28 PM
 

Overmod

The issue was like you saying you pushed a GP38 until you saw the needle hovering near 100mph.  

The speedometers on PRR T1s only go to 100.  Even the S1's only went to 110.  I won't know until the one for 5550 is replicated exactly how far the needle on a Jones-Motrola goes before it 'pegs' internally but I suspect not that far.

Meanwhile of course car speedometers commonly went to 120 and that would be a familiar number to drivers...

 

145 in a 96 Mustang GT 4.6L Only mod was flowmaster exhaust. This was done on marvelous St Clair Hwy. I know Backshop lives here in Michigan. So if he hasn't been down St Clair Hwy. at that speed. You'll know I wasn't in my right mind.. Not sure if I am now..

 
 
 
Rahhhhhhhhh!!!!
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Posted by Juniata Man on Sunday, August 30, 2020 8:51 AM

I remember reading a comment from a Georgia DOT official about 17 years ago regarding how they determined speed limits on the I285 Perimeter around Atlanta.  

His statement - perhaps liberally laced with sarcasm - was that GDOT set the speed limit at 55 in hopes the people who were going 80 would move to the right to allow those going 90 to pass.

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Posted by ruderunner on Sunday, August 30, 2020 6:27 AM

About 20 years ago I took my 69 Roadrunner for a late night blast on I 90. Car is equipped with a 150mph speedometer and I used most of it. 

The aero lift got pretty noticeable at 130.

Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, August 29, 2020 10:44 PM

Backshop
Once was enough.

I'm sure a good many of us - especially those "of an age," have touched the century mark at least once, if for no other reason than to say we did...

Can't forget the story of a NY Central engineer, taking over a train at Harmon, being advised "do not arrive at Albany before..."

LarryWhistling
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There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by 7fdl on Saturday, August 29, 2020 10:02 PM

matthewsaggie

Please share your original article with us.

 

send me a message (conversation), i will share a link where i found it on the web.

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Posted by Backshop on Saturday, August 29, 2020 9:10 PM

1983--I had a brand new Kawasaki GPZ750.  I rode it from Detroit to Pensacola Beach in March to visit my brother.  He lived the last street before Gulf Islands NS started on Santa Rosa Island.  My bike had an 85mph speedometer but I knew what each 1000 of RPM in top gear was worth.  The Seashore road was smooth asphalt without any intersecting roads.  I nailed it and got up to 9600rpm in top gear.  When I got back to the house and pulled out the calculator and found out I'd hit 128mph.  Once was enough.

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Posted by NKP guy on Saturday, August 29, 2020 7:34 PM

   On our way to the beach in 1966 my buddy's F-85 hit 120mph on I-271 and was still accelerating when he regained his senses and slowed back down to the speed limit.

   By 1996 he was running a rubber extrusion & molding company.  He told me, "If I had known then what I know now about rubber I would never have gone that fast."

   Here endeth the lesson.

   

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, August 29, 2020 5:24 PM

Overmod
You just knew the wrong people ... or they had the wrong cars. 

You had me on the floor, man!  'Scuse me while I pick myself up!

You want to have some fun?  Google "The Route 80 Rant Page" for some vicarious adventures on that major artery.  You'll love it, trust me!  

And no doubt your wifes Accent performs like it does, Accents are very  good cars indeed.  I should have qualified my statement, the Accent I've got will go past 80 MPH easily enough, I just don't like  to push it past 75.  I bought it for basic transportation, not a race car.  And the gas milage is pretty good too. 

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, August 29, 2020 5:02 PM

Backshop
Yes, but he had decades of real world experience and all of us mere mortals make occasional errors.

Hence my problem.  With people of that caliber you bend over backward to find the exception that could justify what they said.  It was the same with Bill Withuhn when he said early in his career that PRR T1s went over 125mph, and by extension with Alfred Bruce when he hinted in print that Milwaukee As went faster -- perhaps quite a bit faster -- than 128mph.

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, August 29, 2020 4:54 PM

Flintlock76
Yeah, I remember that myself, but honestly I don't ever remembering anyone I knew pushing their car that fast.

You just knew the wrong people ... or they had the wrong cars. Wink

I still remember driving on the Palisades Interstate Parkway (top down, beautiful day) with my best friend in high school, back in the upright, 10-and-2, watch-your-mirrors-and-obey all speed limits days  -- the stuff that most new drivers swear they'll always observe.  This was at the then limit of 50mph.  I mentioned to him in passing that my father had once said he'd gotten the Thunderbird over 120mph, but of course it was an old car now ... he said something to the effect that 'we could always try to see how fast it would go' -- and so I gently pressed on the accelerator.  Car went smoothly up to 75 - then 80 - then 90 - then 115 - then up over 120, and I lifted my foot off the accelerator and we went back down to 50 and motored on...

Unless it was on Route 80 in New Jersey on a Saturday night, but that's another story.

A girlfriend's father had an AMX, which we borrowed one evening.  I think we made it to the Water Gap and back in something like an hour. But that is not where the fast driving ever was -- in those halcyon days too soon for the fascist enforcement of the double nickel, just as Rt. 22 in Union was the true haunt of the Jersey Driver, the place of high speed was the Turnpike.  Everyone everywhere went 100mph or better, even the police working traffic in those King Kong 460 Police cruisers probably burning green gas then.  I knew my childhood was over when I was doing what I thought was a safe 105 in the middle lane and was PASSED by a whole family in a '68 Chevy station wagon... there were some giants in the earth in those days.  

Of course it isn't safe.  One of the very significant results of the Firestone 721 case was that the claim 'it had to be safe because otherwise my speedometer wouldn't read that high' was that automakers agreed and dropped it.  First the '76 Eldorado went to 100mph, then subsequent cars to 85.  And it worked!  We all got to appreciate that 65mph as on New Haven in the '40s was Really Moving, and 80 statutory-reckless-driving fast... and I had whole generations of cars that were never driven fast enough to reach their highest mileage in overdrive.  Still haven't entirely unlearned that now... but have happily nearly forgotten the days when the curve from west to south on the north loop of I240 in Memphis was a parking lot of marked and unmarked cars running relays of interdiction, just as I have nearly forgotten getting from my driveway in Englewood to being parked in Lot 22 in Princeton in 43 minutes. 

I wouldn't try it with the Hyundai Accent I'm driving now!  I don't even like pushing it past 75!

We have a 2016 Accent for my wife's business and it will happily go well over 100mph, so perhaps some Accents were built better than others.  Amazingly it was perfectly stable at that speed, even changing lanes in traffic.  It is a small car, but not a cheap one.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, August 29, 2020 3:39 PM

Backshop
Those were some of my favorite stories and I've never understood why Classic Trains has never reprinted them in one of their special issues.

Maybe they need a reminder of their existance?  There's a lot of stuff in the Kalmbach library, and with no one on staff today (probably) who remembers them from the first go 'round...

Send an e-mail to Bob McGonigal, the "CT" editor bringing it to his attention.  He does read his e-mails and does respond to the thoughtful ones, trust me.

editor@classictrainsmag.com  

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Posted by Backshop on Saturday, August 29, 2020 3:14 PM

jeffhergert

I believe the original was called "Extra Board Diaries."  The other something like the "Day in the life of a Road Foreman."  There was also a fictional story, probably using experiences from early in his career, about firing the second engine on a double headed passenger train.

I have the magazines, but there all boxed and in storage for a month or two due to moving.

Jeff

Those were some of my favorite stories and I've never understood why Classic Trains has never reprinted them in one of their special issues.

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Posted by Backshop on Saturday, August 29, 2020 3:13 PM

Overmod

I was not quite as enamored of Mr. Crosby after he attempted to say that PRR T1s had 120mph speedometers as a key detail in one of his stories ...

 

Yes, but he had decades of real world experience and all of us mere mortals make occasional errors.

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Posted by zugmann on Saturday, August 29, 2020 2:26 PM

Overmod
The issue was like you saying you pushed a GP38 until you saw the needle hovering near 100mph.  

I don't even understand the issues you are having. 

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 jeffhergert on Saturday, August 29, 2020 1:44 PM

I believe the original was called "Extra Board Diaries."  The other something like the "Day in the life of a Road Foreman."  There was also a fictional story, probably using experiences from early in his career, about firing the second engine on a double headed passenger train.

I have the magazines, but there all boxed and in storage for a month or two due to moving.

Jeff

matthewsaggie

Please share your original article with us.

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, August 29, 2020 1:28 PM

Overmod
Meanwhile of course car speedometers commonly went to 120 and that would be a familiar number to drivers...

Yeah, I remember that myself, but honestly I don't ever remembering anyone I knew pushing their car that fast.

Unless it was on Route 80 in New Jersey on a Saturday night, but that's another story.  Whistling

I wouldn't try it with the Hyundai Accent I'm driving now!  I don't even like pushing it past 75!  

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, August 29, 2020 1:22 PM

The issue was like you saying you pushed a GP38 until you saw the needle hovering near 100mph.  

The speedometers on PRR T1s only go to 100.  Even the S1's only went to 110.  I won't know until the one for 5550 is replicated exactly how far the needle on a Jones-Motrola goes before it 'pegs' internally but I suspect not that far.

Meanwhile of course car speedometers commonly went to 120 and that would be a familiar number to drivers...

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