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US railroad electrification

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Posted by Backshop on Monday, January 8, 2024 8:29 PM

I understand...when I remember to.  Hitting the big 65 this year.

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Monday, January 8, 2024 11:40 PM

Whippersnapper!!!!

I'm turning 70 this year.

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 7:05 AM

Erik_Mag

Whippersnapper!!!!

I'm turning 70 this year.

Kids...  73

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Paul of Covington on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 5:25 PM

   Bunch of whippersnappers!    83.

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by Backshop on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 5:41 PM

Last one to leave the forum, please turn off the lights...

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 3:41 AM

Two weeks + one day to go to 92nd.

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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 1:20 PM

I'm old enough to remember when the History Channel actually had history on it. Using the old rule of thumb, I was 420 (dog) years old last April. Be adding another 7 this year.

Jeff

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Posted by Backshop on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 1:28 PM

jeffhergert

I'm old enough to remember when the History Channel actually had history on it. 

Their multi-part History of Scotland that they ran in the 2001-2002 timeframe led me to meeting my wife.

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Posted by Falcon48 on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 1:35 PM

Backshop

I understand...when I remember to.  Hitting the big 65 this year.

 

  75 last October.  My doctor says I'm starting to fossilize (my wife says that started a long time ago).

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Posted by diningcar on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 1:42 PM

ninety-two on Feb,8

Married seventy years on June 2024

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 1:51 PM

I feel like a kid.  I'm 71 and will be married 37 years in July.

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 charlie hebdo on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 2:12 PM

77, like Red Grange's number.

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 6:54 PM

charlie hebdo
77, like Red Grange's number.

I still think the Rio Grande 'Galloping Goose' got its name from Red Grange and the Packard hood ornament.

Yeah, I know it was Pierce-Arrow.  Who could tell those repurposed parts of luxury cars apart in the Depression?

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Posted by MidlandMike on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 7:54 PM

jeffhergert
I'm old enough to remember when the History Channel actually had history on it.

What is shown on the History Channel, were current events when I was young.

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Thursday, January 11, 2024 12:28 PM

Overmod

 

 
charlie hebdo
77, like Red Grange's number.

 

I still think the Rio Grande 'Galloping Goose' got its name from Red Grange and the Packard hood ornament.

 

Yeah, I know it was Pierce-Arrow.  Who could tell those repurposed parts of luxury cars apart in the Depression?

 

The nickname, "Galloping Ghost" was coined for Red Grange in the early 1920s by sportswriter Warren Brown, replacing the earlier "Wheaton Iceman" (also my hometown).

The term "Galloping Geese" for RGS motorcars started in the 1930s.

 

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Posted by zugmann on Thursday, January 11, 2024 12:37 PM

MidlandMike
What is shown on the History Channel, were current events when I was young.

Aliens?

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 Overmod on Friday, January 12, 2024 11:22 AM

What I said.

"Galloping Ghost" was a known sobriquet when RGS started building.

And it would be logical to pun on 'Galloping Ghost' by calling something with a Packard Goose on its radiator a 'Galloping Goose' -- with the logical sarcasm about ungainly appearance and strange ride quality that would go with it.

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Posted by mudchicken on Friday, January 12, 2024 12:53 PM

(PackardBaker redux)

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by charlie hebdo on Saturday, January 13, 2024 8:09 PM

Since the "Geese" were made from repurposed Buick and later Pierce carbodies, why was a Packard hood ornament (actually a swan or cormorant) used?

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, January 13, 2024 8:49 PM

charlie hebdo

Since the "Geese" were made from repurposed Buick and later Pierce carbodies, why was a Packard hood ornament (actually a swan or cormorant) used?

We have a Mack Bulldog on the hood of our International tanker...

Our late "engineer foreman" (head mechanic) worked for Mack...  I forget whether it's dressed up in a firefighter's outfit, or Superman...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Patowmack-OhioSummiter on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 11:59 AM

Yeah my opinion on the issue is as long as the railroads are privately owned its probably not going to happen. Short term costs of electrifying and building substations for that electrification are too much for the class 1s to even consider doing it. Either its going to be the government paying for the companies doing it or a nationalized not for profit company doing it like conrail but on a national level. Of course nationalization is a whole different issue and i reckon everybody here knows how unlikely that is considering the lack of political will and itd be an existential fight for all the companies. 

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Posted by samfp1943 on Thursday, February 8, 2024 9:42 PM

Electrification? Currently, it would need to be using Chinese batteries, or a very long extension cord.....While we wait for the Federal EPA to ban combustion, or burning of anything...

 

 


 

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Posted by alphas on Thursday, February 8, 2024 11:00 PM

I can't imagine any RR electrification if it can only be powered by solar or wind in future years.

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Posted by zugmann on Friday, February 9, 2024 11:57 AM

alphas

I can't imagine any RR electrification if it can only be powered by solar or wind in future years.

 

May be our only chance of holding a daylight job. 

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 tree68 on Friday, February 9, 2024 1:14 PM

alphas

I can't imagine any RR electrification if it can only be powered by solar or wind in future years.

Such an installation would undoubtedly include some form of surge power - batteries are currently used at many solar installations.  Local fire departments spent a week dealing with a fire at just such a battery farm recently.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Saturday, February 10, 2024 10:03 AM

Batteries for surge power or emergencies are an old idea.  Many early steam railroad and street railway electrifications which relied on their own power plant for electricity had large storage batteries for emergencies and to balance the load.

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 Overmod on Saturday, February 10, 2024 10:40 AM

Part of any plan to electrify with predominantly 'green' energy will always involve relatively vast energy storage.  Back in the '90s much of that was supposed to be implemented with superconducting magnetic storage, and much of the 'enabling' technology will have been costed down considerably by modern improvements in tech and materials science.  One of the current things being discussed is widespread reworking of retired BEV battery cells into the equivalent of very large, somewhat defective Tesla PowerWalls with inverters synced off the 'grid' powerline frequency.  The various methods developed for wayside storage, including those discussed for the dual-mode lite proposal (Volume 4) remain useful in reducing the absolute amount of new generation capacity needed for electrification sections, although of course most of those technologies have shorter storage times than needed to accommodate periods of darkness, still air, or other causes of low renewable generation.

Incidentally, railroads ran signals for decades on battery power only until the advent of the dynamo, with it being a normal operating procedure for trackworkers to check, pull, and arrange to recharge the batteries as needed.

The early versions of electric locomotive used chemical batteries (see Dr. Pope's locomotive, and see if you can figure out why no one adopted it...)

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Saturday, February 10, 2024 1:10 PM

A number of electrifications used renewable solar energy in the form of fallling water, with dams being the method for storing the potential energy.

Using combined cycl gas turbines for generating electricity, one could argue that would be "greener" (lower pm2.5, lower CO2, and probably lower NOx), than using diesel engines.

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Posted by Backshop on Saturday, February 10, 2024 1:24 PM

Erik_Mag

A number of electrifications used renewable solar energy in the form of fallling water, with dams being the method for storing the potential energy. 

How is hydro considered solar energy?

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Posted by jeffhergert on Saturday, February 10, 2024 3:25 PM

Backshop

 

 
Erik_Mag

A number of electrifications used renewable solar energy in the form of fallling water, with dams being the method for storing the potential energy. 

 

 

How is hydro considered solar energy?

 

 

My father would use the term, "liquid sunshine" to describe rainy days.

Jeff 

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