2007 Wish List

Pic is still in the camera but I will post it when I get them downloaded. That GP39 is a strange looking beastie.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller
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Probably. Over in the litho dept where I used to work the newbies stood out because of the lack of any vicious scars. Those tin sheets coming out of the drying ovens were just as sharp as dull razors but much heavier. Aside from the constant heat that convinced me I wanted nothing to do with the job.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

No - old wagons - were is Enzo?

Reply to
Martin

Were near end of life in mid 1980s as more bigger air braked wagons came available. The HTVs and HTOs were reaplaced by the HEAs, or unfortunately lorries.

The late 70s early 80s were a fascinating period as hydraulics were phased out, HSTs brought in, and air braked wagons replaced older vacuum braked stuff. Also just before the big scrappings of older carriages, so there were interesting restaurant cars, a few prototypes still in use, and lots of different DMUs.

What is weird is now a lot of locos around then have been preserved longer than they were in service with BR, good example are the Deltics, 20 years BR service and preserved for nearly 25 years. What is funny is that they are still the most powerful Diesel in Britain, and that all 100mph certified Diesel locos are preserved (Deltics and class 50s) 47s are 95mph rated, HSTs are 125

Reply to
Martin

Allow me to enlighten you.

Robert Louis Stephenson chose the unusual gauge of four foot, one and a half inches for British railways. That was so a model bult to 4mm/ft scale would today be a perfect fit for American H0 gauge track which is built to a scale of 3.5mm/ft. Clever, wasn't he?

(kim)

Reply to
kim

Allow me to enlighten you now :)

Funny, he took it from the Roman chariot. Which had that exact same wheel gauge. Actually the distance did come about this way, easier to lay track on existing roadbed. (Roman) Of which they had a lot of...

And we (USA) took the English gauge, and before the Civil War the north standardized it. In the south, there were several different gauges, which hampered them, and frustrated the union. Hence one of the impacts of this, was at the end of the war the USA had one standard railway gauge.

And no... didn't even see any meteors. It's been in the low to mid 50's here, and it's December !!!!! The ground fog in the am, and eve's blots the sky out, and a couple of days of rain didn't help. But people here nearby did see them.

Reply to
AM

smart move.

Reply to
e

i knew that and the fact we mostly kept that standard in the north but not in the south. so whenever the north conquered and area, the first job was re-guaging to use the tracks. it was so vital train crews worked very close to the front lines and some go captured. but thanks for the nice factoid.

Reply to
e

hey, we both got it. cool.

Reply to
e

in between writing Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, no doubt?

I hope you mean George Stephenson, the celebrated inventor of the Geordie lamp. He is generally acknowledged as the father of railways. His son was Robert, also a noted railway engineer. Robert Louis Stevenson was a novelist.

That would be 4'8½" I presume, the "colliery gauge"

Well, for his first railways, the Hetton Colliery, Stockton & Darlington and Liverpool and Manchester railways. Chosen because it was the gauge of the colliery railways already in existence, worked by hand or pony power or sometimes by stationary steam engines and rope haulage. The rapid growth of railways in Britain and the world following the success of the Liverpool and Manchester used the same gauge because they were building on his success and for the most part got their first locomotives from Robert's Forth Street works in Newcastle.

He certainly was. Genius isn't too strong a word for George, the self-educated son of a colliery engine-keeper.

Reply to
Alan Dicey

The 3-link loose coupling also persisted for a long time, though it has vanished now. Railways were a victim of their early success, to the extent that vast fleets of unbraked, 3-link coupled wagons existed in private owner's hands and the companies, and even British Rail, were loth to turn away their business. Bad short-term thinking.

Reply to
Alan Dicey

No, it's a running gag. British modellers use 4mm/ft scale on 16.5mm gaiuge track which measures out at four foot, one and a half :o)

(kim)

Reply to
kim

wow!

Reply to
e

or a giant ape humping a football?

Reply to
e

was that to keep off the hobos or whatever you call the rail bums these days?the run around town here a lot, so in certain areas you hear about break ins and missing laundry.

Reply to
e

I thought there was something suspicious about that. I know that the gauge of British OO doesn't match the scale. That's why I could run an Airfix diesel on my HO layout. Wish I'd gotten a picture. OTOH I do have a pic of a Piko Czech electric sitting with my GG1. It's rememiscent of a VW parked near a '70s Caddy. ;)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

I believe in our case it was mandated by legislation. Most equipment changes are phased in over a set time so that after 39th of Quixtor,

3002 no wagons are running about with old equipment. I remember back in the late '60s when roofwalks started to be ripped off boxcars. They were supposed to all be gone by the early '70s but some were still seen in the late '70s. In those cases the railroads simply cut the ladders to make them inaccessible.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

Ahhh, Deltics. I am revealing my age when I say that I have seen both Deltics and Streaks on the ECML - and both were, in their own ways, very impressive.

There is something about a steam locomotive that seems alive, that is not present in a diesel or electric loco. It breathes, makes movements that are muscular, gives a feeling of stored power. For all that diesel an electric traction are more efficient, steam has soul.

Reply to
Alan Dicey

and with diesels, all the power it has is right there when you hit the gas. you get it all and no more. steam engines need to wind up, to build power and that gives them much more character. standing next to a fired up locomotive is indeed like being next to a giant, breathing animal. they hiss, shudder, steam comes out of strange places and you feel the power locked in the huffing beast. and theu're all different, even among the same models and series they all have individual quirks and mannerisms. last commercial steam train i was on was during 1956 in germany. it was huge, but i don't know what it was.

Reply to
e

i don't think so. a soup kitchen is next to the track yard, they get off for a meal and bed and then head down the pass or to switch out of victorville to go north or south. west is down the valley and towards la. very few head down...but some. that mexican murderer was spotted here twice before he got nailed.

Reply to
e

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