Polar Express Inaccuracies Explained.

Salvé Ken Rice skrev i diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:eZopd.4582$Rs2.2256@trnddc03... Dear Ken, What sort of valve gear did the loco use? It sounds a bit dodgy considering the film version can only have valve gear on one side :) haev they patentd a one sided valve gear too? Beowulf

[snip]
Yes, as a matter of fact...but MTH beat UP and CSX to that marvel of engineering. :^)

This sounds extremely suspicious - like urban lore.

It's not urban lore until it appears on

"Randy Sweeney"
Bunk. Since when does anyone still own the patents to Stephenson, Baker, Walschaert et al valve gear?
Some people will believe anything.
-- Cheers Roger T.
Home of the Great Eastern Railway (Site now back up and working)

Since when did UP or the Chessie Still eXperimenting take patent on Lima's Berkshire. Sounds like a bunch of greedy bastards.

or urbanlegends.com Jay
website URL: members.aol.com/orphantrainlocos/index.html All the world's a stage - and everybody's a critic.

or urbanlegends.com Jay website URL: Orphan trains, eh? A great idea, Jay. Best wishes for every success!
Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: 's Books and Toy Trains: to 1,000 sites:

| > exorbitant fees. Additionally, UP and CSX claim complete ownership of all | > works | > incorporating their mechanical designs. | | This sounds extremely suspicious - like urban lore.
Reads like someone is yanking some legs on this group! Satire guys, satire.
CTucker NY

....and very successfully, I would say ;-).

It all got started because _I_ felt like building a Baldwin DT6-6-20 after seeing it at Illinois Railway Museum. I took some key measurements during the winter and made some drawings. I then shelved those drawings for about 10 years. I dug them out summer before last and had a go at it. I then talked to a guy at the LHS, who is real Alcohaulic, who said "Build me one...no, two!". I'm in the process. Now, that left with two hoodless shells, so Athearn kindly "donated" a GP7 hood for my "Katy" Baldwins, so almost nothing went to waste on those 2 projects.
The RS1325 got started when I saw the article in the July 2000 (?) issue of Trains. I thought it was kind of cute, and being a two-off, I figured I could model the entire production run.
Now I'm into the North Shore Line (CNS&M), and being a true wirehead, I have to have the freight locomotives. By all accounts, the old brass models run for crap, so I'm going to have a try at building my own gearbox based on Athearn parts. This can hopefully let me get the prototypical 6'6" wheelbase instead of 7' that is typical of the SPUD and other underfloor motors. Another method is to use an N scale EMD SD truck with the center wheels removed. That ends up almost exactly 6'6". The problem is then to get it out to 16mm gauge. Mike Bauers of Cream City Traction has been investigating that particular problem. No word yet on his success or failure.
As I plan to be heading back to college soon (ITT Tech), time will be at an absolute premium.
Jay
website URL: members.aol.com/orphantrainlocos/index.html All the world's a stage - and everybody's a critic.

I would be interested in Pennsy other than GG1. I could have some production facilities out here....
Jim Stewart

Care to explain this in light of the fact that Pere Marquette 1225 was the model for the loco in the movie? Is PM in any way connected with UP or CSX? Hm?

PM became part of the C&O, which is now CSX. CSX claims to own all prior heralds.
Charles

I can only postulate that many peoples' sense of the absurd has been so totally ravaged by four years, and four to come, of a financially profligate "conservative" regime, that they can't realize when their legs are being pulled.
Luckily American folk wisdom only specifies what to do with people who can't take a joke and not those who don't get one.

It sounds a little far-fetched that UP/CSX would be claiming patent rights on something as common as the Walshaert valve mechanism. If they had patents on some of the parts, they have long expired. It's like claiming royalties on the design of a coal scoop.
Ian Mathers Yellowknife

Yes. C&O (now part of CSX) owned the PM when I worked for the B&O (also owned by C&O) in the mid-60s. I don't know when it was bought.

Well, PM was part of the C&O, which merged into CSX, so there is a relationship.
Still, this thread seems like hokum. There's little or nothing on PM 1225 that ever was a C&O patent feature. Most is stock Lima, or generic steam loco practice, and the patents for which have LONG since run out (most probably 50 years or more ago).
Dan Mitchell ============

Heralds are a form of trademark, and are a totally different issue than gnereic steam loco design features.
Dan Mitchell ============