Author Topic: Back when America BUILT stuff (Read 58291 times)

WeTheArmed.com

THE NORSEMAN · « **Reply #51 on:** January 27, 2015, 02:08:54 am »

My father and I spent the day with that Big Boy in Salt Lake City at the train museum at the Ogden Station. That is one BBIIGG HHOOSS piece of equipment.

The Browning Firearm museum being right there was an added bonus as well.

aikorob · « **Reply #52 on:** January 27, 2015, 07:02:20 am »

Washington Navy Yard

aikorob · « **Reply #53 on:** June 17, 2015, 06:41:23 pm »

Quote from: aikorob on April 28, 2014, 12:55:27 pm

and something for those on the east coast:
http://fireup611.org/?page_id=20

now pulling excursions through VA

coelacanth · « **Reply #54 on:** June 17, 2015, 09:40:33 pm »

Awesome.

If I might tie in to another active thread - I don't know what a dinosaur hunt would actually look like but traveling through the hunting grounds on that behemoth and retiring to the club car for an adult beverage at the end of the day might lend an air of civilization to the whole affair. Having a flat bed car behind the tender with turret mounted, heavy weapons should suffice to keep the train running on time.

Raptor · « **Reply #55 on:** June 17, 2015, 11:19:33 pm »

Awesome indeed.

When I was a kid, I had an old VHS tape of a NatGeo program on railroads and railfans from around the world. 611 featured prominently in the introductory segment. I wanted more than anything to ride behind her, and was pretty devastated when I found out she'd been retired and would never run again.

My inner seven year old is now jumping for joy. I think I've just added another item to my bucket list.

aikorob · « **Reply #56 on:** June 18, 2015, 04:39:35 am »

Quote from: coelacanth on June 17, 2015, 09:40:33 pm

Awesome. If I might tie in to another active thread - I don't know what a dinosaur hunt would actually look like but traveling through the hunting grounds on that behemoth and retiring to the club car for an adult beverage and a large filet of the beast killed that dayat the end of the day might lend an air of civilization to the whole affair. Having a flat bed car behind the tender with turret mounted, heavy weapons should suffice to keep the train running on time.

that would be epic

JackCrow · « **Reply #57 on:** June 18, 2015, 03:47:27 pm »

Fantastic!
I love trains, especially the old streamliners.

Raptor · « **Reply #58 on:** April 28, 2019, 07:17:37 pm »

Ack! Zombie thread! Zombie thread! Quick, someone shoot it in the face!

Figured this was appropriate, especially since earlier in the thread there was talk about Union Pacific re-acquiring one of the old 4-8-8-4 Big Boy steam locomotives with the intent to restore it. Well, it took a few years, but...

...4014 is alive! There's fire in her firebox, pressure in her boiler, and her whistle is a'blowin' (watch until the end). I think everyone who was in or near Cheyenne, WY yesterday knows that Big Boy lives again.

coelacanth · « **Reply #59 on:** April 28, 2019, 07:56:13 pm »

Sweet.

Plebian · « **Reply #60 on:** April 28, 2019, 08:14:01 pm »

I assume there has been work on a nuclear reactor to power train engines at some point? Surely I am not the only fellow to immediately think such a thing.

coelacanth · « **Reply #61 on:** April 28, 2019, 08:15:43 pm »

As long as you're boiling water for the turbines you might as well shunt a little to the whistle - no?

Maybe a little brazier of anthracite coal burning too - just for ambience.

LowKey · « **Reply #62 on:** April 28, 2019, 08:25:38 pm »

Quote from: coelacanth on April 28, 2013, 03:33:59 pm

They are indeed a mechanical symphony. A fitting tribute to an earlier, and some might argue, more civilized age.

In some ways they do resemble light sabers, don't they?

Raptor · « **Reply #63 on:** April 28, 2019, 09:10:19 pm »

Quote from: Plebian on April 28, 2019, 08:14:01 pm

I assume there has been work on a nuclear reactor to power train engines at some point? Surely I am not the only fellow to immediately think such a thing.

I believe that there was some experimentation with the idea back in the 50s. Heck, they put a reactor in a B-36 Peacemaker back in the day, so why not a locomotive?

US Railroads did try turbine-powered locomotives, primarily gas-electric but there was at least one coal-burning in the late 50s through the early 70s, mainly with the Union Pacific (who, somewhat ironically given what revitalized this thread, intended to use them to replace the Big Boys). The later gas-electric models were somewhat successful, but the idea never really panned out for a variety of reasons, primarily that turbines are inefficient at high rotational speed (meaning they're best suiting for long-distance high-speed work, and struggled to get the trains up to speed) and the bunker oil used as fuel caused the turbine blades to corrode over time. The corrosion problem was even worse in the coal-fired prototype, and soot and coal particles damaged the blades.

coelacanth · « **Reply #64 on:** April 28, 2019, 09:25:52 pm »

Yup. Coal fired turbines seem to have been an anachronism with the exception of a few small scale projects. My computer seems to be running fine but the coal is actually a micronized wood charcoal rather than actual bituminous or anthracite coal.

aikorob · « **Reply #65 on:** May 01, 2019, 05:57:35 am »

this coming week is the celebration of 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad
https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htm
anybody between Cheyenne, WY & Ogdon, UT should get a glimpse of 4014
take your kids and grandkids

coelacanth · « **Reply #66 on:** May 01, 2019, 03:35:20 pm »

Mikee5star · « **Reply #67 on:** May 01, 2019, 10:48:46 pm »

Quote from: aikorob on May 01, 2019, 05:57:35 am

this coming week is the celebration of 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad
https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htm
anybody between Cheyenne, WY & Ogdon, UT should get a glimpse of 4014
take your kids and grandkids

If you are with in a few hundred miles and could make it to one of the events/stops it would be grand.

That said I love steam. I WILL build myself a steam powered car someday. Most likely when I get the shop built, and retire, or get some free time. So this project is scheduled for start 5-1-2039.

Raptor · « **Reply #68 on:** May 04, 2019, 05:26:22 pm »

He's moving!

Plebian · « **Reply #69 on:** May 04, 2019, 06:33:08 pm »

Why is a coal-fired steam engine cooler than other means of transportation?

It is somehow more engaging in some odd way. Is it more visceral with open fire and steam? Maybe it ignites a more primal center of a human?

There is something about steel, fire, and steam that is intriguing in a way I cannot explain.

Raptor · « **Reply #70 on:** May 04, 2019, 10:15:26 pm »

Quote from: Plebian on May 04, 2019, 06:33:08 pm

Why is a coal-fired steam engine cooler than other means of transportation?

It is somehow more engaging in some odd way. Is it more visceral with open fire and steam? Maybe it ignites a more primal center of a human?

There is something about steel, fire, and steam that is intriguing in a way I cannot explain.

I believe it was Doyle McCormack (chief engineer and preservationist of Southern Pacific 4449; it was a line in a documentary I have on the locomotive, but it was spoken in voiceover and uncredited) who said that the steam locomotive is as close to man has ever come to creating life. They breathe, they have a heartbeat, when you fire them up and start building pressure in the boiler, you can feel them turn from a cold piece of iron and steel to a living, breathing creature.

I don't know what it is exactly, but I do agree with you. There's something about steam locomotives that's just, for lack of a better word, addictive. Whenever I visit the Strasburg Rail Road, I half-jokingly say that I'm going to "get my fix." Something about that smell of coal smoke, valve oil, and steam... it just does something to me. Makes me feel alive.

aikorob · « **Reply #71 on:** May 21, 2019, 04:54:34 pm »

whilst meandering through the interwebs, I came across these photos
first is changing wheels on a locomotive
the second is from the Allis-Chalmers factory, and shows part of the turbine piping for one of the Niagra Falls power plants

coelacanth · « **Reply #72 on:** May 22, 2019, 02:29:08 am »

aikorob · « **Reply #73 on:** June 23, 2019, 05:55:28 am »

Bethlehem Steel artillery

coelacanth · « **Reply #74 on:** June 23, 2019, 04:56:49 pm »

Awesome. OSHA would excrete a cream filled desert cake if they saw something like that today.