And thus is the engineers job to this day…One wrong move today and you have your train in 2 or more pieces…Nothing new here.
[/img][/img]Hi neighbor! Did not know anyone out here into trains! Just dusted off my sets and got them displayed… also made a ‘concept layout’… My Dad’s American flyer sets have been packed away since 96…nice to have them up!
Hi neighbor!
Did not think anyone out here was into trains… I’ve been a collector for years, and of course I live near the CSX railroad tracks near Highland Rec Park… What’s your fancy?
…What a great looking display…! Nice stuff. Much of it goes back into my era.
Thanks! Spent a few weekends putting her up, was sitting in boxes and that was sad to see… I built a working layout to get them running again… so they are ready to run when the kids come down!
These where my Dad’s, He passed away about 10yrs ago, but I remember running them when I was a kid back in the 70’s. My Mom packed them up and they just sat… He had allot of fun with them. So I am continuing the tradition! And the fun!
Sort of like, “CHUFF, CHUFF, Chuff, Chuff, chuff, chuff, (soft hiss),” followed by the sound of a couple of people trying to stuff too much coal into a firebox that really needed that rear-end exhaust steam for draft.
The Triplex had, IIRC, something like 80 square feet of grate area and no combustion chamber. The N&W built their Y-6bs with 108 square feet of grate area and a 74 inch combustion chamber - resulting in a locomotive that could run all day at 25-30 mph and reach about 50 mph before dynamic augment got bad enough to risk damaging the loco or the track.
In the Triplex there was absolute proof that starting tractive effort was NOT the main thing. What good does it do to start an enormous train if your loco can’t pull it more than a hundred yards at any speed faster than a slow jog without running out of steam?
Chuck
…All that’s interesting Chuck. One would think the designers goofed when the boiler couldn’t make enough steam to supply what they had created for running gear.
The “Drag Freight Era” would be about 1910-1930. As large engines came along like 2-10-2s, compound 2-6-6-2s and 2-8-8-2s, railroads realized it was more efficient in many ways to have one engine pulling 80 cars, rather than two medium engines each pulling 40 cars (either in two separate trains, or double-heading). However as noted earlier, these engines were powerful, thanks in part to the traction from the small drivers, but they were slow - I think a USRA 2-6-6-2 or 2-8-8-2 couldn’t get over 20 MPH. So you saw long trains trundling along at 12-15 MPH.
(BTW that’s part of the reason why when they set up workrules about how long a railroader’s “day” could be before getting a rest, they used IIRC 16 hours or 100 miles, since it would take you a long time to run a train 100 miles back then! [:)])
What ended the era was the “Superpower Era” of the late 1920s-40s, when railroads began getting large engines with four-wheel trailing trucks like 2-8-4s and 4-8-4s, and non-compound “simplified” articulateds like 2-8-8-4s or 4-6-6-4s which could haul massive freight trains AND run at or near passenger train speeds.
I recall reading in TRAINS about the eras of railroading being named as follows:
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Pioneering era
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Drag era
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USRA era
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Superpower era
I suppose there must also be a modern era. My question is: When was the so-called “Golden Age”?
How many cars, how many tons, from where to where?
My guess would be…it’s always the one just before the “modern age”-no matter what subject you’re talking about!
That sounds about right. It would then seem that the end of steam would be the logical beginning of the modern age, so we know when the golden age ended. When did it begin?
…How about the “roaring 20’s”…before the “crash”…Lot’s of traveling with the economy roaring ahead, and hundreds of passenger trains to go places with.
The automobile in it’s infancy…Highways still dirt trails for the most part…Aviation for the most part a thing in the future. If you’re going places, you’re going by train.
48" diameter pistons are huge - no doubt about that! But the largest reciprocating steam engine ever fashioned by the hand of man powered the R.M.S. Titanic. Hers were 84" in diameter!
so your near Clyde im guessing…nice looking collection…my fancy would be steam locomotion…followed by steam trains…grew up 1/4 mile south of Ann Pere…still live about 4 miles from Ann Pere…ran CSX trains past your house late 90’s as a conductor
well its still perspective…folks in the 1940’s and 50’s prolly thought the golden age was the 1880’s…and of course what specifics?..golden age of RR constrution was 1870-1900…golden age of steam would be steam’s modern era with superpower…golden age of passenger service?..heavyweight pullmans or the 1800’s when the train was THE only way to travel…IMHO railroadings Golden Age was the 1940’s when the full might of this country rode the rails…men and material to war…over worked men and equipment giving their collective all for the good of all
Actually I live off of Milford road where the tracks parrellel lower Petibone lake. Love to hear that horn blast in the morning, still run to the window to see what’s rollin’ by (these days with the lease aggreements you don’t know what your going to see… saw an SD80MAC with BNSF orange, green colors roll by with a black and green BN unit SD60? really strange).
I grew up near Plymouth Yard, so I love the sound of trains in the morning.
Being a conductor on the route from Milford to Howell you probably know about the two girls hit in '97 off of Ried road…really sad, still cannot believe they did not stop and look before crossing, the lack of crossing gates, steep down grade, and being close to a high school was just a recipe for disaster. Still miss that crossing best for getting some good pictures.