During the height of the Cold War in the 50s, I believe Trains ran an artical on the Russian Railways that mentioned the 4-14-4. I no longer have any older issues or the CD (yet). Who can help?
I thought it might have something to do with a woolen starfleet and maybe mister sbaaaaack. [:-^]
Sounds logical.
Those railings around the boiler catwalks are a typical Russian design feature, and a very wise one too. Just the thing to keep crewmen from falling off an iced up locomotive.
And Comrade Andreyev was lucky to die of old age, a lot of people who worked for Joe Stalin didn’t. Stalin didn’t 100% trust anyone who was better educated and more intelligent than he was so it didn’t take much to trigger that monster’s paranoia.
It was safer to work for Hitler, and that’s saying something!
I should have known why Andreev had no repercussions: he was only secondarily the nominal political head of the railway system in the years they began to race hysterically to get things done in the Stakhovanite propaganda films. His main job appears to be Stalin’s master murderer. Evidently no one successfully questioned this a la Robespierre until he was too old. I’m not sure I understand someone who sits in the Politburo while his wife is in the GuLag … but perhaps this wasn’t uncommon for the master murderers. Beria was at least a family man and supported democratic reforms at the end; that appears to be why they murdered him, too, in the end.
But to be honest, having a murderer’s name on the locomotive doesn’t spoil it, any more than, say, swastikas on an 05 class ruin it irretrievably. And that is from someone whose girlfriend’s family lost even more than miningman’s did, so it’s not meant as insensitivity.
“…someone who sits in the Politburo while his wife is in the Gulag…”
I suppose if you’re terrified of your boss you’ll do anything to stay alive, as reprehensible as it might be.
I’m sure the Russians are glad to be rid of Communism, check out the reaction of most of the audience during this 2013 concert in St. Petersburg during the playing of “God Save The Tsar.”
As I’ve recently quoted " Civilization is a thin crust on a volcano".- Havelock Ellis
Do you really think any society or political system anywhere, anytime, is incapable of slipping into a totalitarian state and very quickly.
It is terrifying. Not the right place for this kind of discussion but needs saying in this instance.
Now back to Railroads.
How about that Photo of the Day with the 3 trains racing side by each out of Boston’s North Station. Incredible photo. Boy we had it made it in 1947. Wonder how long that scene would go on for.
Stunning.
I want to know too. It seems to me that it was like a culture of steam locomotives from Russia / Soviet , I wonder why.
Because they could…
The taller stacks improved draught, higher pitching the boiler allowed deeper fireboxes and better ashpans. Everybody would do it if they could, but most loading gauges are more restrictive.
Peter
No wonder this monster engine was stored for 25 years at the Shcherbinka test facility; the whole project was leaded by political agenda. It was still an interesting machine though.
I really should pay more attention to the “Photo O’ The Day” instead of going right to the Forum, I’m probably missing a lot!
And Miningman’s right, that is one spectacular “race” photo. I wonder who “won?”
Now somewhere behind all that smoke is Boston’s Hotel Manger. Railfans in the know staying in Boston would get a room overlooking the North Station terminal. It was pretty sprawling in it’s day and probably one of the best shows in town.
Soviet N-1 moon rocket:
Why bring it up? 2 answers.
- The failure to design larger more powerful engines (like NASA’s F-1 and J-2) meant they needed a prohibitive number of smaller engines to perform the task. Which meant the LV was a plumber’s nightmare and all the launches looked like this:
- Kamarov was a victim of Stalin’s purges and almost died in the gulag, which likely would have meant there wouldn’t have been a controlling influence over the rocketry program to reign in Kruschev later on. If the N-1 HAD worked out, they would have used it to put orbital weapons platforms up there to “drop nuclear bombs on us like rocks from a highway overpass” (Right Stuff).
A 14 drivered loco reminds me of the N-1.
Homo sapiens never failed to create their own disaster…
I sadly concur.
Well, Penny and Jones, every machine has a master, regardless of the nonsense they peddle out there these days. That master is us.
But only the N1 after Korolev died. Think of him as the Col. Emerson of rockets – i suspect he could have gotten 30 engines to work. He was Bartini’s protege; to this day I wish I understood how that dialectical version of the design process worked so well for those two – like a communist version of the Steve Jobs RDF.
After him the only ‘solution’ was Glushko’s with Energiya (and there was nothing wrong with those things). They ran out of money instead, kinda like PRR with the T1 extended country-wide… but it would have been a fearful thing had they persisted.
There is likely a direct connection between the GuLag abuse and Korolev’s death, although you hear the story details a bit different (mask fit vs. tracheal tube). It was still karma for the USSR no matter how you consider it.
(Incidentally … could that be the same Korolev mentioned as one of the AA20 designers? It sure looks like him in the film Jones1945 provided!)
Trains ran an artical on Russian Railways in the early 60s which mentioned the 4-14-4 if memory serves me well. I no longer have my collection but I’m sure one of you can help out as to which issue it was.
My favorite Russian train set [;)]:
Anybody know anything about this thing:
I found this little piece but it only calls it a “modified ER22”: https://gizmodo.com/293010/the-soviet-union-vs-us-jet-train-race.
Check out this film. The AAR’s nuclear X-12 appears at about 3:12 and Soviet experiments after that at 4:48:
Ah, them Commies! It looks like they stole the idea of that railcar with jet engines on it from the New York Central!
Looky…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saG-QQSiG4I
Razor-sharp footage, but silent. There’s nothing wrong with your sound.
Way to knock it out of the park Penny! Luv those pics. Wow
In Russia, rocket running on rail track and railcar can fly. [D][swg] Thank you for sharing these pics, Penny Train. My favoite Russian locomotive is ЧС4Т (6500hp passenger engine).
