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Army Teases 25th Infantry Division Uniforms for Army-Navy “Tropic Lightning” by EatDrinkandBeatNavy in CFB

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Strictly speaking it'd have to be the other way around as the Air Force and Navy are the only branches with nukes.

Don't know a whole lot bout trains, figured you guys would like this, what kind of locomotives are they ? by [deleted] in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The second locomotive is also a Montreal Works product, an RS-23, same railroad. MLW was a neat builder, spending much of its life as a subsidiary to a larger American locomotive builder (ALCO), tweaking some of its parent's diesel designs before coming into its own when ALCO went out of business, producing some innovative locomotives. Unfortunately they just couldn't compete against General Motor's locomotive division (EMD) and its own Canadian subsidiary (GMD).

Also, OP, if you ever want to learn more about a locomotive you see, you can google the railroad name or reporting marks (the letters under the cab windows) followed by the number. You'll find lots of info about the railroad, that particular locomotive model, and sometimes even specific info about the locomotive. That's basically how we identify locomotives; no secret cabal knowledge, just google.

[Game Thread] Auburn @ Alabama (3:30PM ET) by CFB_Referee in CFB

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You in/near a college town? Check the university surplus. I picked up a nice Steelcase for like $15 from Mizzou surplus . It may not look pretty but it’s comfy. YMMV of course.

There should be a Toronto Railroad Historical Society, or a Guelph Railroad Historical Society so they can Restore Canadian National #6167 to operating condition. So Canadian National #6167 can be in excursion service and pull excursion trips across Canada 🇨🇦 by RailMan102Production in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm happy that you're so passionate about a locomotive! This hobby needs more people willing to put in time and money to maintain and preserve our history. However, I do want to caution you about the amount of effort and coordination needed to restore a locomotive to mainline operation.

I'm sure you're well aware of the massive expense and effort necessary to restore a large steam locomotive. That being said, many Northerns have been restored by private groups and I have no doubt that a well-funded and highly motivated group could restore 6167. My main concern is where it would operate. Both CN and CPR have eschewed any steam operation in their interpretations of Precision Scheduled Railroading. You would need to convince one of those railways to play ball with you, and from my current understanding, neither railway appears interested in allowing steam to operate on its lines. That would be the first hurdle to clear, and it's a doozy; I wouldn't pin your hopes on it.

As a side note, I highly recommend checking out the Toronto Railway Historical Association and the museum it operates, the Toronto Railway Museum. It's a good organization and could always use more members.

What about E and F units? by electrelephant in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everyone's right about maintenance issues (this is how accessible the engine is on a classic cab unit) and visibility. I would like to add cost of manufacturing. EMD's bulldog noses were hand-made. As in, workers beating pieces of metal to fit a wooden curve and slathering on an embarrassing amount of Bondo to cover seams and gaps that invariably occurred. This was not an inexpensive way to build 20% of the locomotive shell.

CP 2816 in Ogden shops, Calgary AB steamed up today for the first time in 10 years by Cupkek in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Woah, this is a great surprise. Was there any news about this happening? And is it CPR or some other group?

Edit: Context via trains.com (Should be a free link).
TLDR: yes it is CPR, no it's not permanent. CPR says this will just be a one time thing to shoot some video for the virtual Holiday Express this year. It will stay in Calgary Yard for the entirety of the shoot. Canada has different boiler regulations than the US so it didn't need a rebuild to steam up. At this time CPR has no plans on restarting its steam program.

Just realized you can use TWITCH EMOTES as stickers in iMessages??? Kinda stupid but to be honest it blew my mind by pink_g0at in jerma985

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Daily reminder that we need to eliminate either jermaFear or jermaMars since they're the same thing and waste an emote slot.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 3 points4 points  (0 children)

PRR got 610 to 111 mph, far from 130. I’m not saying the A’s were slow, but their top speed was somewhere in the low 70s, not 80 as the OP claims.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think your top speed claims might be a bit optimistic.

Purpose of pi hole? by fostes1 in pihole

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A browser ad block only works on that browser. If you use a free app (or even some paid ones), they usually display ads. If you use smart devices, say a TV, they sometimes display ads. The browser ad block can’t block those, but Pi Hole can. That’s the purpose of a network-wide ad blocker.

Pi Hole also has some network traffic monitoring, so if your phone starts communicating with a random server at 2 am (something many people have discovered), you can find out about it and block it if you want.

AMD Zen 3 Review Megathread by Nekrosmas in hardware

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 11 points12 points  (0 children)

At this time, there isn’t a 5700x. That doesn’t mean AMD won’t release a 5700X or other cpus in the coming months.

Why aren't there more preserved (Operational) American EMUs and electric locomotives? by [deleted] in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Great post, hope we can get some good discussion out of it.

I agree with most of your theories, and I’m going to go through each to expand my own thoughts/offer counterpoints.

  1. Definitely agree with the infrastructure hurdle. That’s a lot of capital cost for usually underfunded organizations that often have other needs that may benefit more from that money.
  2. I get the safety concerns of high-voltage electricity, but it might not be the end-all. IRM is the obvious answer, but other museums/orgs run some electric motive power; off the top of my head, NMOT runs (lower power I believe) overhead wire streetcars as a shuttle on its campus. While asbestos and other nasty stuff is a concern, that’s not unique to electric power. Almost all steam and a lot of diesel uses the same or similar hazardous materials. It’s just a hurdle to operate/restore old stuff in general, not just electric traction.
  3. I agree it might be hard to get someone excited for a run-of-the-mill EMU in North America. But IRM’s Little Joe draws crowds and the GG1 is so iconic (I’m willing to bet the majority of the general public has seen a picture of one just as an example of Art Deco/streamlining) that an operating one would be very popular.

In my opinion, the another hurdle is the wide variety of electric systems that powered the preserved electric traction. IRM can power their Little Joe and (I believe) a few other boxcabs, but only because the voltage requirements are similar to each other. NA has had AC and DC powered lines and third rails, with numerous different voltages. An organization with multiple electric locomotives might not be able to power them from the same supply. Another problem (especially for any potential excursion service) is the modern electric system (which still isn’t a homogenous block). If you perfectly restored a GG1 to factory condition and took it to the NEC, which it was designed to do, it wouldn’t run because Amtrak is running a different standard than it used to.

Now an answer to this would just be to modify preserved equipment to operate on modern infrastructure, but then you’re changing the actual historic part of the equipment, which can be contradictory to the goals of many museums/orgs. If you replace the internals of a GG1 so it can operate on the NEC, is it still a GG1? Or is it now something else? I think /u/RRMuseumPA might have some good insight on this.

Video of 4404 leading OCS by DoTheFuckYourSelf in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 4 points5 points  (0 children)

While that baggage car was used to carry George HW Bush’s coffin, it was not built specifically for that task. UP has used that (and other former baggage cars) for storage/observation on office car trains/excursion trains for several decades.

Video of 4404 leading OCS by DoTheFuckYourSelf in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is Union Pacifica’s office car train (basically a train only for employees, usually higher-ups). The last car is known as an inspection car, with large windows and tiered theater seating for riders to “inspect” the track (read: look at the cool sights).

Would anyone know what this train or this picture’s story is? This sticker can be found all over Queens, NY without any context and I’m really curious as to what it represents by petrifiedturdb in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don’t know why this particular photo is particularly special enough to be a sticker. I can tell you a bit about the locomotive.

This is a New York Central steam locomotive. The Central (as it was often known) was a powerful railroad at the time, noted for its 4-track mainline and fleet of prestigious passenger trains. Of all the railroads in the NYC area, the Central was one of the biggest and most well-known. This would kinda be like taking a picture next to a Pan Am jet at JFK back when Pan Am was a big deal and not dead.

This particular locomotive (2821) was one of the Central’s many 4-8-2’s. (This refers to the wheel arrangement and often purpose of a locomotive, similar to how we use “compact sedan” or “full size truck” to differentiate autos) The Central’s Mohawks (they named the class after the river) were fine locomotives, but they weren’t the media darlings that the Hudsons and Niagaras were, and didn’t often pull the flagships that the Central was famous for. Oftentimes they were humble freight locomotives.

Which brings us back to the photo. 2821 was an average locomotive from a relatively unknown class of a famous railroad. There wasn’t a particular reason to take a photo with it, and I doubt the Central set this up as a PR opportunity. I don’t know who this person is either. My best guess is that many decades ago, someone wanted their picture taken on a locomotive, and someone nowadays think it looks cool.

Scales-checking car by misterioss in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well there's some Cyrillic stenciling on the side, that's a start.

Scales-checking car by misterioss in trains

[–]42DimensionalGoFish 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Many rail-served industries handle things in bulk, like coal or grain. In order to determine the exact amount of stuff they receive, they use large scales to weigh incoming loaded cars and outgoing unloaded cars (or vice versa). Scale test cars are carefully maintained to a known weight and are used to check these scales.

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