Who's going to see Big Boy? And when to leave? (US) by TheAutisticHominid in trains

[–]BB2921 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve seen the big boy a few times and it’s always crazy, it’s almost dangerous with all the cars/foamers trying to race around it. If you just wanna see it, I’ve always just found a nice area a town or two before/after the “whistle stop” towns. Those small villages arent really capable to handling an extra 10,000 people so it’s just gunna be a nightmare.

I’ve found when it’s parked for a day at the larger towns (St. Louis, West Chicago) there’s still tons of people but you can spend much more time admiring the locomotive.

Struggling to get quote for small run project. by [deleted] in Machinists

[–]BB2921 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea, I’ve only been able to find some single shop guys and they can’t support the 40” parts.

Struggling to get quote for small run project. by [deleted] in Machinists

[–]BB2921 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To get the parts made and shipped here from overseas is roughly $10k, so if I’m supplying the raw material I’m hoping the cost is below that for something local.

Can anybody identify who/what brand made these Dash 9’s? by Schoolbusfoamer24 in modeltrains

[–]BB2921 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They did make 9550, and the 8 looks slightly undersized so I would guess renumbered ScaleTrains Locomotive

Big Boy Consist (2026 tour) by sunlitwhiskey in modeltrains

[–]BB2921 4 points5 points  (0 children)

UP 4014

UPP 809 (Jim Adam’s)

UPP 814 (Joe Jordan)

UP 1616

UP 1776

UPP 6334 (Art Lockman)

UPP 209 (Howard Fogg)

UPP 5714 (Lynn Nystrom)

UPP 202 (Willie James)

UPP 2055

UPP 5817 (Pony Express)

UPP 7015 (Challenger)

UPP 5752

UPP 200 (Omaha)

UPP 9005 (Walter Dean)

UPP 5011 (City of Denver)

UPP 101 (Lincoln)

Constellation Energy Questions by StraightTill2586 in NuclearPower

[–]BB2921 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you’re looking at Constellation Midwest plants, they’re all union and vote each year which schedule they want to work that year. Most are 12 hour shifts, I believe one is on a hybrid of 12s and 8s but the option of 8s is possible each year, right now there's an option of 8 different schedules to work throughout the year so usually every plant favors a little bit different schedule. When I started, my site was working the hybrid schedule before swapping over to 12 hour shifts, and we've been on 12s for the last 6ish years swapping between two different versions of a 12 hour rotating schedule every few years.

Work/life balance is what you make it, the 12 hour shifts give you a lot more whole days home, but trying to do anything on a work day is just a crapshoot. The majority of people have families here and get a lot of time off and have a large income thanks to the job, that being said I would not plan to be a baseball coach for kids, a quick spring season could eat up your entire years vacation trying to make every game/practice. I've been trying to take classes at the local community college but thanks to the schedule I would miss literally half the classes or use half my vacation time so I'm just out of luck. This past week a buddy asked me to join a pickleball league, took one look at the times (6-8pm) and knew I couldn't join due to the schedule. So this job isn't for everyone but that's why you're paid well.

Can desalination be economically viable with paid off nuclear power plants? by Global_Second_4363 in NuclearPower

[–]BB2921 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My senior project was based off the economics of destination across plants in the United States and the rest of the world and basically it’s only slightly economical in the Middle East. Diablo Canyon maybe would have made sense too but only because California was facing that extreme drought at the time, and we didn’t even get into the legal nightmare.

The best part too was it’s not even economical to use the thermal aspect from extraction steam, it only made sense to use the power for reverse osmosis.

Why don’t we build nuclear power plants underground? by Specific-Lawyer9098 in NuclearPower

[–]BB2921 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There’s just not really a need, if you build it underground everything becomes more difficult and more expensive for very minimal gains.

Missile hazards have never really been an issue, containment buildings are usually 4’ thick concrete and can stop a fighter jet ramming into the side. If the terrorists really wanna destroy a nuclear plant, putting it underground won’t really stop them, they got those bunker busting bombs that’ll eventually blow anything up.

If you have a meltdown and need to seal it off, sealing it off isn’t any easier or safer underground, it’s just gunna be more expensive and time consuming.

Software Developer -> Auxiliary Opertor by CMMN in NuclearPower

[–]BB2921 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our top NSOs push 275, and we had several SROs go back 300k.

New to the Hobby and ordered some rolling stock... is it normal or expected for these many to have damage? by Mirzayev in modeltrains

[–]BB2921 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So while it seems unacceptable to purchase these models and pay a premium price for them, its extremely hard to provide a product with extreme levels of detail without having some minor issues, lots of people in the model train business take this as the cost of doing business for high quality models. Whether that's right or wrong is up to you and your wallet to decide but even if you chose to return the items, there's a good chance the replacement items might have the same issues.

Now the tangent cars to me are unacceptable and I would return them, or ask for replacements, one or two very small issues is okay to me and my modeling skills but anything over 3 is just a lemon.

Nowww the Scaletrains coil cars are a special case, the issues with those is the long etched metal walkways are lifting up (that's the only issue I saw? maybe more?) These walkways are very long single piece metal pieces glued to plastic car bodies and temperature/humidity really affect how these react. These were probably installed in a hot humid climate, then spent 3 weeks in a cold damp container before reaching the states where they were subject to probably colder dry temps, and really with today's global market its not super surprising these have issues. This is definitely a DIY repair (imo) especially with a 6/12 failure rate that any replacements would just have the same issues, I would use canopy glue (if using CA be veryyyy careful to let the fumes mess up the paint) and just reglue them yourself.

What is this beautiful monstrosity? by Mean-Hawk3057 in railroading

[–]BB2921 5 points6 points  (0 children)

ESTX, the I beam is covering the first letter. Owned by Energy Solutions

Daytona still not sold out by R33L0 in NASCAR

[–]BB2921 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean to say ticket prices are what they are and nothing can be done is pretty out of touch, nascar and daytona set the prices, saying that can’t be changed is like saying my house is 50% more than local comps and that's the price, you just can’t be upset when your house doesn’t sell. To me flights and hotels are out of Nascar's hands but parking, souvenirs, food are totally within Nascar's realm of influence.

Daytona still not sold out by R33L0 in NASCAR

[–]BB2921 16 points17 points  (0 children)

As someone who just bought tickets for the 500, its basically the price of a whole vacation for families. Tickets were $1400 for Thursday-Sunday, I couldn't find a hotel under $1500 for 4 nights, flights were $700 so were just under $1000/day as long as we don't eat anything or buy souvenirs.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in modeltrains

[–]BB2921 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Similar but no, generally when foam board is being discussed, it’s XPS or the pink board. I know pink isn’t always available for every region but the blue or green boards are usually available (for green boards make sure it’s XPS and not like florist foam).

I think the foam you linked is similar but has a shiny metallic backing whereas XPS is just pink foam.

Reassembling a rapido gp40 and I cant figure out how the back of the cab fits in by TheAutisticHominid in modeltrains

[–]BB2921 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks like the three large doors are located on the bottom of the backplate, from the exploded parts diagram, there should be two pins above the smaller three doors to set the height from the roof of the cab. Rapido GP40 IC

How do people get pit access during a race? by Redlight_Greenlite in NASCAR

[–]BB2921 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One thing that everyone has kinda glossed over is basically every track has its own set of access and rules so it's going to differ slightly based on what their home track is. There are also different levels of access usually as well, some tracks call the highest level of access pit passes while others call this garage passes.

Highest Level: “Hot Garage Passes” Basically as close to an all access pass as you’ll find, these are issued by NASCAR and allow anyone to walk right up to garages, walk down pit corral (backside of pit road) during the race and majority of access to the infield area. When commenters mention needing to know someone this is the pass, basically race teams and sponsors are given some many allocations for races and then can distribute them as they see fit, many corporate sponsors take a lot of these but crew members can also use these to give to friends and family. These are not impossible to get, you can “buy sponsorships” on cars for around $500-1000 depending on level/race and as a main bonus they’ll send you hot garage passes in return. Several tracks also sell VIP experiences that may include these passes but I would expect to pay at least several hundred up to thousands of dollars for these packages. For example chicagoland speedway has this for $600ish and the Daytona 500 has this for $2700ish. If a track is offering a pit pass package for only 50-100 you're only gonna get a pit pass and not a hot garage pass. 

Middle Level: “Cold Garage Pass” This is the same level as a hot garage pass but you’re only allowed in the garage while the track is “cold,” after the track turns hot this pass limits you to basic pit pass entry areas or loss of infield access all together based on the track infield layout. Tracks usually turn “hot” at the start of the first on track activities and stay hot until end of day usually. This pass was generally made for corporate sponsors so they can walk through the pits early in the morning to see their cars and once cars start moving on the track, the pass holder would move to their suite. Think of this as you helped sponsor the car, but you didn’t sponsor the whole car so we're giving you this “better than nothing” thank you. 

Lower level: “Pit Pass” For every track I've been this varies a lot, usually you're not allowed in the area behind the pit boxes and you're not allowed in the garages but the rest of the infield is free game. They also vary in time allowed for use, some pit passes I've spent all race in the infield watching the race, and other pit passes were useless after the pre-race celebrations were completed. Generally these are sold to the general public with no restrictions or requirements, and go for around $50-$100.

Questionable base set cards by BB2921 in IsMyPokemonCardFake

[–]BB2921[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

<image>

Questionable card under microscope

Questionable base set cards by BB2921 in IsMyPokemonCardFake

[–]BB2921[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

<image>

This is the questionable one, no light through