Trains...

<----- Is fucking terrified of trains.


Well, being on them at least. :|
 
I hate travelling anywhere on public transport - you do not know where your fellow passenger has just been, no whar germs he has picked up.

And an South Asian with a back pack on a tube train put the willies right up me - Cobol74 = jelly.
 
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as cybermonkey points out, the cost of overhead wire is the reason why the US uses diesel locomotives. performanse is not an issue.

the most powerful US diesel locomotive ever, the EMD DDA40X, which was made by putting two regular engines onto one frame has a power output of 4.900kw.

a regular german electric freight engine, the class 152, however, puts out 6.400kw.
and an older, now out of service high speed passenger engine, the class 103 even had 7.440kw.

The DB class 103 had 314kN of tractive effort.

The Union Pacific Big Boy had 602kN (or 135,375 lb-ft) of tractive effort. Thats just mind blowing.

uprr4012.jpg


The Union Pacific DD40X had a similar 136,000 lb-ft of tractive effort.

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I do love me some trains.
 
The Union Pacific Big Boy had 602kN (or 135,375 lb-ft) of tractive effort. Thats just mind blowing.

uprr4012.jpg

:nod: about as much as a full ICE train, 300kN per half-train unit. No need for a pesky locomotive with distributed traction all over the train :D
 
I would pay good money to see a Big Boy thundering down the rails on full steam.
 
Spending any amount of time on buses makes me realise how fucking awesome trains are.
 
I would pay good money to see a Big Boy thundering down the rails on full steam.
This.


I was fortunate enough, as a kid, to see this thing in all of its glory running. And when I saw that I saw that thing, it was that exact engine. The 611.
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The Heart of Dixie Railroad Club operated a trip from Birmingham, AL to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo in Chattanooga, TN on board the 611. I begged so much, they took me the next year. This is what was used when I actually took the trip as a kid:
7436.1189436400.jpg


Ok, enough trains. back to my job :)
 
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Just like cars it depends on the locomotive. Different locomotives are rated for different loads. You would use a different engine on the great plains than you would crossing the rockies. Anyway, they usually "stack" locomotives, running many at a time. Once they hit the mountains they sometimes put on a couple extra "helper" locomotives at the back of the train - in fact a town in Utah was named Helper for this very reason - it was a railroad town built around a yard the only purpose of which was to attach helper locomotives before a long steep grade.


Yup, and the reason they do that is because, the sheer weight of the cars if pulled from just the front when going up those hills could yank the coupling right out of the engine itself. They use the helpers to force the weight so it's not pulling on the front engines.

History channel had a show called "Extreme Trains" that showed that stuff.

I'm also a freak about trains. :|
 
Wait, you live in England, aren't there no other ways of getting around your fair isle?

We have these exciting new things called motor vehicles.
 
choo-choo-motherfucker.jpg


Wait, you live in England, aren't there no other ways of getting around your fair isle?

Still living in Scotland after 17 years where me nearest train station is about an hour an 40 minutes drive away in several directions. Though I had to go on a train to Glasgow last month, me friend come with me to hold me hand I was um... rather jumpy. :(
 
I caught a doc about the Great Train Robbery the other night, that train being pulled by a Class 40. At one point they showed archive footage of an overnight mail train with a Deltic at the front of it. Motherfuckers! :shakefist:
 
Just like cars it depends on the locomotive. Different locomotives are rated for different loads. You would use a different engine on the great plains than you would crossing the rockies. Anyway, they usually "stack" locomotives, running many at a time. Once they hit the mountains they sometimes put on a couple extra "helper" locomotives at the back of the train - in fact a town in Utah was named Helper for this very reason - it was a railroad town built around a yard the only purpose of which was to attach helper locomotives before a long steep grade.

To use a local example quite often through the Adelaide Hills which have 1:45 grades we run banker/helper locos and attach/detach them on the flat. No distributed power though, the banker unit goes behind the lead locos. The NR class we run have a variable horsepower feature and you can place locos in your consist on or offline depending on power needs. Ie, you might need them all cranking to climb to Mt Lofty but once you're over the range you just bring up a unit on the computer and isolate it which saves fuel. Eg it's more efficient to run one NR at 100% and the other at 10% than it is to have them both chugging away at 55%.

I find the heavier and longer they are the better (the Sydney/Perth intermodal express freights are always good because they're 1800m long and can be up to 4000T) so you can just hook along at 90-115kph at full throttle and barely have to do anything, it'll mostly take care of itself unless you're on the steep grades.

Here's 5SP5 I worked a few months ago with NR96 and NR91 about to jump from Parkes, NSW on its way to Perth :). The stats are 3839T, 1784m, 2.08bhp/T

sp5.jpg
 
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Still living in Scotland after 17 years where me nearest train station is about an hour an 40 minutes drive away in several directions. Though I had to go on a train to Glasgow last month, me friend come with me to hold me hand I was um... rather jumpy. :(

I don't understand. A train is like a bus that has a predetermined path, and pretty much nothing will stop them due to the weight. Its safer than a bus in my mind.
 
Still living in Scotland after 17 years where me nearest train station is about an hour an 40 minutes drive away in several directions. Though I had to go on a train to Glasgow last month, me friend come with me to hold me hand I was um... rather jumpy. :(

This has to be the first time I have met someone with a train fobia, planes sure, buses I have seen aswel, and when I look at some of the people driving those, I have a spot of it myself, but trains? Nothing short of another train or a building stops a train, it's very safe, and pretty idiot proof.

I have a loathing for public transportation (don't we all?) and the way our trains are run is just disgusting + there is no point in using them since we have motorways going to everything, but a train ride through some awesome scenery? Or an old steam loco? Hell yes.

Fire breathing iron workhorses from the days when traveling was an adventure, men were made of iron and the world was much bigger......and every now and again, one of them makes it home:

 
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I don't understand. A train is like a bus that has a predetermined path, and pretty much nothing will stop them due to the weight. Its safer than a bus in my mind.

This has to be the first time I have met someone with a train fobia, planes sure, buses I have seen aswel, and when I look at some of the people driving those, I have a spot of it myself, but trains? Nothing short of another train or a building stops a train, it's very safe, and pretty idiot proof.

I have a loathing for public transportation (don't we all?) and the way our trains are run is just disgusting + there is no point in using them since we have motorways going to everything, but a train ride through some awesome scenery? Or an old steam loco? Hell yes.

See I'm not a fan of public transport either. Busses freak me out too. Though trains in particular just really really get to me. I don't like how they do that swaying/wobble thing which for some reason ALWAYS sets off me Vertigo then I get really nauseous an' I start panicking an' just wanna throw up on everyone. I also don't like the sound nor do I like it when a train goes through a tunnel, that really makes me jump. I threw a major wobbler on a TRAM going through Manchester when I was 14, I pretty much cried all the way from Carlisle to Bristol which is like a 6 an' a half hour train journey sat in a rear-facing seat which really didn't help either. An' the last one was last month when I went from Edinburgh to Glasgow an' back an' I nearly broke Ashley's fingers I was that freaked out. :(
 
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