a picture a day....

so did I!

Congratulations Brian! 100 and for all your cool pics took this the other day 

Threefir Wednesday.  Hoppers - The brakeman -  Patsburg Westend neighborhood.

A few posts earlier, Geysergazer commented about the relationship between the experimental oil-fired steam-turbine electrics GE built for Union Pacific and the gas-turbine electrics GE built for UP a number of years later.  Other than having 'turbine' in the name (and the same builder), I'm not sure there was much of a descendancy, was there?  The first experimental turbines were basically small 'conventional' thermal powerplants, using oil to heat water to produce high pressure steam to drive the steam-turbine coupled to a generator.  IIRC, these never got beyond test-driving the 'look what I built' stage.  The gas-turbine electrics (GTELs) were based on an actual combustion turbine (think jet engine) to spin the generator.  UP had something like 55 GTELs in three versions and a lot of revenue miles.  As a kid I saw many of the GTELs in action and in my mind, I had imagined them being powered by the thrust of the jet turbine.  Not so, of course - only later learning that they were actually turbine-electrics.

Apparently the UP/GE experimental steam-turbine locos actually had a closed steam loop with an air cooled condenser stage (one wonders what the Carnot efficiency was when it wasn't moving...).  The GTELs did actually have a successor - albeit a short-lived UP built coal-fired combustion turbine (whose failure mode you'd think would have been predictable - finely divided coal ash played heck with the turbine blades). 

Twofir Tuesday:   " The Beginning and The End "

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know what was in the gondola at the front of the train? 

Very cool picture Brian!

Looks like L.C.L containers. Doug

Rich is such a nice man. But I can see in his eyes, there, that something has been lost to him, or about to be absent from his life and experiences.

FrankM

richs09 posted:

A few posts earlier, Geysergazer commented about the relationship between the experimental oil-fired steam-turbine electrics GE built for Union Pacific and the gas-turbine electrics GE built for UP a number of years later.  Other than having 'turbine' in the name (and the same builder), I'm not sure there was much of a descendancy, was there?   

Sure there is a lineage and important connections and similarities between the original steam-turbine-electrics (STELs we might call them) and the fleet of later gas-turbine-electrics (GTELs). The STELs were first assemblage of the idea into an operable locomotive and the GTELs thus descended from that idea. Both used electric transmission re-purposed from diesel-electric technology. Both were an attempt to re-purpose existing technology/hardware for railroad traction. In the end both were a flash-in-the-pan. For many years UP management was enthralled with giant locomotives but the assembly-line F/GP/SD units have triumphed. The GTEl fleet at least worked but could not ultimately compete against the [modern] Diesel-Electric which was, after all, designed and developed from the ground up for railroad traction. EMD quickly gave up on the Winton engines because they were an attempt to re-purpose marine machinery. Alco had similar experience with the 539 which was a marine engine.

Lew

Three for Wednesday.   " Friday at Quittn Time ",  "Evening at the Car Dealership", " Activity on Railroad Ave. " 

A photo quartet for Thursday. " Loco Service, Got Beer?, Commuter time, & Rural Rails "

Steamer posted:

Now that's a good use brain power.  

The station sign says Crete, Ill so it's the C&EI

Lew

Found this today...765 herself on the cover of a Batman comic.

(Photo removed to comply with TOS.)

so does that mean Rich Melvin is really Bruce Wayne?