a picture a day....

My boss stored about 100 of those trailers  on our yard a couple years ago we pick them up at Edwarsvile Il. And pull them to the yard it was a lot of fun. Here’s a pic of me getting ready to hook one. Then last year I caught this guy rolling through St. Louis 

Great pics, Lee.

I don't understand why the Roadrailer idea didn't catch on. When Santa Fe did testing IIRC they found an astonishing fuel saving.

Lew

Here is one I took from today 

Catenary poles for the trolley have been relocated and it’s now possible to get a picture pole free of the engineers side of the locomotive . 

  I would sure like to see this back on rails pulling excursions from Calgary to Banff or Lake Louise and back.

   That’s my fantasy as was seeing a UP Big Boy back running again lol

   Second picture includes my personal assistant Lola

Al

Kinda like this photo from approximately 1946

 Double headed Steam with perhaps 2816 and 5931 charging up the Big Hill

Al

Neat pic, Brian: Amrak Alco Under Catenary.

Lew

Dad with #765

Someplace-or-the-other, Ohio.

Lew

Twofir Tuesday.  " The Mighty J ... Powerful Emergence"

trumptrain posted:

Twofir Tuesday.  " The Mighty J ... Powerful Emergence"

Awesome Patrick!  Love that smoke!

Here’s some med boxes I took  personally I like the bottom container paint scheme 

Well, three pics actually:

Eastbound Capitol running [very] late

A couple miles East of Meyersdale, Pa

That's what once was the Western Maryland bridge over the B&O.

Pics taken in '98 with a Kodak digital camera.

Lew

"Mountain Division switch job"

Lew, Very nice real-life shots. I saved them all because they are instructive, giving excellent examples of the terrain in which RRs can be set. The natural colors are especially informative, also, with the rocks and bridge you shared with us.... ...being images worth trying to attain on a layout, IMO.

Your photos have helped assure me I did not overdo my weathering of the layout bridge seen here; however, I can see from your photo that I could have been bolder with weathering this bridge... Also, I always felt I should have/could have given the bridge abutment some serious weathering and regret that I did not, especially judging from your photograph. I appreciate your contribution of these photos to this thread very much, indeed.

FrankM

Moonson posted:

Lew, Very nice real-life shots. I saved them all because they are instructive, giving excellent examples of the terrain in which RRs can be set. The natural colors are especially informative, also, with the rocks and bridge being images worth trying to attain on a layout, IMO.

Your photos have helped assure me I did not overdo the bridge, here, but I always felt I should have/could have given the bridge abutment some weathering and regret that I did not.

FrankM

Yup, your bridge is just right wrt weathering. B&O and WM is/were very interesting examples of mountain railroading between Pittsburgh and Cumberland. Gentle grades for many miles following the Youghiogheny River on the West and heavy short grades on the East getting up to Sand Patch and Deal. That was my stomping grounds for 11yr and I'm sorry now I didn't take a lot of pics but that was mostly pre-digital and film was expensive.

Lew

3rd class train waiting for the 2nd class train to pass.  The engineer always had his camera in his grip.

Good days (except for that 70's hair).

David Townsend photo.

Rob Leese posted:

3rd class train waiting for the 2nd class train to pass.  The engineer always had his camera in his grip.

Good days (except for that 70's hair).

David Townsend photo.

Don't knock it.  At least we had hair in those days.....LOL

Took this in East St.Loiis 

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

I wonder what the purpose of those rings on that boxcar are for. If the train is moving at any speed they won’t prevent damage to the tank as the train will not be able to stop that fast.....::.

A hundred pages and still alive . . . that's success.  

Heading towards 101:

7yr old gazer looking for a train somewhere between Liberal, Ks and Dalhart, Tx.

Aha!

And yes, on the Rock Island. I can't tell from the pic whether those are passenger cars or box cars because of the dust. That dust makes me think he's really rolling so that may well have been The Imperial. From the. shadows it was noon-ish and that agrees with my 1958 Rock Island time table and it would have been very much like my Dad to plan a roadside lunch stop at the right time to catch a passenger train.

Lew

          GREAT photos Lew  !!!       awesome !

Congratulations Brain!!!!

briansilvermustang posted:

 

          GREAT photos Lew  !!!       awesome !

 

Dad obviously had fun setting this up. Of course it helps that he was an excellent photographer.

Lew

          Thanks Patrick  !  

               especially for all the great photos you have posted here

geysergazer posted:

 

        

       

. . . I can't tell from the pic whether those are passenger cars or box cars because of the dust.

Lew

It's a passenger train, all right, and I would agree with you that it is the Imperial.  Taking a look at the track, you can see why it was always a rough ride on the Rock Island.  But it was a fast rough ride.

And as an aside, last weekend marked 39 years since the Rock Island shut down forever.

Canadian Pacific Holiday Express making a rare visit to Kansas City

Some KCS and UP street running in KC West Bottoms

Kusan N de M Alco

Nice photo, Brian! Fireman's door open and he has his foot propped on the frame. Rounded nose looks like an Alco.

Lew

Saturday's six.

Aha! Steam turbine electrics, predecessors to the UP Big Blows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._turbine_locomotives

Lew

          THANKS  LEW 

Seven for Sunday. " Traffic - Emerging J - Emerging J different angle -  Grade Crossing -  Unloading - Passing Through - The Water Stop"

Wow, Brian, talk about trains, in those days, having the right-of-way and taking precedence over other elements in daily life, as some of us try to figure out how close to have the trains pass to neighborhood elements on layouts...!

Thanks for sharing that one!

FrankM

Nickel Plate

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

 

I like this pic, I cropped it and set as my background on my puter.

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? 

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

This was probably Summer '54 in probably Lordsburg, Nm. Dad toke this pic to mail to the engineer because he loved running the Daylights. Skirting still in place in this pic.

Lew

Friday's Five:  " On site car repair " - " Meet Joe, Branford, Marty & Lou " -  " 44 Tons " - " Eagle Eye Mr. Bo " - " A view from my room at the Hyatt " 

Steamer posted:

so does that mean Rich Melvin is really Bruce Wayne? 

I can see the resemblance 

(Photos removed to comply with TOS.)

gotta go with the best!

My new bridge is done, just need to add some terrain features.

          your bridge looks GREAT Dennis !!   very nice !

Unloaded the Circuit Breakers 

 "Pulpwood" 

Lee, that's a great model you put together, nice load too.  I can't tell from that picture, are the windows of the Mack glazed or not?

Patrick, nice pulpwood load.  Did it come with the bulkhead flat?

Bill T, "When it rains it pours"

Early pick up this morning downtown St.louis 

What a great pic, Brian!  On of the Eagles!

Lew

lee drennen posted:

Early pick up this morning downtown St.louis 

Lee, you made me think of the time I rode shotgun with my friend Jim hauling   stainless coils into NYC. He had to back a 53' covered wagon clear into a building and up to a dock, turning 90 degrees to the two-lane city street in the process.

Lew 

Dennis,

Very nice indeed!

Chris

LVHR

coach joe posted:

Lee, that's a great model you put together, nice load too.  I can't tell from that picture, are the windows of the Mack glazed or not?

Patrick, nice pulpwood load.  Did it come with the bulkhead flat?

Bill T, "When it rains it pours"

Joe it has a nice Windshield with wipers here’s  a better pic 

geysergazer posted:

lee drennen posted:

Early pick up this morning downtown St.louis 

Lee, you made me think of the time I rode shotgun with my friend Jim hauling   stainless coils into NYC. He had to back a 53' covered wagon clear into a building and up to a dock, turning 90 degrees to the two-lane city street in the process.

Lew 

Lew

I know the feeling I deliver in the city now I had to quit the road runs for my company after 23yrs with them due to my arthritis in my hips and knees  now they let me run the city all day and I love it this was a very tight place to get in it reminds me when I use to run to New York City back in the early 90s when I first started driving a truck. 

Caught this guy in St. Louis last week 

Wreck train with a Big Hook!

I have had the privilege of watching a Big Hook at work. As I remember it everything pretty much moved in slow-motion.

Lew

Dad took this pic Summer '54. Climbing towards Silverton.

In those days it was still a mixed train.

Lew

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting Brian! I believe this is at WABIC interlocking, Decatur, IL. looking East. The tall building in the background looks like the A.E. Staley Mfg. Co. Office building, to the right of the smoke stack. The switch and the signal directly in front is the lead running from the Wabash RR to the B&O yard.

Rusty

A Photo Quartet for Thursday.  " Ma & Pa Switch Job ",  " Aero Train ", " A Car Load of Tuckers ", and " " At the Junction ". 

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

That’s a fabulous picture, Brian. Do you remember where you were when you took it???  

But seriously, do you have any additional info on the scene??? It looks like the “bus” says NYNH&H (New Haven, I assume), but the sign on the building in the background says Ferry to Newburgh which could be Newburgh, NY which makes it seem like the tracks would be on the Hudson Line, possibly near Beacon, NY (there is still a Beacon - Newburgh Ferry). I didn’t think the NH ran on the Hudson Line. Hopefully, one of our resident historians (@MELGAR) will chime in.

Thanks for sharing.

Dad took this pic years before I was born. Prewar, of course. That was a Brookville Locomotive product. The Dents Run RR, originally built as a logging pike,  ran from interchange with the Pennsy a few miles up Dents Run to a coal mine.

Lew

Today I was going through DeSoto Mo. home of the “Uncle Pete” car shops always action there. I took this one as I was leaving town seconds after I snap this pic the Engineer gave me 2 short blast and opened his window and waved real big. It was a good day.

Five for Friday. " Got Beer??"

Fs in the Fog!

I can't tell if the hood units are Geeps or Alcos.

Lew

This was an exciting spot to be in:

Lew

Nice photographic work, Brian!

Lew

Passenger train action on the attic layout today. Happy Monday commute!

The brush and tree limbs rubbing the sides of the GMTX 3105 and it's train is an FRA defect for sure.  I bet they were getting wheel slip running through that high grass and weeds as well. I hope that unit has plenty of sand. Where is the brush cutter and spray truck? It's not a good time running a train through stuff like that.

Rusty

Wow. Talk about an idea whose time never came. Lookit' that tare weight! Containers doomed that setup. To be fair though, while containers have an extra advantage wrt railroad tare weight the opposite is true of trucks+containers. Stackable containers with truck tailer chassis under them are heavier than truck trailers. It's real easy to be overweight on the highway.

Lew

For today " Surrounded "

FINALLY put up the plaque my wood-working brother made for us.  Door to the CL&W Train Room.

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

Brian;

I had always heard of Seatrain, but never knew what was involved... absolutely fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

Crew change in dupo the other day

Took this one in dupo as well haven’t seen one of these for awhile 

" In the school of railroading an F is excellent! " 

For today: " The View from My Office Window " 

TRUMPTRAIN, What a spectacular view! No exaggeration. When I saw that photo of part of your layout, my mouth fell open, for real. And yes, that pun was intended - your modeling is "for real"!!

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

Brian, handing up orders is why my Grandad quit railroading. He was holding up an order hoop and was a bit too close so took a glancing blow to his shoulder from the cylinder as it came past. Hurt his shoulder and that was enough for him.

Moonson posted:

TRUMPTRAIN, What a spectacular view! No exaggeration. When I saw that photo of part of your layout, my mouth fell open, for real. And yes, that pun was intended - your modeling is "for real"!!

Ditto, ditto! That is a great pic, Patrick.

Lew

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

 

Brian, that eggcellent pic gives new meaning to the term "retiring", doesn't it?

Lew

trumptrain posted:

For today: " The View from My Office Window " 

Never get tired of looking at your amazing layout, Patrick. 

Aha! Couldn't figure the old locomotive (an EMC AB6) with modern equipment. Wiki-thingy to the rescue:

"In 1965, the units had their steam generatorsreplaced with head-end power and were reassigned to push-pull suburban service in the Chicago area. In this form, they lasted until the mid-1970s"

Lew

Rural railroading!! 

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

 

Perfectly safe, not a problem!   

briansilvermustang posted:

Whatthe….???!! ......could that man possibly have been doing under there that would have made any difference whatsoever. I mean, look at his - at anybody's - delicate hands (compared to tons of iron?metal!!!) And whoever sent him there to do that should have been arrested for reckless endangerment and for being a total fool.

I'm serious. It takes a great deal to get me ticked-off , but that endangerment of that poor worker is criminal. IMunHO.

FrankM

Moonson posted:

TRUMPTRAIN, What a spectacular view! No exaggeration. When I saw that photo of part of your layout, my mouth fell open, for real. And yes, that pun was intended - your modeling is "for real"!!

Frank - I can't begin to tell you how much your words mean to me!  I consider you as one of  great gurus of imaginative scenery creation and your feedback on this photo deeply inspires me and makes my day!!   Much appreciated!  Thank you!!!  

CoastsideKevin posted:

trumptrain posted:

For today: " The View from My Office Window " 

Never get tired of looking at your amazing layout, Patrick. 

Coastsidekevin -  Thank you so much for such a wonderful compliment!  I'm totally thrilled that you receive such personal enjoyment from my photos!

Moonson posted:

briansilvermustang posted:

Whatthe….???!! ......could that man possibly have been doing under there that would have made any difference whatsoever. I mean, look at his - at anybody's - delicate hands (compared to tons of iron?metal!!!) And whoever sent him there to do that should have been arrested for reckless endangerment and for being a total fool.

I'm serious. It takes a great deal to get me ticked-off , but that endangerment of that poor worker is criminal. IMunHO.

FrankM

 

 

I am trying to figure out what he is doing. I hope that break was set. If that jack would kick out that fellow will get his back broken. Besides how old is the poor old fellow looks to be in his seventies.  It is a very hard way to make a living , it must have been a dangerous life to live in those days.

4014 in Rock Springs 

trumptrain posted:

CoastsideKevin posted:

trumptrain posted:

For today: " The View from My Office Window " 

Never get tired of looking at your amazing layout, Patrick. 

Coastsidekevin -  Thank you so much for such a wonderful compliment!  I'm totally thrilled that you receive such personal enjoyment from my photos!

Loved your story on the other thread about the boys who saw your layout. It takes a pretty spectacular layout these days to awe the young generation - good on you!

"A glance down Patsburg Ave."

For today:  " The Brakeman " 

For today:  " Ready to begin unloading "

Perfect, Brian, a vintage (1960) Peterbilt moving a vintage (1905?) steam engine.  Nothing could be more fitting.  One runs on boiling water and has manually-lapped air brake valves, and the other probably has a Cummins 220 or 262 and a twin stick transmission.  No automation in either one.

For today:  " Those gol dang bran muffins! " 

Stillwell Avenue Station, Coney Island

Christmas Day, 1964:

                                (and a present-day Lionel trestle set)

Lew

Interesting photo. Two baggage cars sandwiching a pig. And the truck trailers are painted in matching GN livery.

Lew

Bus stop design study model. Wound up being built in Jersey City, NJ

A PRR K-4s on the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line at Vernon Tower.

Here’s one for you:

And another:

And still another:

Hi Fredstrains,

I always thought Moondog Streets were a wonderful and effective product. Too bad what happened to them, huh.

FrankM