One thing to remember, the railroads will spend inordinate and almost obscene amounts to save a percieved 1 or 2% in fuel! Which seems silly, until one figures out haow much fuel that really is! Millions of gallons of diesel a month in normal use, a 1% savings is significant numbers. Those containers do look silly tho!
Yes. That is why I was asking about actual performance data. Also, there is "compliance" with various State regulations.
I read in a publication a long time ago, that at one point the only entity in the US that used more diesel fuel than the BN was the US Navy lol. A Supt of operations once told me that fuel $$ savings with the auto start/stop on these newer locos will pay the loco over its expected lifetime. Sounds a little far fetched to me, but I guess it could be true.
I think that I finally mastered the art of wiring up the bolts on a wheel bearing end cap. Now that UP is satisfied with the maintenance we performed on this old Pullman 6-6-4 sleeper, all the bolts were torqued down and wired in place. Now hopefully the UP will move the car to its new home in Chandler Arizona.
Thanks. Paid? I have to donate time and money to be allowed to do this. I suppose that I enjoy working on old rail cars so much because it explains so much about all the models I have been working on all my life. And you learn something new every day. Like what is the device circled in red in this photo. I bet you will never guess.
I believe that's a C-Clip used to retain an escutcheon or similar device in a hole. It took losing and/or ruining only a few before I broke down and bought the tool designed to remove them by either squeezing or expanding....still got it after 50+ years.
OK, my well informed friend, I have no clue....your move. However, I doubt that it's a black water drain...kinda restrictive, doncha know.
Those Stink Bombs smell very, VERY BAD if the bearing gets hot! As a side note, some malicious RR employees placed one on a hated foremans auto exhaust manifold one night......That car was undriveable for a while!
Bingo, we have a winner. The odor not only came in around the diaphragms into the vestibules, in the pre-retention era, when the sinks and toilets emptied out onto the ballast, a hot box could be smelled quite well by the train crew and all the passengers for that matter.
Interesting, I was not aware of this technique. I remember seeing freight car journals being checked, but never gave a thought to passenger car journals.
I still have a pair of lock wire pliers myself. Although the way we had to do it wasn't in pairs, but in series (all the bolts wired together) with direction obviously being important. And the wire tended to break, so restarts were not uncommon. Not the best part of the job...
I believe at that time yet the railroad was still run by the Texas State Parks system and the legislature kept cutting funding. It was all they could to to keep the tracks repaired and the equipment rolling safely. Five months after the photos, the state leased the operation out to American Heritage Railway, which also operates the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in North Carolina. In August 2012 American Heritage Railways sold the lease to Iowa Pacific Holdings.
Well, American Heritage Railway seemed to do a good job of running it but for whatever reason they unloaded it. Iowa Pacific on the other hand is having difficulty all over in all of their holdings. Last fall they laid off a bunch of employees and made a bunch of cuts. They owed the state money. We will see how this pans out.
