Making fun!! Yeah you were. Dig it, I dig it. Dang I can't eat the snickers. No teeth to chew the nuts and a sugar level that will go tilt. Now Musketeers or Milky Way bar that's another story. A bite here and a bite there and maybe by days end I will have eaten half of it. Oh the #ell of it. Make fun of my layout? Don't you know. Aiiyiiyii !! Oh, it don't matter. Make fun of it. You wouldn't be the first or last. Dang Rick what you got here a Wedding Cake train layout? Looks like a "Pretzeled Folded Over Dog Bone", Steve H. was heard describing my layout. Without a doubt my favorite description. And by the way, that's what it is. Trains that go Eastbound and return going Westbound. See I don't have to buy more then one train set. Say what? I can't buy more? I hate reality. You can run any kind of model railroad your heart desires. It won't be my place or anyone else's to critique it unless (the kicker) you ask us to. Then you better duck and run for cover. Later. I say later but as my friend Jaw Tooth says, "But wait there's more". The Wedding Cake, No that's what I built for Ivan C., whose son (no respect at all) tore it down. Back to the all important finger pointing and the fun we are having. My layout. Once the scenery starts to cover it up, parts of it will remind you of Donner Pass, Cajon Pass and Summit, San Bernardino, the Grain Elevator down near Devore, Ca. A look alike Diablo Bridge, and other bridges as in lot's of bridges. A coal mine right out of Colorado. Featuring all kinds of D&RGW, Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Great Northern, Western Pacific assorted mail and passenger trains. It will be a scrambled egg model railroad operations. Compression to the OUCH degree. I really need a passenger yard and freight classification yard. Something like George's only bigger. The question of the day. Is it prototypical? Is my layout prototypical?? Did I say it was? What I did say is, I operate my trains prototypically. Okay back to is it prototypical? Perhaps... Only in a open pit mine and that might be questionable. What I have is a combination of Pennyslvania's four track horseshoe curve, Tehachapi Loop and Williams Loop all wrapped up into one neat package. I might have the Diablo Bridge, some Cajon Pass, with a hint of Cajon Summit, in there as well. Cajon Pass now supports a four track mainline. BNSF or ATSF's old two track route, now three tracks and UP's or SP's newer one track mainline with sidings. Awesome train watching, that Cajon Pass. I have plans to put in a Flagstaff style train station up at the Summit. I have a San Bernardino style train station as built be one Greg McGinnis. It sits on the lower level accompanied by a town Greg also built. I have a grain elevator also built by Greg and that end of the layout resembles San Bernardino, more and more. That's it for now.
In the over under thing, Deadwood and Lead, SD had narrow gauge and standard doing that in several places! Fun! Horsepower? Big 455 Olds or Buick! 1970, Olds Delta 88 convertible was an awesome ride! Fast, tire smoking, comfortable, and just plain purty! A 1970 GSX with the 455 is an awesome car to drive in style!! Dang, am drooling again! But, tweaking an SD45-2 with a rebuilt engine and generator, the crank broke. So after the rebuild we took it out to self load test it, 4,200 HP!! 4,200 HP!! Man, that was an awesome sounding unit and was just a great vibe! Way to high a HP though so we asked the Lead Mech at MRL what they wanted us to do, and they said leave it. It can't be that high. So, we sent it over to them. Two weeks later it was back, with another broken crank! And yes, they asked us to turn the HP down to 3,200. But that was an awesome feeling at 4,200!!!!
Just don't count on it. Sorry, I'm not sold on the idea of electric cars. Bakersfield, I 5 at a gas station. A fella with an electric car looking for someone to charge it up. No such services available at these GAS stations. He did find a farmer who had a charger on board his truck. Seems they were experimenting with electrics but not liking them. This took place back in the early 2000's and in the very early stages. The driver said of the Grapevine. We need to find a way to soup the batteries. They won't take that punishment and last very long. Hopefully, science will overcome these issues. Should of seen the frustration of the battery powered car owners who traveled from L.A to Big Bear Country. As of when I left there wasn't a recharging station. You had to find private residences who had their own set-ups. The car companies bring their cars to Hwy 18 to test trip them. Down in Lucerene Valley they set up a truck with a propane gas generator to recharge the batteries. A toe truck on stand by to rescue them off the hill. One of them slipped and said it wasn't working out so well. Not enough umph to get up the hill. The grade is severe on what we call the backside up to Big Bear. Dangerous as well. I can only hope they get it figured out. Just don't expect me to buy one. Not going to happen. We aren't ready...yet! Unless it's one of those N scale roads where the cars, trucks, buses can run without crashing into one another. i might consider that.
Yup, I read an article about how the implementation of the electric car thing is being way oversimplified by certain political factions and the media and it will be a fairly major endeavor without mandates and all that crap. Gas stations and the like are not going to want to invest in charging stations until there are enough electric vehicles to justify it and the public is not going to want to go electric until they are guaranteed charging stations. And, imagine the number of charging stations required in such a scenario. And, you are not going to be able to just pop into a gas station, fill up, and be off again in just a few minutes. A loss of a freedom. And then, in a few years, there will be a "Too-much-ozone-in-the-atmosphere" crisis. Towing services would love it, however, I bet. Doug
I don't understand why the feds do just do as they did in the '70/'80s. Restrict engine size and have everyone go to an inspection station at least once a year. A lot of the small cars and trucks got popular. Now there push off the road by full size crew cab 4x4s and SUVs with huge engines. Let the people decide if gas is worth it. Besides those batteries and cost of charging is more costly and polluting. Even my electric mo-ped is junk. Returning to China in a couple days. That's how TREK fixes them.
How and why and what the government should and shouldn't do is not a discussion I want to get into here. That would be derailing the subject and take us off track. If you get my drift.
You asked and so you shall receive! Hopped up V8 and the car she lives in. The car, she lives in my garage! 480HP+ This is how I will go to train shows when they resume!
An aquaintance bought a brand new Tesla down in Vegas in the summer of 20. Drove it home and had a blast all the way back to Mandan, ND. Was a fun car, then winter showed up. He could charge the battery to max allowed, pull it out of the garage, do a lap around the block with no heat on, and it would have just enough juice to crawl back into the garage. Nope. Batteries are heavy, problematic, and unreliable for the needs of the northern states. I like my heat in the cab of the F250. Sure, mileage sucks, but it can do the jobs it needs to do, all year round.
In '75 we converted a truck to electric with old style batteries in the back. It didn't take long before a portable generator was mounted up front. What happened to all those cars recently built that had much the same? A regular gas motor with a generator and electric drive motor. They didn't need those special charge stations.
They make some 'hybrids,' but I don't keep up with that industry too much anymore. So ain't certain who or which??
My daughter-in-law got a Prius in 2008 and I was initially skeptical but she and my son have had zero problems with it and it still has the original batteries. I was impressed by the display screen when I first road in it and still am. A hybrid is a totally different proposition from a 100% electric. Doug
As a RR engineer, I see a great increase in coal traffic, GJC, BNSF. UP the host RR cant get enough people to man all the traffic. Lately natural gas (NG), is sky rocketing in price, which is leading to increased coal traffic, as now coal is a cheaper BTU than NG. I like the idea of electric vehicles. But there is a lot of coal burned, increasingly to make that electricity. With the diminishing Colorado river output (expected for decades), the Hydro-generated electricity out west USA, will decline exponentially, and will have to be generated by fossil fuels in greater quantities, and coal is still the cheapest BTU. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Oh yea, Please dont call me a "rail" it is insulting.
We have "Foamers" who think they've been insulted, and as you said "Rails" who are insulted so what is the preferred preference. I agree as I set trackside and watch coal trains go by. There are a number of cement plants in Southern Ca., who tried converting to natural gas. Big "E" got a hold of the gas and accelerated/inflated the prices to the point they ordered in their own coal cars and paid BNSF and UP to haul them. I don't know how we are going to get around using fossil fuels. No viable options on the fore front.
there are other options out there, but the overall problem is the $$$. Solar farms and wind farms are very viable but take up too much land which costs money, as well as hydrogen plants but the problem there is converting to a hydrogen fueled plant would bring the costs down so low that no one would make any money. Think of this, you burn a fuel that has a byproduct of pure water, that can be once again split apart and 100% of the fuel recovered and used again. And the process to recover the fuel is so simple a middle school science class does it as an experiment. Yea there are other methods of creating power, but the powerful (ie rich) do not want us doing it. Ok off the soapbox now.
It was my feeble attempt at being sarcastic. . I did work with a guy that hated being called a rail. Me. I have been called much worse.
It used to be...famous last words. It used to be "Hog Head", "Hogger" was a reference the "Rails" used to describe an Engineer. I know i used Rails, which translates Railroad Employees. A refrence to generalizations of the fine Professionals who work the Railroads. My family of "Railroaders" preferred to be called...well...what else, "Rails". As opposed to Rail Monkeys, Rail Morons and other not so complimentary terms. Railfans on the other hand were called "Foamers" by the Railroad Employees. Sometimes used when pointing out a bunch of "Foamers" hooping it up, hollering, hooting and screaming while waving their hands and giving the honk your horn sign. All in glee. You could almost see the "Foam" running out of their mouths. One guy having made the mistake of putting a Alka Seltzer tablet, the whole tab in his mouth maybe the one responsible for starting this beloved nick/moniker. One railfanning website won't allow us to use "Foamer" to describe ourselves. I'm proud of it. I'm a Foamer. Well, I did work for UP for a short stint. Loved it and even the guys I worked with called me "Their Foamer". Never once offended by such. Do understand it can be used in the negative. Especially when the RF's aka "Foamers" have breached the railroad property and the railroad employees are calling in the Railroad Police. Those "Foamers" are at it again. Trespassers at mile post 357. It was said of my Granddad that he liked and enjoyed the "Foamers." That's precisely what he and his fellow Railroaders called us. You know them. The Excited, hopped up Railfans, you and I we are the "Foamers". On the other hand my Great Granddad, didn't much have time for them/us but he would, approach the foamers and tell all kinds of yarns and stories just to keep the legends alive. He loved leading them on. So, whatever you call yourself, see signature below.
