Hey Bob, Is that your layout, nice!
I've been meaning to build one for a long time but I'm afraid i don't have enough room for my Lionel trains and the N scale stuff is so small and detailed that it is almost too big a project to tackle now that i'm spending my free time either golfing or shooting aviation... actually i spend my weekends shooting aviation and my free time editing picts!
Jim has a nice small layout in his hanger for his grandkids - but his engine got dropped and no longer runs... i've thought about giving him one of my Lionels but I'm afraid it would be an insult - his layout is nice like yours!
Sadly, no, it is not my layout. My friend got his caboose last fall and called me in December telling me he wanted to put a layout in it and asked if I could/would design it for him. "Of course," was my reply, and set to work with the design program and he approved a design. Along about the 5th of January he calls me telling me he has all the track, etc., but doesn't have a clue where to start. So, on the 14th of January I was on the train headed to Colorado. Five weeks later it was/is as pictured. Fun time was had by all!! As an aside, we've been friends since '53, and he used to come over to my house and play trains. Now, I got to go to his house and play trains. What a hoot!!!
44lefty, if you are referring to the Fiat, it is located at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga. I don't know if it runs, but they may not ever run it. That is my opinion, not theirs. One of the club members told me that the reason you don't see steamtrains running on the mainlines anymore is because the Federal Railroad Administration has guidelines that the railroads and museums can't or wont pay for. For example, one of the steamers in the maintenance building had the old friction bearings, but the FRA requires roller bearings now. So there is that cost to consider, not to mention historical accuracy. There were other resons mentioned, but the above was the only one that came to mind (in other words, I forgot the other reasons).
The Whippany Museum does have some locomotives they still run for rides in the summer. But you're right...the steamers there are for show only. Don't believe they run them anymore.
Running steamers are expensive too. Insurance, fuel costs, trackage right of ways and so on. Many now are starting to run diesel instead of coal as coal is much much more expensive. Steamers on mainline railroads are a HUGE headache to the railroads. It impedes their business as most trains are generating revenue and any steamer would be a fan trip. So scheduling is a big issue. We see that here in So Cal with the ATSF 3751. BNSF really does not want to impact their freight trains. So, it rarely gets out on the tracks. As for private Railroads, Steamers still take a lot of work to get running - really high maintenance. Also, all steamers need to get a thorough inspection required by the railroad industry every so many thousand hours of use and anything found wrong needs to be fixed or they sit. I know of a couple of locomotives where they have boiler issues and it takes several $100k to get them running again. And since many steamers are in the hands of non profit organizations that depend on donations, many will sit for a long time. Really sad.
My nephew was driving us along a road near an old almost abandoned stretch of tracks in the woods near his home in South Carolina. You can see the switch is still in place in the first picture. South of here the line crossing the active line has been removed.
"Missed it by that much."
This was just south of the above, there used to be a crossing and an interchange between the two lines. This rail is dated 1901, where you can see the side.
The predecessors to these lines were involved in some of the last fighting of the Civil War in April, 1865.
Liked the second one of the Nozomi Express. interesting PP. Not too thrilled with so much of an angle though. That is one thing that I regret not doing while in Japan. I missed riding the Shinkansen.
who me wrote:
Liked the second one of the Nozomi Express. interesting PP. Not too thrilled with so much of an angle though. That is one thing that I regret not doing while in Japan. I missed riding the Shinkansen.
The only JR train featuring smoking carriage.
I hope you will be able to do it next time you visit.
I used the 16-35mm f2.8L while train was stationary and did not want to capture too many unnecessary objects.
Needless to say the station attendants would escort you out of the station very quickly should you cross the barrier.
Spent the day in New Hope, PA. Too hot and too crowded for any redeemable photography, but I found this heap on the peripheries of town. This engine was beat up, missing it's cab, shell, boiler chest and internal boiler tubes.
Zouloukistan wrote:
Nice series. It's a shame the last one is missing a part of the loco
Skarkowtsky wrote:
Haha, I agree. But there's a parking lot adjacent to the locomotive, and the cars are in the composition.
couple shots from exshaw alberta (an hour and change outside calgary) it was around -15 degrees Celsius this day, the heat coming off the engine kind of bothered me in the first one. the locomotives with the white bands are the spirit trains, to celebrate the olympics of 2010 in vancouver (sponsored by CP)
