Working rail roads and their tracks.

[Hay Dude]

Any of you have train whistle bans in your towns? They banned them on the east side years ago, but never on the west side (west side is always neglected in our town). Finally, at a town council meeting, someone pointed it out that once again, the west side gets neglected for years and years. They finally started putting it in place last year.

I live just outside of town in the county, so we still have the train horns. I like them.

Funny story about train whistles....

I thought the signs along the tracks just before each crossing were for compass direction for the engineers to tell them what direction they were going... but I never saw any directions other than West.

Not here. They blow often! My home is 1 mile south of one freight track in Mendenhall, PA and 2 miles north of another freight track in Greenville, DE. Can hear it real well from my house. Gives me comfort actually. There is a 3rd in Hockessin Delaware that went belly up the old NVF plant was torn down and they tore out some really cool raised trestle & track that went into an upper level of the manufacturing warehouse.

Old NVF factory

 

[bcp]

I have often wondered why the train gauge is so narrow at 4'8-1/2'' . 7 ft wide would be more stable but...??????..

Here was one at 7ft 1/4 inch:

Great Western Railway - Wikipedia

Bruce

 

[the old grind]

Here was one at 7ft 1/4 inch:

Great Western Railway - Wikipedia

Bruce

Ha! Bruce beat me to it. :laughing:

Brunel's Great Western went from an initial 7' even to 7' 1/4" before consolidation and establishment of a National Standard gauge. It was pretty much the 'other gauge' in Britain until then. Spain was using 5' 6" for a long time and may still use it. The orient Express has at least one gauge change layover each way between Europe and the far East.

IMO Sir Nigel (Gresley) gets enough glory (LNER's Mallard, Flying Scotsman, others, many six cyl vs four.) But I confess a fondness for Wm Stanier's Princess Coronation Pacifics and LMS' incomparable mixed traffic, work-horse 'Black Five' ten-wheelers. :drink: .. which might be efficient enough to work in modern times. There are plenty of them in restoration to this day.

If a guy likes the 'unusual', check out the Garratts that are still in use in Aus & Africa. They'll take curve radii that Mallets and other articulateds couldn't dream of.

 

[caver]

Some time ago, there were some posts about trains sharing bridges with cars. This is the tunnel going to Whittier, Alaska, shared by vehicle and train traffic. Hopefully, it is not a repeat of something that has already been posted. If you haven't been, it should be on your A list!

Whittier Tunnel, Transportation & Public Facilities, State of Alaska

Whittier Tunnel - gorgeous drive to Whittier Alaska - YouTube

There's also a video of a modern day hobo riding that line through the tunnel. I've taken calculated risks in life but he does some stuff where one wrong gust of wind and he will be like the Stobe the hobo. Anchorage, AK to Whittier, AK - Trainhopping The Alaska Railroad - YouTube

On the Virtual Railfan Kearney Nebraska channel they have automated horns that sound towards the passenger cars. Sometimes they malfunction if you watch the streaming video long enough. That has to be even more annoying to the locals but the justification I heard is they cut down on neighborhood noise.

 

[the old grind]

Since you guys like horns, you should catch the JAMES R BARKER sometime. Of course like them too. :thumbsup:

Guys, does that ship's horn sound like a Nathan K5LA or is it just me?

btw, Garratt locos I mentioned above are four cyl and may be 4-6-2+2-6-4 configuration among others.

.

 

[RobS]

Here was one at 7ft 1/4 inch:

Great Western Railway - Wikipedia

Bruce

Here's the whole history on the "standard gauge"...

A history of track gauge | Trains Magazine

 

[Fuddy1952]

Date nails...anyone collect them? This belongs to my wife. We used to walk tracks looking for them. They used to put them in the ties, some we'd find in abandoned tracks or old ties pulled for replacement.
N&W 1921 to 1960. She painted some I'm not sure why except to show better.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Here's a railroad story for you.
Grandad was born late 1800's and his Mom would travel the train from Carbondale to Scranton, Pennsylvania to shop. Great-Grandma had to change his diaper and just slung the loaded one out the window, train going about 45-50 she later said. There was a hobo walking toward the train on that side and she said as she slung diaper out it wrapped around the hobo's face!

 

[Hay Dude]

Here's a railroad story for you.
Grandad was born late 1800's and his Mom would travel the train from Carbondale to Scranton, Pennsylvania to shop. Great-Grandma had to change his diaper and just slung the loaded one out the window, train going about 45-50 she later said. There was a hobo walking toward the train on that side and she said as she slung diaper out it wrapped around the hobo's face!

Bahahahahahaha:laughing:

 

[Hay Dude]

Heres an old memory for yas
Just found this beauty along the tracks.