"Greg O" wrote in message
...


My dad worked in the switch yard for a few years. I would stop by and jump
on the switch engine and ride for a while if I had nothing better to do.
Greg O

you were lucky! what year was that?

i went to china in 1986. they were still running steam engines there then.
i rode on passenger trains with steam engines pulling them. i thought how
cool it must be to be a chinese steam locomotive engineer. this one time we
were going through that classic chinese landscape with the terraced rice
paddies, was hilly curvy terrain. you could look ahead and see the engine
as it curved around the bends. was amazing. i had the feeling the engine
was a living thing and we were being pulled along by this fire breathing
steam belching dragon. my deep regret is i never even TRIED to get a ride
in the engine. i should've even BRIBED the engineer to get a ride in the
engine. i've heard since then they replaced all their steam with diesel or
electric and now only run special steam tourist engines.
at that time there were signs in the train stations that said you weren't
allowed to photograph the engines. i believe i heard your film would be
confiscated if you were caught photographing the engines. i have a vague
memory of standing on a train platform holding up my camera getting ready to
take a picture and the train crew just happened to be passing by and they
were waving their hands at me warning me to not take that picture. i
complied.
my second father's father was an engineer during the steam era.

b.w.

jeff wrote:

On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:55:38 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Steve B wrote:

Robert Swinney wrote:

Naw! More'n likely the fear of electrocution on the spot. Pssst ! Don't
let the ME terrorists types know about that particular route to martyrdom.
It could ruin their visit with the 72 virgins; depending on which part of
their anatomy they touched first.

With my luck, the 72 of them would all look like Hillary Clinton. Enough to
make one consider celibacy.


That would explain why they were virgins...
no one ever said that they were females.................


Who said they had to be, to look like Hillary?


--
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'

"William Wixon" wrote in message
...


as kids we hung out (as much as we could/were allowed to) at the rail yard
in maybrook ny (which, *VERY* sadly no longer exists).

My dad worked in the switch yard for a few years. I would stop by and jump
on the switch engine and ride for a while if I had nothing better to do.
Greg O

When I was about 14 or 15, I got to steer a tugboat on the
Erie Canal. Much the same, I took a while to figure out the
steering. You have to reduce the turn of the steering wheel
well before you are pointed the direction you want. And, a
bit of reverse steer, to slow the nose of the tug from over
swinging.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Greg O" wrote in message
...

" wrote in message
...

The older son of my sister-in-law's neighbor is a train
engineer for
the local railroad. He went through many months of class
room and on-
job training before he could drive a train. A lot more
complicated
than shown in the movies!

Paul

My dad worked for the Soo, (Soo Line fo the old timers
here!), for over 40
years. He started on the section crew, repairing rail, and
ended up as a
conductor at the end. I was fortunate as a child to go on
the "road" with
him from time to time, long before all the rules and regs
took over. I
remember a few times getting to run a train down the tracks.
Yep! A scrawny
ten year old kid, sitting in the engineer's seat running the
speeds and
braking on a mile long train! Of course the engineer was
looking over my
shoulder giving me recommendations on speeds and braking. It
is quite a
juggling act maintaining speed in hilly country, I never got
the hang of it!
You need to anticipate when the bulk of the train is coming
over the hill
top and heading down the grade and reduce speed accordingly.
Also the same
for going up a grade and trying to figure out when to
increase the speed
selector to maintain speed. I was always over or under the
recommended speed
for the track, never did figure out the seee-saw!
Greg O

jeff wrote:
On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:55:38 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

Steve B wrote:
Robert Swinney wrote:
Naw! More'n likely the fear of electrocution on the spot. Pssst ! Don't
let the ME terrorists types know about that particular route to martyrdom.
It could ruin their visit with the 72 virgins; depending on which part of
their anatomy they touched first.
With my luck, the 72 of them would all look like Hillary Clinton. Enough to
make one consider celibacy.

That would explain why they were virgins...
no one ever said that they were females.................

Among the Afghanis and their neighbors, there is a time-honored
tradition of open homosexuality. It is likely that a good percentage of
the martyrs prefer their virgins to not be female.

"William Wixon" wrote in message
...

"Greg O" wrote in message
...


My dad worked in the switch yard for a few years. I would stop by and
jump on the switch engine and ride for a while if I had nothing better to
do.
Greg O

you were lucky! what year was that?

Pop ran over the road in the '60s and in the mid '70s he worked in the yard,
then back on the road after I ventured out on my own.

Jon Elson wrote:

Robert Swinney wrote:

A form of regen braking is available on some "diesel" locos. It
consists of a huge bank of resistors absorbing generated current from
the DC traction motors. The resistors are housed in a pod somewhere
on the loco, usu. behind the cab near the top.

Actually it is most of the roof of main line locos. The Diesel
radiators are the front 1/3 or so, the back 2/3ds are the braking
resistor array. When you hear a loco pass and there is a loud humming
whir, that is mostly the fans on the braking resistor grid. Our house
is a mile from the track, and those fans are the first thing I hear
coming, and I can hear them for quite some time as the train passes.

Jon
While it varys a bit from make to make, for most USA Diesel-Electric
locomotives, you have the relative locations of the engine radiators and
dynamic brake rediators reversed. The "dynamics" are normally near the
middle of the long hood behind the cab (often in a "hump" on older
locomotives). The radiators are normally at the far end of the long
hood, away from the cab.

The engine radiators are commonly about twice the size of the dynamic
brake radiators. A typical modern D-E locomotive has one or two dynamic
brake fans on the roof, and from three to four radiator fans. This does
vary a bit with the relative sizes of the fans (typically 36" or 48"
diam.). The fans are electrically driven, and controlled as needed by
thermal switches.

The dynamic brake resistor system, the main generator of the loco, and
the traction motors must be sized to approximately match one another in
capacity. Thus the traction motors (four or six) can absorb (use) the
full output of the generator in "run" mode, and then the dynamics can
absorb the full OUTPUT of the traction motors (then used as generators)
during dynamic braking.

Around locomotive shops it is common to find a complete dynamic brake
unit removed from some scrapped locomotive in use as a "load box".
During loco testing, this is connected by cables to a locomotive's main
generator, and used to "load" the generator (and Diesel engine) during
the tests. The "load box" stands-in for the traction motors, allowing
full power testing without moving the locomotive.

In addition to the rooftop fans, the locomotives also have large
internal blowers to cool the traction motors in the trucks. This air is
delivered by ductwork, some flexible to allow the trucks to pivot as needed.

There is also a large air compressor used mainly to charge the train's
air-brake system. This acivates (clutches) automatically as needed to
maintain desired air pressure. The "chugging" noise of this compressor
is usually quite audible, especially after an air-brake application
(that releases air from the system). The pressure in the train's air
line must be restored before the brakes will release again.

Altold, there is a LOT of air moving through several systems.

Dan Mitchell
============


--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:17:10 -0500, RBnDFW wrote:

jeff wrote:
On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:55:38 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

Steve B wrote:
Robert Swinney wrote:
Naw! More'n likely the fear of electrocution on the spot. Pssst ! Don't
let the ME terrorists types know about that particular route to martyrdom.
It could ruin their visit with the 72 virgins; depending on which part of
their anatomy they touched first.
With my luck, the 72 of them would all look like Hillary Clinton. Enough to
make one consider celibacy.

That would explain why they were virgins...
no one ever said that they were females.................

Among the Afghanis and their neighbors, there is a time-honored
tradition of open homosexuality. It is likely that a good percentage of
the martyrs prefer their virgins to not be female.

"women are for children, boys are for fun"






"First Law of Leftist Debate
The more you present a leftist with factual evidence
that is counter to his preconceived world view and the
more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without
losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot,
homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned
race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to
the subject." Grey Ghost