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otisdog

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Posts posted by otisdog

  1.   I went to the LA County fair after the restoration of 4014 was announced but before any activity had commenced on her. 4014 was one of many large engines on display at the Rail Giants museum. There were a few people looking at the engine at the time. Going up the wooden staircase to the cab, I saw and met a gentleman in the engineers seat.

      This was Paul. Paul had taken it upon himself to keep the running gear , including bearings, lubricated over the previous decades. It was his work that made 4014 such a good candidate for restoration. There were other Big  Boys around the country that had boilers in better shape, but the running gear of 4014 was in the best shape of all the remaining locos.

    Paul spent about an hour explaining all the gauges, dials, valves and levers to me. Let me stick my head in the massive fire box, which had lights illuminated inside.  When I mentioned how bittersweet the locomotive leaving his care must be, a tear welled up in his eye and he got quite emotional. I tried to cheer him up by pointing out how many people would get to see the huge  locomotive run, and he nodded in acknowledgment, but his lips were tight, not smiling. 

    It was an amazing experience for me.

    Weird, the room got a bit dusty as I typed this.

    • Like 5
  2. Joshua Tree would be a haul. It's not very scenic, and would be populated by rock climbers that have been driven from the Sierra by the weather. Plus, 29 Palms is a shithole. Surprised it didn't make Honorable Mention in 'the worst city' thread.  The Monarch ain't a bad base for day trips along the coast. Go north to Newport, rent a bike and ride the bike path on the boardwalk. 22 miles roundtrip, usually with a decent wind blowing down coast in the afternoon. Take the ferry to Balboa Island for the heck of it....

    • Like 1
  3. 52 minutes ago, Anton Chigurh said:

    I read that the diesel loco isn’t for the passenger cars. Big Boy has an alternator. It’s just for braking and just in case propulsion.

    Big Boy has two steam generators (dynamos), but they only supply enough power to cover the on board comms and the running /  headlights.

    The power for the rest of the train comes from a power car, which is a converted baggage car with a diesel powered electric generator. There have been two different power cars used on this trip.

  4.   Interesting that the engineer ignored the standard safety protocol at the beginning of  MFEU93's "pulling away" video above. There is a 'blue flag' marker hanging on the window sill towards the front. The blue flag denotes that the engine is being attended to by various service people, and each of the service people hangs their personal service ID on the marker to show that they are working on the engine.  As the individual completes his job, he removes his ID from the blue flag. Once there are no more ID's hanging on the blue flag, it is removed. Once it is removed, the train can begin its movement.

      But in this instance, the engineer removes the flag whilst there are at least two ID's visible on it. This is a serious protocol violation, and would at least result in a suspension in the "real"  world of train employment. The steam program isn't supposed to be an exception.

    • Like 1
  5. 23 hours ago, Shoxthemonkey said:

     

    I'm pretty sure it was BigBoy that came through my hometown 20 years or so ago and stopped right outside my office for a couple of hours. 

    Nope. This BigBoy has only been running since around June.  Prior to that they last ran in the late '50's. What you probably saw was UP 3985, a 4-6-6-4, which looks similar but has 2 less driving axles.  Parts of 3985 were canniblized to make 4014 functional, including the tender. Rumor has it that 3985 will never run again.

    • Like 1
  6. 7 hours ago, thestud said:

     

     


    I’ve yet to have a Barrell product that made me say “wow that’s good stuff!”. Even had a private barrel pick that didn’t even warrant a “meh” out of me. Heard the Dovetail is a dill bomb. No thanks

     

     

    05 was pretty good....

  7. 17 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

    You got some bad info, Otis. You can camp wherever you want in a national forests.

     

    17 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

    You got some bad info, Otis. You can camp wherever you want in a national forests.

    You are correct - and I did get some bad info....from a forest service ranger, of all people.

  8. On 10/16/2019 at 11:02 AM, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

    yep. some areas are designated wildnerness areas and have restrictions on motorized vehicles, but national forest and BLM is do what you want where you want. hell, i own it.

    mmm......national forests not so.  Need to stay in "official" campsites inside the forest, generally. Some exceptions exist. BLM land is a go, though. Only restriction on BLM land is how close you can camp to the water. Fire permits often necessary, also.  Lots more BLM land than federal forests, but it is generally not as nice as the later.

  9.  

    On 10/2/2019 at 5:21 PM, Dr. Beeper said:

     two different neighbors on my old street (one street south) have almost come to blows with drivers - both for throwing footballs as hard as they can at the drivers windows. 

    Throwing items at moving vehicles is illegal.

    I live on a cul-de-sac that has 7 houses on each side. People turn onto it, go to the end, and frustratedly whip a u-turn and fly back towards the outlet.  I keep a soccer ball handy, and kick it into the street in front of the speeding vehicle. Two of the cars have left on flatbeds, after they had folded a front wheel under the car after skidding into and  bouncing off of the curb. Bummer.

    • Like 1
  10. Yes, there's something magical about steam engines.

    Carson & Colorado #18* was sitting in the park just off of  Hwy. 395  at Independence, California. I had driven past it hundreds of times as I drove up to the Sierras, to go skiing, fishing or biking in my stomping grounds. Every 5 years or so, another coat of paint was added.  Then walls, of sorts, appeared around the loco, as well as a fund raising sign. Then it dissappeared.

    3 to 4 years later it was steamed up. I was incredulous. Having no track to run it on, they hauled it up 395 to the Laws railroad museum, just out side of Bishop. They had a bit of track there, and they let it stretch it's legs, a bit. Back to Independence it went, to sit in it's metal shed.

    Then a coal fired loco of the Durango & Silverton  sparked a fire in Colorado. Despite how much cash the local tourist railroad contributed to the local economy,  there was rumblings of shutting the railroad down. The railroad committed to converting some of the coal burners to oil burners,  which don't spew the cinders that are associated with the coal burners.

    C&C 18 was trucked to Colorado so the Durango & Silverton engineers could learn the ways of a oil burning locomotive. Spent the summer there, but it's back in Independence now.

    Never thought it would run again, much less on the D&S.

    Sorry for the OT. I'll probably head out to the desert, spend the night in Afton canyon, and  watch Big Boy chug through the next day.

    * The Carson & Colorado was purchased by the Southern Pacific, and #18 is lettered for that railroad.

     

     

     

    • Like 3
  11. On 10/1/2019 at 3:01 PM, UTCzech III said:

     The last time it came down, something happened with the diesel they had helping out, brakes failed I think and kept pushing the 844 after it stopped, ground down the wheels where they had to take a week or two to get them replaced.  

    Actually, the steam train engineer , who had remote control of the diesels, neglected to turn down the power on the diesels.

    Same guy will be running the Big Boy.

    • Like 2
  12. 13 hours ago, Pimphand said:

    I actually turned the game on at 49-17 then fell asleep shortly after Wazzu scored to stop the bleeding and go back up 56-46 then by the time I woke back up the highlights were running and UCLA had won.

    Yes getting old sucks.

    Better than the alternative....

  13. On 9/15/2019 at 5:45 PM, Tyler Durden said:

    They didn't at Newark about five years ago.  

    Nor did they at Clevland 5 weeks ago...i declared it though. Got me a 'fragile' sticker.

     

     

     

     

  14. Woke up in the middle of the night screaming...Wife -Ambulance? Me -Fuck yes! Rolled me into ER and was told that  I got to go to the head of the line because of my mode of conveyance. Doctor said 'we got just the thing" and hooked me up to an IV.  Pee'd into the screen and caught that fucker...miniscule!

    Doc was delighted we had the culprit. Turned out I was poping Ascerola like candy for the vitamin C. Doc said that stuff was pure calcium, and so was my stone. No more Ascerola, and no more stones, so far. Not a big water fan.

    • Hook 'Em 1
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