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otisdog

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Posts posted by otisdog

  1. On 12/7/2019 at 2:52 AM, 52-80 said:

    Filson got bought out a few years ago and people claim their stuff got worse. 

    True, and their quality shows it. They've also discontinued a lot of their blue collar work stuff, and jacked the prices up so as to be one of those "exclusive" outfits. Shame, I've been wearing their stuff for decades (as well as Chouinard ). They basically don't carry anything that I'm interested in...used to live in their double tin shorts.

  2. 6 minutes ago, mdmost said:

    If he did, USC would be shouting it from the San Gabriel Mountains. They need any recruiting momentum they can get right now.

    Yeah, I need to walk that back....from a sc reporter, from a recruit. 

    I like it here, don't ban me....

    • Like 3
    • Haha 1
  3. 1 hour ago, threesheets said:

    They're out there.  My best friend's mom was a hippie her whole life and is now a full blown Trumper at age 60.

    Which would have made her 9 years old in 1968.  Not many 9 year olds were out protesting and hippying.

    • Like 4
  4. 8 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

    I don't know anything about Jordan's district. Are they all unemployed boomers surrounded by closed down factories? 

    I was there in August....the Timken Bearing factory is still open. What blew me away was the yard sales - people where selling everything . Furniture, beds, cars, snow blowers, everything. Was really sad to see.

  5. 1 hour ago, Chewbacca said:
    5 hours ago, otisdog said:
    Costco (California) has a OF combo pack - 100 proof & 1920 for $67.00

    So the 100 proof is 10 dollars?

    Out here 1920 is $53 @ Total...so I figure $14 bucks is  a fair price for the 100 proof.

    • Like 1
  6.   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
  7. 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
  8. 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.

  9.   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
  10. 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
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