Any railroad fans on here???

[JHZR2]

Hi,

Just curious how many railroad fans there are on here.

This weekend I took Amtrak from Phila. to Pittsburgh. I take Amtrak all the time on the Northeast corridor, but had never taken it anywhere else. While it took a bit longer, I really enjoyed it.

I love seeing all the old stuff and different scenery, compared to what you see in the car. Going through places like Altoona, PA also took s through some huge rail yards, with all sorts of old engines and whatnot, which were impressive.

I have just spent the past few hours reading up on the history of all the old railroads, as I know in my hometown, there was an Erie line that went through, but through most of the entire area, everything is the Pennsylvania Rail Road.

I was interested in a few things, which I had questions about...

First, it appears that there is natural gas piped along the old pennsylvania railroad tracks that we traveled upon, once we switched engines from electric to diesel. I think it is natural gas, not just LP or HP air, but I certainly dont know for sure. The line wasnt a large enough diameter to be useful for flowing commodity gas around, so was it for heating the 'houses' along the way where personnel used to control the railroads? Or is it to operate switches, etc?

Next, I noted that for a good duration of the way, the soil along side the railroad was pitch black. You could see where there was errosion or whatnot that the 'real' soil was normal brown. Back in the days of the 'road of anthracite', was fine coal ash dumped out from the trains all the time? If not, why was there consistently a black layer of whatever along the tracks?

Finally, in the big yard in Altoona, I saw a lot of neat old engines that were taken apart or under repair. I saw a lot of conrail stuff (my research taught me about the takeover), and also for whatever reason a lot of NJ Transit (Im very familiar with those trains, even rode on one today) diesel engines. However, one thing that I was interested in was this very streamlined engine, painted NS black, but it was only about 1/2 the height of a standard locomotive engine. There was no glass, and it was just the powerplant and a small stack. Maybe some sort of unmanned or not enclosed switcher engine or something??? I actually saw two or three different varieties, with different amounts of 'streamline' or 'roundedness' to them.

All in all, very neat... Ive always liked trains, but this really sparked my interest. Any beginner info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

JMH

 

[Mystic]

I have always been interested in trains. I like the old steam trains and the smooth running old diesel-electric passenger trains. I have ridden on Amtrak and it was fun but it did get long. You can see a lot from a train that you will never see from a car.

 

[bruce381]

yeah love trains have HO train set even listen to
"Pat metheny" song last train home.
wish I had been back east to see the OLD BIG steam trains.
bruce

 

[XS650]

If you're ever in Northern California go to the State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It's one of the best rail museums.
http://www.csrmf.org/default.asp

The is another rail museum in Portola California up in the Sierras. It's not as good amuseum and is run by volunteers on a shoestring budget. Still worth seeing, and you can operate real locomotives by taking a "drivers training course" in one of several locomotives. One of these days I'm going to do that.
http://www.wplives.org/FRRS_Home/Run_A_Locomotive/run_a_locomotive.html

 

[bruce381]

I went to the Calif state museum when it first opened they had live steam running on a track it is a nice place to make a day of it.
bruce

 

[XS650]

Quote:

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I went to the Calif state museum when it first opened they had live steam running on a track it is a nice place to make a day of it.
bruce

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Looks like they still do it.
http://www.csrmf.org/doc.asp?id=262

More steam train rides.
http://www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org/railtown/doc.asp?id=304

And a lot of steam propelled train rides here
http://www.traininc.org/members/membersbystate.html

 

[Shannow]

We've got the Zig Zag Railway here.

http://www.zigzagrailway.com.au/

The views as you travel over/under the viaducts (once considered an engineering wonder) are great.

Spent a day shovelling coal there a few years ago.

 

[drm7]

I work for a Class 1 railroad so my interest has been cured.

I would love to take an steam train ride one day. I've been on a couple short rides as a kid but I have very little memory of them.

I think the the unmanned engine you saw is called a "slug". It provides extra power when coupled to regular engines. I know of no unmanned trains that operate w/o people or being hooked to a "real" engine.

There are air systems used for switches but I don't know enough about physical operations to know what you saw. I'm a desk jockey at corporate HQ.

Conrail was split almost in half by NS and CSX back in 1999.

 

[JHZR2]

OK, yep, a slug it was... saw one like this

and one like this, but painted and shiny and in better condition

 

[Al]

I have read various books on Trains over the years. There are so many books I don't know where to start. Do a search on Amazon. One I like is "Lehigh Valley Railroad" by Archer.

I'm interested in the local Railroads including the Pennsylvania. I really enjoy hiking old railroad trails here in SE Pa. I enjoy studyhing the old steel bridges.

Here in SE Pa there is an abandoned line called the "Enola Low Grade Line" It went from Washington Boro to Atglen. Its 33 miles long and I have walked the entire route many times. It was built as a 2 track freight line to bypass the Pennsylvania Main Line. It is one of the greatest Engineering feets in the U.S. I believe that that the amount of dirt moved is second only to the Panama Canal in U.S. construction projects. Its a facinating road.

You should visit the Railroad Museum of Pa. in Strasburg, Pa.

They also have every book on trains imaginable to purchase. Its unbelievable.

 

[brianl703]

Quote:

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The line wasnt a large enough diameter to be useful for flowing commodity gas around, so was it for heating the 'houses' along the way where personnel used to control the railroads? Or is it to operate switches, etc?

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The railroads here have propane tanks on the side of the railroad which are apparently used to supply propane to keep the switches defrosted in cold weather.

 

[XS650]

Quote:

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I think the the unmanned engine you saw is called a "slug". It provides extra power when coupled to regular engines. I know of no unmanned trains that operate w/o people or being hooked to a "real" engine.

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UP runs remote control switch engines. No one in the engine.
http://www.internationalrailfair.com/irfphoto.cgi?photos-rv04-04/UP_809.jpg

 

[Scott P]

Back home in Upstate NY, they've converted a lot of the old rail and trolley right of ways to hike and bike trails. Those are always a fun and pretty ride.

 

[XS650]

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Back home in Upstate NY, they've converted a lot of the old rail and trolley right of ways to hike and bike trails. Those are always a fun and pretty ride.

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http://www.wrm.org/about/visitor_center.htm has a trolley right of way that is used for trolley rides by the Western Railway Museum. The ride is good one. When I took it it was ina 1915 vintage trolley. It runs through open rolling prarie with no signs of civilization in sight for most of the trip except the early 1900s trolley you are in, the tracks and single overhead wire.

 

[ALS]

My Step Father was the VP of the Pittsburgh and Lake Railroad. I have two 100 + year old railroad clocks that came out of main offices here in Pittsburgh. Plus I have 30 or more hard back books on the railroad industry. They were probably only bought by people that use to work on the rail road.

 

[K-Man]

Off topic a bit:

At the Carlisle swap meet several years ago I saw electric lanterns with the Conrail logo, painted blue with a blue lens and provision for two different bulbs to be lit. They would have taken a standard 6 volt lantern battery IIRC. None were functional as the bulbs were missing and the units would have required repair to light. The blue lens was the only lens. The lanterns had been well used, so they weren't just some kind of rail souvenir. Wish I had spent the $10 and bought one. I've asked other rail fans, but no one seems to know what these lanterns would be used for. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[mechtech2]

Old oil used to be dumped on the tracks and surrounding areas to keeep the dust levels down, and help preserve the wood ties.
I worked for Electromotive for 7 years, but strangely have no passion/interest for trains.

 

[Rick in PA]

Just a casual railfan here. Grew up a few blocks from the Reading Railroad, watched many 100 or so hopper car trains hauling iron ore up to Bethlehem Steel and the empties back. Sometimes I look at the local weed-covered grade crossings here and try to imagine those trains barreling through at 40 or 50 MPH and find it hard to believe they once did.

I do enjoy a train ride when I get a chance, mostly SEPTA down to Philly.

The "natural gas" line you mention may have been pipes enclosing fiber optic telecommunications lines (just a guess). I seem to remember reading that when they installed fiber optic lines back in the '80s & '90s, they used railroad right of ways.

The pitch black soil could be from all the grease and lubricating/fuel oil used on the trains/locomotives. Again, just a guess, but railroads have always been a little sloppy this way, just the nature of the beast.

Steam Town (I think that's the name) is up in Scranton. There's a little trolly museum there too. They're worth the trip.

I'll have to check out the Enola Low Grade Line, sounds interesting.

Rick

 

[brianl703]

Quote:

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I seem to remember reading that when they installed fiber optic lines back in the '80s & '90s, they used railroad right of ways.

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Yes, they did, and in fact you'll find buried fiber optic cable warnings along many railroads.

Previous to fiber optics, and previous to coax, AT&T long-distance circuits ran on the open wire alongside the railroads, using something called "O-carrier". I believe "O" means "open wire". They could multiplex several long-distance calls on a single pair.

One thing you'd see if you looked at enough of these open-wire circuits is that two of the wires would switch positions every so often--this is I believe the "twist" which serves the same purpose as it does in twisted-pair wire, which is to cancel out any interference that may be picked up.

So it seems to me that AT&T has always had right of way for running cables alongside railroads.

 

[Volvohead]

If you do a quick Google on it, there are some hard-core enthusiast's sites for the old Pennsylvania RR and some of their engines, with plenty of rosters, pictures and resources.

I grew up not too far from the N.E. corridor line, and have fond memories of the stately old GG1s. We used to try to turn nickels into quarters on the rails with them. Most of the time, we just lost the nickels.

Post 9/11, it has gotten more difficult to just visit or take pictures of some RR bridges and infrastructure.

If you're interested, I also have links to some excellent RR movies available free on the Internet.

Amazingly, it's still possible to travel cross-continent by train, sleeper car and all. But in recently checking it out, it's more expensive and obviously far more time consuming than flying. Still, it seems a romantic way to do it if you have the time.