Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on October 11, 2009 | 5 Comments »
by Emmett Smith
Believe it or not, this 1947-8 Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 Mastodon switcher (!) even after experimental re-shopping didn’t have superheating.
When I first noticed this Norfolk & Western Railway experimental unit the night before last, I thought I’d stumbled onto another
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on October 7, 2009 | 5 Comments »
by Emmett R Smith
“In the early 1900’s, Dr. Edward A. Rumely, grandson of Meinrad [Rumely], was determined to build a tractor that could run on a wide range of fuels. He hired an engine designer by
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on October 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
by Emmett R Smith
In response to a previous posting, on the UP 9000 series 4-12-2 steamers, Practical Pig asks:
“How much better would they run with roller bearings all around? I wonder how expensive these were compared to the normal floating bushings on crankpins? How much were those? They were just some kind of soft babbitt [...]
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on September 28, 2009 | 6 Comments »
by Emmett Smith
Engineman Wook is on a trainman’s holiday from the Pennsy. Now, on the far side of the Union Pacific yard and too far to run over to the Baron Hotel smokeshop before pulling out of the Alliance NE yards, he lets his
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on September 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »
by Emmett Smith
Engineman Wook is on a trainman’s holiday from the PRR. Now he finds himself standing off on the far side of the UP locomotive to “get away from conductors, brakemen and other halfwits so a man can THINK!” and studying the problem:
“By God, boys, I believe the little bastards have been and poured [...]
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on September 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
by Emmett R Smith
[ for a readable image, click here: http://prr.railfan.net/documents/ModernSteam.html/page8.jpg ]
The following link is to Robert Schoenberg’s extensive (!) online roster of Pennsylvania Railroad documents and images, the biggest node of sequins I have excavated so far:
http://prr.railfan.net/documents/
[Emmett R Smith all rights revert to holders 2 September 2009]
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on September 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
by Emmett Smith
Hey, do you remember when we was all real little and there was Communists all over the place?
My Pop said the Minnesota State Employment Security Division on Raymond Avenue, in St Paul where he worked as an auditor, was “full of the skiving bastards and besides that they’re all after MY job!” [...]
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on September 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
by Emmett R Smith
An English artist who also happened, in his Tory way, to be a devoted trainman at the very post-WW II period of British railway nationalisation was Rowland Emett. In his caricatures of the day in Punch one can quite see his regret at the passing of all the regional English railway companies, [...]
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on September 17, 2009 | 2 Comments »
by Emmett R Smith
This articulated Yellowstone-type single-expansion 2-8-8-4 wasn’t real slick like the more engineered and beautifully intricate double-expansion 2-8-8-2 Norfolk & Western Y6b for example, but lots of railfen feel she was the best-looking one of a brawny load of BIG locomotives at the end of the last Steam Age, so here is a look [...]
Posted in Trains & Planes and "Getting There" on September 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
by Emmett R Smith
This beguiling if already grainy image is from a piquant online 1995 auction bill, of Raymond Loewy memorabilia:
http://www.art.net/Lile/Loewy/loewy/
Whereas, below is the link to the official Raymond Loewy website of the late-modern industrial designer, who died in 1986. The site, until you’ve surfed a bit, is for a fact-of-arrangement oddly reticent about sticking [...]
