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Anyone into trains/locomotives?

Johnmcl7

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This is splitting off from another thread so thought I'd see if there's any other train enthusiasts and would be great to see locmotives from where you are.

Here's one I made earlier with some pictures and gifs of the British trains:


This is my favourite of them:

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These locomotives were built in the 60's and in the 80's these locos were numerous at Inverness in the 80's to haul the majority of passenger services, they were tremendously flexible with a relatively low axle loading for their power allowing them to go onto more rural lines bigger engines could not, they could work in pairs and able to haul passenger or freight services. Nearly 60 years on there's still a good number of them in use on the mainline as many of the newer locomotives are heavier freight designs not suited to lighter work.

In the 90's the 'Sprinters' were brought to Inverness which were lightweight Diesel Multiple Units or DMU's which were effectively carriages with an engine underneath each carriage rather than a separate locomotive pulling several carriages. I despised these Sprinters for getting rid of my beloved 37's but it's difficult to argue with their performance, their lightweight design meant they offered fast acceleration, their mechanicals were simple, they were shorter since they didn't need an additional loco and they had a cab at either end so they didn't need shunters and locos swapping at terminal stations. This is mostly what Inverness looks like now:

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It's just a shadow of its former self compared to the 50's when Inverness was a massive hub with many steam engines, freight and passenger services:

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I loved model trains as a kid. I went to the model train show every year. My first set was when I was 5, just a circle with a loco, freight car, and caboose. My only problem with trains, is that you need a pretty big table to have a nice setup. Other than that, I think it is a very cool hobby.
 
I loved model trains as a kid. I went to the model train show every year. My first set was when I was 5, just a circle with a loco, freight car, and caboose. My only problem with trains, is that you need a pretty big table to have a nice setup. Other than that, I think it is a very cool hobby.

Same as me, had a train set as a kid, 00 scale I think;) Hornby comes to mind alsoThumbswayup
 
One of my great-great grandfathers worked for the Union Pacific in the late 1800s. A great-grandfather worked for the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, then for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which took over the BMRR. His children worked for the CB&Q. My grandfather met my grandmother there, and worked for the CB&Q for 50 years, retiring as the chief freight rate clerk. I have many of my grandfather's O-gauge Lionel trains and some HO scale railcars my dad built as a kid. I have my own HO scale equipment.
 
I had the Class 91/Intercity 225* for my first train set and bought a few more adding an Intercity 125, a railfreight liveried class 37 and a few others. In those days it was rubbish as the trains didn't run well and everything was so expensive.

I'm not planning on setting up a model railway but did buy a model of 37025 same as up above as my brother spotted it in a local shop so had to buy that since it's difficult to get. I was visiting a light steam railway and they had a pretty Intercity liveried class 47 which I had to buy as well as the Intercity 47's used to haul the sleeper up here and always seemed special since they could haul the train on their own rather than the usual pair of 37's.

Now of course I'm wanting to get a couple of carriages for each of the trains so I can put them up on display but worry I'm getting sucked in deeper. The new digitally controlled trains are amazing although very pricey so I'm trying to resist going any further with them.

I've never actually seen a class 91 in real life although I've always thought they looked beautiful in their Intercity livery and the fact they were the fastest train in the UK. It's a bit sad now though because 30 years after they were introduced to service, they're being retired and were never able to run at their full speed as the improvements to signalling were never made. One of the 91's that was badly damaged has recently been repaired and put back into service plus as a bonus it's been restored back to its original Intercity 225 livery so I definitely want to try and see that engine this year before it goes.


It's quite funny some of the superstitions they have with the locomotives, there was a class 91 that was coincidentally involved in two serious rail crashes one when the rail collapsed under the train due to fatigue and one where a car driver fell asleep and drove onto the rails causing the 91 to derail and crash. The locomotive was undamaged in both cases (these trains run with a locomotive at one end and a cab at the other end with a remote control) but when it was upgraded rather than keep its original number it was renumbered from 91023 to 91132 since that number was bad luck.

An even strange case was a class 47 which was numbered 47216 but was changed to 47299 which made no sense as locomotives are only renumbered when they've been changed but in this case the locomotive was kept in the 47/2 subclass. It turned out British Railways had been warned by a psychic that a train numbering 47216 would be involved in a crash so the locomotive was assigned a new number. Stranger still that two years later that very train was involved in a fatal crash despite there being 512 47's in total and only 16 crashes in their lifetime. I don't believe at all in psychics but it was quite a coincidence.
 
Granddad was an engineer for the MKT. Dad was a brakeman (don’t have them anymore as cabooses are no longer in use in the US). Grandad once stopped a 7 mile long train at a street intersection so I could get on and ride to the roundhouse with him. ...Never happen today!
Wish I had a drone then to follow along. Love trains, especially steam.
 
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I spent a lifetime as a civil engineer maintaining, building and designing railways. Mainly in Australia but had a spell with London Underground and in the last 10 years worked on projects in Mongolia, Sierra Leonne Ivory Coast and the Congo. Worked in Beijing for a Chinese client on an African project.

Retired now but still do some training courses in Asia and volunteer with a local heritage railway. Always thought locos were just great lumbering beasts that damaged my track :)
 
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One of my great-great grandfathers worked for the Union Pacific in the late 1800s. A great-grandfather worked for the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, then for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which took over the BMRR. His children worked for the CB&Q. My grandfather met my grandmother there, and worked for the CB&Q for 50 years, retiring as the chief freight rate clerk. I have many of my grandfather's O-gauge Lionel trains and some HO scale railcars my dad built as a kid. I have my own HO scale equipment.
One of the men standing on the ground is my great-great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant who died in 1900. The 2-8-0 locomotive in the photo is Union Pacific #1252. From the info found on the excellent rail site UtahRails.net Home Page , this loco was originally built as UPRR #115 in 1868 (UP laid its first rail in 1865), renumbered to 1252 in 1885, rebuilt in 1893 and retired in 1904. It was sold to the Mount Hood Railroad.
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Although I'm not a big fan of steam I had to go have a look when the Flying Scotsman came here leading the Mayflower with a class 37 on the back:

DSC02027-L.jpg



At the weekend the 37 and the Flying Scotsman had a break while the Mayflower went out on its own first to the north on Saturday and then out to the west coast on Sunday. It was too early in the morning to catch it going out as I work late shifts so went down to see it return tender first across the Clachnaharry swing bridge which I'm quite liking as the trains have to slow right down to cross:


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It still amazes they can make such big powerful engines powered through steam and also that there were thousands of these steam engines running every day when you see how staggeringly complex they are. Sadly the Flying Scotsman failed and is stuck the far end of the service yard in Inverness awaiting repairs.

I went down to see it and couldn't see any sign of it until I spotted some maroon carriages in the station which I went to investigate only to find the Royal Scotsman instead which despite the similar name is a completely different service. The Flying Scotsman is both the name of an engine and the name of the high speed service between Edinburgh and London down the east coast which the steam engine above ran in its day. Amongst each generation of locomotives that run this service one is chosen to carry the Flying Scotsman name which is currently the electric locomotive 91001.

The Royal Scotsman on the other hand is an extremely expensive luxury train that does regular multi-day railtours, on this occasion it was starting the Scottish Malt Whisky tour. I popped down to the swing bridge again to see it coming back into Inverness:


It's a strange sight as you'd expect them to use a classic British locomotive to haul it as in the past but at the moment they're using the big American class 66's to haul it which are one of the least suited to such a train due to their weight, low acceleration Co-Co bogies and they cannot power the carriages.

More my thing and a bit more on topic for here, a recent railtour passed by hauled by a pair of class 37's in their classic large logo livery:

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