Calling all steam railway fanatics!

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

That is one big mother locomotive. Yanks ran much bigger steam gear than we did here.

When do they run this? I like riding in trains and will be back in the US in May 2013 and August-September 2013. Love to do a Rocky Mountain trip in a big steamer. Likewise would love to do the Durango & Silverton.

I wondered about the constant whistle blowing. I had three trips on Amtrak last year and on the East Coast in populated areas the bloody whistle seemd like it was going non-stop. Lancaster-Philly-NYC and NYC-Washington Union Station. Not so going over the Sierra Nevada, Sacramento-Reno.

Yanks built fancy railway stations. Union Station in Los Angeles, Penn & Grand Central in NYC and Union Station in Washington were real eye openers to an Aussie more familiar with QGR & NSWGR modest efforts.

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Brian mate
Here's the Cheyenne Frontier days schedule:-
Cheyenne Frontier Days

The Durango and Silverton is open year round, the Georgetown loop is seasonal.

There is the museum Council Bluffs/Omaha area:-
UPRR Museum

Yes they (Yanks) were into giant locomotives even the wheels are wider to support the weight, still standard gauge as UK/British design hence Brit train will run on Yank tracks but not "vickey verkey" they will get caught up in the the switches or points are they are called.

As to the whistle blowing regulations there is a whole train language in the US so far as Fed regs are concerned. If you are running opposite the normal flow and different series of blows are required , it alerts track repair crews etc.
Down the east coast as you traveled the denser population and city ordinances demand extra whistle blowing and speeds when going over grade crossings and open areas.
How do I know all this you might ask?
Well back in the 90's I got sent by British Leyland to support a Railbus project and I actually drove a train on US tracks all the way down the east coast and up to Cleveland Ohio . You might say I am one of a few Brits who has legally driven a train in the US on Fed real tracks.
For that I had to pass a federal exam on train operation for operators or engineers as they are called over here.

Here it is now in a preservation line/club back in the UK:-
Leyland National Railbus

For a feast of reciprocating valve gear what about this monster:-
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH4xZXskLIg"]UP 3985 70mph Highball @ PineBluffs in HD - YouTube[/ame]
Cheers Dennis

Bit off subject but I found this while looking for some old 38 class pics.

This is at Cook in 1973, sorry about the quality.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/12/1156.jpg

There is a DVD available here in Oz which depicts NSWG loco 3801 and another ( I cannot remember it's class or number) going from Sydney to Perth for the 1970 bicentennial of Cook's discovery of Australia.The two steamers pulled it to Broken Hill where one diesel was hooked on for the rest of the trip to Perth.Coal and water were shipped to sidings that serviced steam in the glory days .The section from Port Augusta (SA) across the Nullarbor to Perth (WA) has the longest straight stretch of railway in the world...396 miles as straight as a gun barrel and don't all steamers and diesels get along on it.

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Originally Posted by zedcars

Here it is now in a preservation line/club back in the UK:-
Leyland National Railbus

Cheers Dennis

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Brisbane City Council bought seven (I think) Leyland National buses about 1975. The last Leyland buses they bought. Rarely bought anything else before. They were powered by the Headless Horror 500 series engine and had Eaton diffs. These were very troublesome units seemingly spending more time in our service division than out on the routes. I saw one in East Brisbane one morning on the way to work. I commented to the service manager that he should have a stocktake as one of the Nationals had escaped from his workshop overnight.

Hi Disco44, the there is real ironic twist to this thread.

In 1969, the yanks were planning to run a steam special across the USA at part of the Gold Spike Centennial celebrations.

BUT, UP had just taken delivery of their DDA40X, 6600Hp Diesel Electric monster and decided to haul part of the special trains journey with one of their new 6900 class, the Centennial D/E loco.

Had the trip been steam hauled all the way, it would have been the long steam hauled journey in history.

In 1970, the 38s got that distinction when they ran from Sydney to perth, but if UP hadn’t been so keen to show off their new diesel, they would have still held the record, by about 400 Kms.

So the steam videos above with the Centennial D/E in them is a twist on fate.

BTW, does anybody know if the 38s still hold that record?

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Originally Posted by justinc

Gauge One Live Steam Volume 6 part 1 (HD) - YouTube

this is amazing, hand built from scratch apparently:o


jc

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Thanks JC, wow what a backyard!!! Notice the 5" track as well? Awesome. England is the place for steam. Ps: when I figure out how to post pics I will send you some of my 1800S.
Regards
Robbo

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Brisbane City Council bought seven (I think) Leyland National buses about 1975. The last Leyland buses they bought. Rarely bought anything else before. They were powered by the Headless Horror 500 series engine and had Eaton diffs. These were very troublesome units seemingly spending more time in our service division than out on the routes. I saw one in East Brisbane one morning on the way to work. I commented to the service manager that he should have a stocktake as one of the Nationals had escaped from his workshop overnight.

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Brian
A bit off topic this but:-
The Leyland National AND yes the headless horror!!
It got better with the MK2 version with the 680 engine. But only just!
The body was a marvel its saving grace, and very easy to fix in a collision being riveted together.

I got a job with Metro de Caracas when Leyland went phutt as a rehab contractor. I spent 8 years in Venezuela thanks to The National and converted it with a DAF engine and ZF gearbox. In fact I did a major rehab of the whole bus itself and the large derelict fleet got back re-introduced into service feeding the new subway underground city system. I would have stayed if it wasn't for the arrival of Chavez, I saw the writing on the wall before it got written!
So I drifted up here!

I had 136 Latinos working for me at one time , lots of funny blokes from all walks of life as undocumented illegal immigrants.
Here's one of my renditions relegated now to a driver training bus after having done a second stint as a commuter fleet:-
Metrobus Caracas 967 por Edgardo Gonzlez - Caracas-Distrito Capital - Venebuses.com
Cheers Dennis

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Originally Posted by Disco44

There is a DVD available here in Oz which depicts NSWG loco 3801 and another ( I cannot remember it's class or number) going from Sydney to Perth for the 1970 bicentennial of Cook's discovery of Australia.The two steamers pulled it to Broken Hill where one diesel was hooked on for the rest of the trip to Perth.Coal and water were shipped to sidings that serviced steam in the glory days .The section from Port Augusta (SA) across the Nullarbor to Perth (WA) has the longest straight stretch of railway in the world...396 miles as straight as a gun barrel and don't all steamers and diesels get along on it.

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For info a few years ago our local public TV station aired a few weeks worth of programs about rail in Australia. They focused in not only on the high speed modern stuff like the Ghan and the Indian Pacific but also the smaller preservation lines and the live steamer stuff.

I have a strong feeling that the DVD you mentioned formed part of it!
It was very popular with the locals who are steam train mad here, it did three repeats by popular request.
I have a railway museum just a few miles form my workshop/business:-\
http://coloradorailroadmuseum.org/
Dennis

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Originally Posted by zedcars

Brian
A bit off topic this but:-
The Leyland National AND yes the headless horror!!
It got better with the MK2 version with the 680 engine. But only just!
The body was a marvel its saving grace, and very easy to fix in a collision being riveted together.

Cheers Dennis

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Ours had exterior panels glued on to a skeleton frame with some special super glue. Our shop foreman used to keep the glue in his office safe only to be used by assemblers under close supervision. This was after taking assemblers and attached panel on two separate occasions to the PA Hospital in the back of the workshop ute to have said assemblers surgically separated from the panel.

The Nationals were Headless Horror, homosexual gearbox and Eaton diff. The diffs didn't give trouble. About the only part of the bus that didn't. I am sure their performance helped council to make the decision to buy Volvo and MAN in the next round of tenders. Interestingly, Volvo's mechanics couldn't handle the homosexual gearbox and would send them down the road to Leyland for any necessary work. All mechanics hated the box with a passion.

Brian
To understand some of the Leyland shortcomings you have to look at the roots of some product lines.

The Leyland National was built for the UK market--The National Bus Corp of which Leyland was a major shareholder. It sold like hot cakes under the National Bus subsidies from Central Gov for UK bus authorities.
Then there was the biggest order Leyland had in one go! The first order of 1000 units to Venezuela and then Trinidad & Tobago in the WI.
To make them cool, they simply increased the fan speed by 30%, forget the U pattern cooling air flow which has a serious recirculation defect at 75kph!

There was a culture of arrogance within the company, simply that if it worked in the UK, then it must work in every place in the world!
Australia was a good choice/place to sell them, you blokes drive on the same side of the road right.
Forget the heat, forget the climatic conditions, Brizzy is like London area on a warm day! Isn't it?
If they moan give 'em cake, British fruit cake of course:D
Just sling it out there and resolve problems as they arise was the mentality!

I had the same with the Olympians in San Francisco, the Atlanteans in Baghdad and let's not mention the trucks 'cept for a funny!

The only time I have been Down Under was to Sidney for the launch of the Power Plus Series--oopdie doo! Another truck line made for the UK market
With the same headless horror, we had the Bison, the Bear, the Buffalo etc etc all different truck configs.

Having flown non stop from London I was like death warmed up when I landed going straight to this Sydney auditorium for the launch of the trucks in Australia.

Morton the chief sales director guy was on the podium and was flashing up big projected pictures of the model range on wall screens in front of the hoi-po-loy of the Oz trucking world in the front, and the diggers from the Northern Territories and Queensland up the back with the beards and corks.

Saying "Well ladies and gentlemen in true Leyland tradition we are naming the truck range after animals the Bison, the Bear , the .Buffalo".........when a voice booms out from the back of the circle upstairs------In best Auzzie voice !

"Hey Mr Swift if they are so good as you say they are mate----- then you ought to call one a flaming fluke!:D

It brought the house down, we all burst out laughing--even poor old Moreton!:D:eek:
Simply because as usual Leyland trucks didn't work too well "Down Under" the conditions are a bit arduous and the abrasive DUST like talcum powder --I won't mention that!, they must be some equivalent in the UK!!! I can almost hear them saying in in the directors wing!

Anyway a few weeks alter I passed Moreton in the main office in Spurrier works--I had to blurt out Hey mate seen any good flukes lately!:D
Dennis